Real Scout Weekend

Written By: Nathan Blue aka Real Scout

Ricky Rivers Fireball 2011 Tournament at Baruch College in Lower Manhattan and Mousey's Tri-State Classic at 145th and Lenox Ave were two must attend events this past saturday for me. 

Fireball 2011, featured all the top players of today and yesterday.  Justin Brownlee (SJU), Paris Horne (SJU), Sean Evans (SJU), Kimmani Barrett (Lasalle), Sean Singletary (UVA), Eric Devendorf (Syracuse), John Lucas III (Chicago Bulls), Sean Kennedy (Holy Cross D-1), Mike Taylor (Boys & Girls HS), Dakari Johnson 2014 (St. Patrick NJ), Robert "Stix" Mitchell (Seton Hall), Adris "2 hard 2 guard" Deleon (Eastern Washington) and too many more.

It was a great atmosphere, the air condition was blowing. I since switching my cell phone provider to Verizon, had full service 3 stories below street level.  Ricky was cool on the Mic, and the DJ was spinning beats while some were shooting freethrows but, this is NYC and I wouldnt have it any other way. 

After going to get something to eat in downtown manhattan.  Mike Poole (Always with family) and I went uptown to try and catch the end of the Rucker Tournament, which is played on 145th and Lenox and I think sunday's at Milbank on like 117th and Lenox. But, our 120plus block drive took a little longer than expected. So, I watched some tri-state high school action.

The Tri-state highschool game that I attended had some good players Jeff Short (Fordham), Trivante Bloodman (Wadeligh), Dennis Green (Winchendon), Isaiah Cousins (Mt. Vernon), and others who I see all the time but really dont know their names. The game was action packed, alot of clearouts and go to the hoop, alot of ooo's and ahh's... basically what you expect to see at a streetball tournament. 

It was nice to see a rapper by the name of the "Pre$ident" who's better known to me as Norman Simmons giving back to the community by giving 5 free bikes to the kids from the audience who made a free throw. We spoke after the game (at tri-state) and I wished him much success in his rap career.  He played division one at Liberty (D1) and was a real good player, now he's in the music game.

Sunday was a little bit of a different flow.  My espn 30 for 30 pack just came on saturday afternoon. So i spent most of the sunday catching up on some of our top stories of the past 30 years.  

But, here's something you didnt know.  I had a chance to see some open gym basketball at Rutgers University. 

I dont like talking too much about open gym, its a quiet well organized run at many schools throughout the nation. A chance for players of different colleges getting a chance to just play bball. Rutgers had plenty of action last night. I seen alot of good plays yesterday but none better than Wally Judge threw down a crazy dunk on my young Boy Rudy Collins. Myles Mack played 7 or 8 games and didnt sweat at all.  Mike Poole played well, Seagers is going to be real good by soph year.  He's gotten better than before, i just think Mack is transitioning well to D1 Ball.

Hamady Ndiaye hitting the dougie after a winning basket was funny.. Learned that from John Wall his Wizzards Teammate. Maurice Harkless and Dane Miller going at it was fun to watch. Harkless, Judge, Mack, and Greg Lewis, looked well together. Dane Miller caught a full court alley oop that was sick.  I like the Big East open runs, but im not biasd.. up next, probably will be Hofstra, Fordham, St. Peters NJ, SJU, and Uconn.

Today I'll be watching Bedford Y at west 4th at 4:30