modesto christian tournament

What:	2nd Annual Modesto Holiday Hoops Classic
Where:	Modesto Christian HS & Cal State Stanislaus
When:	December 26-29, 2001
Who:	20 Top Teams (Pool Play) from all over California

We've previously posted a preview of this tournament, but since it starts tomorrow, we thought it would be a good time for a reminder that there will be more than just the Torrey Pines National Prep Classic taking place in California this week which will feature top teams. While not as large as the TPNC, the Modesto Holiday Hoop Classic will feature 20 teams, among the best in California.

The tournament games will be played at Modesto Christian HS and Stanislaus State College, and while there's no official tournament website set up to follow this one, our best suggestion would be to check the ModestoBee.com site for local coverage, and some of the local papers who regularly cover the teams that will be playing (e.g., LA Times Prep Section, LB Press Telegram, Daily Breeze, etc. Check our links to local media coverage for others). For coverage on teams outside of SoCal, we've always found the links at AJR's Newslink.org to be very helpful, although the coverage of NorCal teams is pretty pitiful when it comes to online stuff at some of the larger dailies (e.g., the Chronicle and Examiner really don't do anything for preps online).

The list of teams in impressive (see below), and it will feature 20 top teams from all over California, broken into five different pools. Here's what the pools look like:

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D	Pool E
LB Poly Skyline Edison Turlock	Oakland Tech Bishop Mont. Sylmar East Union	Centennial Santa Cruz Laguna Creek Sierra	St. Mary's Tokay Taft Bret Harte	Modesto Christian Canyon Kennedy Campolindo

Wednesday, December 26, 2001
	@ Stanislaus State	@Modesto Christian
2:00 p.m	St. Mary's v. Bret Harte	Santa Cruz v. Laguna Creek
3:30 p.m.	Tokay v. Taft	Centennial v. Sierra
5:00 p.m.	Skyline v. Edison	Canyon v. Kennedy
6:30 p.m.	LB Poly v. Turlock	Oakland Tech v. East Union
8:00 p.m.	Modesto Christian v. Campolindo	B. Mont. v. Sylmar
Thursday, December 27, 2001
	@ Stanislaus State	@ Modesto Christian
2:00 p.m	Pool C Losers	Pool A Losers
3:30 p.m.	Pool B Losers	Pool D Losers
5:00 p.m.	Pool C Winners	Pool E Losers
6:30 p.m.	Pool B Winners	Pool A Winners
8:00 p.m.	Pool E Winners	Pool D Winners

The rest of the tournament breaks down into three brackets, a "Gold" bracket (determined by the five 2-0 teams in each pool and the next highest seeds, meaning 1-1 teams that won their first game); a "Silver" bracket (determined by the seven remaining 1-1 teams and the highest seeded 90-2 team), and the "Consolation" bracket (determined by the four remaining 0-2 teams).

Dennis Magro, one of the tournament directors, explained the seeding process as follows: "Teams that played each other in pool play will be placed in opposite brackets. Geography may also be considered in seeding determinations. The seeding committee's decisions are final."

We're not going try to reproduce the brackets (it looks just like any other bracket would, except right now there are a lot of blank spots because until the pools are played, no one knows who will be playing where). Suffice it to say, the Championship in the Gold Bracket will take place December 29 at 8:00 p.m. at Stanislaus State. The Silver Bracket championship will be at 4:30 p.m. also at Stanislaus State, and the Consolation final is at noon on 12/29, at Modesto Christian.

1. Modesto Christian (Modesto)
2. Long Beach Poly (Long Beach)
3. Oakland Tech (Oakland)
4. St. Mary's (Berkely)
5. Centennial (Compton)
6. Bishop Montgomery (Torrance)
7. Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz)
8. Skyline (Oakland)
9. Canyon (Anaheim)
10. Tokay (Central Valley)
11. Edison (Fresno)
12. Laguna Creek (Sacramento)
13. Sylmar (Los Angeles)
14. Taft (Los Angeles)
15. Kennedy (Sacramento)
16. Turlock (Central Valley)
17. Sierra (Manteca)
18. East Union
19. Bret Harte
20. Campolindo (Moraga)