Monday, June 22, 2009

DSL Day 1, NBA Draft, Other Stuff

I did get to see some action on the first day of the Deveroes Summer League. I was there in time for the first game between McCluskey Chevrolet (NKU) and Superior Cars.com. Dante' Jackson and Deonta Vaughn were teammates on the Superior team. Vaughn led the scoring with 21 on 6-16 shooting and Jackson added 17 points on 5-12 and chipped in 5 steals. It was a close game with Superior winning 72-69 in the end. I still think 'athlete' when I see Dante' play as opposed to more of a skilled basketball player. He is a pure winner however making two big steals and converts for his team late in the game. I have seen Dante' hit some big shots in his career starting in the 2007 Ohio/Kentucky All Star game. I have no doubt he will be the team leader next season and that will be a good thing for Coach Mack. Vaughn added four assists and played a very solid game overall for the winners.

I only stayed for the first half of the next game between Camp's Collision and Clovernook Health Care. There were alot more players involved in this one. Looking at the box; Camps won 74-61. Of interest on the Camps team was former X player Johnny Wolf. He played with former UC recruit Danny McElroy who had a very strong first half and finished 7-10 overall from the field for the game. He will be a solid addition for Bowling Green next season. Brian Walsh and Jamel McLean played for Camps as well and both had their moments. I am excited to learn more about Brian's game over this summer. He saw limited time last season before being redshirted. Clovernook featured Brad Redford, Terrell Holloway, and Darnell Wilks. All had pedestrian games and Brad missed all his three point attempts in the first half but finished with 8 points overall. Holloway was very aggressive but it did not translate into a pretty stat line. Wilks went 1-4 overall and I didn't see anything noteworthy from him in the first half. However he is my favorite to win the new Deveroes Slam Dunk contest this season.

The NBA draft is this Thursday and I am excited to see where Derrick Brown ends up. The speculation is rampant as is the case with all major league sports drafts days before they happen. I am not a big fan of the NBA overall but the draft is always cool to watch. My hope is Derrick has a James Posey type career and he is of course the former Musketeer that DB #5 gets compared to the most. I would like to see him end up with the Celtics but who knows. The Cavs would be nice also.

Xavier also held an 'Elite Camp' this weekend and their were several blue chip recruits in attendance. It will be interesting to see what develops on the recruiting front out of that. My hope is X can land one more player before the July evaluation period.

New uniforms are in store for the Musketeers next year. I am a big fan of 'simple' because I like the classic look the best. I am not saying I want to go back to the boxer shorts but I would like to stay away from Marquette and Oregon type ensembles.

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