The shell of ESPN

Awful Announcing posted a pair of so spot-on tweets on the self-inflicted demise of ESPN and specifically SportsCenter:

The ESPN I once knew covered news. The SportsCenter I grew up with showed highlights. It was funny, it was relevant, it was interesting.

and

I don't want ESPN to be obliterated. I don't want the ESPN empire to fall. I want them to be better. I want them to serve fans better. 

It's an unintentional Saturday Night Live skit performance on display now by the self-professed sports leader.

Wise words from Will Bynum

Not Nor-Cal related but universally applicable -- congrats to Will Bynum for both giving back and moving beyond training on the court.

SportsFocus holding a Bay Area camp

Sunday, September 2
Oakland, CA 

Please take a few minutes to read about our showcases so you can decide if they might benefit some of your kids who have the potential to play college basketball at some level (kids who have attended our past showcases have been recruited by everyone from Kentucky and UNC all the way to Juco & D3).

Here is our promo video for the fall tour.

Top Plays from our June All American camp. 

Check out our Fall Showcase schedule. The events  are open for grades 9 to post grad as well as exceptional middle schoolers.

If you decide to forward this email to your kids, they can register or get more info here.

Password needed to register: SFCA2012CO

We pride ourselves on providing MAXIMUM EXPOSURE to our showcase attendees, and we have the TRACK RECORD to back it up:

 * We film all games, and we have had over 7.5 million online video views on from our showcase footage alone with 20+ million total views from our videos!

*  We also had a ESPN Sportscenter #1 Top Play this past July.

*  We have had 10 Yahoo! front page stories in the past year, plus countless stories and videos featured on Yahoo! sports.

*   In addition to Yahoo!, scouting services such as Rivals, Scout, ESPN, SLAM Magazine, Phenom Hoop Report, Texas Boys Basketball, & many others have covered our events & featured articles promoting the top players from our showcases.

 * 6 McDonald's All-Americans have come from our showcases in the recent years, with other attendees currently attending schools such as Kentucky (Ryan Harrow), North Carolina (Reggie Bullock and PJ Hairston), Louisville (Montrezl Harrell and Kevin Ware), Baylor (Quincy Miller and Deuce Bello) plus many more and literally countless recruits to smaller D1 schools as well as D2, NAIA, JuCo, and D3.

 * Our showcases have also served as a springboard for many younger players who are currently highly ranked such as Andrew Wiggins (#1 Player in High School), Tyus Jones (#1 Point Guard in High School), Chris Walker (Top 5, 2013), Isaiah Briscoe (#1 PG, 2015), Damon Harge (#1 Player in 2018), Kobi Jordan Stephens-Simmons (#1 PG,  2016), and many more.

* Games will be live-streamed online for free and sent out to every D1, D2, D3, NAIA and JuCo coach in the nation.

* Potential to earn an invite (based on our evaluation of your performance) to the Scouts Focus All-American Camp next June in Charlottesville, VA parallel to the NBAPA Top 100 Camp. Invites go out May 1, 2013.

* Option to purchase a personal event mixtape to be posted on YouTube with a nice beat. Can combine footage from multiple showcases to make it longer. Go here for examples.

* Top Players (based on our evaluation) will be written up online and emailed directly to nearly every college coach in the nation. Those who purchase the mixtape will get a personal evaluation, which guarantees evaluation will be sent out to all the colleges.

* We will invite all D2, D3, NAIA, and JuCo coaches within a 10 hour drive of the event.

* The first 120 players to complete registration will be accepted.

* Our Scouting Service is NCAA approved and goes out to every college coach in the USA no matter the division or level.

* Choose the interest-free bill me later option on the Paypal checkout page to pay later. (Online-only)

Registration can be done immediately. Mail-in registration must be postmarked within 10 days of the showcase in order to be accepted. Register via fax, email attachment or call/text 281-896-8638 to pay over the phone (9 a.m. to 4 p.n. Monday through Saturday).

We hope to have you in attendance. Please keep in mind that all of our showcases fill up very quickly and the best way to reserve a spot is to register immediately. Event fee is $110 and that includes a T-shirt, 3 games, all full game footage sent to every D1, D2, D3, and JuCo program in the country and live-streamed online for everybody to watch free.

Coach, thanks very much for your time.  If you choose to help us get this information to your kids, we will do our very best to help them reach the next level.

In Hoops,

Joe Davis, elite80@scoutsfocus.com Director of ScoutsFocus

Camp brochure

To register

Cancellation insurance

Goins switches to Cal State San Bernardino

Brian Goins, the star backcourter out of Diablo Valley College the past couple of years, has changed destinations and now will be attending Cal State San Bernardino and playing for Coach Jeff Oliver.

Now, he will have the opportunity to play a number of away games here in northern California as CS San Bernardino is a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Conference which also includes other D-II northern California members Cal State East Bay, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State Stanislaus, Chico State, Humboldt State, San Francisco State and Sonoma State, among others.

Two East Bay giants

Loved this photo at ASTI.

A couple of pillars of the East Bay athletic community, Raymond Young and Anthony Eggleton.

The latest from CBSSports

In the continuing series by CBSSports, the survey question of the day is regarding the percentage of club basketball teams connected to agents and the highlight response is:

“If 60 percent of AAU coaches are tied into agents, the other 40 are trying to get tied in.”

Rim shot.

USF starts strong in Cancun

USF notches a win in the opening game down in Cancun.

The latest on Pacific playing in France.

Head here and here for the latest in print and video as Pacific basketball tours and plays in France.

The best in the west, now and later

Here's Eric Bossi (a Rivals sub is required) on some Nor Cal talents. He lists Aaron Gordon as tops in the west, writes about others and then:

"So, to make a long answer short. In the near term it's a toss-up between [Isaac] Hamilton and [Stanley] Johnson, but looking five years down the road it shifts to a discussion between [Malik] Pope and [Marcus] Lee."

Stephen Lumpkins returns to roundball

Steven Goff has the details of former Serra High frontcourter Stephen Lumpkins returning to American University basketball.

Here's some video from 2010:

A look at San Diego State (Tapley and Thames)

Michael Rogner previews San Diego State, with mention of Chase Tapley and Xavier Thames.

A Richard Longrus mention

From Percy Allen:

"Washington State dropped its second straight game during its Australian exhibition tour and lost 77-66 to Brisbane Spartans. Looks as if coach Ken Bone is playing an eight-man lineup with Brock Motum and Reggie Moore playing 32-plus minutes. Bone has also rotated guards DaVonte Lacy and Mike Ladd out of the starting lineup as well as big men D.J. Shelton and Richard Longrus."

Note that last name. He grabbed five boards in 18 minutes.

Sean Farnham rocks

Major congrats to Sean Farnham for his Hoops from Home clinic.

Pacific drops initial matchup

Pacific fell to Tremblay in the opening game of the Tigers tour in France.

Here's Ron Verlin. 

Jesuit's Parker Uu signs

The Compton Magic folks tweeted: "Compton Magic's Parker UU commits to Hartford! Let's Go" 

His brother played there before coming back to CA/Cal Poly.