by Alex Schwartz

On Saturday and Sunday, I was in Neptune, New Jersey for the 2009 Summer Classic East, which had U16 and U17 age divisions. I then went out to Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut on Monday for the Super 16 Showcase, which also had teams in the U16 and U17 divisions. Here's some brief news and notes from the events, beginning with school lists:

Jesse Krasna '10, Pennsbury (PA), Jersey Shore Warriors: Lafayette, Lehigh, Cornell, and Princeton ("I would say those are my top choices right now.")
                                  Offers: None
                                  Favorites: "That's tough. I would say Cornell and Princeton."
                                  Note- Krasna said he has a 4.2 GPA and scored an 1140 out of 1600 on the SAT—he is taking it again—which has led to the Ivy League and Patriot League interest.

Marquis Gentry '11, Ballou (DC), God's Glory: San Jose State and St. Bonaventure
                                    Offers: None
                                    Favorite: San Jose State

Waverly Austin '10, undecided, Delaware Team Takeover: Georgetown, South Florida, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Florida State, and Florida International
                                   Offers: "Not yet. They're waiting to see my transcript."
                                   Favorites: None; "I want to go to a place where I'm going to get a lot of minutes and it's a good academic school."
                                   Notes- Austin, who attended four high schools in four years, is planning to do a post-grad year and although he has yet to decide on a school, he stated, "I might be going to Maine Central Institute." Austin also mentioned South Kent (CT) as a possibility.

Eli Carter '10, St. Anthony's (NJ), Sports University: Richmond, Rice, Rider, La Salle, Boston University, Virginia, St. Bonaventure, and Manhattan
                          Offers: Richmond, Rice, Rider, and St. Bonaventure
                          Favorite: Richmond

Jamel Flash '11, West Hempstead (NY), NY Panthers: Yale, Columbia, Jacksonville, Elon, Colgate, Oakland, Norfolk State, and West Virginia
                               Offers: None
                               Favorites: "Yale because of my grades, and Jacksonville, West Virginia, and Norfolk State."
                               Note- Flash said that he has a 90% average in school.

Jabril Trawick '11, Abington Friends (PA), Team Phenom: Drexel, Temple, La Salle, St. Joseph's,  Xavier, Penn State, Bucknell, Bowling Green, and Niagara
                                 Offers: Drexel
                                 Favorites: None; "I'm looking for bigger schools than that. I want to go somewhere [in the] ACC."

In the U17 age division, the NY Panthers' 2010 team won the Summer Classic East for the second straight year (last year it was the U16 age group). The boys from the Empire State, who were coaches by Rafer Alston (aka Skip to My Lou), defeated God's Glory (DC) 84-63. The victors were led by 17 points from Dashaun Wiggins '10 of Wings Academy (NY), while GG got 22 points from Donte Thomas '10 of Ballou (DC).

In the U16 group, Team Phenom (PA) defeated the NY Panthers, denying Gary Charles' program of two titles on the day. Team Phenom won 77-69 in a game that was not as close as the score would indicate. Devin Coleman '11 of Friends Central (PA) lead the champs with 22, while Jabril Trawick '11 of Abington Friends (PA) added 17. Ty Weaver '11 from Windsor (CT) was tops for the Panthers with 24, while David Burgos '11 added 17. "It felt pretty good. The last tournament we went to was [Bob] Gibbons [TOC and we] . . . blew a couple games and ended up losing all of our games. It was good for us to bounce back [here]," said Jabril Trawick on how it felt to win the crown.

The player who stood out to me—and some DI assistants as well—as a sleeper in the event was Marquis Gentry '11 from Ballou (DC), who was running with God's Glory. The 6'8 big man checks in at 216 pounds, and has a great frame that can be improved upon even more. Gentry is long and active, blocking shots, and ferociously grabbing rebounds. Although he is still very raw and does not have much of an offensive game (the three box scores I saw from GG had him with 8, 2, and 0), he has the potential to become a dominant interior defender and looks to be at least a mid-major player, if not better. The mid and low DI schools really may want to check out this God's Glory team, as other players such as Philip Hawkins '10, Donte Thomas '10, and Antonio Jennifer are all deserving of looks too. This GG team is very good, and has some quality players.

Kyrie Irving '10 of St. Patrick's (NJ), who runs with the NJ Roadrunners, had a slew of big-time schools watch him play, including Notre Dame, Indiana, Kentucky, Duke, Virginia, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Georgia Tech, and Texas A&M. DaJuan Coleman '12 of Jamesville-DeWitt (NY), who was playing with the Westchester Hawks, is almost certainly one of the top three players in the class of 2012, and just might be number one. Standing about 6'8—he is listed at that, but actually looks more like 6'9—Coleman is built like an NFL defensive end, with huge shoulders and a gigantic frame. The young post player is skilled in the blocks, can shoot a bit, and runs the floor well. Syracuse likely already has the inside track with the J-D star, but he seems to like Ohio State as well, as of the last time I spoke with him.

I was only at the Super 16 Showcase for several hours, but it was long enough to catch a fantastic game between two local U17 squads, Team NJABC and New Heights. The Garden State team was without Chase Plummer '10 of St. Patrick's (NJ), UPenn-commit Steve Rennard '10 of St. Joseph's Metuchen (NJ), Shaq Duncan '10 of Frankford (PA), Dontae Johnson '10 of The Pennington School (NJ), and Wake Forest-bound Tony Chenault '10 of Neumann-Goretti (PA), but New Heights was without the most highly touted player on either team, Devon Collier '10 from St. Anthony's (NJ). In a game that was close throughout, New Heights led most of the way behind the outside shooting of Branden Frazier '10 and the overall play of Jayvaughn Pinkston '10, teammates at Bishop Loughlin (NY). For Team NJABC, it was the play of another pair of teammates, Frantz Massenat '10 and Markese Tucker '10 from Trenton Catholic (NJ) that led the team. When it was all said and done, Team NJABC had held off the New York squad for a tough 58-56 win. Frantz Massenat led all scorers with 21 points, while Branden Frazier was tops for New Heights with 14. A player I did not get to watch much of, but did see briefly was Majok Majok '10, who was running with Connecticut Basketball Club. The CBC standout has the look of a big-time player, and is a quality athlete. He's a player I hope to see more of this summer.

Today is day two here at the Triple S Harley Davidson Jam Fest in West Virginia, and you can follow all the action through yours truly on Twitter at NorthstarBball.