Locals Shine at Gibbons T.O.C.

New England Recruiting Report | Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Locals Shine at Gibbons T.O.C.

The Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions is one of the most prestigious events of the spring grassroots calendar.  Not only is the event held in facilities like North Carolina’s Dean Dome and Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium but it is always covered by every major national scouting service.  This year was no different with the likes of ESPN, Scout.com, and Rivals all on hand for all three days.

CBC and the New England Playaz both represented New England well while a select handful of other local stars also made the trip while playing for teams outside the region. 

Kuran Iverson was one such player, and the Northwest Catholic freshman found himself in the national headlines on Sunday as his Long Island Lightning team was the unexpected champion of the seventeen-and-under division.  Iverson played primarily with the u15 team throughout the weekend but was called up for the u17 final and didn’t waste the opportunity to show his stuff to the national media.  For the second day in a row Iverson drew attention from Scout.com’s National Recruiting Director Dave Telep who said the youngster “plays the role of a big-timer.” 

The Rivals Network offered similar praise as Brian Snow commented that, “Iverson is just flat out special.  The six-foot-eight forward can shoot it from deep, handled the ball like a guard, and is a very good athlete.  The upside on him is absolutely through the roof, and he showed it on the way to the title.” 

CBC opened their weekend with a 20 point pounding of the West Virginia Wildcats as Andre Drummond had 30 points and Greg Langston also played well according to reports.  It was a similar story on Saturday morning as CBC beat Team United by 20+ points setting up a match-up with Memphis Magic Elite for the pool title and the rights to play on in the national bracket.   

Drummond caught national headlines in this one, finding himself on the cover of the Rivals homepage and earning similar praise from a variety of other outlets, but it was Dennis Levene who was the hero, hitting a buzzer beating three-pointer to force overtime, where CBC would earn the big win to claim the title in their pool.  CBC’s run would end later Saturday night at Cameron Indoor where they were knocked off by the tournament’s second overall seed, the CP3 All-Stars. 

The Playaz had a similarly good weekend.  Playing without Naadir Tharpe and Markus Kennedy, the Playaz finished the weekend at 5-1 and advanced all the way to the finals of the Select bracket before having to catch their flight home and consequently miss the finals. 

Alex Murphy was the big winner for the Playaz this weekend as he had Telep, Rivals Network Recruiting Director Jerry Meyer, and a variety of others singing his praises throughout the weekend.  The rising junior opened the tournament with a 30 point performance on Friday night at the Dean Dome and kept it coming after that.  Also catching local headlines was Kaleb Tarczewski and Kadeem jack, the South Kent bound big man who made his debut with the Playaz this weekend.