HENDERSON, Nev. – Behind the play of two sons of college head coaches – both of whom were in attendance – Team Detroit knocked off D-One Sports of North Carolina, 56-48, in the finals of the Reebok Summer Championships Sunday night at Foothill High School.
Point guard Ray McCallum and backcourt partner Trey Zeigler combined for 25 points in the final.
“It feels good. It has been our goal to since the beginning of July to win every tournament we are in,” Zeigler said.
McCallum, a rising senior point guard at Detroit Country Day and the son of the University of Detroit head coach by the same name, scored a team-high 19 points and dished out three assists to lead the Motor City squad to a 71-54 win over California Supreme Elite in the afternoon semifinal and followed with 11 points in the championship.
Zeigler, a Mount Pleasant rising senior and the son of Central Michigan coach Ernie Zeigler, added 15 points and six rebounds in the semis and notched a team-high 16 in the title game. Zeigler had high praise for his point guard, who would garner prime consideration for tournament MVP if it was awarded.
“It’s a privilege,” Zeigler said of playing alongside McCallum. “He gets us all going. It’s a privilege to have him because he’s not only out there scoring for himself but he is getting us all open looks.”
Both McCallum and Zeigler are considering playing for their fathers despite offers from powerhouse programs across the nation.
McCallum has a final 11 of Arizona, Detroit, Florida, Kansas, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and UCLA. According to McCallum, he will sit down with family after the summer to begin the decision-making process.
Zeigler is still mulling over offers from around a dozen programs and adds that playing in front of his father is business as usual.
“I treat him like any other coach sitting over there,” Zeigler said. “I try to stay away from looking at him in the stands because that is usually what I do.”
In the Gatorade/Baller Circuit Bracket, which was a grouping of teams with Reebok ties that didn’t meet the registration deadline for the open tournament, Florida International verbal Phil Taylor took over in the final minutes to lead Georgia’s Worldwide Renegades to a 76-70 victory over the I Can All-Stars of Los Angeles.
Taylor led all scorers with 34 points.
“I told myself coming into the game that this was probably my last AAU game, so I didn’t want to play with any regrets and leave it all on the floor,” Taylor said.
More highlights from Sunday’s action at Foothill High School;
Teams we saw: California Supreme Elite (Inglewood, Calif.), D-One Sports (Louisburg, N.C.), Donyell 1 (Reading, Pa.), Franchize All-Stars (Houston, Texas), I Can All-Stars (Los Angeles, Calif.), MBA Elite (Jackson, Miss.), Northwest Houston Tigers (Cypress, Texas), Team Detroit (Detroit, Mich.), Worldwide Renegades (Atlanta, Ga.).
Head coaches in the crowd: Coaches from over 35 schools were signed in Sunday at Foothill, including Johnny Dawkins (Stanford), Matt Doherty (Southern Methodist), Scott Drew (Baylor), Ben Howland (UCLA), Lon Kruger (Nevada-Las Vegas), Ray McCallum (Detroit), Sean Miller (Arizona), Tubby Smith (Minnesota), Rick Stansbury (Mississippi State) and Ernie Zeigler (Central Michigan).
Standouts
Wannah Bail, 6-9, F, Franchize All-Stars: Just a rising sophomore at Houston’s Lutheran High School, Bail has a big future ahead of him if he adds weight and makes a natural progression over the next two years. Bail, a native of the Bahamas, has an unconventional set 3-point shot, but it was effective in the semifinals against D-One Sports as he got two to go down early in the second half. He helped generate offense with his passing as well, working the post-and-kick to find open teammates.
Quddus Bello, D-One Sports
Photo by Nicholas Koza
Bello, a rising junior from High Point, N.C., is one of the most exciting young players in the country. He is a rise-and-attack dunker, throwing down six – including two alley-oops – in a win against Donyell Marshall’s Pennsylvania-based team and finishing with 17 points. He doesn’t show much of anything else offensively at this point, but his length makes him valuable on the defensive end. When D-One Sports went small, Bello took on the task of guarding a big. Teammate Bishop Daniels added three dunks in the quarterfinals, giving the D-One backcourt nine in 32 minutes of play.
Rion Brown, 6-5, G, Worldwide Renegades: Brown is a long, smooth guard that can handle and will attack the basket. The Liberty County (Hinesville, Ga.) rising senior nailed a beautiful stepback three in the closing seconds of the first half.
Alex Davis, 6-9, F, Franchize All-Stars: Mentioned Davis earlier in the week and liked the tools we saw again Sunday. The Yates High School rising junior plays hard and with emotion. Despite weighing in the neighborhood of 185 pounds, Davis is a force around the basket and has a wingspan that rivals anybody in Las Vegas this week. Franchize All-Stars coach Curtis Knight expects big things from Davis, as well as Bail, down the road. “They are young and athletic,” Knight said. “They are raw inside but with the effort level and being consistent with workouts, they will get better.” Davis reported interest from Houston, Arkansas and Missouri State, as well as an assortment of mid-majors.
Stargell Love, 6-2, G, D-One Sports: With all the big names playing for D-One Sports, Love gets overlooked but is a flat-out solid guard. D-One Sports head coach Brian Clifton obviously thinks so, too, because Love rarely leaves the floor. He pumped in 19 points with six assists in the quarters against Donyell 1 and followed with 22 points five rebounds and four assists in the semis.
Ray McCallum, 6-2, G, Team Detroit: The Team Detroit point guard powered his team through a lackluster game in the morning as both teams looked worn out from a long week. Everybody except McCallum, that is. Though he finished with just 12 points, he attacked the pressure applied by uber-quick MBA Elite guard Deville Smith and did everything he could to get the Motor City team’s offense in a flow. McCallum is locked in mentally 100 percent of the time.
Dwayne Polee, 6-7, W, California Supreme Elite: Polee, a USC commitment, was extremely impressive in a 20-point quarterfinal win for California Supreme over the Northwest Houston Tigers. He finished with a team-high 16 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. His versatility allowed the five-guard/wing lineup the California team employed to work as he accepted the task of playing in the paint. Polee’s length allows him to play like he is 6-10. He might be the best pure athlete in the class of 2010.
Rasheed Sulaimon, 6-3, G, Franchize All-Stars: A dangerous outside shooter, Sulaimon should thrive in Houston’s outstanding Strake Jesuit High School program over the next three years. Sulaimon spurred a key stretch in the second half with a pair of threes from the corner.
Phil Taylor, 5-10, G, Worldwide Renegades: If Taylor is an indication of the type of players Isiah Thomas will bring to Florida International, things have a chance to go much better with the Golden Panthers than they did with the Knicks. Taylor is a big winner at the high school level with back-to-back state championship game appearances at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga. He is a jet of a point guard that uses his quickness to create space and then look for his shot or dump off to a teammate (usually in that order). Although undersized at a listed height of 5-10, his quick release negates that disadvantage on the offensive end. Late in the game against the I Can All-Stars, Taylor jumped, dipped under the outstretched arms of two defenders and flipped the ball off the glass for a spectacular transition bucket. Taylor is looking forward to learning under the former Detroit Piston great. “It’s a great opportunity for me to play for one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game,” Taylor said.
Extras
Although on-site tournament organizers could not confirm or deny, word around Las Vegas this week was that the Reebok Summer Championships won’t be back in 2010. Adidas owns Reebok and could roll the event into its own Super 64 championships. … This week was a learning experience for rising sophomore Twymond Howard of Mississippi-based MBA Elite. The 6-6 wing forward averaged 19 points per game as a freshman at Pearl High school, but made a major step up in competition playing in this event. “It’s faster and more competitive,” Howard said. “In high school, you know most of the teams and you have seen them a few times. All the players here are new.” He says interest is coming in from Mississippi, Mississippi State and Tennessee, among others. Howard, who scored eight points in a loss to Team Detroit Sunday, is also a promising wide receiver prospect in football and has received interest in that sport from Mississippi State. … In Sunday’s most attention-grabbing statline, D-One Sports’ Quincy Miller posted 29 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in semifinal play against the Franchize All-Stars. … Tempers flared with 21.1 seconds remaining in the Team Detroit-California Supreme semifinal. Detroit’s Brandan Kearney and California’s Jamaal Franklin scuffled after a rebound and the officials did an admirable job of making sure things didn’t get out of hand. Franklin and teammate Keala King were both hit with technicals in the aftermath and the resulting free throws put the game out of reach. … “Worldwide Renegades” is a great name for a travel circuit basketball team. … ESPN college basketball analyst and broadcaster Fran Fraschilla took in several of Sunday’s games at Foothill.
Reebok Summer Championships Scoring Leaders
27.6 – Kameron Cerroni, Wisc. Playground Warriors 17
25.0 – Charles Standifer Play Hard Play Smart (Calif).
23.8 – Joe Young, Houston Superstars
23.3 – Myles Davis, Playaz Basketball Club (N.J.)
22.8 – Patrick Simon, Eastern Wash Elite Red
22.0 – Ken Williams, Houston Inner City Cougars
21.6 – Demonte Williams, Hammond Hurricanes (Ind.)
21.5 –Todd Perry, Camp Darryl 2010 (Mich.)
21.3 – Nick Daher, Hawks (Calif.)
21.0 – Carl Swallow, ECI South Dakota
