pump easter preview

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Double Pump Easter Tournament This Weekend:
A Preview & Reminder--(April 5, 1999)

What: Double Pump Easter Tournament
When: This Weekend, April 9, 10, & 11
Where: Cal State Dominguez Hills
Times: First Game Each Day 9:00 a.m., Last Game starts 9:30 p.m.
Championship Game: Sunday, April 11, 4:30 p.m.

The Double Pump Easter Tournament promises to be very impressive, and will include some of the best players in the country. We don't have all the rosters yet, nor do we have all the schedules, but there will be more than 12 hours of basketball for three days straight played on three courts (the tournament format is different than the shootout stuff, and the tournament will use the main court and two side courts so it will be easier to follow the action).

A list of the top players coming reads like a who's who of college recruiting, and most of the top juniors and underclassmen will be there: Mats' EBO team is bringing DeShawn Stevenson (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) from Fresno Washington Union, Luke Whitehead (6'-6" Jr. F) from St. Ignatius, Phillip Johnson (6'-11" So. C) from Arroyo Grande, Chris Lopez (6'-6" Jr. F) from Fresno Edison, Cedric Barrow from Sacramento Grant, Ronald Dosty, Maurice Tyree, Marcel Cummings, and Deshawn Anderson will also be there on the EBO squad. And no, Carlos Boozer won't be playing :-).

The Michigan Mustangs, a team which won the prestigious adidas Big Time Las Vegas Tournament last summer, will hopefully feature their top stars, including some of the best underclassmen anywhere: Robert Whaley (6'-10" So. PF) from Benton Harbor, Michigan, Kelvin Torbert, (6'-4" So. G) also from Flint, and Desmond Farmer (6'-4" Jr. G) from Flint, Michigan, among others.

Locally, "The Hood" which is the nickname for Dominguez High, will play, featuring Tyson Chandler (7'-0" So. C), Keith Brooks (6'-6" Jr. PF), Keilon Fortune (5'-10" So. PG) and we would also expect that several of the unsigned senior guys from the Division II State Championship team, like Ronald Jackson (5'-10" Sr. PG), Marcus Moore (6'-4" Sr. PG), and Keith Kincade (6'-6" Sr. SF) will also be in attendance looking to get some additional college coaches looking at them before the signing period ends.

QBL (which is the psuedonym for Artesia High School in the post-season) will also be playing, sans the two seniors, Jason Kapono and Aaron Hamilton, but they will feature Andre Hazel, Ryan Reyes, Franklin Matos, Jon Steffanson, Apolinar Fernandez, Jack Martinez and they also picked up Charlie Rodriguez (6'-4" Fr. F) from Clovis West, and Chris Hernandez (6'-0" So. G) also from Clovis West and this should be a very good team, having just captured the win at the Nike Las Vegas Easter Classic on Sunday over Dinos' Trigonis roster-depleted Belmont Shore Team.

Utah is bringing two teams, the "True Players", which is basically Ray Scott's Utah State High School Championship team, and another team called "Utah Titans", and Rick Majerus is going to be pissed that we're writing about them because he wants them all for himself, but he can't have them, at least not yet: They will feature Garner Meads (6'-8" Jr. F) who is one of the top juniors in the country, and Mark Jackson (6'-1" Jr. PG) a very talented point guard and both of these guys are being sought by a lot of big time schools.

Pump N Run I will have Travon Bryant (6'-8" Jr. PF), Branduinn Fullove (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) from Simi Valley, Lou Wright (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) from Westchester, Doyle Cole (6'-5" Jr. F) from Gardena Serra, Joe Travis (6'-8" Jr. F/C) from Long Beach Poly, and maybe even Terrance Lawson (6'-4" Jr. G) and Jason Brelin (6'-3" Jr. SG) both from Westchester will be over their illnesses and able to play. Pump I will also feature Aerick "Chief" Sanders (6'-10" Jr. F/C) from Gardena Serra and we hear that this weekend Jonathan Sanders (6'-7" Jr. PG) from Belleview Christian is scheduled to make the trip south, as is Baker Dunleavy (6'-1" So. PG/SG) from Portland Jesuit, who will be playing on the Pump N Run II team along with All-CIF & All-State guard Errick Craven (6'-3" So. G) from Bishop Montgomery, Torin Beeler (6'-5" So. G/F) from Oceanview, Jonathan Harper (6'-5" So. F) from Long Beach Poly, Derrick Craven (6'-3" So. G) from Bishop Montgomery, David Gale (5'-11" Fr. PG) from Sherman Oaks Buckley, Kevin Elleby (5'-10" So. PG) from Venice, Steven Brown (6'-6" SG) from Venice HS, and possibly Craig Smith (6'-7" So. F) and Evan Burns (6'-5" Fr. F) both from Fairfax, as well as Mike McCrain (6'-1" So. G) from Portland Jesuit. We doubt that Scott Borchart (6'-8" So. F) from Chaminade (who's still listed on the roster) will make it, but then you never know until the game happens.

Washington teams will include three Friends of Hoop teams (Orange, Black & White) and Seattle Rotary will also send three teams (I, II and III), and we've seen far too many of their rosters floating around the internet to speculate, but generally we'd expect to see some of the guys who played in Arizona this past weekend at the BCI Tournament which was won by FOH. Just exactly how the teams get configured isn't clear, but we'd expect to see guys like Nic Lano (7'-0" Jr. C) of Mountlake Terrace, Finn Rebasso (6' -4" Jr. SF) from Garfield, Brendon Merritt (6'-4" Jr. SG) from Bellarmine Prep, Gene Woodard (6'-5" Jr. PF) from Seattle O'Dea, and Steve Towne (6' 1" Jr. PG) from Seattle Juanita, among others.

BWBA will bring both the I &II teams as well, and we'd expect to see on the I team Shaun Michel (6'-2" So. PG) and brother Brett Michel (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) from Simi Valley, Jonathan Steven (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) from Esperanza, Eddie Draughan (6'-5" So. SG/SF) from Mayfair, Steve Miller (6'-3" Jr. G) Orange, Chad Carter (6'-7" Fr. F) Riverside Arlington, maybe even Jamaal Barnes (6'-2" So. SG) from Rowland Heights Rowland, and Jason Carter (6'-9" So. PF) Las Vegas Bishop Gorman a big bodied kid who can flat out play. Jamaal Williams (6'-6" So. F) from Corona Centennial was also with the BWBA I team a couple of weeks ago and looked pretty good, and you might even see the two unsigned seniors playing, Joseth Dawson (6'-2" Sr. PG/SG) from Fontana and Jerett Skrifvars (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) Brea Olinda, and possibly even Imran Sufi (6'-0" Sr. PG) from Mater Dei who played with Gottlieb's Rockfish League team this past Saturday. BWBA II is always in flux, but two weeks ago they had A.J. Jackson (5'-9" Jr. PG) St. Anthony's, Kris Maxie (6'-2" So. SG) from Lake Elsinore, Bryan Gonzalez (6'-3" So. SG) from Corona Centennial, Alex Rasmussen (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) from Foothill, Roger Hogan (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG) from Canyon Anaheim, Ryan Wilbur (6'-4" Jr. F) of Brea Olinda, Dave Sybesma (6'-5" So. F) from Corona Centennial, and Regan Arroyo (6'-4" Jr. F) from Woodbridge.

Arizona teams coming include the Arizona Heat Blue and Black and while we haven't seen the rosters, we would love to see Dennis Latimore (6'-7" Jr. F) from Mesa Mountain View; we suspect he won't be there, but only time will tell since he wasn't on the rosters from the Shootout and we have no idea who actually played at the BCI event last weekend. Salpointe, which is basically a high school team playing intact will as usual be there.

Texas will be sending Houston Gold and Houston KAYB, and we don't really know anything about either of these teams, and apparently we had some bum information last week when we were told that Houston Hoops and HAAY (which also played in Vegas this past weekend) would be coming, because they aren't on the roster of teams.

NorCal/Central Cal teams will include the Tarheels (which is basically all the Fresno Edison guys except Chris Lopez who's with EBO), NorCal Gridley, North County Spartans, and the Oakland Soldiers will be coming from Oakland Slam N Jam, and CA/NY will also bring a I & II team. Modesto Slam N Jam will also be bringing some of the guys who impressed a lot of people during the CIF NorCal playoffs, including Nick Tabari, Chris Armstrong, Eric Leong, Jared Innes, Chuck Hayes, Brad Watson, David Paris, Bobby Cole and Don Brooke. West Valley will also be bringing one team (not two) and so we're guessing that they're trying to decide who will be on the roster. We'd love to see Farris Broussard (6'-7" Jr. F) from Independence, and the Santa Cruz guys, Josh Rhodes (6'-6" Fr. F) and Terrance Kamau (6'-1" So. G).

Some of the SoCal teams who are also scheduled to play include Keith Howard's IEBP B&P and IEBP teams (we'd expect to see the same rosters from a couple of weeks ago at the Shootout, and if you want those rosters, they are in our prior articles, or you can check the Rockfish rosters for IEBP, since it's basically the same guys), and the same is true of Elvert "Koolaid" Perry's Inland team, that is, we don't really know who will be on the roster but we have their RSL list here if you want to check it out. We might also expect to see Trenell Eddings (5'-11" Sr. PG) playing for IEBP if he doesn't sign with a school this week. Other SoCal local teams will include Inflight Srs. & Inflite Elite (Mike Livacarri's teams, featuring Chris Livaccari), Camp Exposure (which a couple of weeks ago featured E.J. Harris (6'-2" Jr. PG) from Crenshaw, among others) and a young team called the LA Hoyas of which we know absolutely nothing except that they have some guys from St. John Bosco and several other local schools. Local Southern California teams will also include 805 Basketball, which is George Albanez' new team name, and we hear that they will feature some good player from the Santa Barbara team and even a couple of guys from Agoura like Adam Allegro (6'-4" So. F). Streetwise will also play again and the roster is up in our preview of the Shootout. San Diego teams will include the Alley Cats and the Rising Stars, which a couple of weeks ago featured James Profit (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) and a lot of really, really tall unsigned seniors including Chris Bennett (6'-10" Sr. C) from Pasadena Marshall Fundamental.

Local high school teams who will be playing together will include Granda Hills HS, Narbonne HS, and the Valley All Stars which is basically Montclair Prep in Van Nuys which will feature some varsity and jv players moving up, including Tony McFadden (6'-3" So. G) who transferred to California from New York in the last three weeks of the season, Jesse Bronner (6'-3" Jr. G), Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-2" Fr. SG/SF), Brian Trump (6'-2" Fr. F) and possibly Josiah Johnson (6'-5" Jr. F) and Will Sheslow (6'-1" Fr. G) on Friday, but we'd guess that the latter two will play on Saturday and Sunday only if their game schedules don't conflict with their Rockfish Hammerhead RSL playoff schedules.

Again, as soon as we get the official rosters we'll put them up and the schedules as well.

See you there.