palm springs tournament

Palm Springs Summer Classics Tourney,
First Of Five, This Weekend--(June 20, 2000)

What: Palm Springs Annual Summer Classic
Where: Palm Springs High School
When: June 23-25, 2000
Who: 16 Top High School Teams

While the "War on the Floor" is bigger, and the 3rd Annual South Orange County Roundball Extravaganza has the flashiness you'd expect from an All-Star event, those won't be the only two places you'll find some excellent basketball this weekend. One other tournament will be taking place in SoCal, out in the desert but fully air-conditioned, and it will mark the first of a five-part series of weekend boys' tournaments which will be held at Palm Springs High School. This one will feature some excellent teams, mostly D-III, IV and V, but a couple of CIF D-I's and II's as well. The tournament will run from Friday, June 23 through Sunday June 25, with the Championship game scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Sunday at Palm Springs. Here's the schedule for the first round (the bracket will follow the typical format for this type of tourney, with the first game determining whether a team advances into the 8 team winner's bracket or the 8 team loser's bracket). The newly renovated and air-conditioned gym has two courts, but both will not always be in use, at least not during the first round:

Time	Game	Main Court
3:00 p.m.	1	Palm Springs vs. Rancho Cucamonga
4:00 p.m.	2	Lincoln vs. Banning
5:00 p.m.	3	Cathedral City vs. Calvary Chapel
6:00 p.m.	4	Banning II vs. St. Monica	Game	Auxiliary Court
7:00 p.m.	5	Dos Pueblos vs. Chadwick	6	Fallbrook vs. Righetti
8:00 p.m.	7	Buckley vs. West Hills	8	La Habra vs. Colony (Alaska)

Game 1-- Palm Springs v. Rancho Cucamonga--The host Indians should have returning guys like rising soph Jared Otteson (6'-0" So. PG), Steve Avina (5'-7" Sr. G), Joe Johnson (5'-6" So. G), Caleb Barton (6'-2" Sr. SF), Charles Harris (5'-7" Sr. G), Antonio Greer (6'-4" Jr. F/C), Nick Nabhan (5'-9" Sr. G) and John Dahlin (6'-4" Sr. F), and hopefully they'll make up for the seven seniors who graduated from this past season's roster, off a team which lost to Perris in the first round of the CIF Southern Section I-A playoffs. Rancho Cucamonga is a team which made it this past season to the Division I-AA Southern Section quarterfinals, losing to eventual section champion Long Beach Poly. Rancho Cucamonga will have lost the services of 9 of the 12 players on that quarterfinal roster, including graduating seniors, including guys like Cal State Fullerton signee Derrick Andrew (6'-2" G), and others like Ron Ninofranco (5'-10" G), Corey Starks (6'-4" F), Cleon Berry (6'-0" F), Karim McDougall (6'-3" F), Dennis Adams (6'-1" F), Jon Wollam (6'-4" F), Andrew Taylor(5'-10" F), and Alonzo Williams (5'-11" G). In fact there are only three guys who we know that should be returning: Steve Watts (6'-0" Sr. G), Gerald Gilchrist (5'-11" Sr. G) and Bryan Aylor (6'-7" Sr. C), and the rest of the players will either be jv guys or transfers.

Game 2-- San Diego Lincoln Prep v. Banning.--Banning (from the Banning/Beaumont area, not LA Banning from San Pedro) should have talented rising soph point guard Shaun Davis (5'-8" So. PG), Dominic McGuire (6'-3" So. PG/SG) and the high-scoring Nate Carter (6'-4" Jr. G/F) . Banning won't have Darius Stewart (5'-8" PG), who we saw in this tournament last year but who has graduated along with Mike Davis (6'-1" Sr. SG) , but they'll still have Marlon "Bubba" Harris (5'-11" Jr. SG), Tremaine Williams (6'-0" Sr. SG) and the player who we still has the coolest name around, Flamingo Malone (6'-4" So SF/SG), a slender high post man who runs the floor well and can fill it up, who makes us think of great film-noir-type detective novels and Las Vegas all at the same time. . .

Game 3-- Cathedral City v. Calvary Chapel Santa Ana-- This will be a matchup of a Division II-AA public school against a relatively tiny D-IVA private school. We really aren't sure who will be with Calvary Chapel (which we believe will be the Santa Ana CC, not Downey), but since they lost Torin Beeler (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) who transferred back to Ocean View in mid-season last year, helping OV to the Southern Section II-A finals, where they would have won a title had it not been for Artesia's old men getting in the way, but here's who should be back with Bernie Francis' team: Isaiah Barney (5'-9" Sr. PG), Jeff Dressendorfer (5'-10" Sr. SG), Bryan Filkey (6'-3" Sr. F), Mark Hughes (5'-10" Sr. SG), Tony Olivas (5'-11" Sr. F), Canaan Owens (6'-2" Sr. F), and David Pawasarat (6'-4" Sr. C). Cathedral City, the larger and perhaps more talented team, will have Thomas Shewmake (6'-8" Jr. F), All-Desert Valley League MVP Gerald De Vance (5'-8" Sr. PG), Paul Heredia (6'-5" Sr. PF/SF), Brandon Gray (6'-4" Jr. SF/PF), Daniel Laing (6'-4" Sr SF), Jeff Lambert (6'-0" Sr SG), and Blake Moorman (6'-0" Sr. G) as the returning guys, and a bunch of new faces.

Game 4--Banning 2 v. St. Monica-- We have no idea what Banning will bring on this II team, but for St. Monica, a D-IV-A team, you're likely to see some excellent players on a loaded roster that returns just about everyone and which has to be considered a favorite in their division. . . with guys like Jamayne "Spud" Potts (6'-0" Jr. PG), Lance Washington (6'-0" Sr.SG), Robert Rakestraw (5'-11" Sr. SG), Sean Cole (6'-8" Sr. PF), Phil Minter (5'-10" Jr. G), Ben Agatep (5'-11" Jr. G), Bryan Cresci (6'-3' Jr. F), Brandon Walker (5'-11" Sr. G), Hampton Nunley (6'-2" Jr. G), Marcus Shelby (6'-6" Sr. F), Eddie Lloreda (6'-5" Jr. C), and two young rising sophs, Brandon Cruz (6'-2" So. F) and Kyle Guillory (6'-4" So. F). . . . oh, and they also brought a young freshman point guard up from the JV's during the playoffs last season who was really solid--no we don't remember his name, but he was an excellent player.

Game 5--Dos Pueblos v. Chadwick--Dos Pueblos, a Division II-A team lost only four seniors to graduation, and thus they return just about everyone, including four of their five starters: They graduated Brett Holbrook (6'-4" F), but will return Damon Jenkins (6'-3" Sr. SG/SF) a tremendous leaper and rebounder who can shoot from the perimeter, Steve Graybill (6'-1" Jr. PG), who is a capable ball-handler, one of the top point guards in the junior rising class, Anthony Ortiz (5'-9" Jr. G), and Scott Roegner (6'-5" Sr. F). In addition, Dos Pueblos also returns some other talented guys who should be at the tournament: Omar Cowan (6'-1" Sr. G), Duane Fortune (5'-10" Jr. G), Ken Sherman (6'-3" Sr. F), and two guys who moved up from JV during the playoffs last season, Chris Dalley (6'-1" Sr. G), and Aaron Mercer (6'-1" Jr. G). Chadwick, a division V-AA playoff quarterfinalist this past season, returns two-time All-CIF player Peter McCaslin (6'-2" Sr. PG/SG) who is playing with Rockfish this summer and is being recruited by most of the Ivy League and several west coast colleges as well, and the high scoring Michael Reich (6'-5" Sr. F) who averaged about 25 ppg this past season and who is playing travel ball this summer with the CABC team with some of the talented Santa Margarita guys. Chadwick also returns most of their roster, graduating only two players, and all of the starters return, including McCaslin and Reich as well as Wes Putnam (6'-3" So. F), Benn Barrett (6'-5" Jr. C) and Matt Fournier (5'-6" So. PG).

Game 6-- Fallbrook v. Righetti--Not much of a clue about either team, and in fact we didn't see either of them during the year, so this will be a "surprise" game for us to watch.

Game 7--Buckley v. West Hills-- We know almost nothing about West Hills. Actually we know two things about this team: 1. It's from San Diego; 2. They didn't make the playoffs last season. Buckley is a D-VAA team which made the "Sweet 16" round of the playoffs, losing to eventual Southern Section Champion St. Anthony's, and they return everyone except three players from last year's 23-3 team, including All-League MVP and All-CIF selection Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) and All-CIF point guard David Gale (6'-0" Jr. PG) who is playing with Double Pump All-Stars this summer and who will be returning on Friday afternoon from a Northwestern University players' camp in Evanston, Illinois, just in time to make the drive to Palm Springs, and he'll also play Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in the South OC Roundball Extravaganza. Buckley also returns Royal Weaver (5'-11" Sr. SG/PG), Steve Broukhim (6'-3" Sr. SG), Alex Clancy (5'-11" Sr. SG), Jake Scannell (6'-4" Sr. F), Murali Sivalingam (6'-4" Sr. SF), a great shot-blocker with really long arms, and some new guys including Tristan Seisa (6'-2" So. F) and Bryan Lalazarian (5'-8" Sr. SG).

Game 8--La Habra v. Colony (Alaska)--Obviously we don't know a thing about Colony. Craig Falconer's La Habra team should return several guys including Carver Kennerson (6'-3" So. SG), the high scoring Tristan Gadberry (5'-11" Jr. SG) a stocky but smallish two-guard who likes to shoot the three and can also drive to the hole, as well as Eddie Hernandez (5'-9" Sr. G), and some rising sophs like Tony McGagna (5'-9" So. G), Sean McDonough (6'-1' So. G), and Tyler McShane (5'-9" So. G). Gone is one of Orange County's more prolific scorers, Jason Smallwood (5'-11" SG) who averaged 16 ppg, but Gadberry's 19 ppg average should help soften the blow of losing Smallwood and other graduates like Mike Morales (6'-0" F), Gary Singer (6'-0" F), Jeremy Kirbis (6'-1" C), and John Sanchez (5'-11" F).

This should be a good, competitive tournament with a lot of different matchup possibilities among and between a lot of teams who don't usually play each other. Looks like fun and we'll try to keep the results and scores updated, but we're not promising anything. . . . .