belmont update from mats

There are two Belmont Shore teams participating in the Mats Madness tournament in Fresno. We've only seen one of them, "Belmont Shore West" and it bears only a casual resemblance to thethe printed roster; we haven't seen the "Belmont Shore East " team but the roster is the same familiar group of Upland HS players. . . in fact they're all from Upland.

The Belmont Shore West team is coached by Ruben Sanchez, Sr., and it's not a very deep roster in terms of numbers of players:

Kenny Hauser	6'-4" Jr. SG/SF	North Hollywood
Matt Llewellyn	6'-2" So. SG	Loyola
Omar Wilkes	6'-2" So. SG	Loyola
Matt Wallman	6'-6" Jr. F	Moorpark
T.J. Stephens	6'-1" Jr. G/F	Cleveland
Ruben Sanchez, Jr.	6'-0" Jr. PG	Sherman Oaks Notre Dame

We saw the BSW game against EBO yesterday and even though Belmont got down by 10 or so early on, they just kept hanging around the entire game, and wound up losing by only 12 or so. We were really impressed with the way some of these guys played, especially Omar Wilkes, the young incarnation of Jamaal "Silk" Wilkes, the former UCLA and NBA great who was in the stands watching his protege. Omar's got the same smooth style that his dad had, is an excellent passer, very agile around the basket and shows maturity on the court beyond his years. In about three years we'll expect to see him getting recruited by some very good schools, and wouldn't be surprised to see him, like other UCLA alums offspring (Marques Johnson's kids come to mind) pursued by UCLA among others. Matt Llewellyn did what he does best, shot the ball from out to three point range, and he's still got that high, quick release which we've seen him use while coming off screens (although there wasn't much screen-setting going on yesterday). Kenny Hauser is pretty deceptive: He's still kind of thin and in comparison to some of the EBO guys, not particularly tall, but he's a very smart player, and an effective scorer who knows the game. TJ Stephens is another of those guys in search of a position: He's a very good point guard and has been since we first saw him playing in youth ball at the age of 9 or 10, but he rarely gets the opportunity to play that position. An excellent passer with great vision, his bulk (he's a sort of Khalid El-Amin looking guy) generally has most teams putting him at the forward or wing spot, but we think he's a much better point than anywhere else he might play. Ruben Sanchez did some nice things running the offense too, passing effectively, and hitting some key outside shots.

The Belmont Shore East Team has the following guys listed on the roster, although we haven't confirmed that they are in fact here (they're all from Upland HS:

Sheldon Pace	5'-11" Jr. PG
Julius Coleman	5'-10" Jr. PG
Prentiss Harris	6'-0" Jr. G
Jesse Pruitt	6'-2" Jr. SG
Brett Williams	6'-2" Jr. SG/SF
Jason Harris	6'-3" Jr. F/G
Kirk Snyder	6'-5" Jr. F
Lionel Davis	6'-7" Jr. F
Tye-Juan Hatter	6'-5" So. F/G

We'll try to get the scores posted up from the first day's games, and maybe get a look at the BSE team in single elimination.