This Weekend (April 20-22) It's the Boys' Turn

OK, the girls coaches all-star games are at 6 and 7:30 Friday night and 1:30 and 3 Saturday afternoon at Macalester.

But otherwise this is a week for the boys to take the spotlight, after the girls Midwest Kickoff tournament last weekend.

Thanks to Gopher Warrior over at the GopherHole.com, by the way, for alerting me to these events. They are not 1, not 2, but 3 in number, and without making an actual count I would estimate we're talking about almost 500 games of basketball to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

NIKE EYBL

The Nike Elite Youth Basketball League consists of 40 elite traveling teams that will play in 3 events in the Twin Cities, Hampton, VA, and Dallas. This week's games are at the High Performance Academy, 2950 Lexington Avenue South, Eagan.

Friday night 4-20--15 games at 6, 7:30 and 9 p.m. The local entry, Howard Pulley, plays the Georgia Stars at 7:30 on Court 3.

Saturday 4-21--40 games from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pulley plays Albany City Rocks at 2 p.m again on Court 3. If you just plop yourself down on Court 3 you'll see Pulley, Albany, Indy Spiece, Boo Williams, NY Lightning, Georgia Stars, Team Texas Titans, Wisconsin Playground, Mean Streets (IL), CP3 (NC) and All Iowa Attack.

Sunday 4-22--25 games from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pulley plays NJ Playaz at 9:30 a.m. on Court 1.

The Pulley 17U features Dion Bradley, St. Paul Highland; Anders Broman, Lakeview Christian; Kamali Chambers and Jamal Davis, Hopkins; Gage Deis, Prairie Seeds; Quinton Hooker, Park Center; Wayland Johnson, St. Paul Johnson; Tyus Jones, Apple Valley; Sam Neumann, Cretin; Henry Sonie, Apple Valley; Renard Suggs, Woodbury; Kyle Washington; and others.

Pump n Run's Best Buy Spring Classic

April 20-22 in Bloomington at Jefferson, Kennedy and Olson Middle School. This is all 17U with 48 teams, 24 from MN and the same number from elsewhere. Elsewhere means Wisconsin (7 teams), Kansas City (4), Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa (3 each), and 1 each from North Dakota, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida and Texas.

Games are at 7:10, 8:20 and 9:30 Friday night, all day Saturday, and 10:15 through 2:45 (the 3 championship games) on Sunday.

Pump n Run does not appear to have up to date rosters on its Web site yet, but last year's 16U (2013s) included Graham Woodward of Edina, Ian Theisen of Osseo, and Elwood Ellenson of Rice Lake. Whether these fellows are returning to this year's 17U I don't know. Jamal Davis, who has jumped to Pulley, was on Pump n Run's 16U a year ago. Some of its 15U last year were Marshawn Wilson of Tartan, Jarvis Johnson and Reid Travis of DeLaSalle, and Henry Ellenson.

NY2LA Sports

The Spring Extravaganza will be at Hopkins Lindbergh and Minnetonka. Play opens at 6 p.m. Friday, and 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. There is play all the way from 9U to 17U, with 15U-16U and 17U somewhat featured. There are 36 17Us, 32 16Us and 24 15Us. Like the Best Buy Classic, the older teams are predominantly from the upper midwest but with some coming from elsewhere all over the country. The younger brackets feature anywhere from 6 to 12 teams.

The 15-16-17U finals are at 12:40 and 1:50 Sunday at Hopkins. The other finals follow at 3:30 at Hopkins.

Minnesotans in the 17U division are MN Select White, MN Comets Elite Hanson, 43 Hoops, MN Select Blue and MN Comets Elite Stock.

Select White, coached by Mitch Ohnstad, features Carson Shanks of Prior Lake, Kebu Johnson of Blake, Brady Wohler of Orono, Logan Brown of Roseville, and others. Select Blue is coached by Patrick Boughton.

Comets Stock, coached by Jordan Stock, is a greater MN team with kids from Lac Qui Parle Valley, Long Prairie, Willmar, Fergus, Melrose, Braham, New London-Spicer, etc. Comets Hanson, coached by Josh Hanson, is also greater MN based featuring Aaron Lien of Moorhead, Jonah Eisenschenk of Rocori, 6-11 Conor Voss of St. Cloud Cathedral, and more.

43 Hoops, coached by Chris Carr, hasn't published a 17U roster yet.

Summary

The caliber of play is in the order given. I would probably think of NY2LA on Friday night, EYBL on Saturday, and Pump n Run/Best Buy on Sunday, assuming I wanted to see as much MN talent as possible plus a smattering of the best of the rest. If I just wanted the best of the best I'd be at the High Performance Academy for 3 days.