biw announcment 5/15/99

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SoCalHoops All-Star News

LB P-T Will Publish Best-In-The-West
Selections Tomorrow--(May 15,1999)

We spoke with Louis Johnson of the Long Beach Press-Telegram yesterday, and he told us that finally all of the ballots had been counted, the results were in, and the feature stories written on the top player selections, and finally, finally, long after the high school basketball season has ended and most of the top seniors have made their college selections, the Long Beach Press-Telegram will finally publish their annual Best in the West Selections. They will appear in the Sunday May 16, 1999 edition.

Louis wouldn't tell us who had been voted the top player on the West Coast, but we've got a pretty good idea that it's going to be one of three players, and we're willing to bet that at least two of the top three are from SoCal, and that they also made the Orange County Register's Fab 15. Perhaps not in the same order as they'll appear tomorrow, but that's our best guess (and really, we're guessing. . . )

For those not familiar with the Best in the West, the Long Beach Press Telegram, (formerly through Frank Burlison who was at the PT for years and started the BIW concept, but who has now moved on to the Register--Frank now writes the "Fab 15" Selections, which had way more than 15 players selected last fall, but that's what it's called---and now through Louis Johnson) has been making selections of the best players on the west coast in the senior class for many years, and it's considered a very prestigious honor to be selected to the list.

Just so you have an idea of how tough the selection process was, consider this: The selections included everything from a "First Team" all the way down to a "Sixth Team" with each team consisting of five players. The list of nominees was a mile long, and included players from California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico (no fifth year seniors though, so don't look for Jamal Crawford on this year's list). The list submitted to the sports writers, scouts and media (which included SoCalHoops) consisted of more than 250 names, and we weren't limited to the names on the list either, and could choose to do our own write-ins.

We're not going to make any predictions here (at least not yet), but we think we can fairly well predict all five of the first team players. But if you really want to find out, you'll have to pick up a copy of the P-T at your local newstand tomorrow. Sorry, but we'd guess that the internet edition of the paper (P-T Connect) will probably only have the bare-boned stuff, and not the complete articles that you'll find in the paper. Go out and spend a buck, it'll be worth it.