SoCalHoops Recruiting & Tournament News

The Dada media luncheon, such as it was, was held in Long Beach this afternoon.  Supposed to be from 2:00 p.m. until about 5:00 p.m.    So we made the trip down the 405 to the 710.  Went looking for a restaurant called "The Pizza Place" on Broadway at the corner of Falcon & Broadway.   So there we were in Long Beach, driving around, looking for a parking space for half an hour while the Long Beach Grand Prix raged on with about 50,000 people watching, all of whom seemingly drove separate vehicles to get there, and as a result, parking spaces were at a premium.  Finally, after circling the block for a while, we managed to find a spot. Right in front of the restaurant.  Good luck so far. We arrived a few minutes early, just before 2:00 p.m., which was when the soiree was called for, but other than Tracy Pierson, there wasn't anyone else around. We thought about interviewing each other. . . but then thought better of it, because it would just be way too interesting.   At about 2:10, a big shiny air-conditioned charter bus rolled up to the curb outside the restaurant and some really tall, big young guys strolled into the place.   So there we were, all assembled on the patio area of "The Pizza Place" (which actually serves a mean Chicago-style pizza). . . The players only stuck around long enough for Mike Miller to show up 20 minutes late, grab two pieces of pizza and then they were out of there. Actually, I think what drove them out was when WestCoastHoops' Rich Meyer broke a chair just sitting in it. . .  Only about half the U.S. roster team players showed up for the luncheon.  Here's what we learned:

Dinos will coach one of the teams. . . Tomorrow we will find out whether he can win the "big one."  In the past year, he's coached teams to the Final Four of the Bob Gibbons Classic, to the Championship game of the Nike Summer Championship, and to the Championship gmae of the Rockfish Spring League. . . and he's lost all of them. Actually the best part of the luncheon was listenting to Mike Miller tell Dinos that he's a great recruiter but a terrible coach and Dinos protest that he knows more about coaching than Mike has forgotten. . . :-) Guess we'll find out tomorrow who's right about that one.

Jamal Crawford (6'-5" Sr. PG) from Rainier Beach was there, and according to Mike Miller, he has now fully qualified, so it looks like Michigan will have their point guard of the future, which makes one wonder why the Wolverines want Marlon Parmer (6'-3" Sr. PG) who was not present at the luncheon, but in Michigan on his official visit.  He'll reportedly be back in town, along with Joe Shipp, who was up at Cal, and we're all betting that Marlon will get offered by Michigan and Joe will end up at Cal, which doesn't bode well for Henry Bibby since both of these guys are big targets for USC.

Kevin Gaines (6'-4" Sr. PG) from Las Vegas was also present, and we watched him eat, but never got a chance to talk with him. We did, however, get to chat for a while with Josh Kroenke (6'-5" Sr. SG) whose family lives in Missouri but who attended a prep school last year in New Hampshire. For those who don't know, Josh is one of Jason Kapono's best friends, and he and Jason spent the better part of last summer together while Josh was out here in SoCal playing with the QBL team.   Josh told us he's down to Missouri and Iowa. "Sometimes I think about Missouri, and I think it would be great because it's close to home, I know the school, like the area, and also like the new coach Quinn Snyder a lot, and then other days I think it would be nice to go to a school somewhere further away from my home."    So where is Jason going to go to school, we asked Josh: "I have no idea. It would be great if he and I went to school together, but really, I have no idea where he'll go," Josh told us. And what about Kareem Rush (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) from Pembroke Hill, Kansas City?  "I haven't talked to Kareem in a couple of weeks, so I really don't know what he's going to do."

And Kareem wasn't there, so we couldn't ask him.  Dinos and Phil Gatton assured us though that Kareem is expected to show up for the game tomorrow. Again, something about an awards ceremony or a prom or something like that causing a delay in catching the flight to L.A.  And Josh Kroenke also concurred that Kareem will be here tomorrow for the game. 

Gilbert Arenas (6'-4" Sr. SG/PG) from Grant High (Arizona) was there, looking pretty cool in his new Dada shirt, Dada hat, as was Chris Osborne (6'-9" Sr. F/C) (Arizona State) who both showed up together in Chris' car, after the bus arrived, along with Donnell Knight (6'-8" Sr. PF) from Corona del Sol HS in Tempe, Arizona (Arizona State) and Andrew Gooden (6'-10" Sr. F/C) from El Cerrito (Kansas).  Josh Moore (7'-0" Sr. C) from Oakdale, Conn. (Rutgers) also got off the bus, and he's looking really huge, but seems to have lost some weight from the way we remembered him from the summer.  Josh didn't really talk to anyone except Gilbert and some other guys sitting at his table, including Jason Parker (6'-8" Sr. PF) from West Charlotte, N.C., (North Carolina). If Josh finally learns to develop a set of hands, he'll be scary, because he's already got an NBA body.  We also understand that Jason's dad, who was also present at the luncheon,  will be one of the coaches for the U.S. team. 

Sitting at our table were Travon Bryant (6'-8" Jr. F) from Long Beach Jordan and Ellis Myles (6'-7" Jr. PF) from Compton, along with Tracy Pierson from PacWestHoops and Mike Miller even showed up fashionably late.  Ellis told us that he's very interested in Georgia and Georgia Tech right now, and Travon, well, he didn't give us any clue about who he's really interested in, except to say that Arizona has been sending him lots of letters, and we all talked about his "web-chat" for CatTracks the other day, kidding him that if he wasn't careful, all the other schools would think he's just some Arizona honk, and not interested in any other schools.  Travon told us that Jason Kapono was at the morning workout today with those players who were in town, but he didn't know where Jason was during the afternoon.  And while Travon also told us that he thinks Jason will sign with Utah, we take that as just Travon's speculation because if Jason isn't telling Josh Kroenke, he sure isn't telling anyone else.  When it comes to Travon's own recruiting, he mentioned that he thought Kansas was interested in him, which makes some sense because Roy Williams was at the Pump Easter Tourney last week watching every one of Travon's games, especially the Pump N Run I game against The Hood (Compton Dominguez). 

And speaking of Compton, Tito Maddox, who is on the West All-Stars roster wasn't at the luncheon, and neither was Julius Barnes, but both of them will be at the game.  We understand though that Curtis Borchardt from Redmond, Washington is pretty doubtful for tomorrow.  Apparently, he's been on vacation all last week, and no one has heard from him;  he has a plane ticket, but whether he shows is anyone's guess right now.  Leon Smith from Chicago is also due to fly in tomorrow morning for the game.  John Cox (6'-3" Sr. PG/SG) from Engineering & Science HS in Philly (USF)--Kobe's Bryant's cousin-- is in town and will be at the game, but there's some question about whether he'll play: He may be suffering from a hip-pointer, but he'll be at the game (probably with Kobe).  Also at the luncheon was Marshall Williams (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) from Vincent HS, Milwaukee, WI  and   Kirk Hinrich (6'-3" Sr. PG/SG) from West HS, Sioux City, Iowa (Kansas). Travis Watson (6'-8" Sr. PF) from Oak Hill Academy (Virginia) was nowhere to be seen, but Chris Ogden (6'-7" Sr. PF) from Seminole HS, Seminole, in Texas (Texas signee) was pretty talkative and we chatted with him for a while with Josh Kroenke. He's pretty excited about Texas, and looking forward to the game.  "We're supposed to go to the beach too, and I'm looking forward to seeing Venice," Chris told us.  So if you're out on the boardwalk tomorrow morning, look out, because there will be a bunch of really tall guyss out there.

Just hope they're not on rollerblades.

Now there's a scary thought.

Remember, the games tomorrow are at Pauley Pavilion.   The All-Southern California All-Star game will be at 3:00 p.m. and the U.S. v. West game will be at 5:00 p.m.  Doors open at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $8.00 for adults and $6.00 for students.

See you there.

 
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