Las Vegas - Day 3 Recap

New England Recruiting Report | Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Sunday was the first round of bracket play in Las Vegas as both the Adidas Super 64 and Fab 48 entered ‘win or go home’ mode.  CBC and the New England Playaz both scored evening wins to advance to Monday’s second round action while a variety of other individual players managed to show well. 

Game of the Day: Mass Rivals vs. Devin Harris Elite

A triple overtime thrilled saw the Rivals lose in heartbreaking fashion following some very questionable officiating, but the bigger theme of this game was the amount of attention from college coaches.  Kansas head coach Bill Self, Marquette head coach Buzz Williams, Boston College head coach Steve Donahue, Providence head coach Ed Cooley, Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger, Wake Forest head coach Jeff Bzdelik, UTEP head coach Tim Floyd, and UNLV head coach Dave Rice were joined by assistants from Duke, West Virginia, Washington State, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Notre Dame, Missouri, Oregon, Memphis and Auburn. 

Zach Auguste produced arguably his best performance of the summer, going head to head with top 100 big man Phil Nolan.  While Auguste and Noah Vonleh were obvious the prime targets for the Rivals, a variety of others also managed to stand out.  Dimitri Floras rattled off seven points late in the second half with his tough shot-making while Steve Haladyna made a huge three-pointer late in the second overtime.  Cedric Kuakumensah was an absolute beast in side, dominating the game defensively with his shot blocking and rebounding. 

Top Performances

Zach Auguste, Mass Rivals – He had his total offensive game going, being assertive from start to finish, handling in the open court and facing up to attack the rim in the quarter court.  He went right at the cup to finish above the rim on a number of occasions and showed good touch on several little runners. 

Cedric Kuakumensah, Mass Rivals – His impact on the defensive end really can’t be over-stated as he is one of the rare players who can change a game without scoring a point.  As good on the ball as he was off, Kuakumensah draws comparisons to current Drexel forward Dartaye Ruffin. 

Kaleb Tarczewski, New England Playaz – Tarczewski had his best game of the week thus far, exploiting his size and strength advantage inside.  The Big Dogs of LV simply had no answer for the bigger dog from New England as he held court on both ends of the floor. 

Timajh Parker-Rivera, CBC – He provided constant energy on both ends of the floor, going hard to the glass and earning his team extra possessions.  Offensively, he continues to expand his game, again showing an improved shooting stroke while getting easy baskets around the rim. 

Nikolas Stauskas, Hoops for Hope – He’s still automatic when left unchecked at the arc but getting more and more productive off the bounce thanks to his strengthened frame and increased explosiveness inside the lane. 

Zach Lewis, Long Island Lightning – He gave his team an offensive spark in the first half of Sunday morning’s bracket game, knocking down open shots from behind the arc and then using his defensive length to make plays on the defensive end leading to easy transition scores. 

Egerton Anderson, Aim High – He showed tremendous versatility on the offensive end, scoring easily on pull-up threes and attacking the rim but Aim High ran into a loaded KYA All-Stars squad that put their run to an end. 

Jeff Spellman & Jarred Reuter, New England Playaz – This inside-out tandem was the basis for the Playaz attack.  Both are hard-nosed competitors with sound basketball I.Q.’s and when operating in tandem they proved themselves to be quite a formidable duo.