SoCalHoops AAU Tournament News

Eric Jensen: Total Impact Wins
16U AAU SoCal/SoPac Regionals--(May 5,1999)

We weren't at the Southern California AAU Regionals for the 16U group, but managed to hear about them from several sources. One such source is Eric Jensen, one of the coaches of the Total Impact team, which coincidentally won the SoCal Regionals. We can't vouch for whether or not the "West Coast" All-Stars team that Eric writes about is really SCA or some other team, but we're betting it was one of Pat Barrett's SCA squads, given the presence of DeAngelo Collins who has played for Barrett for several years.  In any event, Total Impact won the entire thing, defeating a strong Northridge Knights team. Here's Eric's report:

Total Impact Avenges Earlier Pool Play Loss
Beats Northridge Knights

By: Eric Jensen

This year's AAU National qualifier tournament for the boys 16 and under division was held in the Inland Empire, scattered throughout city gyms in Riverside and Moreno Valley. Not many teams were attracted to the tournament  and AAU Pacific region director Charles Matthews was forced to combine divisions for early pool play games. Jurupa Valley and Norte Vista played host to the pool play games.

The Northridge Knights, coached by Bert Stern and Mark Small, was Total Impact's (TI) first opponent. This game was won by Northridge in convincing fashion. Not many mistakes, and fundamental basketball led the way for Northridge to get an edge on TI, coached by Sam Alipio and Eric Jensen, for the top seed in their pool. Despite good offensive production from Jamayne Potts and Peter McCaslin, Northridge balanced the back court attack with some strong shooting of their own. Very little was known about the Knights and this proved to be a thorn for TI coaches. Gus Ruiz (6'2" from N. Hollywood H.S.) and William Kim (5'9" from N. Hollywood H.S.) led Northridge with solid defense and patient offense. J.P. Elliott (6'7" from Loyola) was very impressive inside and outside. The Knights would build a lead to almost 20 points before TI would make a defensive surge. The lead would only be cut to 10, and TI would get no closer. Both teams won games though in pool play, and advanced to the semifinals, which were played at Jurupa Valley High School. TI mopped up the Alhambra Magic and a team called the Free Agents. The wins would pit TI against the West Coast All-Stars and Northridge played the Irvine Roadrunners.

Semifinal game number one matched TI against the West Coast All-Stars. [Note From Jerry:  This was probably the Southern California All-Stars, and not "West Coast All-Stars, as the presence of DeAngelo Collins--see below-- would indicate Pat Barrett's involvement, and his teams are usually called SCA, not WCA. . . . whatever]. Initially TI came out intimidated against the bigger West Coast team. West Coast's big guys looked tough, but their play was anything but that. Eventually TI center Marcus Shelby and power forward David Harris got physical and began taking over the paint. At one point, Shelby (So. form St. Monica's) scored six straight points that keyed a rally that saw TI climbing back into a game that had them down by as many as 14 points. While West Coast players began fighting amongst themselves, the TI back court clamped down and took over the game. Robert Rakestraw was significant in this run with stellar up front and patient defense that forced the rattled West Coast guards into a trap almost every possession. The result was a TI scoring spurt that put them up by 14 with less than six minutes to go. Essentially, TI became a defensive machine with all the guards getting in on the action.

Harris and Shelby were forced to pull down the boards and most important,  they shut down the big men. An undisciplined West Coast team extended the last four minutes of regulation to about 22 minutes with hard and sometimes senseless fouls. It was too late to shake up TI as Jess Valero, McCaslin,  Potts, and Shelby knocked their free throws down. A much earlier battle  turned into an easy semifinal win and a birth in the championship game. The late, late (9:30PM) game featured Northridge playing the Irvine Roadrunners. While scouting this game, it was nice to once again see a very strong fundamental team beat a team that probably was better athletically. But stutter steps, crossovers, and hesitation moves did not phase the Knight's defense and with only six minutes erased from the first quarter, Northridge was already winning by 18 points. A massive rotation from Irvine simply added to the inconsistent play of the team. Meanwhile, Northridge went about their business answering everything that was thrown at them. In the second half, the Irvine team started DeAngelo Collins, obviously looking for a spark. All they got was some missed dunks and a lot of trash talking from him. The rest of Irvine seemed to think they didn't have to play after Collins entered the game. This kid has tremendous potential but he played very sporadic and was not in control most of the time. Northridge walked away with an easy semifinal win and headed home; only to return the next morning for the championship.Canyon Springs High School hosted all of the title games.

The first game lived up to the billing. TI coaches did their homework and the battle was on. Better defense from TI was evident from the beginning. If you had watched all TI's games, you would have noticed that their defense improved with each game they played. A combination of defensive back court sets and presses proved to be significant in keeping the Knight's out of sync. Missing Elliott (injured) was key and all the inside paint work was left to 6'3" Eric Roller (N. Hollywood High School). Roller played like he was 6'8" in the semifinal game, schooling Collins and any post defender with nice, body moving post moves and finishing drives. In this game, Roller showed himself at times, but once Shelby got disciplined (fouled a lot early) and stopped leaving his feet, Roller had trouble. This left Harris free to swat shots from the interior. Shelby and Harris blocked five shots down the stretch of the game. Even though the TI game plan was working, Northridge was a good enough team to stay in the game. Constant changes in the defense made this difficult as the Knights tried to spread the floor. Rakestraw, McCaslin, and Valero were relentless on the wings. Potts showed a lot of improvement and actually created steals for his team mates. As in the pool play game, Ruiz had answers for everything TI threw at him. Give this guy some credit, he found the holes and the ball and finished 70% of the time.

However, nobody else from Northridge could get in the groove. The open shots that TI had given them in the pool play game were not there and when they were, the hits didn't have any impact. With a ten point third quarter lead, TI became a little complacent and Northridge capitalized on this like any fundamentally strong team would. In minutes, TI found themselves down by two and the fourth quarter would decide it all. The stretch run provided the fans with great basketball. Both teams, disciplined and patient, were searching for the play that would provide any type of separation on the score board. TI would get it as the final tie was broken by Potts' wide open three point shot. You could actually hear the shot - schwap - as it hit nothing but net and pushed TI into a lead they would not give up. Three free throws later Total Impact closed the game 68-63, clinching the championship.

In an earlier article there was mention that the TI back court defense would have to improve and the leadership at the point needed to be consistent in order for TI to win the AAU regionals. This was accomplished. Some notable statistics were McCaslin (So. Chadwick) scoring 118 points for the tournament including a 27 point semi final performance and a 33 point pool play game. Potts (So. St. Monica's) would finish with 39 assists and 15.2 points per game average. Shelby yanked 42 rebounds and poured in 11.2 points per game average. Harris (So. West Torrance) ended up with 30 rebounds and 26 points for the tournament. Team defense is what won the championship for TI. Credit Rakestraw (So. St. Monica's) for leading several defensive rally's in addition to Valero (So. San Pedro) and Devian Cummings (Fr. Carson) playing key roles in the win.

 
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