mats madness announcement

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

4th Annual adidas Mats' Madness Set
For May 26-28--(Apr. 3, 2001)

Former EBO star Carlos Boozer celebrated Duke's win over Arizona last night

There are many tournaments taking place over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but none better on the West Coast than that sponsored by EA Sports & adidas known as "EBO's Mats' Madness." EBO, for all you neophytes out there, stands for "Elite Basketball Organization." "Mats" is none other than Darren "Mats" Matsubara, the head of EBO, an organization which fields elite travel teams, and which is currently sponsored by not only adidas but also EA Sports. So, not to make the title of this event too cumbersome, it is officially the "4th Annual EA Sports-adidas Elite Basketball Organization Darren "Mats" Matsubara Memorial Day Mats' Madness Boys Basketball Tournament."

Or, if that's too much of a mouthful, "Mats' Madness".

Each year for the past three years over Memorial Day, Mats has put on a little tournament which has featured some of the best players from up and down the West Coast. In 1998, with a very young DeShawn Stevenson, and a powerful Carlos Boozer (left) EBO won the inaugural event. Two years ago, it was Calvin Andrews' Oakland Slam N Jam team which won, and last year it was the LA Rockfish. This year, who knows. . . . but we're fairly certain that the Rockfish will be back in force again to defend their title. Last year's event featured top teams from all over, including a Double Pump All-Stars team, several Rockfish squads (Orcas, Dolphins, Barracudas, etc), the LA Paladins featuring a number of top players from Inglewood, a tough but young Belmont Shore West team, several Oakland Slam N Jam teams (now known as the Oakland Solidiers), about a dozen other local teams from the Fresno area, including Clovis West's "Hustlin' Eagles," several other teams from SoCal including Sam Minor's ICH team, two teams from Rock Johnson's I-CAN, Harry Wilson's CABC squads, and several teams from Sacramento and the Bay Area. We would expect many of the same teams to return again this year.

And while several teams from California also make the trip during the same weekend to North Carolina to participate in the annual Bob Gibbons' Tournament of Champions (which attracts a lot of national talent and many teams from up and down the East Coast), most of the left-coasters find that a long road trip only a few weeks after the Spiece Run N Slam (which this year is May 4-6 at the Spiece Fieldhouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is too much, and so a tournament in Fresno provides a nice opportunity for some limited travel and makes it mutually inconvenient for college coaches from the Bay Area and Los Angeles, to come to the event. . . Still, even considering the driving distances involved, this tournament regularly also attracts scouts from all over.

This year's event should be another highly competitive tournament, featuring many of the top players in the state. As in the past, Mats' Madness will be played at a number of gyms around the Fresno area (Washington Union, Edison, McLane, Fresno HS, Sunnyside HS, Roosevelt and Hoover). We hope the tournament headquarters is again at Sunnyside, because its a new, clean facility with great floors and good rims, and the folks running the barbecue also make some of the best tri-tip sandwiches you'll ever want to taste.

The tournament format will be pool play for the first three games. Each team is guaranteed 4 games. Following pool play, there will be four separate brackets created, each consisting of single-elimination play (e.g., all 1st place teams will be placed in their own bracket, 2nd place teams in another bracket, and so on), resulting in four different "Championships" (Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze).

Games will take place starting on Saturday May 26 at 10:00 a.m, and Pool play will continue on Sunday. Monday (a holiday) will conclude tournament play with the Platinum championship tentatively set for 4:30 p.m. on Monday, May 28.

The cost for entry is $350 per team. Interested teams are urged to register before May 10, 2001. The tournament will take the first 64 teams to enter, and rosters must be sent in by May 10 as well.

For more information on the 4th Annual Mats' Madness Tournament contact Darren "Mats" Matsubara at 559-275-4121 or 559-994-8293, or you can also register or obtain information from Dennis Magro, the event's co-director who can be reached at 559-332-1069.