SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Fullcourt Press 2000 Fall Hoops Classic:
Final Player Notes & Game Observations--(Sept. 10, 2000)

Today marked the final day of competition at the Fullcourt Press 2000 Fall Hoops Classic, and next weekend it's on to the EBO/EA Sports "Sweet 16" Tournament and then on to the Pump's "Fall Premier" Tournament which will feature something like 52 teams from all over the country. . . . but before we get ahead of ourselves, here's what happened today at the finals:

Dominguez, a high school team playing as a high school team (albeit wearing shirts which said "The Hood") beat the LA Paladins in a great final game by a score of 73-62, but until the last minutes when the Paladins were forced to foul, putting The Hood in the bonus, it was just a four point game, and very much on the line.

From our perspective (and from the perspective of  a few other observers) while there were certainly players flashier, and guys who were more exciting, the real MVP of the tournament should be Terrell Stovall (6'-2" Sr. SG/PG) from Inglewood, who has played with the Paladins ever since they got started last fall, and who in this tournament had an amazing run of games, scoring 36 points last night, and 39 points in the semifinal game today, and in the finals scoring 21 quietly and efficiently.  No other player in the tournament came even close (well, Evan Burns did in a couple of other high scoring performances) to scoring as many points as Terrell did, and the great thing about him is that he also plays great defense too.

The Hood, which won the game was actualy led by Steve Moore who had 23 points in the finals, which isn't bad for a 5th year senior, but other than Steve, Dominguez seemed to really be one of the few teams of strictly high school players (i.e.,no prep guys, no JC guys, and no imports from out of state), which is an interesting commentary considering that The Hood's star player is probably going to be going to the NBA after this season as a lottery pick.  Tyson Chandler (7'-0" Sr. C) only scored 12 in this outing and in fact he only played about 18 minutes overall due to back spasms (which had us reaching into our own bag to give him aspirin during the half).   Chandler didn't have a spectacular performance but he did show that he wasn't going to take any stuff from Andre Patterson as the two of them got into it a little during the first half with the elbows flying. . . nothing too outrageous, but it was kind of fun to watch these two guys jawing and shoving a bit before the refs asked them to tone it down.   Darius Sanders (6'-5" Jr. PF) also had 16 points for Dominguez, and he didn't have a very good first half, but improved in the second.   Darius is a wide-body type of kid who hasn't gottem much bigger since he was a freshman, but that's not to say he's not big. . .we're betting that he's at least 230+, and he's tough inside, but needs to get even tougher.  Darius has great hands, knows the game and is smart on the court, but he got himself into trouble (like a lot of young big guys) who rather than just keeping the ball up and going strong to the hole, think they have to pump fake or take a dribble before stepping to the basket.  The result was at least three jump balls as the Paladins' Anthony Davis or Terrell Stovall managed to tie up the ball while Darius exposed it before going to the rack.   Hey, picky, picky, picky. . . ok, so Dominguez won.

There are a few new faces on the Dominguez roster, including Tony Bryant (6'-4" Sr. G) who has transferred in from Villa Park.   Tony, Keion Kindred and Paul Johnson (5'-8" Sr. PG) alternated at various times at the point, but it's clear that of the three, Keion is the most athletic.   Mingus Murray either didn't play or we just didn't pay enough attention to him to notice him in the game, but it looks like he's not developing into that kind of point guard who will replace Keilon Fortune, who had he not had some trouble with the law, would likely have been the starting point for Dominguez last year and this year.  Bryant handled the ball adequately, went to the basket at the right times, but like last fall, it's clear that Dominguez has a few kinks and bugs to work out before the season starts and they can attempt to defend their mythical "national" ranking as the No. 1 team in America.

According to Russell Otis, Dominguez' head coach, the Dons will have plenty of opportunity to defend that title as they will go to the KMOX Shootout in Kansas in December, then travel to Oregon for the Nike-sponsored Oregon Hoops Classic, followed by a trip to the Slam Dunk to the Beach in Lewes, Delaware, where they will play some other major national high school powers.

Who else played well for The Hood?  Bobby Jones looked good, but just didn't get on the scoreboard much in this game, largely thanks to the defense of Stovall, who was on him like flies on . . . well, you get the idea.   It seemed as if Bobby went left, there was Stovall.  If he went right, there was Stovall.  If Bobby went to the bathroom, there was Stovall. . . .Jones had 5 points.   Shamir Hernandez showed remarkable signs of life in this tournament, and he will, if he continues to improve this season, perhaps fulfill all of the promise that many of us thought he had when he was just an 8th grader at the New Roads School before he transferred to Dominguez. Shamir is strong, tall (6'-7" at least) but he's always played a bit soft and tentative, sometimes looking a bit sleepy.  Maybe it's the coffee, maybe it's just that he realizes the clock is ticking, but whatever it was, Shamir looked really good today and throughout most of the tournament.  In fact, he's looked pretty good most of the summer, including at the Pumps West Coast All Star Camp where he made the All-Star game during the first session.

The Paladins are a team in transition, and tonight at the finals they had some players who have not previously played with them, and were missing some players who likely won't be back with them. . . .which is not at all different than what's been going on with just about every "team" that entered this event (except perhaps those few "high school" teams). . . Tonight, they were missing DeAngelo Collins who has apparently left for good, who was instead playing with Top Prospects, and former TPI teammate (and former Paladin) Jason McKinney.  On the other hand, the Paladins picked up Brandon Heathtonight, who was playing with at least three other teams in this tournament.  Heath is good, but on a team with as much talent as the Paladins have (e.g., they picked up Andre Patterson, who evidently replaces the other Anthony Davis--not the Inglewood AD who was still with the Paladins. . . two was obviously too many--), and in the final, Brandon only scored 8.  Andre Patterson was smooth and solid, scoring 19, but not overwhelming the opposition with the kind of flashiness and spectacular play that we saw from him earlier in the summer at the Carson Finale or at the Best of Summer where he played with the Municipal Gardens team out of the St. Louis area.  Derrick Clark continues to impress us the most among the point guards in the rising sophomore class (i.e., this year's group of sophs).  He's smooth, solid, smart and can run a team, knows when to dish, knows when to pull up, and knows when to drive. . . actually, it's kind of a tossup between him and Marcus Williams of Crenshaw, and maybe Marcus has the slight edge because he's a more reliable and deadly shooter from three as he demonstrated Saturday morning when he just bombed four straight three's in about four minutes. 

We don't have time to mention all of the really excellent players, but we'll just go through the scores and stats we have and pick our own "All Tournament" team (and by the way, we have the official score sheets. . . such as they are since Dinos gave them all to us at the end of the event, so we're not just making this stuff up, although there's a certain amount of subjectiveness when it comes to picking "All Tournament" players):

SoCalHoops "All Tournament" Picks:

Admittedly, this is a lot of guys, but all of them in one way or another had some really excellent performances at one time or another.

 
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