elite 8 announced.


What:	Oakland Slam N Jam "Elite 8x2" Tournament
When:	July 30-Aug 1, 2001
Where	University of California, Berkeley Rec.Center
Who:	16+ top travel teams, many D-I prospects

Contrary to some nasty rumors going around, the Elite 8x2 is very much alive and well, and will take place in Berkeley as scheduled. We received some information on the Oakland Slam N Jam Elite 8x2 back in June, but never quite found the time to post anything about it until now. . .so here goes. The "Elite 8" was started a few years ago by Calvin Andrews and several other clubs who were looking for a smaller tournament to play in following the "big" tournaments of the summer back when there was an uninterrupted 21 day viewing period. Typically this meant that following the Big Time, and following the Pump's Best of Summer Tournament, there were still a few hardy souls who were looking to continue playing, so S&J, Rockfish, Belmont Shore and a few others initiated the "Elite 8" tournament. That first year it was played at Berkeley High School and featured some of the best competition of the summer. If memory serves correctly, that was three years ago. Since then, the Elite 8 has grown a bit (to 16 teams in the older division, and there's a division for younger teams as well), and it has moved to the UC Berkeley campus Recreation Center which has some of the nicest courts around. Last year, the event didn't conflict with any other events, so there were more teams from SoCal present, but this year, the Elite 8 runs smack into the same time period as the Pump's "Best of Summer" which is a much larger, indeed gargantuan in comparison, featuring 128 teams on 8 courts at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester (Los Angeles). Both tournaments will run from July 30-August 1, so some teams have had to make a choice and tailor their travel plans accordingly. For example, with the advent of the adidas "Three Stripes Tournament" this year at Hofstra University immediately following ABCD Camp, several teams (e.g., Rockfish) have blown their travel budgets with extended stays in the east, so Rockfish will be sending all of their teams to the BOS instead. Still, there will be quite a good group of teams up in Berkeley, more than enough to satisfy fans and college coaches alike.

Here's who is planning on attending the Elite 8, at least the teams who have said they will be there as of this writing:

EBO
Oakland Slam N Jam
Michigan Hurricanes
Belmont Shore
Illinois Fire
Rotary Seattle
805 Basketball
Prep Stars International
Bay Area Ballers
New Orleans Jazz
Tim Thomas Playaz
Houston Superstars
Inland
SSA
Next Level
Renegades

This list may change, or it may not. Either way, we'll try to make it up there for at least one day of the tournament, but if we can't be there, you can certainly follow most of the action on NorCalPreps. We'll be up to our hips trying to cover the Best of Summer, so we may not be able to make it up there, but NorCal Preps will undoubtedly feature some detailed reports since Berkeley is NCP's own backyard.

The nice thing about this tournament is that it's sort of relaxed. Games will not begin each day until 3:00 p.m. so there is plenty of time for teams and players to rest up, take visits to either Berkeley, Stanford, USF, Santa Clara, St. Mary's, San Jose State, or other local schools who may be looking at players and vice versa, or to just relax and take in the sites in the Bay Area. This is a great tournament, and it's a lot of fun, so if you're up in the East Bay at the end of the month, you won't want to miss it.