The 3rd Annual South Orange County Roundball Extravaganza will be held on Saturday, June 24, 2000, and it will feature 6 games in all, including one of the best lineups of the top talent in SoCal from among the incoming freshmen, to top developing class of 2003 freshmen (rising sophs), last seasons' class of 2002 sophs (rising juniors), and the best and brightest from the class of 2001, last year's juniors and the current "rising seniors," many of whom by this time next year will have signed with some of the top D-I programs, and there's at least one legitimate NBA prospect, in Dominguez' Tyson Chandler.  While this event takes place in "South Orange County," and it still manages a distinctly south-county flavor, don't let the name fool you because there are top players from all over Southern California who will be playing in the six games to be held at Santa Margarita.   

A single admission will get you in for the entire afternoon and evening, but for the sake of simplicity, we've decided to break our coverage up, at least for now, into afternoon and evening game rosters.   And somewhere in all of this will be a three-point contest and a slam dunk contest. 

This installment covers the evening games, starting with the Junior Boys' All-Star Game at 6:00 p.m., followed by the Girls Seniors/Top 20 game (which will feature a couple of underclass players), and capped off by the 8:30 p.m. Senior/Top 20 Boys' all-star game at 8:30 p.m., which is the game that everyone will be waiting for, the one which will pack the fans in from all over to see an amazing group of players.  

Even though these guys will be "rising juniors" by the time the game rolls around, we're still going to use this year's class designation, at least for a couple more weeks, so these guys are still sophs as far as we're concerned.   We recently saw many of these guys, including many of the Santa Margarita players, up in Fresno,  guys like Lenny Collins (6'-4" So. SG/SF), Travis Smith (6'-2" So. SG) and Brandon Rohe (6'-3" So. SG), the latter of whom we consider one of the top 10 shooting guards in this class in SoCal, and there are still others on this list whom we haven't seen since the first spring tournaments in April or since the end of the high school season, including guys like James Webster (6'-3' So. SG/SF)   who transferred from Mater Dei to Trabuco Hills because of baseball (an apparent dispute with the Mater Dei coaches), or Mike Mehana (6'-1" So. SG) at Glendora, so we're really looking forward to this game.   The game will several top point guards including David Gale (6'-0" So. PG), Carlos Rivers (5'-10" So. PG), and Omar Amaral (5'-11" So. PG), as well as some top combo / two guards like Geoffrey Clayton, Rohe, and Smith.  Martin Iti (6'-11' So. PF/C) and Brice Prather (6'-11" So. C/F) are two of the most talented big men in the class and there will also be some very talented forwards like Mercedes Lewis (6'-6" So. PF), Jamaal Walls (6'-7" So. PF) , and Darius Sanders (6'-5" So. PF),  as well as shooters and slashers like Pete Decasas (6'-5" So. SF), Bobby Jones (6'-5" So. SG/SF), Mike Strawberry (6'-4" So. SF/SG) and Travis Niesen (6'-5" So. SF/SG, and those are just the ones we're familiar with, and we're looking forward to seeing Steve Clark, Aaron Tudor, John Kupper, Jimmy Vollenhals, Matt Sweany, and Jake Franzen who we haven't seen in a while. 

The 6:00 p.m. game will be followed by the headliner girls' game which will get started at 7:15 p.m., and even if you don't regularly follow the girls' games, you'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard of most of these players.   Here's the roster:

We don't have a lot to say, and really, it's because we just can't say anything intelligent about these players. We've seen some of them more than once, but there are the obvious "big" names, like Mendiola, Trotter, Johns-Richardson, Mann, Shimoda, Zylstra, and others.  The girls 7:15 p.m. game will be followed the boys' senior/top 20 game, and this is quite a collection of players, really a very impressive list.

Again, we're not sure how this roster will be broken up into teams, but this is about a solid a group as we've seen since the Rockfish Spring League and the Pump "Super 40" workout back at the end of the last NCAA exposure period back in April.  And while we could go on and on about how everyone on the list is spectacular, how this guy or that guy can do amazing things, or how Tyson Chandler is likely to be the first high school lottery pick player chosen in next year's NBA draft if he goes,  we don't think there's a name on this list which isn't familiar to anyone who follows SoCal basketball.  Of course, this isn't just a rising seniors' game, and there are a couple of underclassmen who snuck in, like Fairfax's Evan Burns, Tim Drisdom from Calvary Chapel, and current freshman/rising soph Harrison Schaen from Mater Dei who played with SCA as a 13-14 year old, then played with BWBA and even snuck in a few games with Pump N Run, and who most recently played with Belmont Shore at the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions.  And while we're on the subject of club/travel teams, this list really has the top powerhouse travel teams from SoCal pretty well-represented:   Pump N Run/Double Pump has Torin Beeler, Marques Crane, Quinn Hawking, Errick and Derrick Craven, and Jamaal Williams (not to mention Shaun Michel, Cody Pearson, and Craig Smith who previously played Pump N Run);  Pat Barrett's SCA (aka "So Cal Hoops") is represented as usual by Cedric Bozeman, Tyson Chandler, Josh Childress, Edwin Draughn, Jamal Sampson and the latest re-addition to Barrett's team, Shaun Michel (who played with SCA as a 12 and 13 year old, if memory serves correctly), and who will,   if everything goes according to plan, transfer from Simi Valley to Mater Dei--Shaun will begin play for Mater Dei's summer team this next week, and if all goes well, will enroll there in the fall.  Belmont Shore's current roster (note we say "current roster", because virtually all of these guys have moved from team to team) is represented by Burns, Craig Smith, Schaen, Dijon Thompson, and Cody Pearson.  Suffice it to say, this is going to be a wild game, with some of the best players at every position, great athleticism, high flying, dunking, shooting and phenomenal ball-handling, and maybe if we're all lucky,  even a little defense too.

Somewhere during the three afternoon games and the three evening games, there will be a slam dunk contest, a 3-point contest, and a series of awards, including a lifetime achievement award which will be presented to Frank Burlison for his years of service to high school and college basketball reporting in SoCal, so there's a lot to squeeze into the entire day.

And again, we want to strees that unlike other "Extravaganza" events held during the regular high school season, there won't be any break, no clearing of the gym, and one admission is good for the whole thing, both afternoon and evening games.   Tickets are $10 for Adults, $6 for students, and $3 for children age 12 and under, and can be purchased at the door. 

For additional information about the event, call 949-206-2441, or be sure to visit the Plyo-City website, and look for the Roundball Extravaganza coverage there as well. . 

And just so no one complains that we've left them out, the event's main sponsors this year are the Orange County Register, Chick's Sporting Goods and Plyo-City Youth Development, along with participation from others such as XTRA Sports AM 690, WorldNet Computers, Branch West Basketball Academy, Rite Price Pharmacy, Sterling National Bank, Standard Pacific Homes, USA Trophy, and Orange National Bank.

We'll continue to have much more on this event the games get nearer.  

See you there.

 
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