CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Today and Thursday, hundreds of high school basketball tournaments will tip off around the country.

The best one, at least one nationally respected analyst believes, might be in the Charlotte area.

Lenoir-based recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons thinks the eighth Bojangles' Shootout will be special. Proceeds will benefit the Athletes United For Youth after school learning centers in Mecklenburg County, which seek to aid inner-city youth.

The tournament will run Thursday through Saturday at Marvin Ridge High in Union County, just minutes from Ballantyne. It will feature the nation's two top players in the junior class: South Atlanta's Derrick Favors and Lincoln (N.Y.) forward Lance Stephenson.

The tournament also will have the No. 2-ranked senior, 6-9 Samardo Samuels of St. Benedict's (N.J.) and the nation's No. 1 football recruit, Terrelle Pryor of Jeannette (Pa.). Pryor is a top 50 senior basketball recruit, too.

Also in the field will be USA Today's No. 1-ranked boys' (St. Benedict's) and girls' teams (Notre Dame Academy, Va.).

"I really believe this may be the top post-Christmas tournament in the country," Gibbons said. "You have the two top players in the junior class, and they could end up playing against each other."

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