As I have said in previous years, the Nike Hoops Summit is the best of all the high school All-Star games because the USA versus International Team format means the outcome means something to the players.

I thought Arizona recruit Aaron Gordon summed it up best when he said in a sideline interview, “The fun part of putting on a USA uniform is that it is not about individual stats. It is about playing to win the game.”

Scouting is notoriously difficult in any high school All-Star format, but this is the game that provides the most real in-game scenarios.

Unfortunately for the top USA high school seniors, things fell apart in a game where real defense was played. The same athletes that had been bounding up and down the court and scoring with ease in the McDonald’s All-American game and Jordan Brand Classic were now struggling to probe a zone defense. Jabari Parker settled for some bad forced threes, post feeds were picked off with regularity, and for most of the game the only US offense seemed to come when Florida recruit point guard Kasey Hill attacked in transition before the defense was set. Hill’s transition passing kept the US in the game for awhile.

As was the case last year, when Andrew Wiggins played in this game as a junior, the player that surprised me the most was a high school junior. This year it was Karl Towns. Towns is technically a US player, but he chose to play internationally for the Dominican Republic team based on his heritage, which made him eligible for the international squad in this game.

Towns is a 7-footer who started out his career as a three-point shooter, but as Paul Biancardi noted, Towns has been focusing on developing his inside game. Find the replay online and watch his post move with 9:45 left in the second quarter, and you’ll see that that the inside presence is for real. Later in the first half, he also had a brilliant sequence passing and dribbling in transition before finishing with a nice lay-up. Towns has already committed to Kentucky. So if you are depressed that Kentucky has the best recruiting class in 2013, I have bad news for you. They already have a head start on the best class in 2014 too.

But the international team didn’t just dominate because of Towns. There was uncommitted 2013 top overall recruit Canada’s Andrew Wiggins doing what he does best. Wiggins was the first player up on offensive rebound attempts and he once again lived at the free throw line. There was Russia’s Sergey Karasev dominating on a drive to the basket. We often talk about how post-players get schooled when they first play against grown men. But the veteran Karasev showed Arizona recruit Rondae Hollis-Jefferson that his quick feet were no match for a mature driver either. There was Lithuanian Tomas Dimsa knocking down a wide-open three. As always, the talented international squad had better three point shooters than the US squad. And there was Australian Dante Exum, putting an exclamation on the game with his underhanded “and one” late in the game. For the recruiting savvy, Exum is still uncommitted in 2014.

Oh, and don’t forget Dennis Schroder of the international team. When the US team fell behind they had to use full-court pressure, and Schroder absolutely dominated the game with his quickness. Schroder got around players like Andrew Harrison with ease. For a player who was not necessarily a huge factor offensively, his speed in getting past half-court was one of the main reasons the US full-court pressure couldn’t complete a comeback.

And of course the international squad was led by Livio Jean-Charles scoring. But I thought Fran Fraschilla summed it up perfectly. It wasn’t really a first-round performance. As many points as Jean-Charles scored, it wasn’t one of those games like Bismack Biyombo had a few years ago which moved him up into the lottery. Jean-Charles got “garbage points” as Fraschilla said, and that was spot on. I was more impressed with the passing that got him the ball, than his individual athleticism.

Similarly, Kansas recruit and Cameroon’s Joel Embiid had one of those career highlight reel minutes (start watching at the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter.) Embiid had a beautiful spin move to score over Aaron Gordon. He followed it up the next possession with a beautiful behind-the-back pass that led to a wide open three point attempt. And he followed that up by fighting for the offensive rebound. Every Kansas fan should look for that video, but it was mostly in garbage time when the game was put away.

This game wasn’t won because of individual domination by the international squad, but rather it was lost because the US team was less skilled defensively than some of the squads that played in this game earlier in the decade. Arizona recruit Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in particular is supposed to be a versatile defender, but he had trouble keeping players in front of him in the first half. Florida’s Kasey Hill was great in transition, but his other decisions about when to gamble and when to play straight weren’t great. And the US team fell behind early and could never catch back up.

Duke recruit Jabari Parker made it close a couple of times. Particularly at the end of the first half his three-pointer and driving dunk made things a little tense. And I was impressed with Parker’s overall versatility. In addition to his nice shooting and inside finishing, he also had a gorgeous pass to Julius Randle in transition for a dunk, and some nice offensive rebounding. But for everything Parker did right, it still seemed like something was missing from Parker’s game. He doesn’t quite feel like a player who is elite at anything, instead he is just good at everything. Of course Georgetown’s Otto Porter showed this year that being good at everything can win you a conference-player-of-the-year award. But I think Parker will be a tough player for Mike Krzyzewski to coach next year. Krzyzewski likes to focus on a player’s best skill and exploit it. But he will have to give Parker the freedom to make some mistakes because of everything good he can bring to the floor.

Finally, in this game and in all the All-Star games, Kentucky’s Julius Randle has probably been the most impressive US player overall. His above the rim skills and true post-domination is impressive. Randle did knock down a jumper against the zone defense at one point, but he’s not going to float too much on the perimeter like some of the other post players. His game is attacking the rim and that is going to be extremely valuable for Kentucky next year. At 4:30 in the 3rd quarter he has a beautiful post-move where he gets a reverse lay-up. For an above-the rim player, that showed he has some nice post-skill as well.

But overall, it was not a great effort for the US squad. There were too many bad decisions on offense and defense, and as much as we have been raving about this recruiting class, the US seniors proved that they still have some things to learn.