Next week

[The XtC]

Two very big summer league events will be in Dallas the first week of July, The Global Games will be at Moody all week long, beginning Sunday evening, and The Great American Shootout will be in Denton at UNT and surrounding locations on July 6th-9th.

The Global Games is sponsored by the Mavericks and the NBA, as part of the Basketball Without Borders program, and it draws young players from around the world. I'm not overstating things when I say that without this tourney, Bamba Fall and Papa Dia wouldnt be Mustangs. Both Papa and Bamba will be playing for Team Africa this year, while Alex Malone and Robert Nyakundi will be playing for Global Games AA (not to be confused with Team USA, they are not the same group). The schedule for all games can be found here:

http://www.globalgamesusa.com/schedule.cfm

The Great American Shootout is the largest summer league tournament in the midwest. About 30-40% of the teams will be from Texas, but there will be (literally) thousands of players from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, etc. You wont get a better chance to see this many players and this many games held within a relatively small geographical area, within easy walking distance. It's a bonanza for fans and recruiters. More information available at:

http://www.greatamericanshootout.com/07 ... ootout.htm

enjoy

[BUS]

Yo XtC:
Are you going to many of the games? How is the relocation going?

Good to read your post!

[Pony_Fan]

What was the deal with the Global Games and Bhop a while back? I thought the players had to be non-NCAA players or something?

[The XtC]

Players in between their senior year in high school and their freshmen year of college are allowed to play in a limited number of summer all-star games, which is how our incoming recruits are able to play in the Global Games. Games played for your countries sanctioned and official national team are exempt from the rule, which is why there are several current NCAA players on Team USA, and why Rackauskas was able to play for the Lithuanian team previously. The problem with B-Hop was that the team he was on was not the USA Basketball representative. He was already in college, but playing with a group of local recruits similar to the group playing under the name "Global Games AA", this year. Several of our incoming recruits have played for that group in the past, including Cameron Spencer, last year, but Hopkins was past the point where he was able to play unless it was with the USA Basketball representative team. That's why he got in trouble.

Team Africa also includes 2 of Papa's high school teammates who will be freshment next year, Ayodele Coker (St. Johns), and Mathew-Bryant Amaning (Washington). Amaning was the starter at South Kent, and their best post player, it might be interesting to see if he and Papa are on the court at the same time. The Africa team seems to have drawn players from several different countries. If Bamba is going to play for them, I hope they are exempt from the NCAA rule, it's hard to tell.

[smupony]

Will Bamba and Papa be playing on the Senegal Exhibition Team as well as the Africa Team? Senegal and the Global Games All-American Team play 6 PM July 6th. We could catch 4 SMU players at one time. Can they play on two different teams if one is competitive and one is as exhibition team?

[The XtC]

No, as far as I know they only play on one team. I think the Senegal team is going to be older players. Team Africa plays 2 games that day, it wouldnt be smart to let their players play in a 3rd game the same day.

[George S. Patton]

No, as far as I know they only play on one team. I think the Senegal team is going to be older players. Team Africa plays 2 games that day, it wouldnt be smart to let their players play in a 3rd game the same day.

Are you keeping up with the new players (and older ones too) and how their summer workouts are going? Think I read somewhere that all 7 are on campus.

[The XtC]

Yes, all 7 freshmen were on campus this month and were all practicing.

I spoke to one of the coaches for the Senegal team yesterday, he said Bamba would be working out with them, but not playing with them.

[Stallion]

So is this a sign that SMU has decided to take advantage of the new NCAA rules allowing Freshman on campus to take classes during the summer preceding their freshman year. Are they taking classes or just practicing/working out. How about Football?

[smupony94]

So is this a sign that SMU has decided to take advantage of the new NCAA rules allowing Freshman on campus to take classes during the summer preceding their freshman year. Are they taking classes or just practicing/working out. How about Football?

Get on Rivals and let us know

[The XtC]

They are taking classes, and I would call it more than a sign because it's been going on for the past few years. Cameron Spencer started in the summer last year, Bamba and Brian Morris the year before, etc. The rule has been in effect for Basketball only, much longer than for all other sports. For football and other sports the rule has been in effect since the summer of 2005, but it actually began as a pilot program restricted to basketball in 1999 or 2000. Most of our basketball freshman have been on campus during the summer, going back to Mike Dement's tenure.

I honestly dont know what football does, but some of this years incoming freshman have been on campus. I dont know if they are taking classes or what their status is. Perhaps one of the people who follows football recruiting closer than I do might know.

I would think there would be a massive difference in cost for football, considering the size of your average recruiting class in each sport.

[PonyPride]

A lot of the incoming recruits in several sports - including football - are on campus, taking classes and working out. I don't know exact numbers, but there's a lot.

[George S. Patton]

A lot of the incoming recruits in several sports - including football - are on campus, taking classes and working out. I don't know exact numbers, but there's a lot.

I think that's a great situation. Have those players get some hours out of the way so they are no drowning in academics while their sport is in season.

It might even help the kids graduate faster and have eligibility as they are pursuing their graduate degrees.

[The XtC]

After some last minute roster moves, Bamba switched to Team Senegal, and Papa did not play at all because of a lingering back injury. Alex Malone and Robet Nyakundi played for Global Games AA, and they opened the tournament against Senegal. The Senegal team had a lot of height and a couple of excellent athletes, but their basketball fundamentals were weak. Terrible ballhandlers, bad hands, and mediocre shooters, they seemed to be somewhat unfamiliar with the game of basketball. Bamba played well defensively, and showed good mobility, but the Senegal guards couldn’t or wouldn’t get the ball to him when he posted up. He drew several fouls simply by establishing good position in the low post, but his teammates didn’t get the ball to him, and he bricked most of his free throws.
Neither Malone or Nyakundi started, but both played extensive minutes. Both ran the court well, but neither of them touched the ball very often in the first half. They were being guarded by much taller players inside, and neither of them took a shot in the first half. Bamba guarded Malone for most of the time that they played in the first half. Malone did a nice job setting screens to free up the GGAA guards on the perimeter. Nyakundi played good man-to-man defense when he was isolated on a single player, but he seemed lost a few times when he was screened and need to switch. Both guys finished the game with 6 points, almost all in the 3rd quarter. Nyakundi hit 2 very nice shots from outside the 3-point arc. Both were quick shots, he let the ball fly as soon as he caught it. He did put up one shot under the basket, but it was swatted back in his face. Malone hit one jump shot in the lane, and got the rest of his points at the free throw line. His free throw shooting was somewhat erratic, he finished 4/7, but twice he got bailed out after misses when the Senegal players stepped into the lane early. Senegal had 7 lane violations for the game, they really didn’t seem to understand the rule.
Malone started the 4th quarter, but Nyakundi stayed on the sideline, jogging behind the bench with one of the trainers. It looked like he was trying to work out a cramp, or something minor, but he didn’t play again for the rest of the tournament.

The next day GGAA played their first game against Collin County Community College. The GGAA players completely outclassed the junior college team in every phase of the game. Malone was able to post up and score in the paint, and finished with 9 points and also grabbed 6 rebounds. GGAA outrebounded CCCC by a ridiculous margin, 60-27. The final score was 110-82.

Four hours later, GGAA had to play a second game against Argentina. The US players were obviously tired and deadlegged, as they struggled with a very weak Argentina team that had lost to the junior college team the day before. The US coach substituted very sparingly in comparison to the first two games, and Alex only played 9 minutes. In the 4th quarter he had a very nice dunk after catching a rebound in traffic, but that was his only basket. GGAA lost to an inferior Argentina team, 94-89.

In their final game, GGAA played the US under-19 National Team, the group that will represent the United States at the U-19 World Championships, which begin today. GGAA fell behind by double digits in the first quarter, and never really threatened the USA squad. A late rally made the final score seem closer, but the game was never really in doubt. Alex Malone hit his first 3-point shot of the tournament, but couldn’t score in the paintagainst a more physical USA team. He finished with 4 points and 4 boards. In 4 games Malone scored 24 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in 51 minutes of game time. He shot 6/18 from the floor, 1/3 from 3-point range, and 11/18 from the free throw line. Nyakundi played just one game, 6 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes. He was 2/6 from the floor and 2/4 from 3-point range.

General thoughts on the Global Games: Very weak field this year. With the U-19 championships coming up, most countries didn’t send their actual U-19 national team. China sent their senior national team, Senegal seemed to be a mix of older and younger players, and the Argentina players didn’t look old enough to shave. There were fewer teams than usual, so few that they had to fill the brackets with a junior college, and a rec league team (Texas All-Stars, which included former Mustangs Jemeil Rich and Jeryl Sasser).

Texas Tech has a good recruiting class coming in, D’Walyn Roberts, Mike Singletary and John Roberson all looked like quality players.

My new favorite player is Stefan Curry from Davidson, a small school player who can light it up from outside the arc.

The most disappointing player in the tournament was Cole Aldrich, a Kansas recruit. Aldrich was one of the most highly recruited players in the tournament, but he struggled on offense. He was strong and mobile, rebounded well and had a couple of monster blocked shots, but he couldn’t finish on the offensive end. He made smooth moves to the basket but couldn’t make a layup with a defender on him, and he didn’t go up hard and draw fouls. For the tournament he was 9/25 from the field. He’ll need to finish much stronger, particularly against defenses in the Big-12.

The only other C-USA player in the tournament was Houston recruit Brockeith Payne. Payne came off the bench but scored in double figures in 3 games. He averaged 13 points per game and led all scorers in the Gold Medal game with 15. He only dished out 4 assists in 4 games, though, he was purely a shooter.

That’s all I can think of right now, if I think of anything else I’ll add it later.

[PonySnob]

.........and Papa did not play at all because of a lingering back injury.

Hopefully the back injury that Papa has is nothing serious so it does not have an effect on his career at SMU!