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July Live Periods: Second Week Preview

07/18/2017, 2:45pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The July live periods -- a string of three five-day periods where Division I coaches can watch high school prospects in action -- get underway on Wednesday at 5 PM, with five days of insanity to follow. And unlike the first live period, when the best events in the country were mostly in the South, this time Philly itself plays host to some of the nation’s top prospects, with many others within 60-90 minutes of the city.

Here’s a look at several events we’ll be covering this week (and a few we can’t make) featuring area programs and players:

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Recent 76ers pick Markelle Fultz (above) was a standout at the 2015 Under Armour All-Amerian camp. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Under Armour All-American Camp
When: July 19-21
Where: Jefferson University; Philadelphia Pa.
Who: 80 of the top players on the Under Armour Association circuit
Breakdown: For the first time since the Reebok Breakout camp was last held at Philly U -- now known as Jefferson U -- back in 2014, a major shoe company tour returns to the City of Brotherly Love. The best the UAA has to offer will come to the Gallagher Athletic Center for the beginning of the second live period, and the participants will each play four games: once Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Thursday evening and Friday morning; in between the game sets are workouts and game situational drills.

There’s quite a solid local presence at the camp, between Philly Pride’s Jack Clark (2018/Cheltenham, Pa.), Seth Lundy (2019/Roman Catholic, Pa.) and Donta Scott (2019/Imhotep Charter) plus WeR1’s Eric Dixon (2019/Abington, Pa.), Tyrese Martin (2018/Massanutten Military Ac., Va.) and Isaiah Wong (2019/Notre Dame, N.J.), as well as Team Rio’s Jalen Gaffney (2019/Westtown School, Pa.). Also sure to draw in some high-level programs are 2018 prospects like Moses Brown (Archbishop Molloy, N.Y.), Devon Dotson (Providence Day, N.C.), Jahvon Quinerly (Hudson Catholic, N.J.), Nazreon Reid (Roselle Catholic, N.J.), and Elijah Weaver (Oldsmar Christian, Fl.), all of whom are ranked in the top 50 on the ESPN 100; top-level 2019s like Ranney School wings Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine are also slated to be in attendance.

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Victor Oladipo Skills Academy
When: July 19-21
Where: DeMatha Catholic; Hyattsville, Md.
Who: 80 players from the Nike EYBL Circuit
Breakdown: Unlike the Under Armour All-American camp, which draws the best of the best from the UAA circuit, the Oladipo Skills Academy tends to be a showcase for some of the EYBL’s second-tier talent -- who, by the way, are all still mid-major or higher recruits. So while guys like Marvin Bagley III and Bol Bol aren’t in the field, it’s stacked with 2018 and 2019 prospects who are hearing from dozens upon dozens of D-I schools. Similar to the Under Armour All-American Camp, Oladipo participants will be split into teams and spend their days at DeMatha doing a mix of drills and game situation opportunities while also playing live games in front of the coaches.

There isn’t a huge local contingent making its way down there: from Team Final, only Church Farm 2019 forward Jon Bol Ajak is going; La Salle College HS 2019 PF Zach Crisler, who plays his AAU ball with the New York Rens, is also going to be there. Other than that, the local interest will come in the form of players who the area schools are chasing, like St. John’s (Md.) 2019 wing Casey Morsell, who has offers from Temple and Penn State, and recently reclassified 2019 guard Jalen Lecque (Christ School, N.C.), who’s become a top Villanova target. Speaking of Villanova, both of the Wildcats’ 2018 commitments -- Brandon Slater and Cole Swider -- will both be participating, as will Penn State 2018 pledge Myles Dread.

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Justin Steers (above) is one of my local D-I prospects who will be at the Hoop Group's Elite II Camp this week. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Hoop Group Elite Camp II
When: July 18-21
Where: Albright College; Reading, Pa.
Who: More than 600 high school prospects from all over the country
Breakdown: For the second week in a row, the campus at Albright College will be flooded with hundreds upon hundreds of high school prospects, who will turn the seven indoor courts and six outdoor courts at Albright into a proving ground over four days of tryouts, practices and then game competition once the live period gets underway Wednesday night. After everybody plays five games in front of the coaches, the week’s top performers will be picked for a series of All-Star Games, culminating in the must-see Top 20 game on Friday afternoon.

Though the full field won’t really be known until we show up at the camp and see the rosters, based off what Hoop Group has been releasing on social media, it’s going to be better talent than last week, now that it’s not competing with Peach Jam, Under Armour Association champions and the Adidas Gauntlet Finale and thus can draw in more sneaker circuit talent. Local players with multiple Division I offers who’ve already been confirmed by the Hoop Group’s Twitter account include Archbishop Wood 2018 SG Tyree PIckron, Friends’ Central 2018 F Justin Steers, St. Benedict’s (N.J.) 2018 SG Matthue Cotton and more; they also said several players from WeR1 will attend, along with players from other sneaker programs like Atlanta Xpress.

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Hoop Group Summer Jam Fest
When: July 21-23
Where: Spooky Nook Sports; Manheim, Pa.
Who: More than 300 AAU programs ranging from 14U through 17U
Breakdown: The biggest Hoop Group tournament of July takes place at the massive Spooky Nook Sports complex -- a long, low grey rectangular building which houses no fewer than 30 basketball courts, a few football fields, two separate rock climbing areas, a food court, arcade and even more. With more than two dozen courts going for the vast majority of a 48-hour period, there’s literally hundreds of potential college basketball players all playing at once, which will draw college coaches from up and down the East Coast and beyond. With each age group split into multiple divisions and everybody guaranteed at least three games, keeping track of the various consolation games and potential matchups (and therefore who to watch) is half the challenge.

Local programs involved include the East Coast Power, PYO, SJ Hoops Elite and York Ballers; other talented programs include the 6th Man Warriors (D.C.), DC Blue Devils (N.H.), Middlesex Magic (Mass.), New Heights (N.Y.), NJ Roadrunners, NJ Shoreshots, NY Lightning, WrightWay Skills (Mass.) and more. All of the top teams there will play in a series of high-level showcase games on Friday night before jumping into the third round of bracket play on Saturday morning; expect to see the greatest concentration of coaches for the showcase games on Friday night as well as the Sunday morning quarterfinals, semifinals and championships of the premier 16U and 17U brackets.

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Elevate Hoops Showdown
When: July 21-23
Where: Jefferson University; Philadelphia, Pa.
Who: AAU programs from the Northeast region and beyond
Breakdown: The Showdown first started five years ago as the follow-up tournament to the Reebok Breakout camp, with many of the camp’s prospects staying in Philadelphia while their AAU teams joined them for the weekend tournament. Thus, even in its first few seasons, the Showdown got a strong reputation rather quickly -- so even after the Reebok camp stopped, the Showdown continued to be a worthy event, competing with the Summer Jam Fest for teams and college coaches’ attention.

The schedule for the Showdown is not yet out, but so far we already know that three of the area’s top programs are scheduled to compete in Team Final, K-Low Elite and the Jersey Shore Warriors. Team Final, which plays on the Nike EYBL circuit, features a pair of 5-star wings in Cameron Reddish (Westtown School, Pa.) and Louis King (Hudson Catholic, N.J), both of whom were on the USA Basketball squad that just came off a bronze-medal performance in the FIBA U19 championships in Egypt earlier this month. K-Low Elite, whose 16s won the Elevate Icebreaker II event last weekend, boast Matthue Cotton (St. Benedict’s), Seth Pinkney & Tyree Pickron (Archbishop Wood) and Damon Wall (Doane Academy) as D-I prospects on the 17s; high-major target Dahmir Bishop (Imhotep Charter) and hard-working wing Christian Ray (Haverford School) lead the 16s. The Warriors don’t have any blue-chip prospects this year, but have several D-I targets like Ryan Young (Bethlehem Catholic, Pa.), Drew Friberg (State College, Pa.) and Andrew Funk (Archbishop Wood, Pa.). Also fairly local and sure to draw the attention of coaches from various levels are Jersey Force Elite, Team Final Black, the Yellowjackets, South Jersey Select and more.

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WeR1 Summer Finale
When: July 22-23
Where: Penn Charter School; Philadelphia, Pa.
Who: WeR1 and several other AUU programs from the extended region
Breakdown: Instead of going to one of the other established area tournaments, WeR1 decided this year to do their own thing -- and got a bunch of other high-level AAU squads to come along for an event they’re billing as the “first annual” Summer Finale. The whole tournament will take place at Penn Charter, just down the street from the Elevate event at Jefferson, making it easy enough for coaches and media to pop back and forth between the two over the course of the weekend.

Obviously, the headline program at the tournament will be WeR1, fresh off its second consecutive victory in the Under Armour Association 17U finals, which pushed them to No. 1 in the IndiHoops national AAU rankings; the 16s also made a run to the UAA championship but fell one win short of the title. The program is packed to the brim with talent, including Putnam Science wing Eric Ayala and Massanutten Military Ac.'s Tyrese Martin plus Bonner big man Ajiri Johnson and super 2019 guard Isaiah Wong (Notre Dame, N.J.) on its oldest team; the 16s are led by Abington big man Eric Dixon, Imhotep wing Chareef Knox, Bonner guard Nah’Shon Hyland and New Jersey guard Xander Rice. Also taking part are several other Under Armour squads, including Philly Pride, the D.C. Blue Devils and Team Thrill (Md.) plus Adidas-sponsored New World AAU, which is also based out of the D.C./Maryland/Virginia (DMV) region.

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