UM Hoops.com

King James WON (my mistake) yesterday and it looks like Jordan Morgan had a very good game scoring 20 points on 9 of 12 shooting with 5 boards. Darius Morris and Belmont Shore got a win but Darius had another lackluster gmae scoring 7 points. It seems like the long summer-grind may be getting to Darius.

On Grass Roots TV today you can catch Jordan Morgan and Roger Franklin this afternoon. Team Texas plays at 11:15 PST (2:15 EST) and King James plays at 12:20 PST (3:20 EST) directly after that. Watch Now.

At the Reebok Tournament you can catch a couple local teams this afternoon it looks like. The Grand Rapids Storm (Ben Simmons) plays D-One Sports (#1 pg John Wall) at 12:30 PST (3:30 EST) and the Michigan Hurricanes play right after that at 1:45 PST ( 4:45 EST). Watch Now.

Missed this somehow but Jay Bilas speaks highly of Manny and DeShawn at LeBron Camp (I know it’s old now, but I hadn’t seen it), Jay Bilas can’t resist taking another shot at Michigan though (Insider link).

Some conflicting information on wing forward Roger Franklin. This article lists Michigan in his top 6 while this one doesn’t. By all accounts Franklin has consistently scored the ball very well, including 33 in one game. Here is what ESPN had to say on Roger’s play this week:

Franklin is a blue-collar 3-man who can score in a variety of ways. He is at his best when slashing to the basket and utilizing his upper-body strength. He also has a solid turnaround jump shot he gets nice lift on. His frame appears to be maxed out, but he is the quintessential glue-type for the next level.

Rivals also mentions that Franklin’s teammate, point guard Vertrail Vaughn who lists Michigan as well:

He scored 18 points while also distributing the ball off his slashing drives. With an offer from Colorado, Vaughn also listed George Mason, Virginia, Michigan, San Diego, Colorado State, Oklahoma and Iowa. Vaughn considers George Mason and Virginia his top schools.

Team Texas (Franklin and Vaughn) is playing in the Main Event (same as Jordan Morgan and King James) so keep an eye here for scores and streaming video.

Andy Brown has cut his list down to 5 schools and there is no Michigan on the list so you can cross him out:

Arizona (offer), San Diego (offer), Utah (offer), Stanford and Cal will be the schools under final consideration. He said he will unofficially visit Arizona, Stanford and perhaps Cal next month. Brown said he has already been to San Diego and Utah.

ESPN on big man Jake Cohen:

Cohen has decent footwork and post moves when he gets the ball on the block. He will have to improve his strength and add muscle to his frame in order to better hold his position on the block for scoring and rebounding. Added strength will help him develop into a better finisher in the paint. He really excels as a face-up, pick-and-pop player, and he has range on his jumper that extends out to 3-point land. While he isn’t an explosive athlete, Cohen plays hard and will run the floor hard.

Here is someone who hasn’t got much play nationally or even from the instate high majors, Doug Anderson from Kalamazoo Central. Anderson played with Corey Person and is a big athletic forward. Here is what ESPN had to say:

Anderson has a very good build and strength, which he uses to impact the game. He has incredible leaping ability and finishes above the rim on a consistent basis. His hops and strength allow Anderson to play more as a power forward, but he can hit the jumper in the 15-foot range, though he has a tendency to jump too high on the shot and release it on the way down. He will have to add range and consistency to his jumper and improve his handle to play on the perimeter in college.

Note on Anderson: I don’t know that Michigan is recruiting him or not, just was suprised to see a local kid on ESPN that hasn’t got much play.

As expected Glen Rice Jr. committed to Georgia Tech today.

Prestige. ESPN ranks Michigan the 22nd most prestigious program since 1985, not bad I’d say. The three points lost from the NCAA ban looks to have cost us because Florida only finished 1 point ahead.

Darius Morris. Darius Morris scored 20 points (the tournament website only had him for 17) on 7 of 14 shooting for Belmont Shore in a loss to DC Triple Threat at Reebok (game recap). Darius added 11 points in Belmont’s second game, a  43-56 loss to LA Dream team.

Streaming. You should be able to stream the Darius Morris and Belmont Shore’s next game against Worldwide Orange (Ari Stewart, Richard Howell) LIVE from WazooSports.com at 4:15 PST (7:15 EST) right here. You can follow Belmont Shores’s stats here and Darius Morris’ here.

Jordan Morgan. Reader FL Wolve watched Jordan Morgan’s game online yesterday, heres a portion (full link in comments):

Jordan’s approximate stats were 7 points on 3-6 shooting, 1-2 from the line, 7 rebounds, and 1 blocked shot. Again, those stats are approximate as I missed the first few minutes and had some other distractions. King James won the game although I didn’t catch the final score. The guards for King James played much better in this game than the last game I saw where they got blown out.

As far as Jordan’s overall game, he put up some decent numbers but he was going up against an absolute monster. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn that Amare Stoudamire had walked into the gym and suited up for the Cali team (ED: It was Jeremy Tyler #1 in 2010). The kid even wore #1. The dunks that he was throwing down beside, over, and around the entire King James team was dizzying. I’ve never seen a high school kid with the kind of power dunks that this kid had. That said, Morgan was still playing him tough and had a few nice deflections. The problem that I saw was that Jordan likes to go for tips and deflections so every time he went for one and missed, the Cali kid caught the ball, spun around, and threw down an uncontested dunk.

Notes. Glen Rice Jr. is set to announce his college choice on Thursday (it’s not Michigan).

This is a huge AAU week with the Reebok Summer Championships, Adidas Super 64, and the Main Event.  146 of Rivals top 250 players will be in Vegas this week. Darius Morris will be playing in the Reebok Summer Championships with Belmont Shore and possibly along side the Wear twins. Jordan Morgan will be playing in the Main Event with King James, similar to before you can stream AAU games this week from MaxxSports. Morgan’s first streamed game is on channel GRTV1 at 4:40 (7:40 est) PM.

• Ranked players at Reebok Summer Championships (Darius Morris)
• Ranked players at Adidas Super 64 (Givon Crump, Carl Jones, Nate Lubick)
• Ranked players at Main Event (Roger Franklin)

One other recruiting note, ESPN posted this scoutring report on Jordan Morgan last week:

Morgan is an inside banger who will add his toughness to the University of Michigan. Being a Detroit product, he seems to have a full understanding of the responsibility he has to represent Michigan every time he steps on the floor. We were very impressed with his serious approach to the games and the improved intensity as the tournament moved into bracket play. Jordan was a man among boys in the paint and helped the King James Shooting Stars reach the finals. His foul trouble in the first half really hurt King James’ championship quest. Morgan’s job was to rebound, defend, bang inside and score from the low post, and he improved every game in this tournament.

The USA Athletes in Action team was defeated by Jordan 93-91 (OT) in the Jones Cup final on Friday. Jordan gave Athletes in Action both of their losses in the tournament and won their second straight Cup. I think it might be safe to say Jordan has a Jones Cup dynasty brewing.  Chris Wang from Tawain Hoops has posted lots of Jones Cup video and continues to post more here (LLP is #7 on AIA).

It is really hard to determine what all these games really mean. The positives for Laval are that he gets to travel the world and play competitive basketball for the first time since December of last year. For comparison Zack Gibson averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds in last years Jones Cup including a 12 point/9 rebound game against Kazakhstan. Lucas-Perry averaged around 10 points per game but had a 22 point outburst against Taiwan.

Here are Lucas-Perry’s final combined stats through the first 8 games. He averaged 9.78 ppg on 40% (26% 3pt) shooting with 3.33 rebounds, .67 assists, 1.22 steals, and 1.44 turnover.. The obvious issues are the assists, shooting percentages and turn over numbers but given the circumstances of the tournament and the fact that the AIA team was basically just thrown together some of this can be expected.

Overall, this trip was a good way for Laval to knock some rust off. I really don’t think this trip can tell us whether LLP has what it takes to be that consistent third scorer that we need him to be or not. At the very least it gives us a shot to see him on some video and look at some numbers.

Other Notes: Darius Morris is playing in the Reebok Championships next week in Las Vegas. Add Florida Gulf Coast to this years schedule. Reed Baker returns to Crisler Arena! 7 footer transfers to OSU from UAB.