nike reminder

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SoCalHoops High School News

Yet Another (Yawn) Reminder:
Nike Extravaganza IV On Saturday--(Feb. 4, 1999)

Ok, maybe we're repeating ourselves. Ok, maybe we're repeating ourselves.

Hey, there are just two days left before the Nike Extravaganza at Cal State Fullerton, so we'll only have a couple more reminders.

This year, the Nike Extravaganza has moved to Cal State Fullerton. Now Fullerton doesn't have the seating capacity of the Bren Center, but they just remodeled and it's very nice. Fullerton has put in theater style seats which has reduced the number of available seats, and they tell us there are approximately 3000 seats, so it would be a good idea to get there early.

Tickets are now on sale at Mater Dei, the corner of Bristol & Edinger in Santa Ana. If you want to order by credit card, they may be accepting phone orders. They can be reached at 714-850-9573.

All morning session seats are $8; Evening session tickets are $8 General Admission, $10 for seats behind the baskets, and $12 for Reserved seating along the sidelines. The schedule for the Nike Extravaganza is:

Morning Session:
10:00 a.m. Tustin vs. Upland
11:30 a.m. Santa Margarita vs. Servite
1:00 p.m. Long Beach Poly vs. Villa Park
2:30 p.m. Crenshaw vs. Ocean View

Evening Session:
4:30 p.m. Artesia vs. Capistrano Valley
6:00 p.m. Glendora vs. Troy
7:30 p.m. Bishop O'Dowd vs. Mater Dei
9:00 p.m. Oak Hill vs. Dominguez

As you can see, the morning session will feature mostly "local" teams, i.e., teams that are not ranked nationally (although some clearly could be, like Poly and Crenshaw) playing against some of the better Division I and City teams. The first game, Upland v. Tustin, will feature Steve Hamilton, Desmond Penigar, and Matt Santos among others, against Tustin and perhaps one of SoCal's top freshman forwards, DeAngelo Collins. In the second game, look for Santa Margarita, last years State D-II Champs with Spencer Gloger matching up against Servite. At 1:00 p.m., look for Wesley Stokes, Joe Travis, Shea Anderson, and Kenny Wright to match up against Villa Park and Alex Will, Justin Haney, and Adam Keith. And at 2:30, the Crenshaw Cougars (Jonathan Stokes, E.J. Harris, Tommy Johnson, DeWayne Parker, Armand Thomas, Ryan Sims) will take on Ocean View's young team featuring sharpshooting sophomore Torin Beeler, and senior standout Tony Dow, one of the better unsigned guards in the senior class.

The evening session is when the headliner teams come out (well, we might have substituted a couple of the "local" teams for a couple of the evening teams, but then these are pretty good matchups anyway.

In the first game, Capistrano Valley will be trying to recover from their league game against Mater Dei last night which resulted in their second loss of the season to the Monarch, but they'll have even more trouble trying to get well against Jason Kapono, Amaury Fernandez, Jack Martinez, Andre Hazel and Jon Steffanson. Sure Nate Hair, J.J. Sola and Mike Stowell are good, but this is going to be a tough one, even for them as these two D-I contenders square off at 4:30 p.m.

At 6:00 p.m., Glendora and the state's second all-time leading scorer, Casey Jacobsen will match up against Troy and Jerry Inzunza. A lot of people have said some things about Inzunza, some not so kind and others have praised his abilities on the court, and he may be one of the better unsigned point guards in the senior class; Glendora should provide a true test as he and Bruce Hatch will square off. And this could be the game where Casey Jacobsen becomes the all-time California scoring champion, breaking the record of former Glendora-UCLA and current NBA star Tracey Murray. Apparently Casey as of Tuesday night's game against Walnut was just 75 points shy of the record, and Glendora still gets to play Chino (at Chino) on Friday night before playing Troy on Saturday night. We're betting that Casey will break the record on Saturday, and when he does, the place will go nuts.

At 7:30 p.m. Bishop O'Dowd, featuring Derrick Lambeth, Tony Champion and Justin Logan will face Mater Dei's Derrick Mansell, Mike Bayer, Steve Scoggin, Mike Strawberry, Cedric Bozeman and the new and improved Jamal Sampson who got his first start last night agaisnt Capo, scoring 12 points, and getting 12 rebounds and 8 blocked shots. Bishop O'Dowd is not ranked nearly as high as Mater Dei, but we're willing to bet that O'Dowd will be tough when it counts and could surprise the No. 15 team in the country.

Finally, at 9:00 p.m. will be what could be one of the best high school games of the year: Oak Hill (No. 1 USA Today Poll, Feb. 2) and Compton Dominguez (No. 9 USA Today Poll, Feb. 2). We've already done full previews of Dominguez and written enough about the Dons so most people should know them by heart, but in case you've been living on the moon, they feature Tyson Chandler (7'-0" So. C), Keith Brooks (6'-7" Jr. F), Marcus Moor (6'-5" Sr. PG), Ronald Jackson (5'-9" Sr. PG), Larry Johnson (6'-5" Jr. SG), Keilon Fortune (5'-10" So. PG), Keith Kincade (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF), Cedric Thompkins (6'-7" Jr. F), and Darius Sanders (6'-5" Fr. F). There are several other players who see floor time, but among the players listed are some of the finest talents in SoCal and the West Coast.

Oak Hill for it's part is sort of a legendary program, perhaps not on the scale historically as DeMatha, and Steve Smith is nowhere near as successful (over time he will be) as Morgan Wooten, but Oak Hill has had some truly dominant teams, and probably more D-I players than almost anywhere, on a consistent basis. Oak Hill boasts a pretty distinguished alumni roster, including Rod Strickland, Ron Mercer, Jerry Stackhouse, Kevin Lyde, Souleymane "Jules" Camara, and Makhtar Ndiaye.

Oak Hill's schedule would put most college teams flat on their backs. In fact they actually play some college JV teams during their regular season. They've played numerous other top 25 teams and they will have traveled to more than 10 states, participating in five tournaments (The Virginia Tip-Off Classic, the Reeblok Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic, the Glaxo Wellcome Holiday Invitational in Raleigh, the Mountain State Coal Classic in Beckley, WV, and the St. James Invitational in St. James, Maryland).

Last year the Oak Hill v. Dominguez game went down to the wire and it will be an exciting game again this year. Oak Hill features some of the most exciting players in high school basketball, and they are still ranked No. 1 in the USA Today "Super 25" national poll (at least that's Dave Kreider's view, and who are we to argue with him). Oak Hill features three legitimate D-I and potential NBA prospects in Steve Blake (6'-2" Sr. PG) who will play at Maryland next year, Ron Slay (6'-7" Sr. PF) who will atttend Tennessee next season, and Travis Watson (6'-7" Sr. PF) who will attend Virginia. Oak Hill
also has one of the best supporting casts in Cliff Hawkins (6'-1" Jr. PG/SG) one of the best one-on-one defenders anywhere, Terry Reynolds (5'-9" Sr. SG) a great perimeter shooter, Abdou Diame (6'-8" Jr. C) the slender but highly skilled center from Senegal, and the "Human Highlight Reel" John Humphrey (6'-1" Sr. SG), who has the highest vertical of any player we've ever seen.

Again, the ticket prices are as follows: all seats in the morning session are $8. The evening session general admission is $8, seating behind the baskets are $10 and reserved seats between the baselines are $12, and courtside seats (limited amount) are $50. Tickets will be available in advance at the Mater Dei Ticket office and at the door. But get there early because seating is limited.