By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
BAY AREA, Calif. – The journey begins late Easter night heading for high school basketball’s biggest and most glamorous get together – the McDonald’s All-American game in Milwaukee.
I’m taking Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART's) longest and lonliest trek from Pittsburg to San Francisco International Airport. There are a couple gritty souls pulling off the “S” trifecata several seats up: snoozing, snoring and slobbering.
Other than them I’m the only one occupying this car.
But like Red (Morgan Freeman) fidgeting in the bus during the final scene of “Shawshank Redemption,” I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still.
Sure, I’m leaving my lovely wife and cuddly 6-year-old to catch a red-eye from the Pacific blue. I’ll endure the indignity of airport security checks and arrive in the Windy City in the wee hours to curl up in a hard O’Hare bench for a couple hours before taking a bumpy 45-minute flight to frigid Wisconsin.
Hey no complaints here.
I get to attend the prep hoops version of the Academy Awards. I get to watch in full flight the high school game's Shangra-Lai. I get to witness the sport's future Kobe Bryants and Lisa Leslies.
Sure, it’s supposed to be a biting 22 degrees when we land at General Mitchell Internationally, but within hours I’ll be gasping at the 40-inch vertical leap of Compton’s DeMar DeRozan or a 360 spin cycle and no look pass from Oak Hill Academy’s Brandon Jennings in practice.
For the first time in person, I get to admire the power game of 6-foot-10, 235-pound man-child Greg Monroe (Helen Cox, La.) or the vast all-around skills of 6-4 forward Elena Delle Donne (Ursuline Academy, Greenville, De.), last week voted Morgan Wootten Award winners as the top 2007-08 male and female players in the country.
I’ve seen live many of the best in California for the last two decades – Jason Kidd, Courtney Paris, Gary Payton, Jayne Appel, Casey Jacobsen, DeMarcus Nelson, Jacki Gemelos and Candice Wiggins to name a few – but now I get the entire bowl of cherries.
Like Red, I’ll give my voice over here over the next three days, sharing impressions, analysis, fun and frolic. Each day we’ll add a daily notebook with facts, figures and other tangeables and throw in some features as well.
If you somehow haven’t heard or seen yet, here are the prime-time players selected to the games, which are scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. (EST) – girls, followed by the boys at 9:30. The girls game will be carried live on ESPNU and the boys live on ESPN.
Here are 48 reasons I can barely hold a thought in my head.
BOYS EAST
Player, Height, Position, School (City, State) – College
Al-Farouq Aminu, 6-9, F, Norcross (Ga.) – Wake Forest
William Buford, 6-5, G, Libbey (Toledo, Ohio) – Ohio State
Ed Davis, 6-9, F, Benedictine (Richmond, Va.) – North Carolina
Tyreke Evans, 6-6, G, American Christian (Aston, Pa.) – Undecided
JaMychal Green, 6-9, F, St. Jude (Montgomery, Ala.) – Alabama
Sylven Landesberg, 6-6, G, Holy Cross (Flushing, N.Y.) – Virginia
Michael Rosario, 6-3, G, St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.) – Rutgers
Samardo Samuels, 6-9, F, St. Benedict’s Prep (Newark, N.J.) – Louisville
Chris Singleton, 6-9, F, Dunwoody (Ga.) – Florida State
Kemba Walker, 6-0, G, Rice (New York, N.Y.) – Connecticut
Elliot Williams, 6-4, G, St. George’s (Collierville, Tenn.) – Duke
Tyler Zeller, 7-0, F, Washington (Ind.) – North Carolina
BOYS WEST
Player, Height, Position, School (City, State) – College
Luke Babbitt, 6-8, F, Galena (Reno, Nev.) – Nevada
Demar DeRozan, 6-6, G, Compton (Calif.) – USC
Larry Drew, 6-0, G, Taft (Woodland Hills, Calif.) – North Carolina
Michael Dunigan, 6-10, F, Farragut (Chicago, Ill.) – Oregon
Jrue Holiday, 6-4, G, Campbell Hall (North Hollywood, Calif.) – UCLA
Scotty Hopson, 6-5, G, University Heights (Hopkinsville, Ky.) – Undecided
Brandon Jennings, 6-2, G, Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) – Arizona
Malcolm Lee, 6-5, G, North (Riverside, Calif.) – UCLA
Greg Monroe, 6-10, F, Helen Cox (Harvey, La.) – Georgetown
B.J. Mullens, 7-1, F, Canal Winchester (Ohio) – Ohio State
Iman Shumpert, 6-4, G, Oak Park-River Forest (Oak Park, Ill.) – Georgia Tech
Willie Warren, 6-4, G, North Crowley (Fort Worth, Texas) – Oklahoma
GIRLS EAST
Player, Height, Position, School (City, State) – College
Elena Delle Donne, 6-4, G/F, Ursuline Academy (Wilmington, Del.) – Connecticut
Amber Gray, 6-1, F, Lakota West (West Chester, Ohio) – Tennessee
Glory Johnson, 6-2, F, Webb School (Knoxville, Tenn.) – Tennessee
Shenise Johnson, 5-11, F, Rush-Henrietta (Henrietta, N.Y.) – Miami
Lynetta Kizer, 6-3, F, Potomac (Woodbridge, Va.) – Maryland
Chelsey Lee, 6-3, F, Parkway Academy (Miramar, Fla.) – Rutgers
Alicia Manning, 6-1, G, Etowah (Woodstock, Ga.) – Tennessee
Samantha Prahalis, 5-7, G, Commack (Dix Hills, N.Y.) – Ohio State
Chay Shegog, 6-3, F, Brooke Point (Stafford, Va.) – North Carolina
Shekinna Stricklen, 6-2, G, Morrilton (Ark.) – Tennessee
April Sykes, 6-1, G, East Oktibbeha (Crawford, Miss.) – Rutgers
She’la White, 5-6, G, Norfolk Collegiate (Portsmouth, Va.) – North Carolina
GIRLS WEST
Player, Height, Position, School (City, State) – College
LaSondra Barrett, 6-2, F, Murrah (Jackson, Miss.) – LSU
Alyssia Brewer, 6-3, F, Sapulpa (Okla.) – Tennessee
Ashley Corral, 5-9, G, Prairie (Brush Prairie, Wash.) – USC
Jasmine Dixon, 5-10, G/F, Long Beach Poly (Long Beach, Calif.) – Rutgers
Ayana Dunning, 6-3, F, Eastmoor Academy (Columbus, Ohio) – LSU
Ashley Gayle, 6-4, F, Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) – Texas
Briana Gilbreath, 6-0, G, Cinco Ranch (Katy, Texas) – USC
Tiffany Hughes, 6-0, G, Winter Haven (Lakeland, Fla.) – Connecticut
Destini Hughes, 5-10, G/F, Kennedale (Texas) – LSU
Nneka Ogwumike, 6-2, F, Cy-Fair (Cypress, Texas) – Stanford
Brooklyn Pope, 6-2, F, Dunbar (Fort Worth, Texas) – Rutgers
Nikki Speed, 5-9, G, Marlborough (Los Angeles, Calif.) – Rutgers
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
