SoCalHoops Recruiting News

adidas Double Pump Spring Tourney:
BWBA Rosters--(Apr. 13,  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.

Bob Gottlieb's Branch West Basketball Academy (BWBA) teams had their usual complement of top Orange County prospects and some out-of-towners as well.   BWBA entered three teams in the tournament.  The actual rosters looked a lot different than those which were included in the tournament coaches' packets, but Bob, always helpful, had prepared some special handouts to reflect all of the changes and adjustments he'd made to the rosters (including eliminating David Castleton, who is a JUCO player, from the roster of the BWBA Orange team).   The BWBA teams were impressive and they had pretty solid results, with tough, hard-fought games even if they didn't make it to the final four as some of the other BWBA teams of the past have done at this and other Pump-run tournaments.

BWBA White

This was Gottlieb's most balanced team, from a personnel point of view, with a good mix of underclassmen, although it was missing some of the players we had thought would still be playing with BWBA this spring, like the freshmen from Fontana, Travonte Nelson and Trayvon Williams, who played with Gottlieb in the prior spring shootouts.  In any event, here's the roster with the players who actually appeared this past weekend:

BWBA White's results in the tournament were as follows:

Game 1 BWBA White 61, Hoopaholics Sr. All Stars 55
Game 2 H-Squad 76, BWBA White 72
Game 3 BWBA White 74, Oakland Hotshots 47

Some general observations on some of the players:

Martin Iti continues to improve and he has to be considered one of the top big men, if not the best big man in the sophomore class in SoCal.  Wiry and thin, but very strong, he runs well, has very good footwork and excellent hands. Iti is a smart player, rebounds well, jumps out of the gym, and is a tremendous shot blocker.  He's not a great scorer yet and is still learning to play with his back to the basket, but at his height, he'll certainly be a high-major recruit in two years.

Harrison Schaen had a great tournament, and he too, has to be considered one of the best big men in the freshman class on the West Coast.  He actually is 6'-8" now (maybe even a little taller. . . Harrison told us that he's about 6'-8 1/2"), and has gotten stronger, and is bulking up.  Very agile, nice post moves, and against the Hoopaholics he had some success inside, but will still need to get stronger to effectively work in the blocks, and he was more effective as a wing and rebounder. Harrison will be at Nike Camp this summer and then most likely will be at the Peach Jam in Georgia with one of the Pat Barrett-coached teams rather than at the adidas Big Time.   And no, he's not transferring out of Mater Dei as had been rumored on our message forum.

Matt McGinnis continues to be one of the more prolific three-point shooters in SoCal, and he was stroking the ball well, even if some of the courts at Dominguez didn't even have three point lines.  Matt is deadly from the perimeter, and is quick enough, with a solid enough handle to create his own shot instead of relying just on screens set by others.  He was slated to also play in the Rockfish Spring League but we haven't seen him there, so we'd have to say he's either committed to playing with BWBA this summer and/or will be with the Villa Park HS team, which Kevin Reynolds likes to keep together during the summers.  We didn't get a chance to talk with Matt about his recruitment, but we know that he's attracting interest from quite a few schools. Matt scored 27 points in his team's win on Friday but he would have had about 38 if the court he was playing on had a three point line (it didn't).

Roger Hogan had an up and down time on Friday in the game we saw against the Hoopaholics, alternately making some brilliant passes and lobs to the big guys  (the ups) and at other times missing the lanes or over-dribbling (the downs).  Roger is a smart, saavy point guard, and his only limitation is his size.  Good quickness and the ability to contain most offensive players, he is getting some attention from some D-I schools, as well as some solid D-2 and D-3 programs, and we would expect that if he doesn't sign in the late spring period to consider prep school. 

Robert Abreau played well in the game we watched on Friday.  A solid wing player we've also had the opportunity to watch him in Rockfish several times, and he's turning into an effective wing, combo type player, with nice shot out to about 18' and the ability to get to the basket and finish or dive in for the rebound or loose ball.  He doesn't look tremendously athletic, but has very nice skills, and with a 3.5 gpa, he will most certainly be a qualifier.

Marques Crane did what Marques has been doing all year since he transferred out of Artesia and literally exploded at Ocean View: Shot the ball, rebounded, drove and generally helped everyone around him to play a little better.

Corey Miller  is one of the more accomplished young freshmen, and he showed it, handling the ball well and generally making good decisions. Didn't penetrate or drive much, but did pass the ball well. 

Chad Carter is often confused with Jason Carter, although the two of them really don't have much in common besides being big and strong.  This Carter is more of a low-post guy than Jason, who is far more skilled and polished with his ball-handling skills. Still he's a tough guy to get around and over, and a good rebounder who can body a guy out of the paint when he works. Still fairly raw, a ton of potential. 

BWBA Orange

This was Gottlieb's unsigned senior team, which had some pretty good talent all from outside the area except for Steve Miller from Anaheim:

Here are the results:

Game 1 BWBA Orange 95, Crew 62
Game 2 Belmont Shore 80, BWBA Orange 70
Game 3 BWBA Orange 81, BWBA Orange County 61

One of the anomalies of the scheduling was that BWBA Orange's loss to Belmont Shore on Saturday afternoon, coupled with BWBA Orange County's loss to the eventual tournament runner-up Payton/Baker AllStars  had the two BWBA teams meeting up on Sunday afternoon for a game which didn't lead to anywhere but "out" of the tournament, a game we didn't get a chance to see because we were up at Rockfish checking out some of the action there prior to the Sunday Championship back at Dominguez.  Still, we did get a look at some of the players on the "Orange" team, and here are some general observations:

Ben Jacobsen continues to be an impressive force inside, and he's a lot tougher than he looks.  Ben had originally played out in SoCal with BWBA this past fall, and while he attracted some attention from several schools, including Cal State Fullerton and LMU, with the resignations of both coaches at those schools, Ben pursued other avenues, eventually committing to Loyola in Chicago during January.  Unfortunately for Ben, he was denied admission to Loyola of Chicago for academic reasons, and has thus reopened his recruiting again. He's a real banger on the blocks, and can shoot it well from inside, rebounds, and runs very well.

Jimmy Dadiotis is another player who was out here last fall with BWBA whose forte is really perimeter shooting, both off the dribble or coming off a screen or with a very effective set shot.  Good size and defensive ability, he's a full qualifier.

Zack Fortune was touted as the winner of the "Mr. Basketball" award in the State of Nebraska this year and he led his high school team to the State Champinoship, averaging about 18 ppg over the course of the season.  He's a smart player, who can shoot the ball but in the game we saw he seemed to be struggling. . . but then playing in the kind of environment, where teams don't practice, run no set offense and generally just run up and down the floor with not a lot of team defense either, didn't look like it suited him to much. . . still a nice player.

BWBA Orange County

This was the BWBA team coached by Roger Hogan, Sr., and it featured a lot of young players, in fact just a few juniors.  And as a result of the absence of the Fontana players and a few others several players on this roster also did double duty, or at least were listed twice on the two BWBA non-senior teams.  Here's the roster:

Team tournament results:

Game 1 BWBA Orange County 49, Next Level II 44
Game 2 Payton Baker All Stars 82, BWBA Orange County 63
Game 3 BWBA Orange 81, BWBA Orange County 61

We didn't get too much opportunity to watch this team, and missed all but bits and pieces of games 1 and 2, so we really can't give any meaningful observations of these guys.  Generally though we liked Kelly Thomas, who has lots of potential.  The Villa Park guys looked, well, they looked like the Villa Park guys. . . we've written a lot about Sean Phaler previously and he continues to improve.  Jared Jungwirth and Ian Caldwell are two guys who will probably make very nice D-II or D-III players, but it's possible that in the right program they could help. We saw that Patrick Hadden was listed on the roster, but honestly we didn't see him out there, and had we had the time to really watch this team would have liked to see him.  Patrick is an excellent point guard, a skilled passer with good court vision, good size and he was just plagued by a lack of playing time this year, since he was slotted well down in the Monarch's depth chart behind guys like Cedric Bozeman, Steve Scoggin, Rickey Porter, and Brian Baker (and Brian didn't see too much action either). . in any other program, i.e., at most high schools in SoCal, Patrick would be a starter.  In any event, we'll make a point in the next tournament to take a closer look at Patrick again.

The BWBA teams will most likely again be reconfigured for the spring.  Bob Gottlieb has told us that it's not likely that he will take his teams up to Fresno for the Mats' Madness tournament over Labor Day, so the next time we'll probably get a look at this squad is during the summer at the adidas Big Time and then at the Pump's Best of Summer Tournament in late July. 

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