Rose City Showcase XVII Preview
Now in its 17th year, the Rose City Showcase has brought some of the top club teams and players to Portland and the event this weekend should once again have plenty of talent on hand. The Super 17’s Elite division will feature teams from Illinois, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon and figures to be as fierce and competitive as ever.
(Note: late change, Mac Irvin Fire has been replaced with The Hoop Salem)
The headline team from out-of-state this year is Mac Irvin Fire out of Chicago, which has been nationally recognized for years. This season’s squad is loaded as always as Adam Miller (2020 Morgan Park) and Michael Foster Jr. (2021 Washington-WI) are both nationally ranked in their respective classes – Miller in the Top 30 and Foster in the Top 5. Marcus Watson Jr. (2020 Morgan Park) and Brandon Weston (2021 Morgan Park) have also averaged double figures so far on the EYBL and 7-foot big man Ryan Kalkbrenner (2020 Trinity Catholic-MO) adds plenty of size in the middle.
SFBA stands for Simply Fundamental Basketball Academy and they come to Portland from Las Vegas. Daishen Nix (2020 Trinity International) is the headliner and the 6-foot-5 point guard is a top 10 ranked player with all sorts of high-major college offers. Playing in Oregon is nothing new for ML20 as they have gotten used to winning tournaments in the Portland and Salem areas. Marjon Beauchamp (2020 Bella Vista-AZ) and Tari Eason (2020 Federal Way) lead the way and along with a strong supporting cast, head coach David Lucas and his crew are aiming to defend their undefeated record in the state.
Maeko and Deep III are the two solely Oregon-based teams in the field and both hope to make some noise to add to what they’ve already done so far this spring. Malik Kelley (2020 Roosevelt), Jayoni Moore (2020 Roosevelt), and George Sadi (2020 De La Salle North) are ones to watch for Maeko while Deep III should have a team with a number of unsigned seniors and juniors on the rise. Unsigned Hype is an unknown at press time, but there’s no question it will have a roster containing some familiar local names looking to get back on the radar of college coaches.
Last year’s final game between the Rose City Rebels and the NW Panthers was one of the all-time great title games in the history of the event. This year’s three-day tournament takes place at Portland Community College Cascade Campus, kicking off on Friday evening with the final game between the top two teams on Sunday at 5:45 pm.