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Future Arizona Wildcats Show Us Why Ball Is Life

Shereen Rayan
Shereen Rayan

Zona Zealots

Ballislife Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

The Ball Is Life showcase is one of the most electric and intoxicating events for people and players who make basketball a major part of their life in some way, especially this year if they are Wildcats fans.

The 5th Annual Ballislife All-American Game was presented by the U.S. Army and took place Saturday May 2 at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, Calif. Participants included two Arizona Wildcat freshman guard Justin Simon and center Chance Comanche.

Kentucky, USC, Florida State, Auburn, UNLV, San Diego State, Boise State, Washington, Kentucky and one player attending high school in Canada who will be possibly entering the NBA Draft and skipping college in the USA, 7′ Center Thon Maker ranked No. 1 on Rivals, were also represented.

Met fellow Sportscaster Matt Moreno (GoAZCATS.com), very nice guy, he got the best photo of the day:

That photo was taken after all three events were completed for the day: the three-point competition, the Dunk Contest which our own Justin Simon took part in and the All-star game. The day started at 3pm.

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First event: Three Point Contest.

In the Three-point contest, there were roughly five contestants, no Arizona Wildcats participated, but there was one Kentucky Wildcat in particular included and his name is Isaiah Briscoe, remember that name.  Isaiah is a 6’3″ Guard from Union N.J. who will be playing at Kentucky next year.  His future teammate Center Skal Labissiere also took part in the contest (see picture.)

Ballislife Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

As Isaiah started shooting three’s in the first round of the competition, the balls kept getting caught in the net as they went in and at some point he had made enough to go to the next round; he pretty much gave up on the net.  He actually didn’t need to use the remaining eight balls he had left to shoot to qualify. Most of the players shot about 50% of their three pointers and most did not make the corner shots, but Briscoe did. You can guess who won the competition.

Next: Next Event: The BIL Slam Dunk Contest presented by Eastbay

Next Event: The BIL Slam Dunk Contest presented by Eastbay.

Ballislife Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

This contest was judged by four people, two notable: soon-to-be former Wildcat Stanley Johnson and Kansas Jayhawk Kelly Oubre Jr. This wasn’t the first we were going to see of our beloved Johnson during the event, but he had a lot of fun judging the dunks.    

Participating in the contest was our soon-to-be Arizona Wildcat Justin “The Mayor” Simon.  Justin hit his first dunk with style, he didn’t need a second try. His second dunk took a few tries, but he made the time with a second thrilling dunk. The remaining contestants were also exciting, and there were some dunks I have never seen before. I have to say honestly that this contest rivaled the NBA Dunk contest.  Here are Justin’s dunks:

Then, Stanley became a dunk  prop while Chance looked on. The Dunker? Johnson’s fellow Dunk Judge :

Here’s the dunk that won from

Derrick Jones

who will be attending UNLV next year who scored a perfect 100 points on his first two dunks.


Next: The Game - Justin Simon

Post Ballislife Game Justin Simon’s Dad, Uncles and Cousin Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

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Pictured above was just part of Justin Simons cheering section, his dad and uncles, along with his cousin who is looking at Arizona to play football. The nicest people you could ever meet. Justin was such a fun player to watch. He took the ball up most of the time he played, and he and Chance played together on the second team.  Both teams for most of the game played their first five, then their second.  The game started out pretty slow, no defense and a lot of show boating (Dunks and dribbling skills).

At one point Simon and Briscoe were battling back and forth making bucket after bucket towards the end of the game.  Then the score got very close, and Simon shot a basket giving a little buffer to Team Elite, score was 99-95.  Briscoe then answered with a three pointer bringing the score within one 99-98.

Don’t get me wrong, the show boating was a whole lot of fun.  If you are a fan of basketball at all, you would have jumped out of your seat cheering in adulation for the players. I thought Justin showed us he has plenty of skill, and isn’t afraid to drive the lane and he also went after loose balls. Some of his acrobatics got both me and his family out of their seats to cheer, and cheer loudly, which I loved!

Welcome to the Wildcat family Justin and The Simons!

Next: The Game - Chance Comanche

The Game – Chance Comanche

Chance Comanche Post Ballislife game Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

Chance Comanche (pictured above with best friend Jason Carter (who will play at Santa Monica College) was one of the tallest ballers to play yesterday towering over most and he proved he just doesn’t have his height going for him, he can defend!  There were hardly any fouls called in the game, but of the fouls that were called, it seemed they were called on Chance. He was actually playing defense unlike a lot of the other guys.  

There are also things which don’t get into the stat book, like being able to disrupt a play.  Chance disrupted many plays yesterday, and I saw some solid blocks.  His skills can only increase from here and I think he got some great experience playing against future Pac-12 opponents from USC, Oregon State, Oregon and Washington.  Also being coached by two former Bruins couldn’t hurt either.

Next: The Game - Coach Stanley Johnson

The Game – Stanley Johnson helped coach Team Future

Ballislife Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

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Stanley Johnson and Kelly Oubre helped coach the Orange team or Team Future, their Head Coach was Dinos Trigonis who coaches the AAU Belmont Shore team in Southern California. Trigonis is also the director of the well-known Pangos All-American Camp.

The video below gives you a little taste of Stanley and his coaching style, I have to be honest, he was in those refs faces for the entire second half of the game! He has learned something from his Coach Sean Miller, he didn’t give up as a coach even when his team was down by 20+ points. Stanley not only had the referee’s number, he had the number of the players on the other teams as well and often enjoyed jawing at the players on Team Elite. It seemed to work actually because Team Future was coming back.

Deep into the second half of the game, Team Future started to make a run, bringing the score to 107 – 107 at one point. The game got really competitive, everyone took it very seriously which was a stark contrast to the first half of the game.

Ballislife Photo by Shereen Rayan 05/02/15

On the other side of the court was the Gray team or Team Elite who included our future Wildcats.  Team Elite was coaching by a famous Southern California AAU Coach Etop Udo-Ema, founder of the famed Compton Magic AAU program. Coach Udo-Ema had help, his assistant coaches were former UCLA players Kevon Looney and Norman Powell both projected as high NBA Draft picks.

Both U of A Commit T.J. Leaf and Recruit recently offered by Sean Miller, Jalen Hill both play for Udo-Ema’s Compton Magic team. This man has a lot of charisma, and meeting him for the first time yesterday, it was obvious why he is such a successful coach.

The Long Beach City College gym sure was hot and muggy but that didn’t bother anyone, we all were glued to the game.After tying the game at 107, Team Elite pulled away with 9.7 seconds left and ended up beating Stanley’s Team Future (with the future Kentucky Wildcats), 113-110. 

Here is a taste of teams getting ready for the last 9.7 seconds of the game after a time out for Team Future, who do you think that they were going to go to for the final shot? Hmm, maybe their future Kentucky Wildcat who just won a three-point contest?

So just as scripted, the play was set up for Briscoe who missed a three-pointer followed by a second attempt by future Beaver Stephen Thompson Jr. leaving the score at Team Elite 113- Team Future 110.  MVP honors went to Thon Maker who seemed to have a lot of fun playing and dunking on these other high school seniors.

In other news, yesterday, Gabe Encinas of AZDesertSwarm.com announced that there has been some movement in rankings of our incoming Arizona Wildcats class: “New overall rankings for Arizona’s incoming recruiting class #6 Allonzo Trier, #12 Ray Smith, #39 Chance Comanche, #49 Justin Simon.” After what we witnessed yesterday I would raise these players rankings, but I am obviously partial.

I am getting excited for next season and I will not miss this Ball is Life showcase next year, because it’s just pure fun!

Beardown Justin, Chance and Stanely! Thanks for showing us how fun basketball can be.

Shereen Rayan

Shereen Rayan

Shereen Rayan gets to the heart of the story when it comes to sports and the athletes who play them. She is most interested in the story behind the headlines. Her expertise on the Arizona Wildcats has led to guest contributions on “What’s Bruin,” and “MarkRogersTV”. She also is a staple at the Drew League in Compton and high school athlete showcases such as Pangos and Ballislife. Shereen is the host and producer of In The Front Row a YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/inthefrontrow