SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Double Pump Fall Premier: Dominguez
Takes Third Consecutive Title In 3 Weeks--(Sept 26, 2000)

Compton Dominguez didn't cover the spread, which one wag in attendance proclaimed to be 12 points.  Now we didn't want to encourage betting on events such as this, so we kinda, sorta frowned a bit, but couldn't resist jumping at the bait. . . we took the wager and man were we surprised when Dominguez only won by 7, a not too overwhelming margin, but enough for the Dons to take their third straight fall tournament title in the last three weeks.   Domginuez has now won the 2000 Fullcourt Press Fall Hoops Classic two weekends ago, and the adidas Double Pump Fall Premier Tournament this past weekend.   They no doubt would have won the EBO/Mats Madness "Sweet 16" had they been there(and had it actually been a tournament rather than just three games), but they were busy that weekend instead winning the Rim Rattler Inland Empire Tournament instead.

Dominguez, playing three games on Sunday, two on Saturday and one on Friday, managed to eke out the win over Pump N Run on Sunday by the final score of  Dons 65, Pump N Run 58.   Oh, and for those who think Dominguez, aka "The Hood", aka "Dons" (which is what all the programs here called them rather than "The Hood") will be in a "rebuilding" mode given the graduation of point guard Michah McKinney, who will be playing the one at Pepperdine this year, and/or Keith Brooks, who will be playing power forward at Cal State Fullerton. . . well, forget it.   The Dons are solid. Likely again the No. 1 HS team in the country, and Tyson Chandler is still the "franchise."

They may have lost some bodies, but they are still one of the deepest teams anywhere and they will be tough for anyone to beat this season.  Oh, they're beatable, some might say very beatable, and whether they will have Steve Moore once the season gets going is also anyone's guess, and there's no doubt that will hurt.   They have not really replaced Brooks or McKinney, but they've got a lot of new bodies (e.g., Travon Free, Tony Bryant, Paul Johnson, Marcus Malone, etc) and some of the younger guys are really stepping up the level of their play, including guys like Darius Sanders and Shamir Hernandez who up until now have been more impressive for their promise than their actual level of production.  But with two impressive finals performances that we've witnessed lately, including two weeks ago in the Fullcourt Press Fall Hoops Classic at Lynwood,  in an 11 point victory over the LA Paladins, 73-62, and yesterday's 65-58 win over Pump N Run,  there's no doubt that Dominguez is certainly the best Division II-A team anywhere in the Southern Section, and they have to be considered the favorites to win the State title yet again.  The Dons rebound, jump and while they spend a lot of time lately standing around in half-court offenses, there's not a team that we think is better at playing jump-switch defense.  We did notice that this team doesn't seem to be a big proponent of the amoeba defense that has been a trademark of previous Russell Otis teams, but then again, maybe it's just that Russell wasn't coaching, but watching from a sideline seat far from the action.

This final game on Sunday  featured two talented teams, one of mostly juniors, the other about an even split,  and they battled it down to the wire even though they were both injured and dead tired by Sunday night.  Here are the rosters:

Alex Gamboa Has committed to Yale

This game was, as noted above, a lot closer than anyone expected and at various points in the first half, Pump & Run led by as   many as 7, but by the half, Dominguez managed to squeak out a three point lead but it still looked like it might be anyone's game. Tyson Chandler (7'-0" Sr. C) showed flashes of brilliance for the Dons,  with some startling spin-dunk moves, and one slashing, twisting-flying two hander in the first half which got the crowd up off their feet.   Tyson gave Martin Iti (6'-11" Jr. C) and young David Padgett (6'-11" So. C) some things to think about, and for both it was a lesson perhaps in the difference between playing against other high school players who can be fairly easily dominated and a potential lottery pick who can't.  Iti and Padgett both had their moments scoring on Chandler, but even with the more mature Iti, who managed to get a couple of mid-range jumpers to drop over Chandler, it was a real lesson in what they'll both need to do to take their games to a higher level.  Iti displayed good touch and feel around the basket, while Padgett's game was more suited to powering into the paint and just getting to the basket with force, and there's no doubt that if Tyson was the "franchise" three years ago (he still is) that Padgett could be the next truly phenomenal big man to come out of California (at least he will be once he moves to Santa Barbara after this season to join his father who is starting as an assistant coach at UCSB, taking over for Jon Wheeler, who returned to coach at Cal when Scott Beeten got the Albany head job.)

Brad Buchman

Brad Buckman (6'-8" Jr. F) and Lance Soderberg (6'-8" Jr. F) also had good games on Sunday as well, and senior David Woods also managed to show some excellent defensive plays while matched up against Bobby Jones and Darius Sanders.  We really like Buckman though, and in our view he's a sort of   slightly shorter (about three inches) version of Rick Rickert:  Smart, great feel for the game, excellent footwork, and really tenacious around the basket, scoring a lot of putbacks, and tip-ins. . . now if he can only pick up three more inches in height between now and next summer he will be next year's Rickert. 

Soderberg was sort of an enigma, and he had an up-and-down series of games from Friday to Sunday, alternately playing well and then sometimes not or just seeming to disappear, but by Sunday's game he was finally ready to have an excellent peformance, and he got a lot more playing time than in prior games, especially considering that Nik Caner-Medley (6'-7" Jr. F) was injured and did not play in this game, sitting on the sidelines in street clothes.  And for those who don't know it, Caner-Medley took an unofficial visit on Saturday morning to USC, where he got the chance to talk with coach Bibby.  Nik told us he really enjoyed the visit, but before the Trojan-faithful get a bit too excited, just remember that Caner-Medley, a guy who came out of nowhere, who simply showed up unannounced at the Pump Camp this summer (his dad told us he found out about the camp from reading SoCalHoops, so we're pleased we helped make that happen in some small way), is going to be a major talent and he's already hearing from everyone  (well, at least to the extent that juniors can be recruited).  Nik is getting attention and he has been calling coaches himself to find out more about programs, including most of the major east  coast schools (e.g., Kentucky, Duke, UMass, UConn, etc), and schools like Kansas, North Carolina, etc, are also showing lots of interest, sending him letters daily.  If the Trojans are able to get him, it would be a major coup in our view, and he could be an immediate impact player. . . imagine him and the Cravens, Jerry Dupree, and then look up the definition of "hardworking" in the dictionary and you're likely to see a picture of those four. Scary. 

For Dominguez, they went with their usual starting five when things got close:  Chandler, Steve Moore (Will he or won't he play this year as a 5th year?  Who knows?), Darius Sanders, Keion Kindred, and Paul Johnson at point who seems to have jumped over Mingus Murray, at least for now.   There were some excellent guard matchups with Brandon Rohe and Alex Gamboa matching up against Steve Moore and Bobby Jones, David Gale and Marcus Williams matched up against Keion Kindred, Paul Johnson and Mingus Murray, some good perimeter slashing duels early with Soderberg and Buckman matched up against Bobby Jones, Montel Williams and Saul Langston.  And inside, Woods, Buckman and Soderberg did a decent job against Darius Sanders.   But Dominguez, which is so solidly coached (even though Russell wasn't coaching) surprised a lot of people by not simply depending on their transition game, but instead running a variety of half-court sets, looking for backdoor cuts off some interesting motion plays, running cuts and weaves, and in general getting the ball to Tyson when they needed to stimulate some adrenaline. . . just as the game seemed to be getting away from the Dons, Tyson would get the ball, spin, fly and twist to the basket for an amazing slam dunk. And nobody could touch him.  Scary.  

This was a fun game and a great way to end what was otherwise an excellent tournament, and start to wind down the fall NCAA exposure period (which concludes this coming weekend) in preparation for the fall signing period in November (11th through 18th) and the start of the high school season (games will start November 21).   We managed to take quite a few photos from this game. We won't post them all right now, but just enough to give you all a flavor of the game and some of the players in it 

Caner-Medley warms up	David Wood	Marcus Williams	Caner-Medley	Future Don from SCA
Darius Sanders at the line shooting two		Padgett at the line	Gale (22) passes crosscourt to Rohe (not pictured)
Gale defends Montel Williams		Brad Buckman cuts through the paint	Marcus Williams gets ready to hit the three
Rohe defending Keion Kindred		Gamboa defends Kindred; Soderberg on Sanders, Padgett on Chandler, Williams on Jones, Rohe looks to trap
Rohe gets airborn with the jumper		Soderberg (guarded by Sanders) looks inside to the post as Chandler guards Iti.
Chandler at the line		Williams looks to block Jones
		Paul Johnson (left); Gale fronts &  Iti guards Chandler
Tyson punctuates the win with a final slam dunk at the buzzer

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