Recap of day 1 of the Motor City Roundball Clasic

The game was not as close as the final score would indicate. I thought Harper Woods at least three separate times was on the verge of blowing out Northern but substitutions, or just playing relaxed, kept Harper Woods from open the score. The usual suspects did their thing. Justin Popov scored 27 points without hitting one three ball. Justin had 16 of the 30 points Harper Woods scored in the first half. He scored with an assortment of pull - up's, dribble drives and off steals in the open court. Popov without question was the best player on day one in the Motor City Roundball Classic and was the game MVP. Jerome Douglas played a good floor game with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and great defense. Jerome does not do one thing great but always fills up a stat sheet. Dan Harris finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals. Dan and Jerome did not play to their normal standards. Where Harper Woods won the game was from the contributions from the role players. Dexter Jackson had a monster game with 8 points, 17 rebounds and 5 blocks. Dexter was active and aggressive and really made his presence felt. 6'2 jr. forward Deandre Doggett contributed six points off the bench. Coach Ristovski said that he wasn't happy with the way his team closed out the game, but it definitely was a quality win against a larger PSL school. Hopefully this win will get Harper Woods and the Metro Conference some much deserved respect.

#10 Warren De La Salle (6-0) 66-51 over # 4 Detroit Community (4-2)

Wow was I wrong about this one! I picked Community to win. De La Salle was by far the smallest team and least athletic team that played at Country Day today. But that is the norm for them almost every time they play. What was mind-boggling was watching De La Salle half-court trap Community into countless turnovers and hurried, ill-advised shots. Coach Esler had a great game plan and showed a lot of people why he is one of the best coaches in the state of Michigan. Keith Mackenzie was head and shoulders the best player on the court finishing with 21 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. He had some deep three balls and a couple of dribble drives that led to and ones. I spoke Keith after the game and he told me that all the weightlifting he did over the past summer enables him to go to the rack strong, get the basket AND the foul! He did it twice against Community. John Novak contributed 11 points and 7 rebounds and Jake Jakubek added 12. Community never looked like they were in sync and unraveled early. Emanuel Williams, who can really stroke it, did not have his shooting touch today especially early. He scored 22 points with most of those coming in the fourth quarter when the game was far out of reach. Mannie shot 6 of 18 from behind the arc. Antoine Collins finished with 9 points and 7 rebounds. Deangelo Riley scored 9 points and had 11 rebounds. He also added a couple of Sports Center highlight plays with a very nice two-hand tip dunk over traffic and a nice two handed alley oop. I do think Coach Young will use this game to help get them ready for a long run in March.

#2 Detroit Country Day (6-0) 57-48 over Saginaw (4-1)

Country Day has a lot of weapons and this really was a team win. Country Day had balanced scoring with Omar Thomas leading the way with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks, he was voted the MVP of the game. Omar plays with a very high skill set and has very good court awareness and basketball IQ. Alex Legion, who I found out from his mother that he has the flu and was not 100%, finished with 13 points and six boards. Mark Coury played well and added 10 points and 13 rebounds. I was really impressed with freshman Darnell "Dee" Brown; he scored 10 points but played with a confidence and sense of awareness that you don't see from a freshman. Dee played great on the ball defense, he just has a great feel for the game. That kid is special and I would love to see a better freshman than Dee. With Saginaw where do I start? Larry Wright had the opportunity to really make his mark, as this was the first time that most people in the Detroit area would see him play. He struggled early and ended with 16 points. 8 of those came in the fourth quarter as he led the rally that brought Saginaw within 6 points with 3:55 left in the game. Jamar Hibler scored 13.

I was really impressed with Josh Southern. He scored 10 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and had 4 blocks. He was very unselfish, almost to a fault. But, I love a big man who holds down the middle and plays big. Joshua was active even though he wasn't getting the ball, which is something that is very rare from a big man. He is going to be a major D-1 recruit.