A selection of American high school students from the Grind Session came to Italy to play against Stella Azzurra and Orange Bassano, two of our best youth sectors. The two-day match was also the occasion for the presentation of The Star Alliance, a European project with an Italian drive that promises to play a leading role in this new NCAA world made of NIL and global recruitment.
We ‘R Not
The new project is presented with three negations: not a company, not a federation and not a community of intent. It is simply something that doesn’t exist, a innovation in the sea of innovation that is upsetting the American collegiate world. To understand what The Star Alliance is, you first have to take a step back and introduce The Grind Session, the first winter high school basketball circuit in America that gathers the most important Prep Schools of the fifty-two American states. A tournament that is added, then, to the usual state championships where the various high schools must participate and then qualify for the Geico Nationals, the final event to crown the national champion.
The basic idea of The Grind Session is not to wait for spring to compare the best prospects in the nation: thanks to this circuit in February in Atlanta we could see the Darryn Peterson’s Profilic Prep , prospect No.1 for ESPN and future player of Kansas, against the Utah Prep of AJ Dybantsa, possible No.1 to the Draft 2026 and star of BYU. This is the caliber of players that the American circuit, which starts in October and ends in March, manages to put together and this is the stage where The Star Alliance will play.
Stella Azzurra, Orange Bassano and the Future Stars of London have shared and will share resources, ideas and players to create a selection of the best European prospects that, from next season, will enter in a stable plan in the circuit of The Grind Session, playing four events in America (between October and January) and then hosting one in Europe where the next NCAA prospects will come to play. “The goal – they tell from the Blue Star – was to create something that did not exist, a way and an opportunity to connect and prepare European prospects for the next chapter of their career, whether in Europe or in America.”
Not only the USA, because The Star Alliance is planning to join a senior level European league to test players over the course of an entire season and at the best possible level. The companies that have joined will also provide the prospects with support for all NIL advice, contacts with universities and the various scouts who will visit the tournaments.
On court
Between 8 and 9 June, at the Altero Felici in Rome, the home of Stella Azzurra, a selection of The Grind Session took to the field for the second stage of its European tour that also included Lithuania and Spain. The opponents were then the Orange Bassano, without of a Maikcol Perez towards Baylor, and the Stella Azzurra. Among the Americans stand out the two prospects class of 2027 Brandon Mason Jr, a super slender guard of almost two meters that in the victory against Bassano showed all his scoring’s skills and Jaylin Conrad, playmaker who, in losing effort against the Stella Azzurra, He went close to thirty points.
Jaylin Conard (@Conard1Jaylin ) lit it up in Rome 🇮🇹🔥
The 2027 guard dropped 29 points, grabbed 4 boards, and added 3 steals against Stella Azzurra ⚙️ pic.twitter.com/WOyRbHcTwo
— The Grind Session (@thegrindsession) June 9, 2025
Mason, an Albuquerque native, told us that despite just finishing his sophomore season, he received at least 15 offers from D-I: Eric Olen’s New Mexico, coach Danny Sprinkle’s Washington who has just secured for this season the talent of Desmond Claude, and TCU. The most continuous in the two games among the Americans was certainly Seven Spurlock, a wing with sculpted muscles and athleticism out of scale that has crushed a couple of times in an impressive way. At the end of the game, Spurlock, Peterson’s former teammate at Prolific Prep, told us a little bit about what kind is the new player from Kansas: “He is an impressive scorer, a leader who always helps on the field and tries to involve his teammates. Off the field? Usually he took us around town”
Among the Italians, standing out in the ranks of Bassano Riccardo Crestan and Fallou Sow, the two pillars on which the attack of the Orange was based in a balanced match in the first fraction that then slipped, thanks to an excellent press defense, into the hands of the Americans. Both born in 2007, they still have one year of high school in Italy before making a decision on the next step in their career. For the Blue Star good performance of the Estonian Kaur Kennerth Tomann, another 2007 class that has for next year an offer from Saint Bonaventure where former Olimpia Milano player Achille Lonati went to play, and the Bulgarian Deyvan Kolev who in the next season we will see in NCAA, to figure out where yet.
