Despite conflicting video evidence to the contrary, a California prep boys basketball playoff official did not back down from his controversial call a day after denying a potential game-tying, buzzer-beating tip-in due to basket interference.

"I stand behind the call," Tim Johnson, the controversial play's trailing official on the three-man crew working Friday night's Southern California Regional Open Division first-round matchup between Westchester (Los Angeles, Calif.) High and Bullard (Fresno, Calif.) High, told The Fresno Bee the following morning. "I think it confirms it totally."

Based on still shots of both the play and the scoreboard taken from a television broadcast and a student's cell phone video footage, respectively, Bullard's Calvin Young appeared to have legally tipped in the game-tying basket with 0.2 seconds remaining on the clock.

"I thought he went over the rim to get it; I thought it was basket interference," Westchester coach Ed Azzam told the paper after his team's resulting 60-58 victory. "But I have a very biased view. You usually don't get a call like that on the road. You usually don't get that call anywhere because they just don't make it. But I'll take it."

While the ball was above the rim, it appeared to be outside the cylinder, thus negating any potential for offensive goaltending. That's why Bullard coach Tony Amundsen and the Knights faithful were under the impression that the basket was waved off due to time running out, which also seemed like the incorrect call, causing massive confusion.

"The only thing I wish I had done better was tell Tony my call was basket interference," added Johnson, who briefly conferred with Amundsen amid the post-game hysteria. "He was asking about time, and at that point it was getting crazy."

Johnson told The Bee he "made a circle motion with his right hand" to indicate the offensive goaltending call, but video footage also somewhat conflicts that statement.

Amundsen wasn't having any of it. "The ball was off the rim, anyway," he told the paper.

The Bullard coach wished all three referees would have conferred to confirm the call. Johnson claimed that would have been the case if it was a clock issue, but since his call was basket interference that the decision was up to him as the trailing official. He also said one partner was watching the clock and the other agreed with his ruling.

That makes two of them, but the 1,600 Bullard fans in attendance probably disagree.

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The most bizarre episode of the 2013 boys basketball postseason across the nation may have unfolded on Monday night in Michigan, where a team that held a lead stalled for more than seven minutes in the second quarter, only to come out and rush to an even larger victory in the second half.

As first reported by MLive.com, the Muskegon Heights (Mi.) Academy boys basketball team cruised to a 58-44 victory against Galesburg-Augusta (Mi.) High in a Michigan High School Activities Association Class C Regional semifinal. That the Tigers won was not particularly surprising; they entered the game as favorites to advance. What was surprising was how a team that has thrived with a frenetic, full court press throughout 2013 turned to an extreme slow down to get the job done.

According to MLive’s Matt Gajtka, Muskegon Heights led 21-16 after the first quarter. As soon as the second quarter kicked off, Galesburg-Augusta (G-A) kept the tempo where it was, rushing down the floor and hitting a driving layup to cut the lead to 21-18.

As it turned out, that would be the entirety of the action in the second quarter, with Muskegon Heights literally holding the ball between two players until there were only 20 seconds remaining in the period.

The strategy might have made conceptual sense -- even if it was a bit unsportsmanlike -- if it weren’t for the fact that Muskegon Heights immediately abandoned the tactic at the start of the second half. The Tigers came out for the third quarter with the same fast breaking, pressure trapping intensity they used at the start of the game … and promptly built up a significant edge that ballooned to 37-26 with just 1:36 remaining in the period.

Naturally, that begs the question: If Muskegon Heights could push out a big lead whenever it wanted to, why did the Tigers stall for an entire quarter?

"They showed they were willing to pull the ball out [and stall] if they got any kind of lead," Muskegon Heights coach Dell Stewart told MLive, referring to a brief period in the first quarter when G-A stalled for 45 seconds.

"We saw their talent offensively, and we decided to hold the ball if they stayed in their zone defense, which was hurting us. We might have attacked if they came out at us (in a man-to-man)."

If that was the true motivation, then clearly the Muskegon Heights-G-A contest should go down in the annals as one of Michigan’s most bizarre contests, a flat track scoring race that devolved into a tet-a-tet blinking contest between stalling coaches.

As it was, G-A coach Tim Born said he and his team were more than happy with Muskegon’s surprising decision to stall, if only because it kept them in the game until halftime, when they could try to make adjustments.

In the end, those adjustments didn’t pan out, and the Tigers went on to advance to the regional finals. That left G-A in the loss column for the final time in the 2013 season, but G-A wasn’t the only loser. The fans also lost a perfectly good quarter of basketball to the lack of shot clock and a bizarre strategic decision by one coach.

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'Tis the season for wild, season-altering buzzer beaters. Today is no exception, with the latest rendition earning a team a crown and answering one of basketball life’s great questions: If a team wins on a backboard clanging buzzer beater without calling “bank”, does it still win?

The answer, evidently, is a resounding yes.

As first brought to Prep Rally’s attention by the blog The Basketball Diary, Ashburnham (Ma.) Cushing Academy edged past Barrington (R.I.) St. Andrews School, 61-60, to earn the New England Private Schools Athletic Conference title.

The final three of those points came on a wild three-pointer from just inside midcourt at the buzzer.

The shot, which was hoisted by Cushing sophomore Jalen Adams, rebounded in off the backboard and straight through the net, sending the Penguins (sidenote: how great a mascot are the Penguins?) and their fans celebrating in delirium.

“I’m devastated for the kids. They played their hearts out today,” St. Andrew’s head coach Mike Hart told East Bay Newspapers of Rhode Island. “We just didn’t do enough down the stretch to win the game. We played not to lose instead of playing to win.”

Yet they still would have won if Adams hadn’t hit that wild three, backboard and all.

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Aquille Carr has long been a major subject of fascination here at Prep Rally, both for his phenomenal talent, unique marketability -- Prep Rally was the first to report of his Italian contract offer in Spring 2011 -- and struggles off the court. Now the high school senior at Lanham (Md.) Princeton Day Academy has confirmed was the recruiting world has been buzzing about for weeks: He will bypass a scholarship offer that he had accepted to play for Seton Hall and instead play professionally overseas, likely in Europe.

Carr announced the decision on Twitter, for the first time publicly confirming what Prep Rally reported two years ago in the process.

After being offered an Italian contract that would have paid him some $750,000 as a 16-year-old, Carr has decided now is the time to officially take his talent overseas.

“The money won’t always be there gotta get it when u can I turned it down last time not this time”

Carr’s announcement was quickly followed upon by Yahoo! affiliate TheRecruitScoop’s Alex Kline and other sources, all of whom were quick to offer well wishes to the Baltimore native.

So far there is no indication of precisely where Carr will end up. As Prep Rally reported in 2011, Pallacanestro Virtus Roma was the first foreign club to pursue him professionally, though there was no note in the Italian media indicating any resumption of interest on the Italian club’s part.

While Aquille was tweeting news of his decision on Tuesday, the rest of his family stayed quiet, with no word whether his daughter or any other members of his family might go with him overseas.

Nor would the Princeton Day coaching staff comment on Carr’s decision. That's not surprising considering the fact that Carr is still an enrolled student at the school.

Regardless of what comes next, “The Crimestopper” will leave Baltimore as a prep playground legend. The question now will turn to whether he can become a legend in another land as well.

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Duke’s Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner buzzer beater to top Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA Tournament remains one of the most memorable moments in NCAA basketball history, if not the history of basketball altogether. Now a Michigan high school team can stake its own claim to that legacy after miraculously pulling off a carbon copy of the Laettner miracle on Tuesday night.

As first reported by Western Michigan Fox affiliate WXMI, the Hudsonville (Mi.) High boys basketball team forced overtime in a Class A regional semifinal playoff game thanks to a near exact duplicate of the Hill-to-Laettner buzzer beater, which was pulled off against Forest Hills (Mi.) High.

With 1.5 seconds remaining in the game, Hudsonville trailed, 54-52, inbounding the ball from under their own basket (please note that the scoreboard on the video above featuring a 54-54 score was incorrect). With few other options, Hudsonville designed a play to get the ball down in a reasonable shooting position by the only means possible: A Hail Mary of a downcourt pass.

[Watch: Surprise teams for NCAA tournament]

The prep hoopster pulling the trigger on that pass was Brent Hibbits. Incredibly, just like Hill before him, Hibbits’ pass landed right in the hands of his designated teammate, Cody Stuive.

Right on cue, like Laettner did, Stuive swiveled, put up a turnaround and drilled a jumper, tying the game and sending it into extra time. And after that comeback, there was no way that Hudsonville was going to let a win slip away, with the Eagles emerging from the overtime period with a 64-60 win.

Just about the only difference between Laettner's original buzzer beater and Stuive's shot was the direction in which they turned; Laettner rolled to his right (as you can see just above), Stuive to his left.

“I just freaked out,” Cody Stuive told WXMI. “I just ran to the bench and was giving people hugs. Then I realized that now we have to win in overtime.”

Of course, they did win, which gave Hibbits a chance to go back and look over one of the more glorious single plays in Michigan prep hoops history.

“My Dad and I are huge Duke fans,” Hibbitts told WXMI. “So last night when I got back home, my dad brought that up and I thought it was just like it.”

Now Hibbits and his teammates will just have to wait and see if they can follow Duke’s lead and win a title. They return to the court on Wednesday with a chance to win a regional title against Muskegon (Mi.) High and advance to the state round.

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There are good rounds, and then there is the kind of performance put in by Concord (Ca.) De La Salle High senior Justin Pagila.

Pagila carded an otherworldly 9-under-par 62 at Diablo Country Club, a course in Alamo, Calif. The course, which MaxPreps noted has a rating of 72.4 and a slope of 135, has hosted a number of U.S. Senior Open qualifiers, but was hosting the De La Salle Invitational on Tuesday.

While Pagila’s performance was notably impressive regardless of comparable statistics, what others have done at Diablo only makes the 62 more remarkable: The course has seen a 62 carded just twice before in its 99-year history, and both of them were definitely adults.

Add to that the fact that Pagila topped the personal best on the course of Beau Hossler (he finished tied for 29^th), who led the U.S. Open after three rounds in Spring 2012, and the De La Salle senior’s afternoon starts to emerge as one of the best prep golf rounds of all time.

Of course, it’s possible that Pagila and Hossler could meet in the NCAAs. Hossler graduated in December from De La Salle rival Santa Margarita (Ca.) High and will compete for the University of Texas starting in the fall. Pagila will compete at West Point.

Whether they meet again remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Pagila belongs right alongside his previously more famous neighbor after Tuesday’s wild round in Alamo.

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If the accusations that at least one Harrisburg (Ill.) High player used racial slurs during an Illinois boys basketball state championship game are true, these won't exactly be the glory days the Bulldogs had hoped for in the aftermath of their title victory.

As first reported in great detail by the Chicago Tribune, and since followed upon by ABC affiliate WSIL and other local outlets, the ugliness first boiled over when, after a 50-44 loss to Harrisburg in Saturday's 2A final, South Holland (Ill.) Seton Academy coach Brandon Thomas and his team boycotted the runner-up trophy presentation. Criticized for poor sportsmanship, Thomas' actions were instead a response to what many in the Chicago suburb have claimed is racism aimed toward his team.

"It started in the beginning of the game with racial words, like 'Get off me, (N-word),'" Seton assistant Art Kimber told the Tribune. "It happened so many times that I wasn't keeping track anymore. … It got so bad that every single time that they tried to complain to the referees, they were told, 'Do not talk to me or I will give you a technical.'"

While his team held an eight-point lead with 2:05 left in the first half, Seton star Mark Weems Jr. earned his second technical foul for making contact with a referee, according to the Tribune. Because he had already received a tech for complaining to an official in the first half, he was ejected from the game, and Seton subsequently lost by six points.

Referees also handed out a first-half technical foul to a Harrisburg player and a warning to Bulldogs coach Randy Smithpeters for arguing a call. Things got so bad that Illinois High School Association officials nearly canceled the game at halftime, according to the Tribune.

"(We) expressed our concerns to the schools about what had occurred in the first half, including three technical fouls, a player ejection and a bench warning," IHSA executive director Marty Hickman told the Tribune. "At that time, Seton Academy also expressed concerns over the use of racial slurs. The onus was put on the coaches to provide the necessary leadership to change the tenor of the game. We also made it very clear that if things did not change, we would take the unprecedented step of canceling the game."

That's where accounts appear to diverge, according to the Seton (via the Tribune) and Harrisburg (via ABC affiliate WSIL and other outlets) views of the incident. Kimber claimed officials "failed" to gain control in the second half, a claim which led to the governing body opening an investigation into the incident.

While the IHSA has yet to offer an official ruling on the event, Thomas has already been suspended, which seems a bit drastic before all the facts are in.

In the meantime, the Tribune did a terrific job of uncovering a series of other unfortunate incidents and allegations intertwined with the game, all of which you can read about here.

Meanwhile, Harrisburg Community School District superintendent Dennis Smith came out in support of the player accused of hurling the racial epithets, who just so happens to be "on a long-planned vacation" two-plus weeks before his school's spring break.

"We're saying wait a minute," Smith told WSIL. "I mean we've got a great group of kids. They worked on this for four years.

"It's not fair. It's not right, it demeans our kids for things that that they didn't do. ... We know these kids away from the camera and away from the reporters. They are taking this hard."

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The state of New Mexico remains embroiled in a bitter controversy that began when a wrestler won a state title on a day when he was supposed to be suspended from school and extracurricular activities. While that controversy might not seem earth shattering, the reasons behind the suspension give plenty of reason for second guessing: The athlete reportedly aggressively slapped one of his own teammates in the face in front of his classmates, then took his money.

As reported by Albuquerque TV network KRQE, Albuquerque (N.M.) Rio Grande High senior Nicholas Chavez was served with an official criminal complaint for his actions with a younger teammate, with Chavez allegedly slapping the unnamed youngster viciously in the face, then taking $15 of lunch money.

As a result of that complaint, Albuquerque Public Schools issued Chavez a three-day suspension, with that ban coming just before the New Mexico state wrestling meet. Because the suspension covered the days when Chavez would have competed in the state tournament, he would have been banned from the meet.

Yet that didn’t happen thanks to the actions of three local politicians who acted to ensure Chavez would remain eligible to compete for a state crown. According to both KRQE and the Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque County Commissioner Art De La Cruz, state senator Michael Padilla and school board member Analee Maestas all made pleas to allow Chavez to compete in the tournament that eventually crowned him as state champion.

“It would be heartbreaking to deny him this lifetime opportunity that could impact for his entire following, his entire life,” De La Cruz told KRQE.

While De La Cruz’s sentiment is understandable given the limits of instantaneous due process, it’s also difficult to understand how any of the politicians could speak act so passionately in the wrestler’s defense, given that there were witnesses who watched Chavez essentially shake down a younger teen for his lunch money.

Indeed, a more cynical onlooker might inquire as to how aware De La Crauz, Padilla and Maestas were about Chavez’s undefeated record, and the likelihood that he could earn a state title for a school in their district.

In the end, that’s precisely what Chavez did. Whether or not he should have ever been given that chance is another matter entirely.

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In what may be the most tone-deaf fundraiser in recent memory, a youth baseball league in Illinois is auctioning off an AR-15 assault rifle and a 30-round magazine as a fundraiser, and they’re openly admitting that an assault rifle was chosen to help get more attention for the league.

Well, here’s more attention.

As reported by IllinoisHomepage.net and Decatur NBC affiliate WAND, the Atwood-Hammond Little League branch is holding a fundraising raffle with a grand prize of the AR rifle, an assault weapon similar to the one used in the horrific shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. It is striking that a league that serves children of the same age as those who were killed in the December massacre would choose to auction off a semiautomatic firearm as a fundraiser.

This isn't the first time a youth sports league has auctioned off assault weapons. Yet what may be more troubling this time is that the commissioner of the aforementioned league has openly stated that the semiautomatic weapon was chosen to get more “attention."

"We could have went with a basic shotgun or something simple," league commissioner Steven McClain told IllinoisHomepage.net. "But obviously it's not going to draw the attention, not going to draw the volume we're hoping to make."

While McClain chalked the choice of weapon up to attention, the co-owner of Atwood Armory, which is donating the firearm, said that the gun was selected for more practical reasons: It simply draws more bidders during charity drives.

"If we were to sell that gun in store with all the accessories and ammo with it, it would be well over $2,000," said co-owner Charidy Butcher. …

"It was never a political agenda. It is what it is. We picked the rifle that would sell the most to raise the most for these organizations," said Butcher.

There is plenty of time remaining in the raffle, which ends June 28, so whoever enters will have plenty of time to get their paperwork in order, with a FOID card and a clean background check required to walk away with the gun.

What they do with it thereafter, of course, is their own prerogative, and precisely what is so troubling for many.

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MLB's Rookie of the Year Mike Trout already owns New Jersey's prep record for home runs in a season (18). Now, four years after he graduated, he probably just set another one: Fastest player ever to get his high school's baseball field named after him.

The Millville (N.J.) Board of Education OK'd the plan, which includes a $10,000 donation from one of Trout's endorsements to complete the ongoing renovation of the field, according to longtime Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Phil Anastasia.

BodyArmor Superdrink, which sponsors Trout, will pony up the $10,000. Of course, Trout had reportedly donated $20,000 from his 2012 Rookie of the Year winnings to Millville High, and the revitalization project is already under way.

"Mike has helped us so much," Millville head coach Hallenbeck told the Inquirer. "It sounds weird to say, but it's not so much the physical help in terms of the money but just the fact that it meant enough to him when he was here that he wants to do these things.

"That has a great impact on everyone around here. We're so proud of him."

As a high school senior, Trout batted .531 with 49 runs scored, 45 RBI, 19 stolen bases and the state record 18 home runs for Hallenbeck's Thunderbolts. The current Angels outfielder only struck out 17 times in his high school career.

Drafted 25th overall by the Angels in June of his season year, Trout batted .326 as an MLB rookie last season, recording 129 runs scored, 83 RBI and 49 stolen bases to earn Baseball America's Player of the Year honor.

Millville will officially name the field later this spring after renovations are complete, and Hallenbeck hopes Trout can make the ceremony. However, as the Inquirer points out, the Angels don't make their first East Coast road trip until June 7-9 against the Red Sox, and the New Jersey baseball state tournament ends June 4.

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Two relatives of a Canadian youth hockey player reportedly assaulted a referee during a Rosedale Minor Hockey Association game last month, leading to protests, suspensions and a veiled investigation by city officials in Hamilton, Ontario.

On Feb. 17, at the end of a game between the Kings and Panthers, linesman John Tluczek broke up a tussle between two teams made up of kids aged 15-17. Next thing he knew, two adults approached him on the ice. In a cell phone video obtained by CBC Hamilton, which reported the incident in great detail, a man is shown clearly attacking Tluczek.

“I've never seen anything like it,” the lontime referee told CBC. “I had to jump in there and break it up. Then all of a sudden grandpa and the mother are on the ice.”

Somehow, the details and quotes from the story grow even more bizarre and incredible.

Rosedale Arena officials called the police, but no charges were filed, according to the report. Based on Hamilton's Zero Tolerance Policy, the man in the video should be banned from city property for at least two months, but the city refused to say whether or not disciplinary action has or ever will be taken following its investigation.

“I don't care what's going on -- unless it's something terrible, you don't come on the ice,” Rosedale Minor Hockey Association president Dan Rosser told CBC. “It's ridiculous. Referees don't get paid enough to get treated like this.”

On the night of the incident, the fight and police involvement extended the game by almost 30 minutes, according to the report, so when the ensuing youth matchup between the Sabres and Nordiques ran up against the arena's curfew, referees called it quits early in the third period. However, some parents told their kids to stay on the ice in protest.

“Holding the association hostage is probably not the best way to make your point,” added Rosser, who suspended the protesting Nordiques players and ultimately ended the team's season. “That's life. It isn't always going to go smoothly.”

Nordiques coach Norm Jackson and parents of the effected kids took their protest to the city, but guess what? Hamilton officials won't comment on those proceedings, either.

“I have one case already where one of my kids wants to try out for high school hockey but can't, because he could be arrested if he enters a city run rink,” Jackson told CBC. “This kid has not had his meeting yet, but has already been presumed guilty -- as are the remainder of the kids that have been named.”

Let's get this straight: A man physically attacked a referee during a youth hockey game, and no charges were filed; meanwhile, a teenager peacefully protested a separate curfew shortened game, and he faces arrest if he tries out for his high school hockey team?

Makes perfect sense. At least one person has his head on straight in this entire scenario: RMHA referee-in-chief Joe Lampkin is pushing for a code of conduct that might prevent future incidents from getting this confusing.

“Some of the behavior and the way we are treated is unbelievable for house league hockey,” Lampkin told CBC. “I'm not sure of any job where you can show up and drag someone out from behind their desk or heckle them at their door.”

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Utah's Governor Gary R. Herbert declared Friday "Lone Peak High School Men's Basketball Day," constructed a basketball court inside the state capitol, invited the Knights to shoot hoops with him and proceeded to tweet about it (h/t MaxPreps).

Lone Peak (Highland, Utah) High capped a 26-1 season to capture its third consecutive Class 5A state championship and sixth title in the past nine seasons. The Knights are ranked as the nation's No. 3 boys basketball team by USA Today.

The Utah Senate published a video of the Governor's elaborate scheme on YouTube. Let's quickly run through the three greatest parts of the video:

1) Obviously, any time a government official can figure out a way to use his taxpayers' time and money to construct a basketball court inside the capitol building and proceed to shoot hoops while hundreds of fellow publicly paid employees are forced to watch on a Friday afternoon, without question he must do this, correct?

2) Did Herbert really drain his first eight jump shots and finish 8-of-10 during this event, or was that some editing handiwork from Utah's official Secretary of YouTube Affairs? A little bit of Google research revealed that Herbert reportedly served as captain and point guard of the boys basketball team at his alma mater Orem (Utah) High. He also quarterbacked the football team and served as captain of the baseball squad.

3) You've gotta love the song selection for the Governor's video -- Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" -- particularly for an event celebrating a team that will have many of its stars soon serving as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm sure the Lone Peak players can relate to Jordan's lyrics like "I reach for my 40," "all the gang bangers forgot about the drive-by," "I'm kinda buzzed, and it's all because South Central does it like nobody does" and "I gotta get mine in a big black truck."

I'm sure you'll be shocked to know that Gov. Herbert is a Republican, but regardless of where you lean politically, I think we can all agree that "Lone Peak High School Men's Basketball Day" was one of the best days ever in Utah's governing history.

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In Maryland's Class 4A boys baksetball regional finals, Upper Marlboro (Md.) Wise High didn't just beat Goddard (Md.) DuVal High -- a team that had handed the Pumas their only two losses in the past two months. Wise ran its Prince George's County rival off the floor in an 85-54 victory, as detailed in The Washington Post's game story.

Never fear, dear DuVal fans.

DuVal head coach Lafayette Dublin had one reasonable explanation for the upset.

“That’s playoff basketball,” Lafayette told The Washington Post. “You always know that can happen. It’s always in your mind. You just hope that it’s not you.”

Reasonable enough, sure. But the grandmother of DuVal leading scorer Michael Cunningham, who was held to a season-low six points in defeat, has a far better explanation for the loss in The Post's comments section (h/t Deadspin via @lindsapple):

I just wanted to go on record in defense of my grandson's, Michael Cunningham, weak performance last night by letting readers know that he was battling a severe cold. He called me early in the day and asked could I bring him cough medicine or something because his throat was sore and he was stopped up but he wanted to be at the game. I found out when I got to school that he also had a fever. I should have taken him home but being the kind of person he is, a total team player, he insisted he would be better by game time. I left him some mild over the counter medicine but had no idea that he hadn't eaten all day because his throat eas sore so I feel totally responsible for his lackluster performance last night. Now know this, this is not an excuse because basketball is a team sport and last night the best TEAM won. I just wanted everyone to know why Michael was so off his game.

Now, I'm sure that makes Cunningham and his Tigers teammates feel much better. After all, a high schooler has never received a ribbing when his grandma comes to his defense.

So, just how big of an upset was it? Wise senior Markell Young (27 points) and his Pumas move within one game of their school's second ever Final Four appearance when they face Eleanor Roosevelt (Greenbelt, Md.) High in the regional finals on Friday.

For his sake, let's hope Roosevelt's Holy Cross-bound senior star Malachi Alexander doesn't feel a cold coming on.

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Everyone knows that high school sports hit close to home for most Americans. The average two-child family is likely to have at least one child who competes in some interscholastic sports in high school or middle school, a process which draws them into their own community’s sports, and often prep sports as a whole.

Yet state governors usually have more important things to focus on then prep sports, unless some major misjustice has been perpetrated. That, apparently, is where the current curious tale of Illinois governor Pat Quinn comes in.

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Quinn gave an emotional speech in which he attached his own alma mater, Oak Park (Il.) Fenwick High, because the school fired his brother as its varisty basketball coach.

“He’s a kind and gentle man who understands the importance of sportsmanship, and I feel that my high school has lost its soul,” Quinn told the media.

To be fair, the decision to take the less famous Quinn, John Quinn, away from prep basketball is an odd one. The coach has won 469 games across 28 years en route to an induction in the Illinois High School Hall of Fame. He is also a Golden Apple teacher, according to the governor.

So why is Fenwick breaking with the man who has built their program up from the ground?

That’s a question plenty of people would love to know, not least of all the man who leads the state from Springfield.

“It’s a devastating blow to my brother, John, and I think the administration there has let down the students, the alumni and shame on them.”

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Prep Rally isn’t sure if this competition was ever officially started, but if anyone was looking for the most over-the-top, ridiculous, fake-customized recruiting letter, we appear to have a winner: Say hello to North Carolina State assistant coach and director of player personnel Drew Hughes.

As you can see in the photo below, as posted to Instagram by rising senior prospect Dexter Wright, Hughes is sending out letters that appear to be highly customized with rather outlandish attempts to connect to a younger generation. Wright repeatedly refers to his subject as a “baller” and says that he’s precisely what the Wolfpack need, highlighting key phrases with, well, a highlighter.

Though tacky, the note could be seen as almost endearing because of its customization. There’s just one problem: It’s not customized at all. Instead, Hughes has apparently made a TON of identical form letters which he is sending out to targeted recruits all over the place. No sooner than Deadspin had posted Wright’s letter than another N.C. State prospect, C.J. Reavis, posted an identical letter. Literally, identical.

While this may be a minor embarrassment for N.C. State, it should also serve as a valuable lesson for coaches in this postmodern, apocalyptic, “Who the heck is in the Big East next year?” age: Don’t send anything to kids that you don’t want online.

That’s advice that holds true for subjects aged 4-40 these days, and it certainly holds true for borderline local celebrities like prominent high school gridiron stars.

Here’s hoping Hughes finds his ballers, though something tells Prep Rally that Wright and Reavis won’t be among them.

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Kameron Chatman is one of the top-rated junior basketball players in the country. He holds scholarship offers to play for most of the Pac-12 Conference not to mention other national powers. He also spent the entire 2012-13 season playing for the junior varsity squad at Long Beach (Ca.) Polytechnic High.

If that doesn’t make sense, there’s a good reason: On talent, he should have been starring for the Jackrabbits’ varsity team. On a technicality he wasn’t allowed to play for them at all.

It’s also that technicality that makes Chatman’s appearance in the final 1:12 of Poly’s season on Tuesday night such a controversy. The junior was inserted into the game in its dying moments, with his coach knowing full well that injecting him then would land the coach, potentially the player and even the program in hot water with the California Interscholastic Federation, a group that has never been shy about levying out fines and harsh discipline.

As noted by the Los Angeles Times, the decision to play Chatman once the CIF Open Division Southern Section final was all but over was a unilateral one made by Poly head basketball coach Sharrief Metoyer, a man who also happens to be Chatman’s godfather. Chatman moved to Southern California to live with Metoyer, but that move was deemed to be made for competition’s sake, which meant that the budding forward couldn’t participate in a competitive game until one year after he arrived at the school.

Incredibly, that ban would have expired had Poly advanced to the Open Division regional final. Instead, the school fell to fellow California power Santa Ana (Ca.) Mater Dei, leaving Metoyer with the decision to play his godson as a statement or hold his tongue and wait for another year.

His decision was clear by his actions.

“Somebody had to make a statement," Metoyer told the Times. "The game of basketball means nothing -- we’re supposed to be in the business of helping kids.”

The Southern Section rule book specifically states that any team that plays an ineligible player can be suspended from the section itself. The fact that Poly did so knowingly would only seem to make that worse, and a spokesman for the section issued a fairly ominous statement to the Times’ Eric Sondheimer via text when asked about what could happen to the school.

"If an ineligible player was used in that contest, we will be discussing that with the school at our earliest possibility,” CIF Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons told the Times.

Whether or not Simmons and the Southern Section take leniency on Poly remains to be seen. Either way, Metoyer is confident that he made the right decision in putting the junior into the game, if only briefly.

"I am not trying to be anything more than I am, but I am a role model, a mentor and somebody that's helping kids,” the coach told MaxPreps. “At the end of the day it was about this young man, it was not about me or Poly. His teammates love him."

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In terms of likely locations for a basketball assist of the year, a high school girls game in Texas might not seem a lucky spot. This year, it appears that it was.

The play you see above was turned in by Clear Springs (Tex.) High guard Jo Ann Lira, who ended up with the ball after a lucky bounce saw it land directly in her hands. As she fell to the ground, Lira caught a glimpse of teammate Brooke McCarty.

Luckily for both Lira and McCarty, the Clear Springs teammates caught a glimpse of each other before Lira had either traveled with the ball or lost it completely. It also helps that the pair has a deep bond, with the duo connecting on any number of other buckets earlier in the season.

All of that set the stage for Lira’s assist to end all assists, with an over-the-head pass Steve Nash would envy, hitting McCarty in stride for an easy layup.

The bucket was just the prettiest of many that Clear Springs dropped on regional rival Houston (Tx.) Bellaire High in an 80-65 victory. In fact, McCarty scored 35 points on her own. Yet it was that one assist that will remain the most notable play from the game and, most likely, Clear Springs entire ride to the state title game.

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Not many people have heard of Gospel of Grace Christian (Cheltenham, Pa.) High. Not even Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Lou Rabito, who detailed the tiny school's improbable berth in the Pennsylvania state boys basketball tournament.

"No one knows us," GGC head coach Mario Berrios told the Inquirer.

That's because the school, which only joined the state's athletic association last season, features only 21 students between ninth and 12th grade, and just 14 of them are boys. And half of them are on the hoops team, according to the story.

Yet, the Saints (14-9) marched their way to the district championship game, earning a berth in the first round of the Class A state tournament against Philly's Math, Civics & Sciences on Friday night. That's downright Hoosiers-esque.

"We're underdogs," Berrios told the paper. "That's how I look at it. I just tell my boys every game, 'One game at a time, and go out there and put the school on the map.'"

Berrios, 23, has served as head boys basketball coach for his 16-year-old alma mater since he was 19. It was he who applied for the school to be instated into the PIAA. After all, the school doesn't compete in any other sports. It's not like they could field a football team.

Remember the scene in Hoosiers when coach Norman Dale measured the hoop in order to illustrate to his players that basketball is no different in the bigger schools? Well, these Saints sound an awful lot like those kids from Hickory High.

"They lace up their sneakers the same as us," Gospel of Grace Christian senior Shaquan Turk told the Inquirer. "We don't look at them as they're better than us."

Turk and three classmates will graduate this spring, leaving Berrios with just three returning players. Still, the coach told the paper that two kids from GGC and two others from other schools have already expressed interest in playing for him. Still, Berrios, who reportedly volunteers as head coach, asserted that he does not recruit players.

"I think it's crazy how we can have 21 students and have as good of a basketball team as we have," Berrios added. "And competing with schools, huge public schools and other schools, we've just been able to compete with everybody."

Let's just hope these Saints don't get caught watching the paint dry.

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If the ongoing high school basketball tournaments across the nation have taught us anything, it’s this: If you don’t already have a unique, full-court-length buzzer beater inbounds play in your team’s arsenal, just look back at the best plays in NCAA tourney history and use one of those.

Incredibly, just days after that scenario played out in a boys basketball game where a near duplicate of the Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner buzzer beater paved the way to an overtime win, a girls basketball game featured a near blow-by-blow remake of another famous moment: Bryce Drew’s 1998 buzzer beater for Valparaiso that knocked off Ole Miss.

The video you see above captures the final seconds of the Connecticut Class LL girls basketball state title game, a contest between Middletown (Ct.) Mercy High and state power Milford (Ct.) Laurelton Hall High. With just 3.8 seconds remaining, Mercy trailed by two, 53-51, but had the ball under its own basket.

If what happened next looks familiar, that’s because you’ve essentially already seen it before. The difference was just in the sex and level of the players.

In the Connecticut female version of the play, Mercy’s Sheena Landry quarterbacked a near point-perfect three-quarter-court pass to teammate Cassandra Santoro. Just behind the three-point line, Santoro was immediately mobbed by Lauralton Hall defenders, but she found just enough space to slip a pass out to teammate Maria Weselyj.

Weselyj had just enough time to pull in the pass and launch a deep three, then watch it sail through the net for a near-miraculous 54-53 victory, sending the Mercy sideline and fans into a delirious celebration on the Mohegan Sun court in Uncasville.

According to the Milford-Orange Bulletin, Mercy coach Tim Kohs admitted to being inspired by Drew’s famous winning shot when originally designing his last-second formation called “home run.”

“I got kids coming off the court with tears in their eyes and I had made a point that if they score, I want a timeout,” the coach told the Bulletin. “I knew there was time on the clock. Did I know we were going to win? No. I was hoping pretty hard. …

“[The Drew winner and Weselyj’s shot were] Exactly the same. I bet you if you went and watched that film, draw a spot where Maria shot and where Bryce Drew shot from and they’re within a foot of each other.”

Here's another version of Weselyj's championship-winning shot, complete with the play-by-play from Connecticut Public Television, which broadcast the game live.

The made bucket was all the more sweet because it finally got Mercy over the line in a state title game. Mercy had fallen in the state final for three consecutive seasons entering their game against Lauralton.

This time, Mercy would up on the right side of the scoreboard, thanks to Weselj’s heroics and a little inspiration from Bryce Drew.

“I give credit to all of (my teammates and coaches) and I hope that they take this win and understand that it is possible,” Weselyj said. “We don’t have to come here thinking, ‘We’re going to lose because we lost the past three.’ We’re going to think, we can win here, we just did it.”

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In August 2012, Prep Rally and many other outlets made a big deal out of Deion Sanders’ decision to give the athletic teams at Dallas (Tx.) Prime Prep Academy the mascot of “Winning.” As nonsensical as the school’s mascot may be, the Texas program’s boys basketball team also made it eerily appropriate with a remarkable winter season.

As noted by USA Today, Prime Prep finished its first competitive season on the hardwood with a perfect, 35-0 record. The Winning won the Division I title of the National Association of Christian Athletes tournament in Ohio with a 61-56 victory against Centerreach (N.Y) Our Savior New American School, capping its perfect record and earning an invitation to the National High School Invitational.

“We feel like we’re the best team in the country,” highly touted sophomore center Elijah Thomas told USA Today. “We haven’t lost, so…”

In fact, the publication to which Thomas was speaking claims that Thomas isn’t far off. The Winning is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation by USA Today’s Super 25 national rankings, and there is just one other undefeated team – Henderson (Nv.) Findlay Prep – ranked ahead of it.

The deep stock of top-ranked athletes on Prime Prep’s hoops squad is the main reason for the team’s success, yet its unofficial rap anthem might also be part of the squad’s inspiration. Either way, the Winning has done a lot of winning in its first season on the court.

Now, if only the school’s football program can follow in those basketball footsteps …

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