Boys’ basketball: The McDonald’s game mystery

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Since the inception of the McDonald’s All American Game in 1978, there has been at least one boys’ player from California that made the team every season. But not this year.

Is it an oversight? Is it an aberration? Is it an indication that California is suddenly without talent?

In some ways, I think players have been punished for being unselfish and not averaging above 20 points a game. That’s the case with three talented Santa Ana Mater Dei players _ Tyler Lamb, Gary Franklin Jr. and Keala King.

Each is headed to a Pacific 10 Conference school, and they’re more interested in winning than scoring lots of points to impress people who select all-star teams.

In the case of Allen Crabbe from Los Angeles Price, I think he became well known too late in the process to get picked even though he’s deserving.

In two or three years, when we see how well the class of 2010 is doing in college, we’ll know more if the talent level really dipped this season.

-- Eric Sondheimer