sports express challenge

What	Sports Express LA Challenge Tournament
Where:	Citus College, Glendora, CA
When	Sat. May 5, Sun. May 6, 2001
Times	9:00 a.m. -7:30 p.m. (tip off) each day
Who:	8 Top Teams From SoCal & Arizona

We don' t often get to see local tournaments featuring the top "Nike" teams in the region all in one place, but that's what will be happening this weekend at Citrus College in Glendora, as Miles Gonzales' Sports Express hosts the LA Challenge Basketball Tournament. Now the 8 teams participating are not, strictly speaking, "Nike" teams, but several of them are in fact still sponsored, to one degree or another, by Nike, and many of the players in attendance will be spending the period from July 5 through 10 in Indianapolis at the Nike All-American Camp. . .some will even attend rival adidas-sponsored ABCD Camp, but for the most part, the teams playing in this event are swoosh-sponsored teams. . .As they used to say on Seinfeld "Not that there's anything wrong with that. . . . . "

The tournament will feature the following teams (note we don't have the complete rosters, so we'll just identify those players we know will be on which teams):

This is Miles Gonzales' team, and for this tournament he'll have Hassan Adams (6'-4" Jr. SG) from Westchester, Brandon Heath (6'-2" Jr. G) from Westchester, David Paris (6'-8" Jr. F) from Modesto Christian, and Jason McKinney (5'-11" Jr. PG) among others.

This is Rle Nichols team, and it will feature Moulai Niang (6'-10" Jr. C) from El Cajon Christian, Travis Niesen (6-7" Jr. F) from Mission Viejo, and John Keeler (6'-6" Jr. F) from San Pasqual.

This should be Art Dye's team, but it's going to be coached by John Bowie, and will feature John Shumate (6'-3" So. G) from Brophy Prep, John Sinnoui (6'-0" So. PG) from Sunnyslope, and Gerald Punch (6'-3" So. SG) from Brophy.

This is Dinos Trigonis' team, and unlike last weekend when he had Hassan Adams, that won't be the case this weekend, but he will have the "usual" suspects: Harrison Schaen (6'-8" So. F) from Mater Dei, Wesley Washington (6'-3" So. SG) from Mater Dei, Jamal Walls (6'-7" Jr. F) from Crenshaw, probably Pat Haddan (6'-2" Jr. PG), Carlos Rivers (6'-0" Jr. PG), and a few others who usually play with Dinos.

This is Thaddeu McGrew's team, and the word on the street is that this is the Nike team (having garnered the top sponsorship when Nike reportedly cut Pat Barrett. . .but that's a whole different subject). Thad's team will feature Bobby Jones (6'-6" Jr. F/G) from Compton Dominguez, Adam Zahn (6'-7" Jr. F) from Redondo Union, and Shaun Davis (6'-0" So. PG) from San Diego Lincoln.

We really don't know anything about these guys, but they will have Travis Hall (5'-11" Jr. PG) from Glen Oaks, Marcus Dawson 6'-5" Jr. F) from Tara, and Brandon Bass (6'-7" So. PF) from Capital

Not sure who is coaching them (it might still be Dart Stamps, but maybe not from what we've heard), but they will have Travante Nelson (5'-11" So. PG) from Mater Dei, Fred Washington (6'-5" So. F) from Bishop Montgomery and Anthony Brown (6'-6" So. SF) from Sacramento Kennedy HS

This is Sam Minor's club and we don't have any roster info for this team so you'll just have to go and find out for yourselves who's really playing.

The first three games will be pool play with the playoffs set for Sunday. Here are the pool assignments and the schedules:

Pool A	Pool B
1. Sports Express California 2. High Five America 3. Arizona Stars 4. Louisiana Future Stars	1. Team Select California 2. Belmont Shore 3. Top Prospects, Inc. 4. Inter-City Hoops

9:00 a.m.	A3 v. A2
10:30 a.m.	B3 v. B2
12:00 p.m.	A4 v. A3
1:30 p.m.	B4 v. B3
3:00 p.m.	A2 v. A1
4:30 p.m.	B2 v. B1
6:00 p.m.	A1 v. A4
7:30 p.m.	B1 v. B4

9:00 a.m.	B1 v. B3
10:30 a.m.	B2 v. B4
12:00 p.m.	A1 v. A3
1:30 p.m.	A2 v. A4
3:00 p.m.	Pool A 4th v. Pool B 4th (7th place)
4:30 p.m.	Pool A3rd v. Pool B 3rd (5th place)
6:00 p.m.	Pool A2nd v. Pool B 2nd (3rd place)
7:30 p.m.	Pool A 1 v. Pool B 1 (Championship)

We'd like to say "see you there" but we won't (we'll be in Indiana). . . so somebody be sure to tell us what happens.

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Contact: jegesq@SoCalHoops.com