The 2013 adidas Nations event has reached its final day and so far the results have been expected but welcomed. The two oldest USA squads, each led by top-five prospects in the class of 2014, will vie for the tournament title while a younger USA squad including 2015 high school players will play Africa for third place.
Adidas Nations 2013 preview: Jahlil Okafor, Trey Lyles clash in championship game
Some of the top members of the 2014 college basketball recruiting class will play in the championship of the adidas Nations event, while the USA’s 2015 Red team faces Africa in the third-place game.
Guy Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Jahlil Okafor’s USA Red team will face Trey Lyles’ USA Blue team in a title game that will air on ESPNU at 9 p.m. ET live from Long Beach City College. The third-place game will act as a prelude and will tip at 7 p.m. ET.
Championship: USA Red (2014 class) vs. USA Blue (2014 class) - 9 p.m. ET
Players to watch: There’s no doubt the player to watch is 2014 top prospect Jahlil Okafor, a 6’10, 265-pound center from Whitney Young High School in Chicago. Throughout the camp, Okafor has consistently led the USA Red team in the rebounding department and often in scoring as well. But he’s coming off a relatively rough outing against the 2015 USA Red team. He notched 12 points and 11 rebounds but turned the ball over five times and hit just 2-of-12 shots from the free throw line.
Okafor has gotten frontcourt help from rail-thin power forward Kevon Looney, who is coming off his own 12-point, 11-rebound game. Looney might be thin, but ESPN’s ninth-rated player in the 2014 class has held his own in the shot-blocking realm. Top-15 prospects Stanley Johnson of Mater Dei High School and fellow swingman Justise Winslow round out the players to watch for the USA Red team.
Picking the brain of an NBA scout
Catching up with Philadelphia 76ers scout Mike VandeGarde at adidas NationsFourth-rated 2014 prospect Trey Lyles, a 6’8, 210-pound power forward, is the highest-ranked player on the Blue squad. He’s coming off one of his stronger games this week, a 7-of-9 shooting performance that netted 19 efficient points.
Center Myles Turner, another top-10 recruit, will be an interesting matchup for the Blue team against Okafor. Turner gives up a good deal of weight at 6’11, 225 pounds, but he’s been engaged as anyone defensively thus far. In the Blue squad’s semifinal win against Africa, Turner took just four shots but grabbed eight rebounds and recorded three blocks. He hasn’t rejected fewer than two shots in his four games played.
Top-25 prospects D’Angelo Russell, an Ohio State Buckeyes commit, and UConn commit Daniel Hamilton have also been scoring consistently for a balanced Blue team.
3rd-place game: USA Red (2015-16) vs. Africa - 7 p.m. ET
Players to watch: Malik Newman of Callaway High School in Jackson, Miss., is the second-ranked recruit in the 2015 class, according to ESPN, but has had his fair share of ups and downs. Center Stephen Zimmerman is ranked seventh on ESPN’s 2015 board but has been showing signs he could be pushing into the top five.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is 2016 big man De’Ron Davis from Aurora, Colo., Overland High School. The top-10 prospect led the USA squad in scoring by hitting 8-of-10 shots in the team’s last outing and also grabbed eight boards in a loss to the 2014 USA Red team.
The young USA squad lost by 25 or more points against both of its elder counterparts during the adidas Nations tournament, but it did well enough to fight its way to the third-place game by beating Europe, Latin America and Russia.
Africa is the clear underdog but has gotten consistent production from 6’8 forward Papa Sadia Ndiaye Diatte and point guard Sidy Ndir.
More from SB Nation:
See More:
