Oakland EYBL Review

The final regular season installment of the Nike EYBL ended over Memorial Day in Oakland, CA with several teams making a strong final push to earn a berth to the prestigious Peach Jam tournament in July. Here is a look back at the 5 games to watch along with answers to the “Will…..?” section.

1)      CIA Bounce came into Oakland with a 14-0 record and faced off with Mean Streets on opening night. Mean Streets jumped all over CIA Bounce in the Friday nightcap behind the strong play of guard Kendrick Nunn who had 24 points and 7 rebounds. Mean Streets only has one player that averages in double digits, but they are one of the best coached teams on the circuit. The stars from CIA all struggled and their quest to go undefeated went up in smoke early on in the West Coast trip.

2)      The two top players in the class of 2013, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle faced off this past Sunday with Randle’s team holding on in the second half and getting the 63-59 victory. Randle went for 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Parker went for 14 and 5 on 6-15 shooting. One of the areas of improvement for Parker is his 3-point shooting which showed in this game as he went 0-5, and Mac Irvin as a whole went 0-16. Top junior big man Jahlil Okafor held his own with 12 and 16, while sharp shooting Matt Jones of the Texas Titans went for 19 on four 3’s. While Parker has always been the clear cut top player in the class of 2013, Randle is by far the most imposing and physically dominant player.

Jabari vs. Randle 

3)      In the big men battle of the 2014 class, Jahlil Okafor’s team, Mac Irvin cruised to a 17 point win over Dakari Johnson’s E1T1 who was missing its starting point guard Joel Berry. While Okafor’s team got the win, it was Johnson who was the aggressor in the match-up. Johnson went for 11 points and 17 rebounds while getting to the line eight times. Okafor finished with 4 points and 9 rebounds and did not get to the line once in 27 minutes. Mac Irvin does not do a great job of feeding their big men down low so unfortunately this battle did not live up to the expectations, although there will surely be many more big men match-ups in the future.

4)      Tyus Jones made his return to the EYBL circuit after missing the previous tournament in Dallas. Jones went 8-13 for 18 points in his match-up with the talented Houston Hoops squad; however Houston had too much talent and pulled away in the 2^nd half in a 63-52 victory. Houston had a balanced attack led by Justin Jackson’s 14 points. The other members of the wing trio, Justice Winslow and Keith Frazier were fairly quiet during the game, but the other team members were able to pick up the slack and defeat Jones and his teammates.

5)      In a West Coast match-up, the talented Cal Supreme team dominated its rival from Portland 62-43. The newly committed Washington Husky, Nigel Williams-Goss led the way for Cal Supreme with 17 points on 6-11 shooting. Playing in his second EYBL tournament with this team, Williams-Goss was the best player on the court. The top players on ICP, who will both play for Long Beach Poly next year struggled shooting the ball. Roshcon Prince went 7-20, while Kameron Chatman went 1-8. Prince struggled throughout the weekend, except for his Sunday night game against CP3, in which he got back to attacking the basket on his way to 25 points and 9 rebounds.

Williams-Goss, future UW guard

 WILL…….

CIA Bounce stay undefeated? No. CIA Bounce was destroyed by Mean Streets in the first game of the tournament and followed that up with a loss to Boo Williams the next day. Despite the losses in this tournament, they will still be the top seeded team in the Peach Jam.

James Young continue his dominant spring? Partly. Young’s team went 2-3 over the weekend. At times Young was dominant, but at others he struggled. Young went for 29 points in his first game and 27 points and 9 rebounds in his last game, both wins. In between, Young had 19 and 16 in a loss to Team Takeover on 5-14 shooting, 15 and 10 in a loss to Nick King and Bluff City on 4-13 shooting, and 20 against Mokan Elite on 5-20 shooting. Despite these sub-par shooting performances, Young can get his shot against any defender on the AAU circuit.

Jabari Parker show why he is the consensus #1 player in the class of 2013? Parker’s team went 3-3 over the weekend and he failed to shoot over 50% in any of the 6 games. Parker played well at times, however he shot 2-16 from the 3 point line throughout the tournament. While Parker has always been the clear cut number 1 player in his class, Julius Randle might have started to close the gap, especially with the 33 point, 20 rebound performance he put up on the final day.

Kennedy Meeks show why he is considered one of the top big men in the country? Meeks’ team played well, going 5-1 (including 1 forfeit). Meeks turned his game up on Sunday and Monday going for 13 points and 10 rebounds against BABC, 18 and 11 against Bobby Portis and the Arkansas Wings, and finally 16 and 6 in the lone loss to Texas Pro. Meeks has great court awareness, but needs to continue to work on his conditioning.

Freshman Malik Newman and 8^th grader Thon Maker spark the Jackson Tigers? Well, the Jackson Tigers went 0-6 in Oakland and Maker did not make the trip. Newman missed the last two games, but went for 16 points on 7-14 shooting in his first game against Bluff City. Newman established his dominance in Dallas and led the Tigers in shot attempts this time out. Unfortunately Newman missed his Sunday night game against another freshman sensation Isaiah Briscoe.

All Iowa Attack win their first EYBL game? No. All Iowa finished with a record of 0-20. Fairly embarrassing.