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LOS ANGELES -- Buzz, buzz, buzz… The Portland Trailblazers were again in the gym to watch Long Island's Charlie Villanueva play during the last day of action at the Best of Summer Tournament in Los Angeles.
Charlie showed flashes of his shooting and ball handling ability, which are very impressive for a 6-foot-8 player, but it had to be another frustrating evaluation for the Portland people as a box-and-one really took Charlie out of the game.
Junior point guard Jordan Farmar wasn't an unknown entity prior to this tournament, but his performance here, on top of his Las Vegas showing, has catapaulted him to a Pac-10 level recruit for next year.
His Double Pump teammate, 6'7 Marcus Slaughter, also impressed a lot of people. Slaughter was attending Valley View HS prior to the summer and may be at North HS in Riverside for his senior year. The willowy Slaughter can shoot the ball from the perimeter.
Seven-foot Stuart Creason from the North Texas Cowboys impressed Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton, among others, as he rose from the depths to become a strong rising senior in this class.
Coaches looking for men, that's M-E-N, liked 6'5 small forward Christano Johnson from Lauringburg Insitute in North Carolina, who was playing for Raleigh's Finest.
Looking for a total sleeper? Six-foot-3 James Sukhan from Viewmont, UT, who was playing for Salt Lake Metro #1, ranks right up there as one of the top shooters we saw all summer.
The coaches were in a very good mood as they contemplated the end of the ridiculous no-talking period.
A lot of talk centered on the fact that everybody knows that the NCAA wants to close down the July period and keep the coaches home. Of course, everybody else knows that not only will the tournaments go on, but that there will then be as many new "scouting services" as there currently are club basketball teams.
David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call (818) 783-2244 or (818) 783-2212 for subscription information.
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