For the past 35 years, the very best high school hoops stars have come together for the annual McDonald’s All American Game. The game has helped catapult the careers of a myriad of future collegiate and NBA stars like Shaquille O’Neal, Lebron James, and most recently Jared Sullinger.
While last year’s contest was highlighted by names like Anthony Davis, Austin Rivers, and James Michael McAdoo, the 2012 game featured a bevy of next season’s NCAA immediate impact players like Shabazz Muhammed, Tony Parker, and Kyle Anderson.
Just a a day ago, Muhammed, a 6‘6 high scoring SF, won the annual McDonald’s Dunk Contest, then took home McDonald’s All American Game MVP honors for being the event’s high scorer with 21 points. Muhammed remains one of the most sought after still undecided players in the 2012 Class.
University of Kentucky recruits SF Alex Poythress, who already has a monster 46 point and 18 rebound game to his credit and elite level SG Archie Goodwin both showed Big Blue Nation a glimpse of how talented next season’s freshmen will be by dropping 19 points and 14 point respectively.
The super stacked West squad led by Muhammed, prevailed over the East by a score of 106-102. The East was led by Poythress, along with UCLA recruit Kyle “Slo Mo” Anderson’s near triple-double (13pts, 8reb, 8ast, and 4stl), Rodney Purvis’ (NC State) 15pts, and DaJuan Coleman’s (Syracuse) 7 pts and 12 rebounds.
In addition to Muhammed in the West, future Duke sharpshooter Rasheed Sulaimon added 18pts, while big man Cameron Ridley (Texas) added 12 pts and 9 boards, and PG Marcus Paige(UNC) added 4 pts and 7 assists. Future Indiana PG Kevin “Yogi”Ferrell tied for the game’s assist lead with 8 dimes.
2012 McDonald’s All American Game:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
