Prep Hoops Summer Challenge: Five Takeaways
Joy of the Game
There’s a lot of new, fresh, state of the art hoops facilities out there. All Iowa Attack’s facility comes to mind, the Iowa Fieldhouse in Council Bluffs, too. Joy of the Game is not one of those; but instead is older, a little dingy…and awesome. It was endearing, with it’s old-school look and summer camp feel. Best of all, it was loud. The noise in there was booming, the acoustics were great. It was an electric atmosphere. When something wild was going down on one of the four courts, the other three knew about it. It was exciting. Joy of the Game facilities may not pass the eye test initially, but it definitely was a fun and fitting venue for this event.
Iowa Dynasty 17U
These dudes were utterly dominant all weekend in Chicagoland, especially on championship Sunday. Their 12:20 game that day, a semifinal vs D1 Minnesota Prospects, was one of the better team performances I’ve ever seen from a grassroots team, ever. All the Dynasty guys were shot out of a cannon. Mike Barker and Dante Eldridge were both running laps around the opponent, bursting with energy. And Luke Appel was stunningly good while scoring 20 points in the first eight minutes of the second half, essentially burying the Minnesota squad single-handedly. Dynasty was firing on all cylinders all weekend. They won their four bracket games by an average of 19 points (30, 20, 19 then 8). It was really something to watch.
Dante Eldridge
Dante Eldridge/Luke Appel
More on Iowa Dynasty: Luke Appel, a 2018 Marshalltown grad and Kirkwood College commit, and Dante Eldridge, a rising senior at Iowa City West, were both strikingly good on Championship Sunday. Appel had a lot of people in the gym wondering “who’s this kid” when he went ballistic and scored 20 points in eight minutes during a semifinal win. He was doing it from beyond the arc, from in the paint and from dribble-drives. Eldridge made it very clear that he’s one of the most capable point guards in the state of Iowa. He’s got some of the quickest hands we’ve ever seen at this level, and is so smart and poised; a true point guard who ought to be recruited very heavily, right now.
Jake Beckmann
The more we see this Cedar Rapids Xavier point guard, the more impressed we are. And he did something on Sunday that I can’t ever recall seeing; he hit two game-winning shots in consecutive games to help his Team Iowa White squad capture the 16U Gold Division title. The first one was while the 15U and 16U finals were going on, and the buzz created in the final minutes of the Gold Division game — where Beckmann would eventually can a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to give his team a 3-point win — was something you could feel throughout the gym. When the final shot dropped (I admittedly didn’t see it. I was covering the 16U final on a different court), a huge celebration went down, and loud. I looked over and back over and saw the Iowa guys in a jumping-huddle, mobbing what must have been Beckmann after the heroic shot. And then he did it all over again ( a game-winning basket, that is) the next game, yeesh. What a day for the rising junior point guard.
Chicago Deep Dish
Friday night, myself and two of my colleagues went to a little Giordano’s Pizza joint just minutes from our hotel. Saturday night, I ordered carry-out from Lou Malnati’s. So, I’m now an expert on the subject of Chicago deep dish pizza. Lou Malnati’s was better. Which I wasn’t expecting when I got it, because Giordano’s was so amazing (I will note, that as I’m typing this, I’m having a very intense craving for some deep-dish). I didn’t think the Girdano’s experience could be topped, but the Lou Malnati’s crust and sausage combo was the clincher, and man did they load it up with cheese. Both pizzas were amazing, though. Still, the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life was at the original Uno Pizzeria in actual Chicago. But these suburb franchise stores do it right, too. And I’m in love with them all.