arizona heat roster

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.

The Arizona Heat was one of three Arizona-based teams (the others being the Arizona Slam/Jam coached by Jeff Meadows, and the Double Pump Arizona All-Stars) in the event. The Heat was coached by Elliot Glabman and an excellent complement of assistants (although it seemed as though he didn't have as many this time around as he did at the last shootout a couple of weeks ago). His senior squad from a few weeks ago was, in our view, not as imposing size-wise, but it was a bit more athletic, and that showed in the ultimate results in the tournament.

The Heat is a team of all juniors, mostly solid, but not spectacular athletes, all of whom are skilled, tough and understand how to play a team-oriented game pretty well. Unfortunately, they didn't have great success from a scoring point of view, winning only one game, against the Aztecs, which was the Esperanza High School team in different clothing, a team which just also got killed in their first game by the Pump N Run All-Stars (the team which had Salim Stoudamire, the Cravens, Charlie Rodriguez, Chris Hernandez, et. al). But comparatively speaking, the Heat was one of the better teams in this event, meaning they played better team ball than most of the squads which just did a lot of running up and down the floor, jacking up shots or doing a lot of one-on-one stuff. Sure that makes for an exciting event, but sometimes its just nice to watch a team play.

Jon Otis	6'-1" Jr. PG	Corona
Ben Hibbing	6'-6" Jr. F	Dobson
Michael Sells	6'-3" Jr. G	Sedona RR
Eric Bloom	6'-4" Jr. G	Greenway
Lucas Falconer	6'-1" Jr. PG/SG	Valley Christian
Toni Quori	6'-5" Jr. F	Wickenberg
Adam Griffith	6'-06" Jr. F	Page
Mike Phillips	6'-8" Jr F/C	Corona
Brad Smith	6'-0" Jr. PG/SG	Red Mountain
Larry Owens	6'-5" Jr. F	Westwood
Ryan Murdock	6'-6" Jr. F	Corona
Jordan Legge	6'-9" Jr. C	Dobson

We were really focused for most of the weekend on some of the SoCal players, so we really didn't get too much of a chance to see these Arizona boys in action, but some of them were hard to ignore

Jordan Legge was kind of hard not to spot in a crowd, and at 6'-9" he was clearly one of the better players on this team. Strong, an excellent rebounder who looks like he's got the necessary athleticism to become an accomplished shot-blocker, Jordan scored well from inside while also hitting some shots out to about 12'. Runs well, and if he can bulk up a bit, his recruiting should improve as well. We were kind of surprised that with him and Mike Phillips in the game together at times, they weren't more effective scoring, but then in these events it really matters very little who wins and who loses. . . of course, winning is better, but that really isn't the point of exposure and showcase tournaments like this one.

Mike Phillips had a very productive weekend and opened a lot of eyes among college coaches looking for big, powerful inside guys. Strong, physical player who has good athleticism and the ability to play above the rim. Rebounds and plays hard.

Larry Owens was another guy we really like watching and he's got some great upside. Right now he's not really polished, and in fact he's pretty rough around the edges, but he can get to the basket and slash. A good defender too.

Eric Bloom scored well, at least in the one game we saw him play. A good athlete, with decent size he has a good outside shot, nice court vision and moves well with and without the ball.

Ben Hibbing was another player we've seen progress over the last two years, and we really liked his skill level. A good sized forward, he can defend and really bang inside.

We were too busy focusing on the big guys on this team to really pay much attention to the point guards, Jon Otis and Brad Smith, and likewise we didn't really get much chance to watch Lucas Falconer, so we'll make a point of doing so next time we see this team, which won't likely be until Vegas (unless they're going to be at Spiece in Indiana next month). . .

As we noted above, the Heat didn't have much in the way of success when it came to winning games. On Friday they got hammered in a 4:15 p.m. game by 805 Basketball 63-51, so they dropped into the losers' bracket where they met up with Modesto Slam N Jam first thing (literally) on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. (no, we weren't there for that game), losing by a single point 55-54, which meant that there was no fourth game possible. The third game took place on Saturday night at 9:45 p.m. and they finally got their much needed win, 71-39 over the Esperanza Aztecs.