Capistrano Valley coach Brian Mulligan confirmed today that Casey James, who started at JSerra last season as a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard, has enrolled at Capistrano Valley and played with the Cougars for most of the summer.

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Tom Lewis resigned as boys basketball coach at JSerra. He coached the Lions for five seasons, and quickly created a program that has been a fixture in the county top 10 the past two seasons and certainly looked like a top 5 team going into the 2008-09 season.

Lewis resigned, according to a JSerra release, to work as a private coach of NBA players. The release does not mention which players, but Lewis has long had a working relationship with Tyson Chandler.

At JSerra, Lewis will be replaced by Grant Meyers, who has been an assistant coach at JSerra and is a history teacher there.

Lewis was a very good coach at JSerra. He attracted talented players, of course, but he also demanded they play the game the right way, which probably made him not too popular with a couple of the players, and their parents, at JSerra.

Lewis was one of the greatest players in county history, when he was a two-time CIF player of the year at Mater Dei.

Mater Dei twins David and Travis Wear were selected today to the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team. The Wears and the other 10 members of the team will play July 14-18 in the 2008 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Formosa, Argentina.

The Wears, both of whom were first-team all-county selections as juniors, led Mater Dei to a state championship last season. They already have committed to sign with North Carolina.

See David Wear’s stats

See Travis Wear’s stats

The rest of the roster:

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Radio station Power 106 is having one of its fundraising basketball games Wednesday (May 28) at Bolsa Grande. All of the proceeds from these events goes to the host schools. Bolsa Grande’s has taken on added meaning. During the event, jersey No. 1 will be retired. That was the number worn by freshman basketball player Phoenix Nguyen, who died recently from injuries suffered in an automobile accident.

If you can go and support this event, please do. Sorry for the late notice; just found out about it at 9 p.m. today (Tuesday).

– Steve Fryer

Santa Margarita boys basketball player Zack Zaragoza signed a letter of intent with Northern Arizona, his father Tino reported via email. Zaragoza, a 6-foot-5 guard, averaged 14 points for the Eagles. He scored 19 when the Eagles beat Bishop Montgomery of Torrance in the CIF Southern California Regionals Division III final, and scored 13 in their victory over Sacramento in the CIF State Division III championship game. Zaragoza, a very good outside shooter, was All-Orange County third team this past season.

– Steve Fryer

CIF-SS assistant commission Paul Castillo, who has overseen boys basketball among other things, has decided to retire at the end of the school year. He has been an assistant commissioner for 8 1/2 years.

From the CIF state office:

ALAMEDA - Sara Churchill, of Paradise High School, and Ryan Cress, from
Sonora High School in La Habra, have been selected as the Spring 2008
recipients of the prestigious CIF Spirit of Sport Award, CIF Executive
Director Marie M. Ishida announced.
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Here’s the deal on the Capital Classic and Klay …

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As an outsider, I don’t know the entire situation, i.e. did he have indications he was so deep in Coach K’s doghouse that he could never get out? I am the father of a college athlete, and a basketball guy, too, and my advice would have been to stick it out for one more year. It’s Duke. Even a McDonald’s All-American might not play a lot as a freshman. Work on your deficiencies, get better, and then compete like heck your sophomore year. King was not a good defensive player at Mater Dei — he just didn’t have the footwork for it. He probably did not feel the need to work on that aspect of basketball. Too many travel-ball/AAU type coaches are not good teachers of the game, and really don’t push kids that don’t want to be pushed. I think King got fine skills coaching at Mater Dei, but a student has to be receptive to the teacher.

Where does he go from here? Well, he is going to survey the landscape, and find the place that needs a guy with King’s offensive skills. USC, maybe??

– Steve Fryer

The worst part of this job is selecting All-County teams, no matter the sport. There are always players I wish I could squeeze in there. I am always second-guessing myself during the process, and evern afterward. Some players I second-guess myself on …

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