SoCalHoops Tournament News

High Five America At Rumble In The
Bronx IV This Weekend--(June 15, 2001)

We don't often feature news about tournaments in New York, and often trying to get news out of the "Nike" events is like pulling teeth, but someone posted a question on the message board, and since there may be some interest in knowing what's happening in other parts of the country this weekend, here's what we know about the Rumble In The Bronx IV, which will be played this weekend starting today at Fordham University.  There's actually a surprisingly large amount of info online provided by several east coast-based websites, and thus it ought to be fairly easy to find out what's happening throughout the weekend.  Don't look to us for updates, because we won't be there, but several other friends of ours will be.  High Five America will be sending a 17-U team from the San Diego area which will be playing in the 32 team 17-U bracket.   Obviously, this tournament features some of the top Nike-sponsored and independent club teams from the east coast and midwest, including teams like Riverside Church, Tim Thomas Playaz, Brooklyn USA, the Gauchos, Howard Pulley and several others. Here are the pool assisgnments.

17 & Under Division.--

On the off-chance that anyone from High Five will also bring a computer along, you might want to check the High Five site.  Of course, if that doesn't provide anything useful, you'll be able to find some coverage of this tournament at sites like NY/NJ High Hoops (which has a page devoted to this tournament)   and  Brooklyn USA.org (which is the site for the Brooklyn USA team--see pool E). Bob Gibbons site will likely have some info too.  Dave Telep will be at the USA Youth Festival instead, but his message board may also have some stuff. We found a really interesting little site maintained by a guy named Nathan Blue, who says he's an assistant coach of the Long Island Panthers (which is different than the NY Panthers, we think), so you might look there as well and because of the presence of quite a few New York, New Jersey and Philly teams, you might try some of the better online newspapers from the region, like the Bergen (NJ) Record Online, InJersey, New York Newsday, NYC Daily News, New Jersey Online, Philadelphia Inquirer, and you might even find something at Jay Gomes' New Jersey Hoops (used to be a Rivals' site, now with Alliance).  And as always, Clark Francis of the HoopScoop will be in attendance, so there will be plenty of news and reports on this event throughout the weekend and into next week.

Clark had the following info on the tournament yesterday at HoopScoop:

As for the Rumble in the Bronx, it appears to be loaded.   Let's take a closer look. Pool A includes New York Riverside Church, Team Texas, Long Island Lightning, and the Central Jersey Hawks. Pool B has the Diaper Dan's, New Jersey Rap, PK Rocks, and Keystone Blazers. Pool C features the Tallahassee, New York Panthers, New Jersey Roadrunners, and Westchester Hawks. The Albany City Rocks, High Five America, Willie Howie, and Connecticut Flame are in Pool D. Pool E has the Tim Thomas Playaz Gold, Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn USA, and Swingtown. Pool F includes the New York Ravens, Bray Center, St. Mikes, and Washington Heights. Pool G has Howard Pulley I, Philly Elite, Tim Thomas Playaz Black, and Morris County. Pool H features the New York Gauchos, Brooklyn Beasts, Howard Pulley II, and Newark Rams. The tournament will tip-off at 6:00 PM and run through 10:30 PM on Friday night. Then, pool play will resume on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and run until 10:30 on Saturday night. We'll also be back in the gym on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM for the quarterfinals of both the 16-Under and 17-Under Tournament. The semi-finals for the 16-Under Division will be at 11:40 AM and the semi-finals for the 17-Under Division will be at 1:00 PM. And finally the 16-Under Championship is scheduled for 2:20 PM and the 17-Under Championship will be 3:40 PM. We plan to cover the tournament from start-to-finish and we will have all the highlights either late Sunday night or during the day on Monday.

We also received an e-mail from our friend Michael Kruse, who writes for PrepStarts.com,  a few weeks ago with some good info about the tournament.  Here's what Michael had to say:

The Rumble in the Bronx is just as much a bona fide happening as it is a hoops tournament. Jim Hart's event at Fordham University -- now in its fourth year -- has become the Slam Dunk to the Beach of the summer circuit.   There's a DJ inside and ribs on the grill going outside. This is New York City, after all, and this tournament is a Broadway-caliber basketball show.  "We've got a good flavor," Hart told PrepStars.com Friday morning. "It's a real fun tournament. The kids all seem to love it. Everybody who's been here before - Team Minnesota, Shreveport Select, Bray Center - says it's the best tournament they go to. We've even got some celebs coming through sometimes."  True enough. Allen Iverson and Rod Strickland showed up last year just to watch some top-notch hoop. Dajuan Wagner, a basketball celeb in his own right, is supposed to make an appearance this year.   And why not? The 32-team tournament offers guaranteed quality.  "We usually try and say it's the best of the New York metropolitan area against the best of the country," Hart said. "That's how we bill it. We've got basically 16 New York area teams - the city, Jersey, Connecticut - and 16 national teams."  This year's out-of-area bunch includes John Adkins' high-powered Tallahassee Wildcats, Mike Theus' Louisiana-based Bossier Select squad, Team Minnesota, Bray Center from Wisconsin, High Five America out of San Diego, high-scoring WG Bracey Wright and Team Texas, and Florida commitment Matt Walsh and Philly Elite.  Hart also has the Empire State covered. From Gary Charles' Long Island Panthers to Hart's Albany City Rocks, from Tim Thomas Playaz Gold to TTP Black, from the New York Jaguars to the Westchester Hawks, from the Gauchos to Riverside Church, from Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn USA, just about everybody who's anybody in Big Apple prep hoops is scheduled to be there.  "It's a good field," Hart said. "Everybody's trying to jockey for position right now."

As Clark noted, there is also a 20-team 16-U division, which will include the following teams:

We point this out because unless you have both the 17-U and 16-U pools, the schedule just won't make any sense.  If you're going to be anywhere near Fordham University this weekend, then you'll want to check out the tournament.   Here's the schedule:

Rumble in the Bronx IV Game Schedule

And this is the single elimination game schedule:

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