SUWANEE, GEORGIA — The Under Armour Association’s “The Finals” tipped off in the Atlanta suburb of Suwanee Wednesday night and over 300 college coaches were in attendance for a loaded opening night of showcase games.
While the Peach Jam focused on a single 17U play-in game and 16U games, The Finals had four time slots of loaded showcase match-ups that coaches and media took full advantage of. Among the top games included Diamond Stone and the Young Legends squaring off with Doral Moore and Atlanta Xpress and a 2016 battle between Pitt commit Mustapha Heron and the 2016’s No. 1 player, Josh Jackson.
Diamond shines in opener: Diamond Stone is a consensus top-10 player in the 2015 class, with some recruiting analysts even believing he’s the top dog in the class. On Wednesday night, Stone had a solid start to the second week of July with a matchup against Doral Moore and Atlanta Xpress. Stone finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in the loss as he scored on a variety of mid-range jumpers and post touches.
If Stone struggled, it was because he was settling for too many jumpers and also dealing with length on the interior. The 6-foot-9 Stone had trouble finishing over the length of 7-footer Doral Moore, who registered five blocks on the night, including blocking Stone twice on one possession. But there’s still a lot to like about Stone. He owns a superior set of hands, he’s skilled on the block and also showed good touch on his jumper. He’s also an underrated passer, both in the half-court setting and as an outlet passer.
Moore had a nice bounce-back game from what many said was an average performance at LeBron. The 7-footer is all upside, displaying an incredibly soft touch and great timing as a shot blocker while using his massive seven-foot frame and wingspan. Moore only finished with eight points and one rebound, but didn’t back down from Stone and his teammates didn’t exactly do a good job of getting him touches sometimes. The big question with Moore is, does he love basketball? He’s in really bad shape, becoming winded almost immediately after checking into the game and he shows minimal desire at times. Moore is still a tremendous talent if he ever puts it all together.
Josh Jackson starts The Finals by jacking shots: The No. 1 player in the 2016 class, Josh Jackson, got off to a slow start on Wednesday night in 1 Nation’s matchup with New Heights, mostly because Jackson made terrible decisions with his shot selection.
Instead of aggressively attacking the basket and trying to get to the rim, the 6-foot-6 Jackson forced a number of contested three-pointers and deep twos that missed the mark as he was clearly frustrated with his lack of shot-making at times. When the No. 1 player in the country is on the bench with four minutes left in a one-point game, it says something.
Jackson played a bit better in the second half, but he has to perform more consistently and take better shots if he wants to hold off Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum for No. 1 in 2016.
After the game, Jackson’s mother, Apples Jones, confirmed that Josh is going to California for high school next season, but would not give NBCSports.com a school. Jones also told NBCSports.com that the rumors of Jackson going to the 2015 class were not true and he was planning on staying in the 2016 class.
For his part, Heron didn’t show a tremendous amount of skill, but he’s a hard-nosed guard that will really get up and defend and he attacks the basket hard. A Pitt commit, Heron has a strong frame already and isn’t afraid to use it to help him get to the rim. If the 6-foot-4 power lefty wing can get a more consistent jumper he’ll be tough to stop in the ACC.
Team Breakdown shows out in front of major head coaches: With the Brandon Ingram/Derrick Jones matchup never materializing because Ingram was with his high school team, I took that session to watch the highly-touted 2016 members of Team Breakdown.
Playing up against 17U competition, despite fielding nearly an entire team of younger kids, this group has a scary collection of talent.
Juwan Durham and Dewan Huell both stand around 6-foot-9 and rank in Rivals top 30 for the 2016 class and the duo can both run the floor incredibly well while also blocking shots and finishing at the rim.
Eric Hester is another talented 2016 member who, at 6-foot-3, can really get out and defend on the perimeter and also score in transition.
And 6-foot-8, Troy Baxter is a freak athlete on the wing and he uses the baseline well to finish at, or well above, the rim.
Head coaches from Alabama, Florida State, Georgetown, Miami, Missouri, South Carolina, South Florida and Wake Forest all watched Team Breakdown play on Wednesday while other SEC programs like Florida and Mississippi State sent assistants. It’ll be fun to track those four top-100 talents for the next year.
