alleycats red and white rosters

adidas Double Pump Spring Tourney:
Alleycats Red & White Rosters--(Apr. 11, 2000)

Since we can't possibly hope to cover every player who participated this past weekend at the adidas Double pump Spring Tournament at Cal State Dominguez Hills, we decided to do the next best thing: Provide you with all of the rosters, and some selected player highlights, and, where possible, a team recap.

Anthony Williams from San Diego had two different Alleycats teams at the Pump tournament this past weekend, Alleycats Red and Alleycats White. The Red team featured more older players, and was probably the "better" of the two teams, all things considered, from a recruiting point of view, but there were some incredibly talented guys on the "younger" team too. We'll take them one at a time:

Bodeke Traylor	6'-1" Sr. G/F	San Diego
Jarrha Bolden	6'-2" Jr. G	Horizon
Robert Ortiz	6'-0" Jr. PG	Horizon
Randy Bland	6'-4" Jr. G	San Diego
Francisco Calles	5'-10" ? PG	San Diego
DJ Brown	6'-6" Jr. F	Horizon
Ben Wohlfeil	6'-0" So. PG/SG	El Cajon Christian
Rashawn Allen	5'-10" Jr. G	La Jolla Country Day
David Schaffer	7'-4" Jr. C	Arkansas
Ronald Coleman	6'-7" Jr. F/C	Horizon
Jason Holmes	6'-8" ? F	Horizon

First things first: David Shaffer, at 7'-4" is truly a project. Not terribly athletic, doesn't run really well, and is largely earth-bound, which at 7'-4" really doesn't make that much difference, but he was not very effective against some of the more athletic, but smaller players (and we guess using the word "smaller" means just about everyone else. . . ) he faced. Shaffer is one of those guys who you look at and want to immediately say to him "Hey, stand up straight, young man. . ." It's like he's trying to get down to the level of the guys he's trying to defend, so he can look them in the eye, but what he hasn't clearly come to grips with yet is his potential to be a tremendous shot blocker if he only got some coachig during the year. We spoke with Anthony Williams about David briefly, and the word is that Shaffer was home schooled and has only played organized ball for about two years, and if that's so, we can believe it. He's very raw, and doesn't play with much fire. But he is, after all, 7'-4" so that will count for something to some college program somewhere. . . we also spoke with some other coaches who had seen Shaffer at ABCD camp last summer, and while they said he's come a long way, it's clear he's got a lot to work on.

Ben Wholfeil is one of those guys we really like, and we had the chance to see him a couple of times during the playoffs in division V, and he's very saavy. Not tremendously athletic, he is smart, understands the point guard position, and takes pretty good care of the ball, rarely making any mistakes. He's not the kind of player who is likely to beat his man off the dribble, but he's the kind of guy who will likely see the lane for a pass that others would never spot. A decent defender too.

Ronald Coleman has really filled out nicely. We remember seeing him last spring at the adidas Hoop Summit in Fresno, and he was like a stick figure, all arms and legs but not much muscle. Whatever he's been doing to increase his body mass has been working and he should keep it up. Coleman is an effective rebounder, very good hops, and can shoot the ball or put it on the floor.

Jarrha Bolden has also improved his strength and conditioning, and was noticeably stronger than he was last summer, which was the last time we had a chance to watch him play. Bolden is quick, has a great handle, and isn't afraid to penetrate and pull up for the jumper or dish. An excellent defender who is getting stronger and bigger, we really enjoyed watching him.

Again, we didn't really get a chance to focus on any of the other players on the Red team except sporadically. . .that's one of the things we just don't like about having to watch four games at once. . . it makes it hard to spend any real time with just one game. The Red team had the misfortune of running into Oakland Slam N Jam in their first game on Friday night, losing 64-60, but then they bounced back on Saturday, beating IEBP players 67-56. Alleycats Red's third game, against Friends of Hoop Wisconsin Black on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. was a really exciting game, and the Cats pulled off the one point win 46-45 to continue advancing to Sunday morning, where they met up with AAB, beating the LA/Moreno Valley boys 62-54. Unfortunately, in the next game, a consolation semifinal, Alleycats Red fell to Friends of Hoop Seniors 46-74. Still, they were a lot of fun to watch, and Anthony's teams are always competitive.

Gaspar Herrera	6'-7" Jr. F/C	??
Shaun Davis	5'-7" Fr. PG	Lincoln Prep
Dominic McGuire	6'-3" Fr. PG/SG	Lincoln Prep
Jody Poole	5'-11" So. PG	University
Jake Wohlfeil	6'-1" Fr. G	Christian
Rommel Marentez	5'-8" So. PG	St. Augustine
Joree Murrillo	6'-2" So. PG	Horizon
Mike Axelson	6'-3" So. G	Coronado
Nathan Carter	6'-4" So. G/F	Lincoln Prep
Keith Sconiers	6'-7" Sr. F	Fresno Washington Union
Wai John Wai	6'-3" ? F	Christian

This was a team that we barely got to watch, but we did get a pretty good look at these two:

Rommel Marentez is a player we were very impressed with. Great feel for the game, moves well with and without the ball, and rarely made any mistakes. Excellent passer and has good court vision. Didn't shoot the ball a lot, but a very good play-maker who can also defend.

Nathan Carter a very good outside shooter, good athlete who has a good handle and rebounds well. More of a small forward/wing type than he is truly a guard, he tended to drift outside a lot in the games we saw, but he clearly has the skills and the athleticism to become a good college player. .

Shaun Davis for those who are wondering why we're not writing about him, was not at the tournament, at least not until Sunday afternoon and then he didn't play. We're not sure why not, but Anthony Williams mentioned something to us about transportation being a problem. Oh well. . .

The Alleycats White had the distinct misfortune of being matched against the Double Pump Arizona All-Stars in their first game on Friday night (the team with the Fontenet brothers, Channing Frye, Baker Dunleavy, Mike Stephens, etc), and they got hammered pretty good, losing 86-58. That meant that the White team dropped immediately to the losers' bracket, where they faced the IEBP Players early on Saturday morning, and again, the White team lost, by 30 points, 92-62. The second loss in a row meant that they didn't get to play againt until Sunday, and while they manange to beat the "Bruins" (a team we didn't get to see at all), it was largely a Pyrrhic victory, since both teams ended up being out of the tournament regardless of who won or lost.

The Alleycats will be traveling to Fresno for Mats' Madness (formerly the adidas Hoop Summit) and we're certain that we'll be seeing them at the Big Time and the Pump "Best of Summer" as well, and we'll keep an eye out for the guys we didn't get to see much of this time around.