kingwood classic

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

SCA & Belmont Shore At Houston's
"Kingwood Classic" This Weekend --(Apr. 27, 2001)

This weekend several teams from the SoCal area will compete in Houston at the Houston Kingwood Classic, including two teams in the 17-U division which feature many of the top players in SoCal. We heard from Dinos Trigonis about a week ago and he told us that he would be bringing his Belmont Shore squad to Houston to compete in the event, a 24 team event which will feature some top teams, mostly from Texas, but a few from other states as well. The Kingwood Classic is sponsored in part by the Houston Hoops, a travel team and club organization originally founded in 1986 by Arizona player Josh Pastner. Eventually when Josh went off to college, his dad Hal Pastner took over the organization and it's grown to become the Houston area's largest club organization and they've had more than 80 players (both boys and girls) get D-I scholarships, and they've also had a few players go to the pros (e.g. Rashard Lewis with the Seattle Sonics, and Steven Jackson with the Phoenix Suns). The Kingwood Classic is also run by the "Competitive Basketball League" (or as they call it, CBBL), and the Houston Kingwood Classic event has it's own website. There are several age divisions, but the one you'll want to pay attention to if you intend to follow the tournament's top travel teams (assuming they will be updating it as the tournament progresses) is the 17-U bracket.

Here are the pool assignments in the 17-U division:

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
1. Southern Cal All Stars 2. Kentucky Stars 3. Team Texas	1. Houston Hoops 2. Belmont Shore 3. Shreveport/Bosier Select	1. Georgia Stars 2. Houston Select 3. Junior Hardballers	1. NW Houston Raptors 2. San Antonio Tornados 3. Texas Tornados
Pool E	Pool F	Pool G	Pool H
1. SW Arkansas Hornets 2. KYBA Select 3. Galveston Hornets	1. Dallas Dirty Dozen 2. Jaguars 3. Cy Creek Cougars	1. Houston Lynx 2. SE Texas Allstars 3. Texas Warriors	1. Houston Gold 2. Midland Hawkeyes 3. San Antonio Platinum

The Southern California All-Stars (SCA) will be coached by Tommy Lewis, and they'll have the usual suspects:

Bobby Jones	6'-7" Jr. G/F	Compton Dominguez
Darius Sanders	6'-5" Jr. F	Compton Dominguez
Nate Carter	6'-6" Jr. F	San Diego Horizon
Rayshawn Reed	6'-0" So. G	Inglewood
Samir Hernandez	6'-7" Jr. F	Compton Dominguez
Derek Stockalper	6'-5" Jr. G	Carlsbad
Mikey Strawberry	6'-5" Jr. F	Santa Ana Mater Dei
Vincent Camper	6'-4" So. G	Oxford, MS
David Burgess	6'-9" Fr. F	Irvine Woodbridge

SCA will likely have a few more guys we don't know about, but that ought to be the basic core group. Belmont Shore will have, at a minimum:

Harrison Schaen	6'-8" So. F	Santa Ana Mater Dei
Wesley Washington	6'-3 So. G	Santa Ana Mater Dei
Jamaal Walls	6'-7" Jr. F	LA Crenshaw HS
Trevor Ariza	6'-8" So. F	LA Westchester
Patrick Hadden	6'-1" Jr. G	Irvine Woodbridge

As for the other teams, we know some of them, but we also picked up some info from our friend Clark Francis at the Hoop Scoop, who had this to say about some of the other teams:

The Host Houston Hoops will showcase 6'4 Jr Cedrick Hensley from Cleveland (Heritage Christian) TX. If you will recall, he's the player who scored 100 points in a game earlier this year. While Hensley provides the outside fire power, 6'10 Soph Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozne) TX, who is ranked as the #2 sophomore in America by the HOOP SCOOP, and 6'8 Soph Ndubi Ebi from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX make it tough to come inside on the hoops.

The Houston Junior Hardballers will feature 6'10 Jr Elijah Miller from Cleveland (Heritage Christian) TX, 6'6 Jr Tim Mayes from Cleveland (Heritage Christian) TX, and 6'9 Soph Nick Stiggers from Memphis (Hillcrest) TN, who is the #2 ranked sophomore in Tennessee according to our Mid-South Editor Jim Rothman.

The Georgia Stars arrive with 6'4 Jr Derrick Broony from Woodland (H.S.) GA, 6'5 Jr Quentin Moses form Athens (Cedar Shoals) GA, 6'8 Jr Chris Ellis from Marietta (HS.) GA, and 6'4 Jr Wayne Arnold from Lilburn (Berkmar) GA.

The Houston Lynx will feature 6'2 Jr Kevin Smith from Humble (H.S.) TX and

The Kentucky Stars are a well rounded team, but 6'3 Soph Michael Bush from Louisville (Male) KY, 6'7 Jr LaVar Carter from Louisville (Male) KY, and 6'5 Jr Orlandus Hill from Paducah (Tilghman) KY have to mentioned.

Team Texas has 6'3 Jr Bracy Wright from The Colony (H.S.) TX and 5'11 Jr Bryan Hopkins from Dallas (Lincoln) TX.

Clark will be at the tournament and hopefully, if the CBBL folks don't update their website, he'll provide us with some insights into what's happening. However, those are just the players we know about. I'm sure we're add a number of new names to this list as the weekend progresses.

SCA will also have a team competing in the 16-U bracket (sophs and rising juniors), and while we're not certain who will be on that team, it ought to be pretty similar to the "SCA Frosh/Sophs" who played at the Pump Easter Tournament several weeks ago, including guys like:

Mohamed Abukar	6'-8" So. F	Rancho Bernardo
Aaron Aflalo	6'-1" Fr. G	Compton Centennial
Brandt Bangs	5'-9" Fr. G	Foothill
Jamie Diefenbach	6'-7" Fr. F	Newport Harbor
Owen Olson	6'-8" So. F	La Costa Canyon
Drew Terry	6'-4" So. G	Northwood
Mikel Watson	6'-0" So. G	El Camino
Shawn Weinstein	6'-1" So. G	Peninsula

Finally, in the 10-U division, the "Inland Stars" team will be there as well. Clark wrote that the Inland Stars "might be worth a look as well, because this top rated team includes tremendous size with 5'10 Chris McFalls from Rancho Hills, CA, 5'8 Joseph Burton from Monte Vista, CA, 5'8 Demetrius Walker from Live Oak, CA, and 5'5 Rome Draper from East Heritage, CA. Burton and Walker all both in the 5th grade, but McFalls and Draper all only 4th graders."

Good luck to all the SoCal teams at the Houston Kingwood Classic.