LOUISVILLE, KY — One of my favorite events of this AAU season was our Grassroots Showcase in Louisville back in April. Combined with NY2LA and Ohio Basketball, we put on a historic event in a venue that I spent a lot of time in growing up. When I heard that we were going to run it back during the live period, my anticipation was through the roof, and the first day of the Grassroots Showdown didn’t disappoint. Here are some notes from Friday’s slate of games:

Griffin Elite Goldmine: I touched on this a little bit last weekend during Best of the South, but the Griffin Elite program delivered once again as they always do. Today, two more names got added to my ever-expanding list of great Griffin Elite guys. In the first time slot of the day, Trent Noah etched his name into my notebook with a ridiculous first-half shooting performance. Noah drained five 3-pointers en route to a 17-point first half. Noah’s teammate Matthew Bell looked like one of the best players in the gym throughout the game. Bell finished with 16 points and did a little bit of everything for his team. Suffice it to say that I will be checking back in on these guys throughout the remainder of the weekend.

Griffin Elite - Moses’ Big Game: This notebook isn’t only going to be about Griffin Elite, but they’ve just given me a lot to think about so far. I started out watching Griffin Elite - Moses’ first game of the day, but then I needed to leave the game for a moment. I came back as the first half was ending, and saw that they were taking a 51-11 lead into halftime. Yeah, halftime. When I sat down to watch the entire second half, it felt like they couldn’t miss from the field. Three after three, layup after layup, I’m telling you the team was sinking everything. They had six players finish in double figures. Kyre Currie-Bishop finished with 18 points, Reece Potter added 17, Ondre Wicks and Samuel Parrish scored 16 each, Nicholas Nelson had 13 points, and Luke Stansbury rounded it out with 11 points. The scary thing is that their starting point guard, Dallas Roberts, didn’t play in this game. Out of the hundreds of games I’ve seen this AAU season, this was the first time I’ve seen a team reach the century mark.

Florida Pro: Please allow me to opine about how impressed I am by Florida Pro. Earlier in the AAU season, they were one of the best travel teams in the country regardless of company affiliation. With the hyper-talented Thompson and Hendricks twins, they ran through nearly anyone that was in their way. After that group moved on, it would have been completely understandable for them to drop off significantly, but they haven’t had an epic fall from grace. They might not be quite as dominant as they previously were, but this is still a great team loaded with guys who have stepped up and played exceedingly well in more prominent roles. Guys like Elijah Wyche, Andrew Akuchie and Aidan Abell have thrived in the spotlight. As I watched them take down an uber-talented team like JH1, it struck me how impressive they’ve been with their new look.

Generals in Colonel Country: Kentucky is best known across the world for its famous colonel, but today it was a group of Generals that showed out. My guy D’Courtland Christian does an amazing job covering Alabama extensively, so I haven’t gotten to see the Alabama Generals much this season, but I wanted to check them out today, and they didn’t let me down. The first thing I noticed was the team’s size. They’ve got a lot of size on that team. So much so that I had a college coach ask me about several of their players. They had a tough battle against the Louisville Legends, but they hung on and won by a slim margin. William (Haston) Alexander had an impressive outing in that game. He finished with 16 points and really asserted himself as a presence down low. This is a squad to keep tabs with over the weekend.