Five-Star announces 2012 Summer National Champions
Second summer season wraps up at Fivestarbasketball.com
It was another crazy summer, and after 16 weeks, Five-Star Basketball has announced its 2012 Summer National Champions. Throughout the travel season, Fivestarbasketball.com tracked and ranked who it believed were the top 14U, 15U, 16U and 17U teams from across the country, rewarding teams for winning tournaments and putting together a challenging schedule, while dropping teams for underperforming. Now, with the season over, here are the teams that finished at No. 1 in their respective rankings, earning the title of Five-Star Summer National Champion:
14U: Dunk Dog Elite (Louisiana)
Dunk Dog wrapped up its championship season by winning AAU Nationals in exciting fashion. Down double digits early to the Karolina Diamonds in the title game, Dunk Dog used suffocating defense and hot shooting to get back into it. All season Dunk Dog has impressed us with a roster loaded with talent (Thon Maker, Malik Crowfield, Khalea Turner, the list goes on). They won Rumble in the Bronx and defeated No. 2 Team SCAN twice this year. This is a well deserved honor for a team who performed consistently all summer.
15U: Indiana Elite
Indiana Elite began the season with an impressive undefeated run which was eventually stopped by local rival Eric Gordon All-Stars. But Indiana Elite bounced back when it mattered most. They returned to the No. 1 ranking last week by winning the Best Buy Summer Classic, then defended it by winning the addias Super 64 this week. Almost as important as the Super 64 championship, Indy Elite got to the title by beating Eric Gordon and the Colorado Hawks — two teams that had beaten them earlier in the season.
16U: Team SCAN (New York)
The Team SCAN program had a remarkable year with its 14U, 15U and 16U teams all finishing in the top two. It was the 16U squad, however, that gets the Summer National Champion nod, and they did it by erasing any doubt during this week’s Las Vegas Fab 48. In the tournament championship game, SCAN found itself matched up with Team Thad, who previously held the No. 1 ranking. In a close game throughout, SCAN clawed out a three-point victory and grabbed a stranglehold over the No. 1 spot in the power rankings. Five-Star rated prospect Chris McCullough leads this group, who boasted wins from teams ranked all over the top 25.
17U: CIA Bounce (Canada)
The 17U circuit lacked that one team to truly make its case for No. 1 in the season’s final week. But looking at the season as a whole, CIA Bounce had the best case to be the Summer National Champion. When Aaron Gordon went down with an injury for the Oakland Soldiers, Bounce dominated EYBL play and carried that momentum into Peach Jam where they eventually lost in the finals. They’ve beaten Houston Hoops, Mac Irvin Fire, Texas Titans, Team Takeover, Oakland Soldiers and Team United this year — all ranked teams. This year’s National Champs are led by Andrew Wiggins, who stands a good shot at being the Summer Player of the Year (to be announced Thursday). They also have Xavier Rathan-Mayes, a 2013 guard with offers from Arizona, Connecticut, Texas, Washington and more.
