arc tournament report

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

ARC Sunday Tournament Series:
Calabasas Tournanent Notes--(Oct. 16, 2001)

We've just been swamped at work lately, so much so that we're considering changing the title of our regular featured "Daily Articles" to "Weekly" articles....Just kidding.....hopefully we'll be able to get back into a regular routine again of posting daily.... In the meantime, we went out to this past Sunday's ARC Tournament series, to a tournament which was held at Calabasas HS. Not really high powered teams, at least not teams that many consider high-powered, but all with some very nice players and a few solid college prospects among the bunch. This was called a "tournament" and perhaps that's what it might be called if there were more teams, but it was really just a series of games and a great way to spend the day: Each team played three games, and honestly, we can't even tell you who won the thing, but it was a lot of fun, and a nice way for players and teams to get some concentrated time together on the floor, a fall tuneup, so to speak. As we said, there were only 6 teams, which made for a nice, easy to watch flow, with no distractions, one game at a time in the gym, so there were none of the distractions usually associated with fall tournaments where there are three, sometimes four games all going on at the same time.

The teams featured this past Sunday at Calabasas HS, were:

Calabasas HS (playing as the "Blue Eagles" club team, not the Coyotes)--This actually could be one of the tallest teams in the Valley region, and that includes Montclair Prep which is also touted as being among the tallest this year;

Harvard-Westlake HS (aka "Saracens")--This team features a very good mix of nice athletes, some seniors, some juniors and a few sophs too, much more balanced than the Wolverines have been in the past few years, where they've either been senior-heavy or very young.

Buckley HS (aka the "S.O. Griffins")--A pretty solid core of players, they were playing in their first tournament together since July. Not much height, but great shooting and good speed.

Anaheim Canyon HS (aka, we have no idea...but probably the Commanches)--These guys brought 15 players, and they continued their routine of 10 players on the bench all standing throughout each game, cheering and jumping up and down, which was fun to watch, and it seemed to also be effective at rattling their opponents. Anaheim runs the old LMU "run and gun" offense, and they shoot the ball every time down the floor, often multiple times, mostly from three point range, fastbreaking and applying great pressure defense.

El Camino Real HS (which played as "Valley Sports Foundation")--Not much height, but a lot of discipline. Run a lot of set plays and they've obviously gotten some excellent coaching. Prediction: They're going to surprise a few City Section teams...they may not make it to the City Championship bracket, but they're going to upset someone along the way.

"West Coast Stars" which was actually a compilation of players from Thousand Oaks and Agoura--We didn't catch any names, and therefore can't say much, other than that they had a few really nice players. If we catch them again in a week or two, we'll find out more.

As we said, we're not going to review whole teams in detail, and even with 6 teams participating, we just didn't get everyone's names nor do we have the time to do detailed reviews of every player....at least not this time around. But there were several players who stood out. Among the more impressive players at the tournament were the following:

Adam Malatesta (6'-3" Sr. SG) Calabasas--Adam has turned into a very nice shooter, hitting several key three pointers in the first game to lead Calabasas over the Griffins in a very close game. Has started to bulk up a bit and looks a lot stronger than last season. Good speed, nice lateral mobility and his three point shot, while not the prettiest looking thing we've ever seen, goes in more often than it doesn't.

Amir Ahmadian (6'-10" Sr. C) Calabasas--Very nice size, sort of reminds us of JJ Todd a few years ago (well more than a few years ago), back when he was a soph or junior at Chaminade. Amir is pretty raw, skill-wise, but then you can't teach size, and he's got that. A decent shot blocker, but needs work on developing some post moves around the basket and on his footwork. Has potential though, and we'll certainly keep an eye out for him this season.

Jason Saunders (6'-9" Jr. F) Calabasas--A pretty decent looking athlete with good strength and a solid frame. The only drawback we saw to his game was that he seemed to play in spurts, sometimes hard and sometimes not. For a guy his size, he's well-coordinated, runs well and has a pretty good touch around the basket, and is a good rebounder too, although he tended to stay out on the perimeter more often than not in the games we saw on Sunday. We'll see how he develops over the course of the season. Keep an eye on him though.

Steve Saunders (6'-5" So. F) Calabasas--He's listed at 6'-5" but we swear that he's nearly as tall as his older brother, and when they stand next to each other the difference doesn't appear to be as much as 5 inches...but what the heck, we got the listing from his coach, Russell White, so it must be accurate. We didn't get a chance to watch him really closely, but from what we saw he also has potential to be pretty good.

David Gale (6'-1" Sr. PG) Buckley--Playing in his first full series of games since the summer after sustaining a serious ankle injury in late July, David (pictured right) had a solid day, even if the Griffin team didn't get the "W's." His passing skills were solid, as was the three-point shot, and he drained three or four in each of the three games played on Sunday. His mobility is now back to 100%, and defensively he had a nice outing too, picking off several steals in each game. David will be taking some visits back east later this month, and the Griffins will also be playing a week from Sunday in another of the ARC tournaments, and he is scheduled to be among the senior players slated to play at the Slam-Jam Fall Showcase at Moorpark College this coming weekend.

Baron Abdul-Monsour (6'-3" So. G/F) Buckley--Baron is a player, young, very athletic, and quick to the basket. He had a couple of nice dunks, as well as a lot of put-back tip-ins around the basket, and he's just got a real nose for the ball, seeming to find other's misses and making and creating his own opportunities to score. In the first game of the day against Calabasas, he rarely missed a shot, and led all scorers with 19 points (at least according to our count...we didn't trust the scorekeepers who had some trouble with the clock...after all it was the first game of the day....). Baron will be a nice addition to the Griffins this season, and will hopefully make up for the absence of Colin Ward-Henninger, who graduated.

Tristan Seisa (6'-3" Jr. G/F) Buckley--Tristan is a strong, solid player, who has been working and lifting steadily over the past 6 months and the result is that he's gotten very strong, and his shot has improved a lot too. Another athletic player who can dunk, runs the floor well and has a chance to be pretty good. Very nice spin-dribble move around the basket, a deceptive and cagey player with a good handle and nice outside shot who also defends very well, with good lateral mobility and nice footwork.

Nate Miller (6'-2" Jr. G) Canyon Anahiem--Nate was very impressive, definitely the best clutch outside shooter on a team full of outside shooters, and he's got a shooter's conscience too, as in he never met a shot he didn't like. That's sounds kind of nasty, but we don't mean it to be: Shooters are on the floor to do one thing, and that's shoot the ball, and there's nothing worse than a player who passes up an open look....In other words, you miss every shot you never take, and Nate wasn't missing much on Sunday. He was probably hitting around 70% from three point range, and that's just an amazing percentage. He's also probably got the most solid handle on the Canyon team of anyone we watched. Nice player, and should really help coach Dave Taylor's team this season.

Derron Putnam (6'-4" Sr. G) Canyon Anaheim--We checked out a prior roster we had for Canyon (actually the "Commanches" roster from the summer travel teams we posted back in June and July), and we showed Derron Putnam as being 6'-6"....if he is, then we were looking at a different player last Sunday....either that, or everyone else around him is a lot taller than we have been led to believe. However tall he is, he was knocking them down from inside and outside, although he has a favorite move that no one seemed to be able to figure out in any of the two games we saw Canyon play: He likes to set up on the high right side of the key, dribble drive into the key, back out, and then drive again for the layup. We saw him do this about 10 times in a row, and it's not that he was so overwhelming to the defenders, but he just fooled them every time. Has a good frame and decent ball-handling skills and a pretty good shot as well.

Brice Taylor (6'-3" So. G) Harvard-Westlake-- It's been said that most of the offense will run through Brice's hands this season, and that's probably putting way too much burden on this very promising young player, but the secret is out and Brice has a lot of his father's ability and you can see that some good coaching has rubbed off in the process. Brice has become steadier, stronger, and more confident on the court, and will pull up for the outside jumper with the same ease that he drives to the basket on the break. Certainly one to watch.

Zach Woolridge (6'-5" So. G/F) Harvard Westlake-- Zach has also lost a lot of that "young colt" quality that he had when we saw him last season, when he was sort of wobbly-legged and a bit unsure of himself against older and bigger players. Now he's growing into one of those older, bigger players himself and he's playing solidly. Keep an eye on him because he has the potential to be really good.

Craig Weinstein (6'-0" Sr. G) Harvard-Westlake--played solid offensively, nice passing and got everyone involved. Was having a bit of knee tendinitis and didn't play in HW's third game of the day after the Saracens' loss to Canyon Anaheim in the second game of the day (which as we understand it was their first loss in more than 8 straight tournament games this fall). Craig shot the ball pretty well in the first game of the day, with some nice pull-up penetration jumpers in the key, but the shots just weren't falling in the second game.

Todd Wolfson (6'-8" Jr. F) El Camino Real (LA City)--Todd may not be the most athletic player for ECR, but he was probably the hardest to guard. ECR has a new coach (at least he was new to us) and he ran a very effective "Princeton"-style offense, lots of screeening and backdoor cutting, which to some is not a fun offense to watch, but it can be very effective when run against an undisciplined team or a team which has trouble with matchups. We actually hadn't seen ECR play in about two years, but this was like night and day from that former team. This one was smarter, smaller, quicker, and in many ways a better team with more potential. Todd is certainly the tallest, and he's also got a decent shot out to three point range, nice footspeed and pretty decent moves around the basket, and he was able to find some open spots and caught some passes off the cuts for easy layups. Defensively he needs to improve, but he's made some very big strides since we last saw him two summers ago. Could be one of the better big men in the Valley for this LA City Section team.