4/27/2015 football Edit

adidas Gauntlett: Team Loaded lives up to the name

Eric Bossi

Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting Analyst

THE RIVALS150: 2015 | 2016

FISHERS, Ind. -- Talk about living up to a team name. Team Loaded North Carolina, led by five-star point guard Dennis Smith and five-star big Edrice "Bam" Adebayo, was the class of the adidas Gauntlet. They proved it at the Best Choice Fieldhouse on Sunday by winning a title.Team Loaded has star power, wins titleEverywhere Team Loaded North Carolina went over the course of the weekend, the crowds followed. Big-name head coaches like John Calipari, Roy Williams, Bill Self and Mark Gottfried, along with many more coaches and throngs of onlookers, showed up each time Team Loaded took the court, and for good reason.

> The top ten duo of point guard Dennis Smith (No. 4 in 2016) and big man Edrice Adebayo (No. 8 in 2016) put on a show each time they took the floor.

During Sunday's championship game against a tough Michigan Mustangs squad, Smith and Adebayo took over in the second half and blew open a close game to earn a 79-64 win.

Both Smith and Adebayo are explosive athletes and they used that to turn the game on its head. A 6-foot-2 floor general with strength, Smith kept finding another gear to blow by defenders off the dribble while Adebayo punished people around the rim with his physicality, emphatic dunking and relentless tracking of rebounds. Smith finished with 16 points, six assists and five rebounds while Adebayo added 23 points and 10 rebounds of his own.

"Energy was the key," Smith told Rivals.com. "We played five game this week instead of four last time so for us to come out with energy was great and made the difference."

After the championship game, Smith told Rivals.com that he and Adebayo do have some interest in playing together in college but wouldn't say they were a package deal. N.C. State, Louisville, Kansas, North Carolina and Duke remain among those tracking Smith closely.Heron back on the marketEarly in his high school career, Mustapha Heron. the No. 22 player in the class of 2016, made a verbal commitment. A week or so ago, he realized that he had made the decision to attend Pittsburgh too early and that it was time to open things back up and take a look around.

Now available, the bruising and versatile 6-foot-4 shooting guard says that he tries to pattern his game after James Harden. College coaches seem to approve as he was a favorite target of high-end coaches when he took the floor with the New York Rens.

Paired with another top 30 player in the class of 2016 -- who, like Heron, is a physical wing -- in Rawle Alkins, Heron doesn't have to carry the load offensively. He is still a tough scorer off the dribble but also showed prowess as a passer and as a defender.

Heron said he just wants to be sure that he considers all of his options before making a second commitment.

"I just wanted to make sure that I took the time to weigh all of my options," said Heron. "I had a few schools that were calling me and I realized that I want to be able to take some visits and make sure I'm seeing everything."

Among those that have been in contact with and tracked Heron at Adidas were Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, Cincinnati, Texas, Connecticut, Maryland and St. John's. Heron made sure to point out that he is still considering Pitt as well.Ashton-Langford reaching new levelsIn five-star UConn bound point guard Jalen Adams, the Mass Rivals program had a guy that they could really rely on the past few years. Now that he's gone and ready to enroll in college, it looks like they have found a pretty good replacement in class of 2017 floor general Makai Ashton-Langford.

Currently ranked as the No. 43 player in the class of 2017, the 6-foot-1 four-star looked very good over the weekend. Notably, he has added some strength to his lean frame and he has increased his quickness and explosiveness around the rim.

Those physical improvements have allowed Ashton-Langford to develop into an excellent downhill point guard. He made it a habit of getting to the rim and he pushed the tempo as often as possible. He will need to continue to get stronger and has to get more confident with his jumper, but he backed up his lofty status and should see his recruitment start to pick up.

"We only lost one game by one point this weekend so that feels good," said Ashton-Langford. "I think that I played well. I was getting to the basket and I did a pretty good job of getting my teammates assists."