I got a chance to see some of the 2008 Oakland recruits play Monday night as part of the Oakland boys basketball summer camp. Many of the Oakland players have an open gym type scrimmage at the end of each day that the campers get a chance to watch. All six of Oakland’s recruiting class participated Monday night. I only saw them play for about 45 minutes or so, but here a few of my thoughts from the glimpses I saw.

Matt Samuels stood out the most to me. He had an explosive tip in and a break away dunk where he displayed his incredible vertical. He also looked to have a nice 3-point stroke and was pretty quick. Drew Maynard also looked pretty good. He buried a 3-pointer early and was active on the boards. Ilija Milutinovic apparently just got in a few days ago because of visa problems. He displayed some impressive ball-handling skills for a big man, bringing the ball up a few times after a rebound. He also had a couple of nice passes and low post moves. The only negative thing about Milutinovic I saw was he didn’t really get back on defense a few times and looks like he needs to get in a little better shape. The team of Samuels, Maynard, Milutinovic, Johnathon Jones and Ricky Bieszki faced off against Larry Wright, Blake Cushingberry, Jay Thames, Derick Nelson and Will Hudson with Jones’ team coming out on top. It’s hard to make any real concrete assessments of any of the players in an open gym type game, but it was fun to see some of these guys play. I would like to get out there again this week, but I’m not sure if my work schedule will allow me to.