Philly vs. Jersey. J.R. Smith vs. Kyle Lowry. Sean Singletary against Alex Galindo. Sunday’s inaugural Eddie Griffin Challenge is about players and bragging rights, plain and simple.
On Oct. 19 at Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, the best sophomores, juniors and seniors from New Jersey and the greater Philadelphia area will get together for a series of games. There will be a high number of elite level players in attendance and TheInsidersHoops.com will be there to bring you all the action.
Highlighting the seniors game will be a plethora of Top 100 prospects. J.R. Smith (No. 13, TheInsiders.com), Joakim Noah (No. 57) and Alex Galindo (No. 83) round out the elite prospects on the Jersey side. Courtney Nelson, Cedric Jackson and a host of others will join them.
For the P.A. boys, Kyle Lowry (No. 30), Sean Singletary (No. 63) and Rob Kurz (No. 86) will be ready. They’ll also be joined by Stanley Branch and DeSean White.
The 2005 game should be particularly interesting as well. Brandon Costner (No.21, 2005) is the headliner in this one. Talented Tyrell Biggs, Sean McCurdy and Anthony Farmer will also participate.
On the Philly 2005 roster, recently committed forward Shane Clark leads a solid group. Watch out for big man Ken Tribbett, shooter Ryan Ayers and standout Vernon Goodridge.
The 2006’ers actually kick off the action with a 3 p.m. tip. Of course, Scotch Plains power forward Derrick Caracter (No. 2, 2006) is the main attraction but he’ll have company on the Jersey side. Casiem Drummond, the Williams Brothers out of Paterson Catholic and Brian Zoubek will aide the cause.
Gerald Henderson, an Episcopal sophomore, gets a home game for the Philly crew. So does Wayne Ellington.
To recap, tip time is at 3 p.m. with the sophs getting it started. All games will be played at Episcopal Academy just down the street from St. Joe’s.
We’ll have a complete recap of all the action on Monday!