Softball career home run record updates highlight this week's installment. Also included in the state's best prep notes column are basketball features involving the NBA Draft Lottery and its California connections and the O.J. Mayo saga, notes from the recent NorCal Nike Camp and Combine plus more.

By Ronnie Flores, Senior Editor
Contributing: Harold Abend, Mark Tennis

New Softball Slugging
Queens Crowned
 
Over the past two seasons, there has been an unusual amount of movement at the top of the career softball home run list, meaning big changes are in store for the next printed edition of the ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com State Record Book and Almanac.
 
Not only did the top spot for season and career leaders fall by the wayside this year, but more than one girl passed the top two career leaders. Kaila Shull (Elliot Christian, Lodi) and Perelini Koria (San Pedro) each hit 45 round-trippers, Shull from 2003-2006 and Koria from 2005-2008.
 
The single season mark was shattered by Shannon Colquitt (King-Drew Medical Magnet, Los Angeles) out of South Central LA, who bombed 27 this season to obliterate the mark of 19 set last season by Alia Williams of Coliseum League rival Crenshaw. With 42 total, Colquitt moved up on the career list and into the top 10.
 
As for Williams, she blasted 16 this season to go with 37 previous homers, so she now occupies the top spot in the career column with 53 having left the house.
 
Another girl who moved up on the list is this week's ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com State Girls Athlete of the Week, Shawna Wright of Lancaster. Coming into this season, she had 36 home runs and hit 14 this year to give her an even 50 with her career now complete.
 
Another girl still in action in the CIF Southern Section playoffs with 51 career long taters is Bailie Kirker of Crescenta Valley in La Crescenta. She hit her 14th of the season last week for the 24-1 Eagles in a victory over Glendale.
 
On Thursday, in a 3-1 Div. III victory over Summit of Fontana, the Arizona-bound Kirker hit her 15th and No. 51 in her career.
 
Should Crescenta Valley win out and capture the CIFSS Div. III title that would mean Kirker would get swings in three more games on top of their upcoming second round match-up on May 26 against St. Bonaventure on the road in Ventura.
 
There could be another change at the top and very soon.

California Teams Big Winners
& Losers in NBA Draft Lottery

The NBA's Sacramento Kings were the losers of the league's Draft Lottery held last Tuesday, but it was another California team, the L.A. Clippers,  that was the big winner.

The Sacramento Kings had the league's worst record in 2008-2009 and had a 25 percent chance to secure the draft's No. 1 pick, presumably Oklahoma sophomore forward and former EA SPORTS All-American Blake Griffin. The Clippers have a glut of overpriced frontcourt players and although he's a gamer, we're not sure Griffin is overly thrilled right now to come and play for what essentially is Tinseltown's junior varsity club.   

Griffin's rise as the top prospect in this year's draft class has its indirect California connections. Griffin was part of an absolutely loaded West team at the 2007 McDonald's All-American that was coached by Taft of Woodland Hills coach Derrick Taylor, who was in coaching heaven that year in Louisville.

"I had Derrick Rose (this year's NBA Rookie of the Year) and Eric Gordon (L.A. Clippers) in the backcourt and Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves), Michael Beasley (drafted No. 2 behind Rose last year) and Cole Aldrich (Kansas University) up front," Taylor recalled at a recent prep all-star game. "Those guys all played so hard, it was ridiculous."

Taylor's squad was so loaded that Griffin was stuck on the bench, although we do recall him making quite an impression at the scrimmage. Another player who didn't play much for Taylor was forward James Harden, the former Artesia of Lakewood and Arizona State star who might be the highest drafted California native in this draft.

The Kings, who would have loved to build their team around Griffin, are drafting No. 4 and are now looking at the possibility of drafting one of two other players with California roots, former Compton High and USC standout DeMar DeRozan or Brandon Jennings. The slick left-handed point guard began his career at Dominguez High in Compton and was the 2008 EA SPORTS National Player of the Year at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. He played professional ball this past season in Italy.     

Another Golden State product that could join Harden, Jennings, and DeRozan as a lottery pick is Jrue Holiday. Holiday edged out DeRozan for 2008 Mr. Basketball honors and although he didn't make a huge splash during his freshman season at UCLA, pro scouts love Holiday's skill set.

Other likely first round selections from California include Gonzaga forward Austin Daye, a 2007 first team all-state selection out of Woodbridge in Irvine, and Chase Budinger. The former La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad and Arizona forward was a cinch choice as the 2006 Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year.    

A pair of teammates at Etiwanda High School also could be selected in next month's draft. UCLA guard Darren Collison, who helped the Bruins to three consecutive Final Fours, and Arizona State's Jeff Pendergraph led the Eagles to a 31-2 record during their senior season in 2004-2005.
 
Another draft possibility is Cal-St. Fullerton's Josh Akognon. In 2004, the 6-foot-2 Akognon was a Div. II all-state choice at Case Grande of Petaluma. We always like it when lesser-known prep players emerge into legitimate pro prospects as Akognon has done with the Titans.

If some NBA team takes a chance on Akognon and he sticks, it will complete the deepest pool of California natives taken in a single NBA Draft in over a decade.        

More on Mayo

When we heard that Fairfax of Los Angeles All-American center Renardo Sidney would not be attending USC, it immediately sent off alarms in our head.

It wasn't so much that the Sidneys or USC had done something unethical. It just seemed that the announcement came at a rather interesting time in relation to an ongoing investigation into the recruitment of former West Virginia prep star O.J. Mayo by USC. With our knowledge of the local basketball scene, we figured the Mayo situation again would make headlines at the same time the scrutiny surrounding Sidney's recruitment heated up.

Sure enough, about two weeks after it was announced Sidney had signed a letter of intent with Mississippi State, Yahoo Sports published a report that alleged USC head coach Tim Floyd paid former Mayo advisor and prep basketball promoter Rodney Guillory 1,000 dollars in cash on February 14, 2007. The alleged exchange of money from Floyd to Guillory took place in an affluent Beverly Hills shopping district somewhere along a stretch of cafés during the daytime after Guillory exited his vehicle and Louis Johnson, longtime friend and another Mayo confidant, circled the block while waiting for Guillory to return.

Obviously, it would be a major NCAA rules infraction if that exchange of money did take place.
     
The fact that Guillory has declined all interview requests pertaining to this report and the May 2008 ESPN Outside the Lines report that initially detailed his relationship with Mayo is telling. It's also telling that Johnson, who admittedly took part in some of the alleged transgressions that compromised Mayo's status as an amateur athlete, is so willing to talk.

The alleged transgressions by Floyd and Guillory won't be so easy to prove by whom ever has an interest, mainly NCAA investigators, because a cash trail never is in these types of situations.

Here are some facts we do know. Guillory, a Centennial of Compton product and former Compton College basketball player, met and grew closer to Mayo long before Johnson, a Dominguez of Compton graduate and former sportswriter for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, did. Guillory met Mayo at the 2003 ABCD camp after he finished up the eighth grade. Johnson grew closer to the former Huntington, West Virginia standout and current Memphis Grizzlie sometime in 2006 after Johnson had left his post at the newspaper in 2005.

The saddest part of this saga is that Guillory and Johnson have known each other well before either met Mayo.

Guillory, according to the Yahoo Sports article, has drawn the scrutiny of the FBI, IRS and U.S. Attorney's Office for his use of a credit card linked to a bogus sickle cell foundation. Johnson's attorneys disclosed to Yahoo Sports that Johnson told federal authorities his account of Floyd's payment to Guillory on May 28, 2008.

Statements to NCAA investigators doesn't carry the same magnitude in regards to potential prosecution as does one to federal authorities if the statements prove to be false, but why didn't Johnson tell the same account he told the federal authorities in his original meeting with NCAA investigators?

That remains to be seen, but what is clear is that USC, Guillory and Johnson got more than they bargained for out of their relationship with Mayo. Guillory could lose his freedom, Johnson lost his standing as a trustworthy source and reporter of the exploits of young athletes and USC might lose more than just a prep All-American center.

NorCal Nike Combine,
Nike Camp Tidbits

*This year's guest speaker to the 300 or so who participated at the Stanford Nike Football Training Camp was new San Francisco 49ers quarterback coach Michael Johnson. He's a former standout from Baldwin Park and Arizona State and at one point told the campers he had the second-best passing total in California history behind Pat Haden (Bishop Amat) and that since then it "had only been broken maybe five or six times.” I quickly sprinted over to where we had a stash of state record books to give one to Johnson. He glanced at the updated passing totals and was flabbergasted at all the high numbers. His name, in fact, doesn't even make the cutoff anymore. We did find him listed as the 1984 first team all-state quarterback so I was happy about that.

*Reggie Davis from California of San Ramon ranks as one of the top defensive backs in the state for 2009 and he confirmed on Saturday in Oakland that he will return and play for the Grizzlies this fall. Davis said he thought seriously about joining ex-CalHi coach Tony Sanchez at Bishop Gorman High of Las Vegas. Sanchez recently left California to take over at Bishop Gorman, a sleeping giant of a program that there has ever been in the West. The parochial school has had a ton of talent in recent years, but hasn't been able to become dominant and Sanchez is the third head coach who is getting a shot at being the one to help the program turn the corner.

*One of the biggest question marks for a top team was answered in the positive over the weekend due to the impressive throws of quarterback Marcus McDade from St. Mary's of Stockton. McDade backed up Cody Vaz last season for a Rams' team that won the Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I title and narrowly lost to unbeaten Cathedral Catholic of San Diego in the CIF Div. II state bowl game. McDade (6-2, 190) more than looked the part as a QB who can throw, scramble and run a team. St. Mary's returns one of the top receiving units in the West this fall, led by Josh Harper and baseball-football star Louie Lechich. The Rams also return 1,400-yard rusher Maurice Howze. The question was whether Vaz (now at Oregon State) could be replaced. With McDade, the drop should negligible or none at all considering how talented the rest of that offense looks.

Former Prep All-American
to Hold Basketball Skill Clinics

A hot topic of recent discussion in the world of prep basketball involves the importance and influence of off-season AAU versus in-season high school basketball. One Southern California native who definitely thrived in both environments was former St. John Bosco and Mater Dei standout Shea Cotton.

The 6-foot-5 Cotton was the nation's No. 1 player in his class as an eighth, ninth and tenth grader and ended his high school career in 1997 as a top five national prospect. He would eventually matriculate to Long Beach City College and the University of Alabama before embarking on a pro career in Greece, Italy, France, and Mexico among other countries.

Now that Cotton is beginning to transition to life after his playing days, he is running individual skill camps to teach the skills and spread the knowledge of the game he's learned from the unique perspective as one of California's most ballyhooed prep players ever.

"I see a lot of AAU and high school games and the players don't respond to the coaching because they know the coach hasn't played at that level," said the still-muscular and in shape Cotton. "The kids respect me because they know I can still get out on the court and teach them hands on."

The Fullcourt Press "Fundamentals First" Skills Academy began on Monday, May 18 at Long Beach City College and run on Monday and Wednesday nights from 7-9 pm. Cotton is the Lead Skills Instructor and is teaming with Academy Director and Dinos Trigonis, a longtime Southern California AAU coach, to teach young players (grades 6 – 12) basketball fundamentals with an emphasis on developing individual offensive skills.

For more information and pricing, please visit fullctpress.net or email
Cotton at cottonvalie@aol.com.