West Coast Spring Showcase: Notes from Saturday’s 17U Play
The West Coast Spring Showcase is going on in the Portland, Oregon metro area this weekend (May 19-20). After a full Saturday of 17U pool-play games at Mountain View High School in Vancouver, Washington, I noticed a few key takeaways:
Le’Zjon Bonds on the defensive end.
Class of 2018 Players Having Large Impact
This weekend’s 17U teams feature plenty of seniors, most of which are playing the leading role for their respective teams. Deep III features Robert Ford, the flashy 6’0 point guard from Jefferson High School, and Emmanuel “Seyi” Reiley, the very athletic 6’3 forward from De La Salle North Catholic High School. 6’4 Bo Quinlan, the standout point guard from Southridge High School, is playing for Oregon Basketball Club (Gold). Seattle Swish (Cotton/Smalls) has 6’0 Le’Zjon Bonds, an assassin-like scorer, and 6’4 Daemon Dillingham, a versatile defender, both from Lincoln High School. All five of these players had big games on Saturday.
Team Superlatives
Most Likely to Lead the Tournament in Made Three-Pointers: Nike Team Northwest (Knight)
Most Likely to Have a Dunk Contest Participant: Team WA Elite
Most Likely to Have the Tournament MVP: EBA Pharaohs (Black)
Field Mostly Oregon Teams, California Teams Most Successful
The 17U (D1) level is composed mostly of teams from the state of Oregon, with 16 of the 24 teams being from Oregon, 5 of the teams being from Washington, and 3 of the teams being from California. That being said, the teams traveling from California have won at the highest rate so far. Below is the breakdown of records by state after Saturday’s games:
State | No. of Teams | Combined Record | Win % |
California | 3 | 4-2 | .670 |
Oregon | 16 | 15-17 | .470 |
Washington | 5 | 5-5 | .500 |