Thursday Round-Up

New England Recruiting Report | Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Adidas Super 64 Begins

In Las Vegas, the New England Playaz opened their Super 64 schedule against Dream Vision from California.  The Super Pool game featured several intriguing one-on-one match-ups, but none more prominent than Alex Murphy and Shabazz Muhammad, two of the top ten players in the national class of 2012. 

While neither player reportedly scored a big advantage, the player who did earn distinction was Kaleb Tarczewski, who reportedly won his match-up with Angelo Chol.  Tarczewski earned praise from both Rivals’ Eric Bossi and NBE’s Raphielle Johnson after showing off a jump hook on the block and attacking the rim.  Johnson also praised Naadir Tharpe for doing “a good job of distributing and running the offense while knocking down a few open jumpers.” 

The Playaz would go on to defeat Dream Vision 69-60 but suffered a heartbreaking loss to Compton Magic in their second game of the day, 68-66 in overtime. 

The Mass Rivals opened their tournament with a 54-39 victory over Thunderridge Grizzlies as Jordan Laguerre continued to be the star of the show while their Blue team took a forfeit win early in the day before falling to DGib Hoops from Texas. 

The Connecticut Knights also opened up pool play with a win, knocking off the Spurs 78-63. 

All four local teams will return to action on Friday as the Playaz take on Franchize All-Starz from Texas, the Rivals’ White team faces Nor Cal Outlawz in the morning and Team Ramey later in the day.  The Knights play Full Package Elite from Illinois before finishing pool play early Saturday morning against GNB Academy. 

Bracket play gets underway on Saturday with the Playaz being guaranteed a place in the championship bracket by virtue of their spot in the Super Pool and both the Rivals and the Knights looking to win their pool to advance to the championship bracket. 

Orlando Getting Busy

Although college coaches had only just arrived in Orlando, the 15u Super Showcase was winding down.  CBC and BABC were the only two New England programs to earn a spot in the gold bracket following pool play.  CBC was knocked out by Mid-Atlantic Select in the opening round 65-55 while BABC earned a bye into the second round where they suffered a slim loss to Team Toledo 68-65. 

Other New England programs in action were Expressions, who suffered a loss to the New Jersey Cyclones in the opening round of the silver bracket, and Connecticut Select who fell to Georgia Fastbreak in the second round of the Copper bracket. 

With the 15u Super Showcase winding down, the 16u Super Showcase was just getting started, with pool play beginning on Thursday.  BABC got off to a 2-0 start after pounding Bowie Express 63-24 and Team Breakdown 86-44.  The Boston Warriors also stand at 2-0 after squeezing by Old Gold Dream Team 64-63 and then defeating Team Charlotte 70-59. 

The Rhode Island Hawks went 1-1, falling to Gardner Road but defeating the Wisconsin Playmakers.  Connecticut Eltie is also 1-1 after knocking off the Cincinatti Royals but falling to the PA Playaz 63-59.  Metro Boston fell to Shining Star Sports before losing to a Riverside Hawks team that was reportedly led by Connecticut native Terry Tarpey.