Jayhawk Invitational (Championships)

Sunday was the final day of the Jayhawk Invitational, and was fairly anti-climactic. Cole Aldrich was in street clothes fighting his bum wheel (and sporting the worst pair of jean shorts I've seen outside of Gainesville). Jon Leur finally seemed to hit the wall as well, and the Magic Elite didn't even make the finals.

KC Pump N' Run struggled a bit in the championship game with some sloppy play and their total lack of a real interior game seemed to be catching up with them, but Tyrel Reed poured in 20 on 8-15 shooting, and Conner Teahan was bombing away as well and they held on for the tournament championship. Reed was spectactular the whole weekend, controlling the pace of games, playing both PG and SG as needed and finishing tough around the rim. I'll be thrilled if he chooses to come to Atlanta, he's going to be a very solid college point guard.

Overall most impressive players of the weekend:

• Tyrel Reed
  
  The best overall player in any age bracket, he's not a jaw dropping athlete but he's tough and very skilled and has a very smooth stroke from deep. The best player on the best team in the tournament.



• Jon Leur
  
  Totally off the recruiting radar before this weekend, he played extremely well (even got at Dave Telep article on himself) and will be someone to watch. Tall and an excellent shooter, he also put the ball on the floor well and showed solid athleticism.



• Xavier Henry
  
  The younger brother of C.J Henry (former high major prospect and now Austin Jackson's teammate in the Yankee organization), Henry is a 6'8" wing playing 15U, and dominated his opponents to the point of looking bored at times. While his Athletes First team lost badly in the 15U final, he had an awesome weekend - including a 30 point effort in the opener Friday night.



• Conner Teahan
  
  Gunner. His shot was falling all weekend and with Reed and the rest of the solid Pump N' Run backcourt setting him up he looked like J.J Redick at times. I'd wonder how well he could get his own shot at the next level, but he can shoot and he can score and he's going to be either a very good mid-major player or a solid contributor for a high major (football might have something to say about that however).



• Alex English
  
  Only a freshman, but at 6'5" he's already a big solid wing. Much more skilled than you would think for someone his age and strong as an ox with the ball around the hoop. His KC Cowboys team game a couple of more highly regarded teams a run for their money, and his play in the 17U group as the youngest guy on the floor most games had a large part to do with that

Unfortunately Cole Aldrich was fighting injury, Travis Releford was just coming off his own injury and Blake Griffin didn't even make the trip because he's banged up - so I didn't get to see the best of those 3, otherwise they'd almost certainly be on that list. Still a very fun weekend as I got to pop in and out and see a number of quality games.