by Bryan Crawford / @_bryancrawford
What’s good? Y’all know SLAM is in the building for the 35th annual McDonald’s All-American game in Chicago. We’re kicking the live blog off for the boy’s game so be sure to chime in and comment. I’ma hold it down even though it’s a struggle for me right now. Dropped my laptop and broke the ‘F’ and the ‘V’ buttons. All good, tho. 2 buttons don’t stop no show!! In a minute…
– We’re back!! The boys squads being introduced to the Bulls intro music right now.
– Music just switched to ‘Lose Yourself’.’ Seems appropriate… This is a huge moment for these kids. One they won’t forget. Enjoy it!
– Not quite last year’s turnout in terms of fans, but there’s still a lot of people here tonight.
– We’re less than 4 minutes from tip-off, ‘Rack City’ blaring through the UC.
– Rodney Purvis got bun-nies!!
– T-shirt give aways always gets the party crackin’! Gets me crackin’ too when people are falling over each other to grab ’em.
– Poythress, you can’t do that. Travelling…
– Grant Jerrett is nice down low.
– Shabazz with the jam!
– Shabazz with the 3. Cookin…
– Another jam for Shabazz, then a layup. He’s got 9 already. West up 11-2.
– Poythress with the nice lob finish.
– Another jam for Poythress
– Tyler Lewis is a trooper. Got his tooth knocked out in practice but he wasn’t missing this game for anything!
– TO. West up 15-9 with 15:28 left in the 1st half
– Yogi Ferrell in the game. Hoosier fans got a good one.
– Perry Ellis almost brought the house down with that inbounds play.
– Archie Goodwin with the nice tip-in
– Purvis!! Told’ja…
– Kyle Anderson is gonna be nice and Isaiah Austin is gonna cause matchup problems at the next level
– Kids out here going hard. Gotta love that
– Tony Parker with the nice jam off the dish from Anderson. TO, West up 23-17
– Shout out to adidas for going hard with the neon uni’s this year.
– TV timeouts are EXTRA long, yo. You don’t notice it because, you know, you’re watching on TV
– Poythress for 3. Coach Cal got another one!
– Anthony Bennett with a nice jam
– Poythress is nice, man.
– FT’s cut the West lead to 7, 31-24
– DaJuan Coleman looks like… Oh, nevermind.
– That dude, again… Shabazz Muhammad with the nice tip jam
– Poythress is cookin, on the low. He’s got a quiet 11 points which has helped cut the West lead to 3, 33-30
– Former McDonald’s greats being shown on the big board. Bron got booed. Of course they show DRose and the UC goes crazy
– DRose got a louder ovation than when they showed Michael Jordan
– Alonzo Mourning in the building
– Good crop of big men in the 2012 class with Tony Parker, Cameron Ridley, DaJuan Coleman, Grant Jerrett and Isaiah Austin
– Almost forgot Shaq Goodwin
– He wants be called William, tho…
– Rasheed Sulaimon might be on that V ERY short list of Duke players I actually like
– Touchdown!! Kyle Anderson to Rodney Purvis
– Kyle Anderson out’chea dropping DIMES!
– Archie Goodwin blew a break away layup!
– He made up for it two times in a row tho. Back to back jams pust the West up 8
– 3:15 left in the 1st half, West up 48-40
– Shabazz Muhammad going to work. 13 in the game on 6-9 from the field
– Amile Jefferson got a little Lamar Odom to him. A little…
– DaJuan Coleman is built like a rhino
– Shabazz Muhammad, tho… 15 points already
– Halftime!! West up on the East 58-46
– 1st half scoring leaders West: Shabazz Muhammad 15 points, Archie Goodwin and Cameron Ridley 8 points
– 1st half scoring leaders East: Alex Poythress 11 points, Tony Parker 8 points, DaJuan Coleman 7 points
– Nice touch pass to Shaq Goodwin for the East dunk
– Perry Ellis with another jam for the East
– Kyle Anderson showed off some nice pro-style post moves for a second
– Rasheed Sulaimon showing offf the athleticism
– Yogi Ferrell might someday be the new #PointGod
– Sulaimon 3 on one end, Purvis dunk on the other
– Archie Goodwin, another Kentucky stud
– West team just loaded. Pulled away now and up 21, 73-52 with 15:42 left in the 2nd half
– Poythress is a beast. Nice jam down low
– Amile Jefferson with the Kevin McHale up and under move
– Oh, shout out to Devonta Pollard who had to sit this game out with a concussion suffered in practice. And yeah, Shabazz is still cookin
– Muhammad would’ve brought the house down with that windmill
– Great block by Gary Harris who blew the lob pass on the other end
– Marcus Smart struggling in this game. 1 point so far
– West up 80-56 with 11:50 to go in the game
– I need to get my hands on a pair of those West team shorts…
– Yogi gets great elevation on his shot
– Archie Goodwin has a really nice game. Kentucky fans should be excited
– Perry Ellis can jump
– Nice putback Shaq, er, William
– Nice pass off the glass from Kyle Anderson to Rodney Purvis. East still down 16 with 7:15 to go in the game
– Shabazz is showing why he’s the top player in the 2012 class
– Nice dime from Smart to Ridley. Texas connection
– Kyle Anderson flirting with a triple double: 9 points, 6 boards, 6 dimes
– Alex Poythress is going to slide right into that Kidd-Gilchrist spot and Kentucky won’t miss a beat there
– Kyle Anderson blows the dunk that could’ve cut the lead to 8. Things got a little sloppy after that for both teams
– Purvis 3, Jefferson dunk and we’ve got ourselves a game. East down 93-88
– Sulaimon out of the TO with a 3. Lead up to 8
– Dunk by Amile Jefferson cut the leadt to 6, but Grant Jerrett knocks down a jumoer to put the West back up 8. 98-90, 2:15 to go.
– Nice drive by Yogi to gt to the line. Misses the 1st FT tho…
– Another dunk by Shabazz Muhammd puts the East up 7, but Rodney Purvis with the And 1
– Purvis misses the FT but the East gets the O board but can’t convert
– Ferrell to Sulaimon for the And 1. Nice finish. Poythress fouls out with 19. Sulaimon makes the FT to put the West back up 8, 104-96. Kyle Anderson drives and scores. West 104, East 98
– 52.6 seconds left. Anything can happen but I’d say the West has this one locked up. Ferrell fouled with 43.5 left to play
– Great look by Anderson to Dunn to cut the lead to 4, but the West comes right back and scores
– Anderson with the Dunk, East still down 4 with 4.1 seconds left and fans are filing out of the United Center
– That’s it from Chicago, folks. The West wins by a final score of 106-102. It’s been real. See you next year… You know SLAM and SLAMonline will be there holding you down as always!
