SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Other Top Tourneys: Gibbons, Nike
Kentucky Bluegrass & More--(May 25, 2000)

In addition to the 4th Annual adidas-Mats' Madness tournament, which will be covered here on SoCalHoops and over at PacWestHoops by Tracy Pierson and Greg Hicks and on NorCalPreps, there will be at least two other top national tournaments and three other regional west coast events this weekend.   Here's what we know is happening:

The Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions-- This tournament has been renamed the "Blue Cross Bob Gibbons Championship" but it's the same great tournament which annually attracts the top teams from all over the country.  Teams attending will include the Michigan Mustangs, Belmont Shore (Dinos Trigonis will be there with his Belmont Shore team, featuring Dijon Thompson), the Tim Thomas Playaz from New Jersey,  which last year won the adidas Big Time and which featured Seaton Hall-signee Eddie Griffin.  Also attending will be teams like Houston Select, the Illinois Gold, Long Island Panthers, DC Team Assault, Atlanta Celtics, NJ Gym Rats, Illinois Fire, the New York Ravens, New Orleans Jazz, Illinois Select, the Wisonsin Friends of Hoop Lions, Alabama Ice, Fort Worth (TX) Lions, and many other excellent teams who we will likely at the adidas Las Vegas Big Time Tournament later this summer.  Bob Gibbons' own All Star Reports site on Rivals.com will also provide complete information on this tournament, and they've already got the pools and schedules as well as some player and team profiles.  Additional information can be found at some o f the other Rivals.com recruiting sites, including BorderWars Hoops and several other sites maintained at the Rivals network. If you're not in Fresno this weekend, this is the place to be for the top national high school prospects.

Kentucky Bluegrass Classic--Lexington, KY, May 27th-29th.  This tournament will feature some of the top Nike-sponsored teams from around the country. We've already posted the rosters for the High Five America high school travel team which will be attending, and beyond that, while we don't have a complete roster for other teams, there's a Rivals.com site, Kentucky Sports Reports which will be providing complete coverage of the event, including game schedules and results and reports.   The tournament will feature the top 36 Nike-sponsored teams in the "upper-division" (17-U, seniors) and another top 24 teams participating in the juniors division.   The tournament will start Saturday at 8:30 a.m. and conclude with the Championship in each division at 3 p.m. on Monday. SCA (aka So. Cal. Hoops) will be there with Tyson Chandler, as will other top players like Dejuan Wagner, Rashaad Carruth, David Lee, Carlos Hurt, and others from teams like Houston Hoops, Del Val Hoops, Alabama Lasers, St. Louis Eagles, Team Texas, Georgia Elite, Cleveland Top Prospects, Bloomington Red, Kentucky Elite and others.  The complete schedules for the tournament have been posted at Kentucky Sports Reports, and they'll have periodic reports and player profiles.  You can also try to find info in traditional media like  the usually reliable Lexington-Herald newspaper (the online version) which provided extensive coverage of the event last year. There will also be some limited regional coverage at several sites which focus on some of the teams from the regions sending players and teams, e.g., DC Hoops, a Rivals.com site that covers teams from the DC area who will be participating. 

In fact we found some pretty reliable information on a lot of the rosters for this tournament, including some of the players from the West Coast and California, SoCal in particular.  Miles Gonzales will be bringing his Sports Express team, and it is supposed to (we say "supposed to" because you never really know until they show up) feature Chad Bell (7'-0" Jr. C) from Westchester, Chuck Hayes (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) from Modesto, Isaiah Fox (6'-9" Jr. PF) from Crossroads and other guys like Maurice Tyree, etc.  Portland's Emerald City will be there with Mike Jensen (6'-8" Jr. F) and Solomon Wyette (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF). Houston Hoops is supposed to be bringing Carlos Hurt (6'-2" Jr. PG) Emeka Okafor (6'-9" Jr. F), Marcus Spears (6'-5" Jr. SF), Chris Rhoades (6'-9" Jr. F) and Daryl Mason (6'-3" Jr. G). The Portland Legends will bring top point guard recruit Aaron Miles (6'-1" Jr. PG) from Portland Jefferson. The Southern California All-Stars  (aka So.Cal. Hoops, coached by Pat Barrett) will have Tyson Chandler, Josh Childress, Jamaal Sampson, Cedric Bozeman, Shaun Mitchell, Ray-Ray Reed, Eddie Draughan, Darius Sanders, and Bobby Jones.  While we've heard a rumor that Jamaal Walls (6'-6" So. PF) from Crenshaw is supposed to be with the team, we've also heard that he'll be (1) in Fresno with Belmont Shore West, or (2) with Belmont Shore at the Gibbons Tournament with Dinos' team. . . the boy is in demand. . .  The Arizona Stars are rumored to also be bringing the Fontenets, but we've heard conflicting reports about that.   Ollie Goulston sent us an e-mail that they'll be with the Arizona team playing in the BCI Western Regionals too.  We spoke with their father earlier this spring at the Pump tournament and he told us that Jason and James would be in Kentucky, but once again, these things have a way of changing. . . and yes, they'll still be playing as the Arizona Double Pump All-Stars later this summer at the Big Time.. . . But the Bluegrass tournament will basicallyl feature most of the top Nike-sponsored players, whereas the adidas guys seem to be splitting time between Fresno and North Carolina.

Pacific Northwest AAU Reno Memorial Day Tournanent--There will be a fairly large Pacific Northwest AAU-sponsored tournament taking place in Reno, Nevada this weekend, and they've got a terrific website, with rosters, team and pool assignments, and it looks like they'll have scores, standings and highlights too.   This will, at least from a recruiting point f view, be a mostly youth tournament, but there will be some good local and regional high school teams trying to get to the AAU Nationals.  The tournanent will feature separate divisions for boys and girls all the way from 5th grade up to high school, and there will be three different divisions for the high schoolers, a 10th grade division, and two varsity brackets, for schools over 1,000 in enrollment, and another for schools under 1,000 students.   This annual tournament will feature most of the top youth teams from all over the west coast, including teams like the Oregon Quaxxe, Friends of Hoop (Washington), Oakland Slam N Jam, Ogden Tigers, Sacramento Gold, Utah Royals, and many other teams from all over the west coast.

Rising Stars-BCI Western Regional Memorial Day Tournament-- We've already posted as much information as we have for this one (check the multiple articles in the Daily Articles.  It should be a good tournament, and even if the high school division is small, there will be some excellent teams, including the Arizona team (which is playing under the name "Arizona Catholic" which is also the Double Pump Arizona All-Stars), featuring the Fontenets, Baker Dunleavy, Mike Stephens from Napa, and a lot of other excellent players.

There are many other regional events taking place all over the country, but these are pretty much it for the big, high-profile events.   SoCal players will be everywhere, from Fresno to Kentucky, to North Carolina.   In addition to our updates from the adidas Mats' Madness tournament, we'll try to provide updates from the other top tournaments throughout the weekend.

See you there.

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