Live Blog: McDonald’s AA Game

by Bryan Crawford / @_bryancrawford

What’s good? Y’all know SLAM is in the building for the 35th annual McDonald’s All-American game in Chicago. We’re kicking the live blog off for the boy’s game so be sure to chime in and comment. I’ma hold it down even though it’s a struggle for me right now. Dropped my laptop and broke the ‘F’ and the ‘V’ buttons. All good, tho. 2 buttons don’t stop no show!! In a minute…

– We’re back!! The boys squads being introduced to the Bulls intro music right now.

– Music just switched to ‘Lose Yourself’.’ Seems appropriate… This is a huge moment for these kids. One they won’t forget. Enjoy it!

– Not quite last year’s turnout in terms of fans, but there’s still a lot of people here tonight.

– We’re less than 4 minutes from tip-off, ‘Rack City’ blaring through the UC.

– Rodney Purvis got bun-nies!!

– T-shirt give aways always gets the party crackin’! Gets me crackin’ too when people are falling over each other to grab  ’em.

– Poythress, you can’t do that. Travelling…

– Grant Jerrett is nice down low.

– Shabazz with the jam!

– Shabazz with the 3. Cookin…

– Another jam for Shabazz, then a layup. He’s got 9 already. West up 11-2.

– Poythress with the nice lob finish.

– Another jam for Poythress

– Tyler Lewis is a trooper. Got his tooth knocked out in practice but he wasn’t missing this game for anything!

– TO. West up 15-9 with 15:28 left in the 1st half

– Yogi Ferrell in the game. Hoosier fans got a good one.

– Perry Ellis almost brought the house down with that inbounds play.

– Archie Goodwin with the nice tip-in

– Purvis!! Told’ja…

– Kyle Anderson is gonna be nice and Isaiah Austin is gonna cause matchup problems at the next level

– Kids out here going hard. Gotta love that

– Tony Parker with the nice jam off the dish from Anderson. TO, West up 23-17

– Shout out to adidas for going hard with the neon uni’s this year.

– TV timeouts are EXTRA long, yo. You don’t notice it because, you know,  you’re watching on TV

– Poythress for 3. Coach Cal got another one!

– Anthony Bennett with a nice jam

– Poythress is nice, man.

– FT’s cut the West lead to 7, 31-24

– DaJuan Coleman looks like… Oh, nevermind.

– That dude, again… Shabazz Muhammad with the nice tip jam

– Poythress is cookin, on the low. He’s got a quiet 11 points which has helped cut the West lead to 3, 33-30

– Former McDonald’s greats being shown on the big board. Bron got booed. Of course they show DRose and the UC goes crazy

– DRose got a louder ovation than when they showed Michael Jordan

– Alonzo Mourning in the building

– Good crop of big men in the 2012 class with Tony Parker, Cameron Ridley, DaJuan Coleman, Grant Jerrett and Isaiah Austin

– Almost forgot Shaq Goodwin

– He wants be called William, tho…

– Rasheed Sulaimon might be on that V ERY short list of Duke players I actually like

– Touchdown!! Kyle Anderson to Rodney Purvis

– Kyle Anderson out’chea dropping DIMES!

– Archie Goodwin blew a break away layup!

– He made up for it two times in a row tho. Back to back jams pust the West up 8

– 3:15 left in the 1st half, West up 48-40

– Shabazz Muhammad going to work. 13 in the game on 6-9 from the field

– Amile Jefferson got a little Lamar Odom to him. A little…

– DaJuan Coleman is built like a rhino

– Shabazz Muhammad, tho… 15 points already

– Halftime!! West up on the East 58-46

– 1st half scoring leaders West: Shabazz Muhammad 15 points, Archie Goodwin and Cameron Ridley 8 points

– 1st half scoring leaders East: Alex Poythress 11 points, Tony Parker 8 points, DaJuan Coleman 7 points

– Nice touch pass to Shaq Goodwin for the East dunk

– Perry Ellis with another jam for the East

– Kyle Anderson showed off some nice pro-style post moves for a second

– Rasheed Sulaimon showing offf the athleticism

– Yogi Ferrell might someday be the new #PointGod

– Sulaimon 3 on one end, Purvis dunk on the other

– Archie Goodwin, another Kentucky stud

– West team just loaded. Pulled away now and up 21, 73-52 with 15:42 left in the 2nd half

– Poythress is a beast. Nice jam down low

– Amile Jefferson with the Kevin McHale up and under move

– Oh, shout out to Devonta Pollard who had to sit this game out with a concussion suffered in practice. And yeah, Shabazz is still cookin

– Muhammad would’ve brought the house down with that windmill

– Great block by Gary Harris who blew the lob pass on the other end

– Marcus Smart struggling in this game. 1 point so far

– West up 80-56 with 11:50 to go in the game

– I need to get my hands on a pair of those West team shorts…

– Yogi gets great elevation on his shot

– Archie Goodwin has a really nice game. Kentucky fans should be excited

– Perry Ellis can jump

– Nice putback Shaq, er, William

– Nice pass off the glass from Kyle Anderson to Rodney Purvis. East still down 16 with 7:15 to go in the game

– Shabazz is showing why he’s the top player in the 2012 class

– Nice dime from Smart to Ridley. Texas connection

– Kyle Anderson flirting with a triple double: 9 points, 6 boards, 6 dimes

– Alex Poythress is going to slide right into that Kidd-Gilchrist spot and Kentucky won’t miss a beat there

– Kyle Anderson blows the dunk that could’ve cut the lead to 8. Things got a little sloppy after that for both teams

– Purvis 3, Jefferson dunk and we’ve got ourselves a game. East down 93-88

– Sulaimon out of the TO with a 3. Lead up to 8

– Dunk by Amile Jefferson cut the leadt to 6, but Grant Jerrett knocks down a jumoer to put the West back up 8. 98-90, 2:15 to go.

– Nice drive by Yogi to gt to the line. Misses the 1st FT tho…

– Another dunk by Shabazz Muhammd puts the East up 7, but Rodney Purvis with the And 1

– Purvis misses the FT but the East gets the O board but can’t convert

– Ferrell to Sulaimon for the And 1. Nice finish. Poythress fouls out with 19. Sulaimon makes the FT to put the West back up 8, 104-96. Kyle Anderson drives and scores. West 104, East 98

– 52.6 seconds left. Anything can happen but I’d say the West has this one locked up. Ferrell fouled with 43.5 left to play

– Great look by Anderson to Dunn to cut the lead to 4, but the West comes right back and scores

– Anderson with the Dunk, East still down 4 with 4.1 seconds left and fans are filing out of the United Center

– That’s it from Chicago, folks. The West wins by a final score of 106-102. It’s been real. See you next year… You know SLAM and SLAMonline will be there holding you down as always!