usa basketball finals

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

USA 2000 Youth Development Festival:
North Takes Gold From West--(June 21, 2000)

As we suspected well might happen, the team with the best overall record at the 2000 USA Basketball Youth Development Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado didn't win the Gold medal, but finished third. How does that happen, you ask? Well, the South Team, which finished 4-1 overall didn't get the Gold Medal because of a simple quirk of how the games were structured. Winning their first three straight games, the fourth game was considered a "semifinal" contest which the South lost to the West team led by Concord De La Salle's Joe See (6'-0" Sr. PG/SG). Thus the West moved into the Gold Championship game with a 2-2 record, while the South, at that point 3-1, moved to the Bronze Medal game for third place. And just as we thought might happen when the West team met up with the talented North team (also 2-2 at that point, and playing with the West's own Marques Crane, and with Brandon Bender, Dennis Lattimore and Rick Rickert), the West lost, finishing 2-3 overall, but still won the Silver Medal.

Best players overall from the West/SoCal?: Jamaal Williams (6'-5" Sr. SF/PF) who finished with 20.6 ppg, just ahead of Joe See with 20.2 ppg. See also finished with 5.2 assists per game, just slightly below teammate Aaron Miles' average of 5.6. Surprisingly, Chris Hernandez (6'-2" Sr. PG) from Clovis West, in comparison to Miles and See, barely saw the floor in these games, averaging just 15.8 minutes per game over the course of five games (12 minutes in the Championship game, 15 minutes in the semifinal, 14 minutes in the third game, 21 minutes in the second session game, and just 17 minutes in the first session game), and he had the statistics you'd expect from a guy who only plays roughly a third of a 40 minute game, maybe even worse than that, posting just 5 asssits total , 7 steals, and only 10 points overall in the entire five games.

In contrast, See played 23, 26, 27, 23, and 36 out of 40 minutes in the final, averaging 27 minutes a game, while Miles played 29 out of 40 in the Championship, 29 in the semifinal, 26 in game 3, 30 of 40 in game 2, and 29 minutes in game 1 (28.6 avg). Oh, and Jason Fontenet, the other top point guard from the West? Well, it appears he played only 20 minutes in game 1, 10 minutes in game 2, 14 minutes in game 3, 0 in game 4 (the semifinal), and 0 minutes in the Championship game. We're not sure what happened to Jason, but if he was injured there's no mention of it in any of the articles at USA Basketball's official site, which contains recaps of each of the 5 games played. Again, we'll have to wait to find out what really happened.

Still, even with limited playing time, Hernandez' 7 steals put him fourth overall among all players at the event in that category, an impressive statistic and testament to his defensive ability and intensity. Why were the minutes so disparate among the top point guards? Well, we really have no idea since we we didn't see these games, so we'll have to wait to find out from guys like Frank Burlison (who is starting his new gig with FoxSports.com) to tell us what really happened besides what the cold statistics reflect.

Other top players for the West were Josh Childress, who averaged 13.6 ppg, Floyd North who averaged 8.2 ppg, Craig Smith at 7.2 ppg, Jamal Sampson who finished with 32 rebounds over 4 games (he missed the first game) for an 8 rpg average, Demarshay Johnson with 4.2 ppg and Jason Fontenet with 5.0 ppg.

Oh, and the West's/SoCal's top three point shooter? Here's a clue: He didn't play for the West team (which likely would have won the Gold had he not been playing for the wrong team, the Gold Medal North team). Second clue: He was the second most productive player scorer from the West, averaging .533 from the floor overall, and .500 from three-point range. Who was it? Marques Crane (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) from Ocean View.

In any event, the final game was very close, a 5 point difference, and USABasketball's official press release featured a nice recap of the game, which can also be found (along with complete stats) at the official games' site, USA Baskeball.

North Holds Off West 95-90 To Capture Gold Medal Contest, South Edges East 101-98 To Take Home The Bronze

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 21, 2000) -- The 2000 USA Basketball Men's Youth Development Festival finished up Wednesday morning with the closest medal round games in the event's three- year history, as the North (3-2) behind a balanced scoring effort pulled ahead of the West (2-3) in the gold medal game's final three minutes to capture the gold medal with a 95-90 win, while the South (4-1) rebounded from its disappointing semifinals upset to claim the bronze medal with a 101-98 victory over the East (1-4).

"I thought the kids really came through, really played well. I think last night in the semifinals we had seven kids in double
figures and two of them had nine, and again today I think everyone came in and contributed, offensively and defensively,"said North head coach Criss Beyers. "We had people come in for two or three minutes and really play well, then we'd bring
someone else in and they'd play well. It was really a good, good effort by all the kids."

The gold medal contest was a 40 minute battle, with both team's posting impressive runs, only to see the other team rally back. The North, trailing 27-24 with 9:50 to play in the opening half, appeared to be on the verge of blowing the game open after a 17-4 run that saw them open a 43-36 lead with 2:48 remaining before half. The North continued to score consistently and by halftime possessed a 52-44 advantage .

The West, who overcame an 0-2 start to advance to the gold medal game, showed it was not going away quietly when it opened the second half with a 17-3 offensive explosion to take the lead 61-55 with 15:35 to go. The North, which opened the second half by making just one of its first 12 shots, found its touch and countered with its own impressive run, outscoring the West 20-8, behind seven points from Rick Rickert (Duluth East H.S. / Duluth, Minn.) and six points from Dennis Coutee (Jeffersonville H.S. / Jeffersonville, Ind.), to take charge 75-69 with 10:28 left.

The gold medal was still up for grabs with 2:41 to play as the contest was tied 83-83. The North took the lead for good on Brandon Bender's (Ballard H.S. / Louisville, Ky.) hoop, then as the West found scoring impossible, the North added a basket from Danny Horace (Western Hills H.S. / Cincinnati, Ohio), a free throw from Marques Crane (Oceanview H.S. / Lakewood, Calif.) and a basket by Alan Anderson (De LaSalle H.S. / Minneapolis. Minn.) to move ahead 90-83 with 1:36 left.

The West's Aaron Miles (Jefferson H.S. / Portland, Ore.) kept their hopes alive and after making a three with 41 seconds left to close the gap to 92-88, however, with the West forced to foul, the North iced its win when Aaron Robinson (Guilford H.S. / Rockford, Ill.) made two clutch free throws with 38 seconds to play to push the North's lead to 94-88.

Six players scored in double digits for the gold medalist North, led by Coutee's 17 points, while Crane and Anderson finished with 15 points, Horace added 13, Bender finished with 11 and Dennis Latimore (Halstead H.S. / Halstead, Kan.) had 10 points. Owning a 11 rebound advantage on the boards, the North's rebounding effort was headed by Latimore, 13 rebounds, and Horace, 10 boards.

"This feels good, all that hard work we did, all those practices, we started off slow but then everything started rolling when we got into the game," said Horace, who scored 10 points in the game's final 6:50. "Coach told me to start taking the ball to the basket so I just started trying to go to the basket strong and get them in foul trouble."

Miles and Williams paced the West attack with 21 points each, while Joseph See (De LaSalle H.S. / Concord, Calif.) added 16 and Jamal Sampson (Mater Dei H.S. / Santa Ana, Calif.) was credited with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Craig Smith (Fairfax H.S. / Los Angeles, Calif.) led the West's rebounding with 12.

The South, which won all three of its preliminary round games but fell in the semifinal, rebounded to claim the bronze medal with a 101-98 victory over the East.

"The kids are dead-legged and tired," said South head coach Phil McNeely (Duncanville H.S. / Duncanville, Texas), "and you just hope that when it comes down to the last few minutes like that, you can make some plays. Terrance's (Ford) (Willowridge H.S. / Houston, Texas) steal at the end was really big, then we made some free throws. We just made a couple of good plays at the end, it was a really close game that could have gone either way.

"I really enjoyed myself this week," added McNeely. "We got to see some pretty good players. The competition was great, the staff treated us great. It was a fun time and I really enjoyed myself."

The score see-sawed throughout most of the first half and with five minutes to play, the East held a narrow 38-35 lead. Receiving points from four different players, the South went on a 10-2 scoring spurt to reclaim the lead, 45-40, with 2:25 left and closed the half with a 54-46 advantage.

While the South never trailed in the second half, the East kept the game close and with 1:45 to go, J.J. Redick (Cave Spring H.S. / Roanoke, Va.) nailed a three-pointer to tie the game at 96-96. Jason Maxiell (Newman Smith H.S. / Carrollton, Texas) made a layup to push the South ahead 98-96. The East was sent to the line twice in the next 30 seconds, both times making the second of two and the score was again tied at 98 apiece with 55 seconds remaining.

After the South missed an attempt, the East grabbed the rebound and began pushing the ball down the court when Ford stole the ball away, was fouled and made his second free throw to put the South up by one, 99-98, with 20 seconds left. The East, which was unable to convert on its next possession, fouled Maurice Williams (Murrah H.S. / Jackson, Miss.) with two seconds remaining and Williams converted on both his tries from the line to ice the win.

"Coach said that when you get tired is when the heat gets rough so you have to keep pushing it," said South leading scorer Greg Tinch (Westover H.S. / Albany, Ga.), who finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds. "The more you push it, the better the outcome will be. It's just like in college or in the NBA, they're all tired in the final two minutes. But the last two minutes really counted, so we had to go out and play hard and we pulled it out