Sounding Off:

The NCAA men’s basketball national championship Monday night may signify the end of the college basketball season, but that doesn’t mean the best young hoop stars are slowing down.

This Saturday in Portland, Ore., 20 of the world’s best high school players will meet in the 13th annual Nike Hoop Summit. The game, tipping off at 7 p.m. at the Rose Garden, will match 10 19-and-under American all-stars against 10 of the best the rest of the world has to offer.

I will have the honor of broadcasting the event on Fox Sports Network with former college and NBA coach P.J. Carlesimo and reporter Rebecca Haarlow.

The Nike Hoop Summit is the world’s premier annual game for high school-age boys, and if it’s anything like last year’s contest we should be in for a heckuva show. The 2009 game was one of the most memorable in the event’s history as the world team rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the U.S., 97-89.

Just how good is the talent?

Ninety-nine former U.S. and world team members have been drafted by NBA teams, including 11 players in 2009. Seven of the first 20 NBA draft choices in 2009 were Nike Hoop Summit alums — Tyreke Evans was selected fourth, Jonny Flynn fifth, former USC Trojan DeMar DeRozan ninth, Gerald Henderson 12th and Tyler Hansbrough 13th. Three members of the current UCLA Bruins squad have played in the classic: Malcolm Lee, Jerime Anderson and Mike Moser.

This year’s Team USA features a front line of Jared Sullinger, who will play next year for Ohio State; Patric Young, headed to Florida; Tobias Harris, off to Tennessee; and Terrence Jones, who is being recruited by Pac-10 schools UCLA, Oregon and Washington. The backcourt with have three North Carolina Tarheel-bound All-Americans in Harrison Barnes, Reggie Bullock and Kendall Marshall. The other guards will be Kyrie Irving (Duke), Will Barton (Memphis) and Brandon Knight, who hasn’t yet committed to a college.

The world team also has players that will star at American universities next year.

Turkey’s Enes Kanter played this year at Stoneridge Prep in Simi Valley, and it’s believed he’ll play next year for Washington. The 6-foot-10 Kanter will be joined on the world team’s front line by Canada’s Tristan Thompson, Croatia’s Nikola Mirotic, Serbia’s Dejan Musli, New Zealand’s Rob Loe and France’s Mael Lebrun. The guards will be Canada’s Cory Joseph, China’s Sui Ran, Australia’s Jason Cadee and Croatia’s Duje Duken. Duken is headed to the University of Wisconsin, while Thompson will play for the Texas Longhorns next year.

It’s no secret that the rest of the world is catching up to the Americans in basketball, but Team USA owns a 9-3 advantage in the Hoop Summit Series. This year, the Americans appear to have better quickness while the world team has the size.

The game will be reaired on Fox Sports Net at 3 p.m. Pacific time Sunday and at 8 p.m. Monday.

Phiznotes:

• The Angels began the Major League Baseball season Monday night against Minnesota, with the Twins probably thinking of a few facilities they would rather open in. Since the 2002 playoffs, the Halos have won 23 of the last 32 games with Minnesota at the Big A. (Make that 24.)

• A big “way to go!” to Orange County’s District 68 Little League.

In a foreign exchange program, the District 68 Little Leaguers have invited 11- and 12-year-old baseball players from Lithuania to the county for a goodwill tournament.

The umpire chief of District 68, Sam Griffith, has traveled to Lithuania for several years to teach America’s pastime and invites any true baseball fan to cheer on the kids this week.

The Lithuanian team will play Ladera Little League at Cox Sports Field at 6 p.m. Monday. There’s a doubleheader at Old Majors Park in San Juan Capistrano at 4 p.m. and at Vista at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

On Wednesday the kids move to Curtis Park in Rancho Mission Viejo for a 6 p.m. game and finish with a 4 p.m. game Friday at Wagon Wheel in Santa Margarita and a 7 p.m. game at Gilleran Park.

What about Thursday? Forget about it. The kids are going to Disneyland!

OCLNN columnist STEVE PHYSIOC is a professional radio and television broadcaster, most recently for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and an Orange County resident.