speice run n slam tournament

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SoCalHoops Tournament News

5th Annual Spiece Run N' Slam All-Star
Classic At Purdue April 30-May 2--(April 14, 1999)

What does a tournament that's being held at Purdue, in Lafayette, Indiana, have to do with SoCalHoops? Easy: There will be at least one Rockfish team competing, probably a 4D Team, and we hear that the Total Impact squad is also traveling. And yesterday we got word that it's also possible that one or two Double Pump teams might also make the trip to Indiana for the Spiece Run N' Slam All-Star Classic, which is presented by Gym Rats, Inc., and Spiece Basketball (which as we understand it is a chain of sporting goods stores in the midwest which sponsors traveling and club basketball teams.

The 1999 Run N' Slam All-Star Classic, a 17-U and 16-U tournament, will take place from Friday April 30, 1999 through Sunday May 2, 1999 at Purdue University. Games will be played at Mackey Arena, the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility, the Coed-Recreational Gymnasium, and Lambert Fieldhouse on the campus of Purdue University. This tournament has for the last few years featured some of the best high school basketball talent in the United States. In 1998, the 100 team field was represented by teams from California, Utah, Texas, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, Arizona, New York, Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Delaware and Canada. While the tournament takes place during a "dead period" such that college coaches won't be in attendance, it will be well attended by many national scouting services so that the coaches will get the information on the best players.

Last year, Rockfish took players on their rising senior team such as Shantay Legans (Cal), Rafael Berumen (New Mexico), Dalron Johnson (UNLV), Eric Seiss, Brian Wethers (Cal), and Nick VanderLaan (Cal). Other Rockfish players who were only sophomores at the time were Jacoby Atako, Russell Lakey, Devin Montgomery, and Justin Moore. This year, Rockfish will take one team and it will include (according to Mark Mayemura) Russell Lakey (Harvard-Westlake), Jacoby Atako (Santa Monica), Tim Drisdom (Calvary Chapel Downey), Dustin Villepigue (Simi Valley), Rory O'Neil (Ridgecrest Burroughs), DeVerion Mackey (Marshall), Solomon Brown (Savanna) and several very good young players, and as you can see, the Rockfish guys really do seem to be of the belief that this is a pretty weak junior class this year, so they are only taking a few juniors and quite a few more sophs and even the freshman guard sensation Drisdom who we're certain will begin to establish a national reputation once the scouts in Indiana get a look at him.

It also looks like the Pumps will take one, and possibly two teams. We know they will be taking an older team, but whether they will take a younger team is up in the air right now. The older team composed of all rising seniors (currently juniors) will compete in the 17-U bracket. If (and we say "if" because it's uncertain whether there are still spots in the tournament for a younger team) a younger team goes, they would most likely be playing in the 'juniors to be' bracket. The older Pump N Run team will definitely include most of the same guys who played last week at the Pump Easter Tournament for Pump I, including Branduinn Fullove (Simi Valley), Lou Wright (Westchester), Wesley Stokes (Long Beach Poly), Travon Bryant (Long Beach Jordan), Antoine Durrell (Seattle), and possibly DeShawn Stevenson (Fresno Washington Union) if Mats' EBO team elects not to travel to Indiana, and Errick and Derrick Craven (Bishop Montgomery); if a young team also goes, at least one of the Cravens would probably be on it, along with Steve Brown (Venice), David Gale (Buckley), Jonathon Harper (Long Beach Poly), Markee White (Long Beach Poly), Craig Smith (Fairfax) and Chad Bell (Westchester), and several others. Of course, it's more likely that the Pumps will take just a single team, and it's going to be equally difficult to get everyone together because this is also the same weekend that the SAT is administered, and quite a few of the sophomores and juniors have signed up to take the test early.

Regardless of which teams ultimately come from the West Coast, tournament play will begin Friday evening at 6:00pm, 8:00am Saturday, and 8:00am Sunday. The tournament format is pool play, with 120 teams, consisting of 30 pools of 4 teams. Each team in each pool will play one another, and then all teams will advance to a single elimination championship tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Each team is guaranteed at least 4 games, and could play as many as 10. The single elimination tournament will begin at 6:00pm on Saturday for both age groups with games running until around midnight. Then the tourney resumes Sunday morning at 8:00am, with the final game of both age groups at 3:30pm (17 and under at Mackey and 16 and under at the IAF).

Here's the tournament format:

* Pool play of 120 teams - 30 pools of 4 teams each
* 60 teams of seniors-to-be
* 36 teams of juniors-to-be
* 24 teams of sophomores-to-be
* Each team plays 3 pool games within their age group
* ALL TEAMS advance to a single elimination tourney within their age group, based on the following criteria:
    1) The win-loss record from pool play.
    2) Tie-breaker of identical records will be who won head-to-head.
    3) More than two teams with the same won-loss record...
        a) Point spread in games played and won; 1 point for each point team defeats an opponent by (MAXIMUM of 20 points).
        b) If a team forfeits in pool play, the winning team gets 1 point towards point spread.

We'll try to keep tabs on all the SoCal guys playing, and our job will be a little bit easier because tournament coverage will be provided on the 'net by MrHoops, an unofficial Purdue Basketball site, which provided some great coverage last year, and which promises to have lots of stuff on this year's games. If you haven't seen their site, check it out. The Tournament coverage can be found at this link.