An additional note from the event organizers:
With some of the America’s most-promising young basketball talent coming to Manhattan, Kan., for the inaugural KansasStateCars.com Manhattan Classic basketball tournament, event organizers recently announced additional players participating from the nationally recognized D.C. Assault 17-under and 16-under teams.
The Assault 16-under team will include Eric Atkins, Max Echo, Josh Hairston (a top 25-2010 recruit), Tyler Thornton (a top-50 2010 recruit) and Donte Thomas (a top-50 2010 recruit). This 16-under team will be competing this coming weekend in the Bob Gibbons Tournament in Chapel Hill, N.C., before traveling to Manhattan May 30.
The Assault’s 17-under roster will include Byron Allen of Oak Hill Academy (former Kansas State star Michael Beasley’s prep school), Roscoe Davis who has verbally committed to former K-State coach Bob Huggins at West Virginia; Javon Farrell, who is being recruited by Virginia Tech, U Mass and George Mason, and Daryl Traynham, a top-10 point guard in the 2010 class, who is being recruited by North Carolina State, Clemson, Kansas State and Xavier. Also suiting up for the Assault’s 17-and-under squad will be Christian Webster and Richard Whack, both of whom have garnered the recruiting attention of George Mason and other Colonial Athletic Association schools.
The field for the elite basketball event, which is being organized by Heartland Hoops of Kansas City, also features high school seniors-to-be Wally Judge and Rodney McGruder. Both Judge and McGruder have made verbal commitments to K-State and intend to suit up for current Wildcat head coach Frank Martin beginning in 2009.
“This tournament is starting to stack up really well against the other ones, especially for the first year,” said Manhattan Classic spokesman Matt Suther. “We have some very prominent teams coming in for this thing. There are some of the top-ranked kids coming to it. We have a lot of big-time Division-I prospects involved.”
With 40 teams from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Texas and the District of Columbia set to participate in the weekend tournament, basketball fans will be able to get a firsthand look at some of the nation’s top high school talent. Teams will compete in two divisions (16 and under and 17 and under). Aside from the Assualt (one of the nations top AAU programs), the talent-rich field also includes other top-tier teams such as the Spiece Indy Heat, Dallas Heroes, Team Texas, Spiece MO-Kan Players and the Texas D-I Ambassadors.
Tickets are available now at the Kansas State Super Store at 520 McCall Road in Manhattan, Kan. and are priced at $10 per day. Special offers will be made available at local Pizza Hut stores for discount tickets, and additional information is posted at www.manhattanclassic.org.
Tickets are also available weekdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Powercat Illustrated office at 1125 Moro in Manhattan’s Aggieville business district, and online at www.gopowercat.com.