SoCalHoops Tournament & Recruiting News

2nd Annual Oakland Slam N Jam Elite 8x2--
Team Rosters: Our Best Guesses--(July 27, 2000)

	What:	2nd Annual Oakland Slam N Jam Elite 8x2 Tournament
	Where:	UC Berkeley, RSF Center
	When:	July 28, 29 & 30
		Championship Games: Sunday, July 30
	Who:	16 Top Travel teams & 8 more

We've heard some news on some of the late roster changes for this tournament, and while we don't know precisely all of the changes, we can pretty well figure out who is going to be playing for whom.  Here's what we either know, or believe you'll see at the Elite 8x2 this weekend from each of the teams (note this is in alphabetical order, so it's not listed with any "seeding" or other preference in mind):

2 The Hoop

This is J.J. Polk's team, and it features some excellent players from the Sacramento area.  We haven't heard of any roster changes, but these are the guys who played in Vegas, and barring injury or other commitments, here's who you will likely see from this team:

805 Basketball

This is George Albanez' team, and while most of this team (with the exception of Mike Charleston from Grant) took the week off and didn't play at the Best of Summer, we haven't heard of any changes in the roster from Vegas.   Dommanic Ingerson is the star of this team, and many say he's also the bane of it (that is if you are one of his teammates) but there's no denying that he can put the ball in the hole and score. . . big time.  He's got a lot of schools chasing him around, including Cal, so the coaches at Berkeley will be eyeing him very closely.  You'll also want to watch Charleston and Adam Allegro as well as point guard Armando Surrat, and the rest of the Santa Barbara guys, including Putnam and Kupperman.

Bay Area Ballers

They'll have two teams in this event.  Again, we haven't spoken with Nelson Washington, but based on the rosters from the Best of Summer tournament, and barring any injuries, we'd expect to see the following two teams listed below.   Patrick Galos, Matt Short, and most of the guys on the 1 team will merit most of the coaches attention, and the #2 team we would expect to see in the 8-team tournament which will run concurrently with the 16-team mostly senior team tournament.

Bay Area Ballers I

Bay Area Ballers II

Belmont Shore

This one is always tricky, and Dinos Trigonis' squads have changed frequently throughout the spring and summer.  Last week at the Best of Summer, after a pretty successful run at the Big Time, Belmont Shore entered a team and because of injuries to players and guys playing for their high school teams at the Fairfax tournament, Dinos had difficulty even fielding a team, with the result that on Sunday night, Belmont played with only five players through regulation and then went to double overtime with only four guys after point guard Ruben Sanchez fouled out.  In any event, here's who we think you'll see on this team this weekend (although we can't really be too sure about it):

Double Pump (aka Pump N Run)

The Pump N Run team from the Vegas tournament and the Best of Summer is done. . . the guys are banged up, tired and all of the out-of-state guys (Rick Rickert, Chris Jackson, etc) have gone home.  Chris Hernandez and Charlie Rodriguez were originally going to play, but Chris told us that he too was just going to take the rest of the summer off, which is pretty smart for a guy who has already committed to Stanford and doesn't really need to be out there.  Of course the competition would like to be playing against him and the rest of that team too. . . .The Double Pump team which will be in Berkeley is, at it's core, virtually the same team which started out the spring together, and which was originally going to be coached by Jeff Young, who elected to only coach his Chaminade team this summer.   The team has consistently had the same guys though playing together since March, including Bakari Altheimer, David Gale, Andrew Moore, Quinn Hawking, Jono Harper, and Dustin Villepigue.   They've played well, finishing in the Elite 8 at the Pump Spring tournament, and at the same level (round of 8) in Fresno at the EBO Mats' Madness over Memorial Day. While they won their first game in Vegas easily, they then proceeded to lose a tough one to Friends of Hoop Orange which seemed to unsettle them until they returned to LA for the Best of Summer, where they finished out in the Round of 16 in the Championship Bracket on Sunday night.     

They will be minus a couple of guys who will be away at camps or other tournaments, and they've picked up some excellent players to fill in, including David Patten, a tall and effective junior face-up combo wing/forward, Matt McGinnis, one of Orange County's leading scorers last season and a senior who's recruiting is wide open, and Kyle Egkan, a strong and steady presence in the post.  The young sophomore phenom, David Padgett was, as of this writing, also considering playing this weekend, but candidly, we think he's probably finished for the summer, but then you never know. . . . Jason Carter the senior from Bishop Gorman who played with this team starting in the spring and throughout the summer tournaments (whom many analysts and recruiting guys are saying hasn't played as hard as he could have or needed to this summer to "improve" his recruiting) will not be playing this weekend and he'll be in Laughlin, Nevada taking a break with his family.   As an aside, despite the naysayers, Jason has already been offered by several schools, including Colorado and a couple of others we aren't free to mention right now.  There are many other schools that remain hot on his trail (some quietly, others making their presence known) and those include UNLV (yes, we know they are still interested despite what you read from the Nevada papers and internet guys), New Mexico, UTEP, St. Louis, and a couple of other Pac-10's.    Justin Burns (Jason's cousin) also won't be there this weekend:  He's at Five Star at the Pitt IV camp (the best of the season) and he's getting a lot of attention from a lot of West Coast schools, mostly WCC,  Big West, Mountain West, and WAC's, but also from USC and some other Pac-10's, and we expect that if he has some good scoring and shooting performances at Five Star he'll get more east coast attention too.  But right now the biggest concern he has is whether he will be granted eligibility to play back in Nevada because of his transfer back to Bishop Gorman from Georgetown Prep in Washington, DC.   Also,  Marques Crane, who performed so well at the US Basketball Development Festival in late June, will be in Vegas at the Grand Finale with his Ocean View HS team, along with Torin Beeler who didn't play at the Big Time or the Best of Summer due to injuries.  Here's the roster as far as we know it for this tournament (again there could be some changes, but we don't expect many):

EBO

Mats' team is in some flux right now, and we're not certain exactly who he will have, but we expect it will be mostly the local Fresno guys, since the out of state guys have reportedly gone home (e.g., Antonio Lawrence, who we heard returned to Florida).  Likewise, Jamaal Williams won't be coming, and he's taking the week off after playing in Vegas for Mats and then at the Best of Summer for Pump N Run.    Here's the roster from Vegas, 

Inland Empire Basketball Program (IEBP)

Keith Howard's squads will probably look the same as last week at the Best of Summer.  Here's who we'd expect to see:

IEBP I

IEBP II

Inland

Inland (which is not to be confused with IEBP), is coached by Elvert Perry.  They had a great run through the Best of Summer, beating the tournament favorite Michigan Mustangs, in a low scoring game which we didn't get to see, but which sounded like an ugly game anyway. . . which is kind of what Perry's teams do, win, but it's not pretty (we're borrowing that line from someone who wrote the same thing on the message board about Glenn Marx' Mira Costa teams, and having spent some considerable time with Glenn these past two weeks, we can say that whoever wrote that was right on about him. . . . his teams win, but they usually don't look pretty in the process. . . but we digress).  Inland features sopme excellent players, mostly from the San Bernardino and Riverside area, many of whom are now at prep schools, but these are the guys we'd expect to see:

L. A. Paladins

Eric Hardin's Paladin squad features some really excellent players, including some guys who are getting a lot of recruiting attention (Doug Thomas for example) and some guys who should be getting more attention (Anthony Davis, for example), and they pulled off one of the big upsets of the Best of Summer by beating the Atlanta Celtics, but then lost to Cleveland BBall in the Round of 16.  We don't expect to see any changes to the roster from what they had in Vegas or at Dominguez Hills, so here's who you'll likely see: .

L A Rockfish I

The LA Rockfish have shuffled their rosters considerably since Vegas, and the teams that played at the Best of Summer will likely bear no resemblance to the two teams you'll see up in the Bay Area any more than the Vegas teams did to those at the Pump tournament.   We know that Julian Sensley will be in Hawaii dealing with some family issues and taking the weekend off, and we also heard that Bryant Markson had to get some stitches on his hand (which he split while dunking in his backyard), and a couple of other guys are either hurt or just not playing.  Now having said that, we think there's a core group of guys who we expect to see in Berkeley no matter what.  Here's who we would expect to see on the Rockfish I team:

Rockfish II

These are the likely suspects for this team.  Again, Mark and Dave mentioned the specific names last night during a late night call, but right now it's all a blur, so we're going from a dim memory, and with a short roster on the No. 1 team, perhaps a few of these guys will move up, as David Newkirk did at the EBO tournament this past Memorial Day weekend.  In any event, we think these are the most likely guys you'll see in Berkeley for the Rockfish II (which is also likely to be coached by Mark Berokoff):

Magic

We're not sure exactly who this is, but if it's the Mo-Town Magic, then it will be the following group which also played at the Best of Summer and in Vegas:

Michigan Mustangs

After winning the Bob Gibbons tournament, and making a strong showing in Vegas, at least in pool play and the first few rounds of bracket play in the Open Division, the Mustangs lost at the Best of Summer to Inland in the Round of 16, after almost getting knocked off by one of the "thrown together" Rockfish teams, and if Khalief Ford's performance against Anthony Roberson is any indication of what Ford is capable of doing (with a little help from Peter McCaslin, who will be at the Eastern Invitiational this week), Ford will be a big time player by next year.. . . . but back to the Mustangs.  This is a team which has slightly underachieved this summer, at least in our view, and largely we'd like to Robert Whaley step up and play hard a whole game, something which we haven't seen yet.  Still the Michigan State coaches will be following this group around as will many other D-I coaches this weekend.  Here's the roster:

Next Level

Next Level is coached by Steve Cotton, and they should have some very good players, including Brandon Worthy and Daniel Logan.  Who else shows, will be somewhat of an open question, but this team was surprisingly strong at the Best of Summer, losing in the Round of 16 to the Portland Legends after leading for much of the game.  Here's the roster:

Next Level II

Next Level II, also from Gilroy in the Central Valley, is coached by Hassan Houston, the father of Hassan Houston on the NL 1 team.  They didn't have as much success as their No. 1 team, but then that's to be expected from a largely younger group and we'd expect to see them competing at the separate 8-team tournament this weekend.  Here's the roster:

Oakland Slam N Jam

They should be well-rested, because they took the week off after the Big Time and didn't play at the Best of Summer.  Hey, they don't know what they missed, and clearly had they been there, they would have been one of the better teams.  But they should be loaded and rested for their own tournament, which is always a dangerous combination. . . 

Oakland Slam N Jam I

This is Calvin Andrew's and Ken Carter's number 1 team, and   they were doing fine at the Big Time until they ran into the Nebraska Bison/Runza team, which beat them by three points at the buzzer when a last second Joe See three-pointer failed to drop.  The only change for this team from Vegas that we know of is that Bryan Defares (6'-4" Sr./Prep) from Mt. Tam who is currently planning to attend a prep school in the fall won't be there.  In his place will be David Parris from Modesto Christian.  Other than that change, here's the roster:

Oakland Slam N Jam II

We don't know of any roster changes, but then we haven't had a chance to speak with Mark Olivier about this team (or about anything other than hotel reservations), so we'll just go with the Big Time roster

Sacramento Renegades

Don't know much about the Renegades, but presumably they are the same team that played last week at the Pump's under the name "Phat Game Renegades". . . if we're mistaken, then just disregard this roster:

Salt Lake Metro

Salt Lake Metro didn't play at the Pumps this year, but they were in Vegas.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them there, so we're looking forward to watching them in Berkeley.  Here's the Vegas roster:

SSA I

Another Sacramento team, they had a roster in Vegas which was vastly different than the one which they had at the Pump Best of Summer, and given the proximity, we'll go with the BOS roster, and therefore this is who we expect to see in Berkeley:

That's it. . . as much as we know right now about who will be (may be) playing in this one.  There will undoubtedly be a number of major changes, but until we get there, Calvin and his guys are just too busy to send us complete and final rosters. . . . and if this event is like any of the travel tournaments, there are bound to be some last minute changes. . . you can count on it.

We're off tomorrow traveling to the Bay Area, so don't expect much in the way of updates until late in the evening.

See you there.

 
©Copyright 1997-2000 All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
E-mail: jegesq@socalhoops.com