After a five day stretch of high quality basketball, the first July live recruiting period wrapped up at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday.
The best event of the weekend, the Nike EYBL Peach Jam, took place in North Augusta, South Carolina. Trae Young, Michael Porter Jr. and Mokan Elite crushed the PSA Cardinals in the Peach Jam Final on Sunday afternoon, beating New York's best AAU squad 93-65.
Multiple St. John's targets played in the final game, but they were also scattered up and down the East Coast with Sports U participating in the Elevate Hoops Summer Icebreaker in Philadelphia and New Heights taking center stage at the BasketBull Tournament in Springfield, MA.
2017 PSA Cardinals PF Hasahn French
Even though St. John's has zero scholarships remaining in 2017, French is one of the Johnnies top targets. The 6'7", 225 pound forward struggled during the Peach Jam final, but had a solid tournament overall, scoring 5.5 points and grabbing 7.5 rebounds per game.
French will likely never be a team's go-to offensive option, but he can be a legitimate role player because of his toughness, energy and old school game.
He averaged just 3.0 points per game during the bracket play portion of the Peach Jam.
2017 HoopDreamz F Clifton Moore Jr.
The Red Storm extended an offer to Moore earlier this week, and the forward responded by earning a berth on the U17 All-Tournament team at the Elevate Hoops Summer Icebreaker. Moore drew rave reviews from multiple media members after scoring 19 points in a win on Thursday and 16 points in a loss on Saturday.
A lot of coaches finally got a look at the versatility, shooting, and length of 6-9 Clifton Moore, Jr of Hoopdreamz and Hatboro Horsham HS
— Norm Eavenson (@n_eavenson) July 7, 2016
2017 PSA Cardinals SG Brandon Randolph
It is very unlikely that Randolph ultimately chooses St. John's, as his stock started to blow up during his high school season and early in the Nike EYBL regular season. The Johnnies also offered him late in the process.
But we will still track Randolph and his stats since he is from Yonkers, NY and could offer valuable outside shooting for Chris Mullin and company.
He scored 10.7 points, shot 35 from downtown and grabbed 2.0 rebounds per game during the Peach Jam tournament. He also earned a spot on the Peach Jam All-Tournament Second Team.
Randolph had a brutal first half in the tournament's final game, as he was missing wide open jumpers and showed an inability to put the ball on the deck successfully. He did bounce back in the second half to give the Cardinals a little bolt of energy, but it clearly wasn't enough to instill a rally.
Randolph scored 19 points in the final, however, he was 1-of-8 from three.
2017 PSA Cardinals PF Mohamed Bamba
Bamba is another player the Johnnies have offered, but the program will have to compete with some of the top coaches and schools in the country for his services. The 6'11" big man, who is a native of Harlem, struggled in the Peach Jam final, scoring just eight points on 3-of-8 shooting.
But he did show his ability to defend players on the perimeter. At points during the match-up, Bamba stepped out onto the perimeter to guard Michael Porter Jr., using his length and solid lateral quickness to keep the talented prospect in front of him.
In four games at Peach Jam, Bamba averaged 16.5 points, 13.2 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game.
2018 New Heights SF Sidney Wilson
Wilson, a 6'6" small forward who plays his high school basketball at St. Raymond's, had an excellent showing on Saturday at the BasketBull tournament in New England. The Bronx native finished around the rim (using his soft touch and athleticism), was a force in transition, and showed he could guard numerous positions.
The Johnnies may be falling behind Minnesota in the race for Wilson, as the Golden Gophers went two deep (Richard Pitino was in attendance) for the forward and his point guard Isaiah Washington.
2018 MoKan Elite PF Carte'Are Gordon
It has been an remarkable two weeks for Gordon. First, his U17 USA team won the gold medal at the FIBA World Championships in Spain. Now, his Mokan Elite team captured the Peach Jam title.
And Gordon was a key part to both squads, but was especially important at the Peach Jam, where he dropped 10.6 points per game and grabbed 6.0 rebounds per game. The big man impressed the coaching staff so much that they entered him into the starting lineup for the tournament final, letting him battle against Bamba and French in the paint.
Gordon scored just six points, but grabbed eight rebounds and showed off his elite ability to hedge pick-and-rolls.
2018 Sports U PF Naz Reid
The Sports U team - made up of Jahvon Quinerly, Louis King and Luther Muhammad (all St. John's targets) - won the Elevate Hoops Summer Showdown this weekend (2018 team).
And they won the title without their best player, Reid, who is ranked 4th in ESPN's top 100 for the class of 2018. The forward injured his left leg on Saturday and was unable to finish the tournament.
Naz Reid just went down after a driving layup and attempt and he's still down. Looks like left leg/knee
— Josh Newman (@Joshua_Newman) July 9, 2016
The good news is that Reid is OK.
Ed Bright of @SportsUTeamIZOD, on Naz Reid's knee: "He's fine" #NJhoops
— Jeremy Schneider (@J_Schneider) July 9, 2016
2019 PSA Cardinals PG Cole Anthony
Anthony was another St. John's target that participated in the Peach Jam final on Sunday. The son of former NBA player Greg Anthony did not play as poorly as some of his other PSA Cardinal teammates though. He scored 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, while he also shot 50 percent from downtown.
The future looks bright #ColeWorld @The_ColeAnthony #PeachJam2016 @PSACardinals pic.twitter.com/ldcIErnUdO
— NJ Basketball (@NJHoopRecruit) July 10, 2016
The New York, NY native can play on or off the ball and if he continues to show that consistency from beyond the three point line (57 percent during bracket play), he is likely to be a top-15 recruit in the class of 2019.