On the radio yesterday, I encouraged people to come out to the Finch Center to watch some up-and-coming high school players from Memphis. I should have kept my mouth shut. The Memphis Magic team, which features Joe Jackson, Sampson Carter, Tim Peete, Mardracus Wade and Christian Watford (who is from Birmingham), was absolutely awful in their semifinal loss to a team from Louisiana. Even worse, I couldn’t pick out one legitimate Div. 1 player on the team they lost to.

This, of course, comes one day after I heard one of the local radio clowns talk about how the Tigers could contend for national championships just with players from Memphis. Please. I won’t name names (OK, he’s on from 3 to 6), but the next time I see this particular guy at a high school or AAU game will be the first.

Though the Memphis team was clearly out of gas - which is common when you’re playing two or three games a day for several days in a row - I was hoping to see more, not just yesterday but throughout the tournament. I was particularly disappointed in their performance on Monday when they lost to a team from Jackson, Miss., which was a year younger across the board.

This was my first time to see Christian Watford in person. He’s a big part of the recruiting picture for this year, but the Tigers will have to really fight it out with Louisville to get him. Watford is 6-7, long and skilled. I like the way he puts it on the floor and makes strong moves to the basket with both the left and right hand. I don’t like his body language, which is quite simply awful, and his jump shot needs a major overhaul. With some good coaching, he can be a big-time player at the college level

I’ve seen Joe Jackson play several times before this week, so I know what he’s capable of. He was just off yesterday and maybe hurting a little bit. The biggest problem with Joe’s game is that he tries to get away with too much defensively and gets in foul trouble. That’s a coaching issue more than anything, because Joe is not a lazy kid. At this point, he’s a much better scorer than distributor. I want to see more refined passing skills as the summer goes on.

I would not be surprised to see guard Mardracus Wade get ranked in the top 100 for the class of 2010 sometime soon. There’s a lot to like about his game. He’s a really active and enthusastic defender and shoots the ball well enough from 3-point range. He wants to play for Memphis pretty badly, and he will definitely be a guy to keep up with this summer. There has been a lot of talk about Ridgeway power forward Tarik Black. He’s a good athlete, but his basketball skills aren’t there yet. The Memphis staff is definitely looking at him hard, but my sense is that he’s got a ways to go. Sampson Carter — better known as Shyrone Chatman’s brother — will be a big-time player at UMass, if that’s where he ends up (likely). I’ve always liked Sampson’s game, and he competes hard. At times, he really carried that team yesterday.

The best player I saw during the tournament was LaQuinton Ross. He’s a 6-7 kid from Jackson, Miss., who is just a rising sophomore. He can do pretty much whatever he wants right now, and it’s plain scary. I wouldn’t dispute anyone ranking him the No. 1 sophomore in the country, though some people think Michael Gilchrist is even better. If true - and I haven’t yet seen Gilchrist play in person - that’s good news to Tiger fans since Gilchrist is practically a lock to come to Memphis (assuming John Calipari is still coaching here in 2011-12).