long beach pool B preview

LB Fall Hoops Classic: Pool "B" Rosters;
The Hood & ICAN Top Seeds--(Sept. 10, 1999)

We finally got the rosters for the teams to go along with the schedules Dinos Trigonis sent us the other day, so now we can at least evaluate, on paper, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various teams in each pool. Some teams look really, really strong on paper, while others look pretty weak. Of course there's no substitute for actually seeing the games, and we're sure that notwithstanding how good some teams look on paper, a lot of people will be surprised that some seemingly lowly looking rosters will be one or more high-powered and well-regarded team.

We're going to list the rosters pool-by-pool, which will be a little more helpful and give you a way to actually plan out what teams you'll watch tomorrow, since the games on Friday (today) and Saturday will all be pool play games. Here's what we now know about the teams and the schedule for Pool "B" (note: We'll include the roster numbers where they are available):

ICAN All-Stars

Coach: Rock Johnson

00 DeWayne Harris (6'-8" Sr. PF) Lynwood
1. Leroy Dawson (6'-1" Sr. PG) Los Angeles HS
3. Isaiah Sago (5'-10" Sr. PG/SG) Palisades
5. Mario Roberts (6'-2" Sr. SG) Manual Arts
6. Ronald Ruffin (6'-6" Sr. SG/SF) Chatsworth
8. Rickey Rico (6'-7" Sr. PF) Morningside
13. Blake Walker (6'-5" Sr. SF) Cajon HS
20. Tyrone Riley (6'-6" Sr. SF/SG) LA Jordan
21. Tuesday Thomas (6'-5" Sr. F) LA Hamilton HS
23. James Mahews (6'-7" So. F) Palisades HS
32. Lester Clay (6'-4" Jr. SG) Crenshaw
33. Ian Soleimani (6'-6" Jr. F) Pasadena HS
34. Douglas Thomas (6'-7" Jr. PF) Pasadena HS
44. Steve McMaryion (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) Palisades

Intensity Basketball

Coach: Patrick Judge

2. Casey Keegan (5'-11" Sr. SG/PG) Willow Glen HS
3. J.T. Parker (5'-10" Sr. PG/SG) Valley Christian HS
20. Austin Nichols (6'-5" Sr. SF/SG) Berkeley HS
21. Jason Holman (6'-5" Sr. F) Berkeley HS
22. Steven Butler (6'-3" Sr. G/F) Del Mar HS
23. Jamal Hill (6'-4" Sr. SG) El Cerrito HS
24. James Brown (6'-1" Jr. G) El Cerrito
32. Nick Frey (6'-8" Sr. PF) Valley Christian HS
33. Keith Wilright (6'-7" Jr. F) Oakland Tech HS
44. Demarshay Johnson (6'-8" Jr. F) Oakland Tech HS
55. Tremaine Fuqua (6'-9" Jr. F/C) Oakland Skyline HS

No Limit

Coach: Doug Collins

24. Josh Dillon (5'-10" So. PG) Victor Valley HS
31. Mike Thompson (6'-3" So. SG) Victor Valley HS
32. Steve Thompson (6'-3" So. PG/SG) Victor Valley HS
33. Cory Stinson (5'-7" Sr. G) Victor Valley HS
34. Jason Collins (6'-0" So. G) Victor Valley HS
40. Jeremiah Phillips (6'-6" Sr. F) Silverado HS
41. Edmund Elzy (6'-5" Sr. F) Victor Valley HS
43. Carlos Alexander (6'-4" Sr. F) Victor Valley HS
44. Anthony Oshnigua (6'-0" Sr. G) Silverado HS
45. Ryan Dillon (6'-4" Sr. G) Victor Valley HS

The Hood

Coach: Russell Otis

Keilon Fortune (5'-11" Jr. PG) Domginguez HS
Keith Brooks (6'-7" Sr. PF) Dominguez HS
Tyson Chandler (7'-0" Jr. PF/C) Dominguez HS
Micha McKinney (6'-2" Sr. SG) Dominguez HS
Steve Moore (6'-4" Sr. SG) Dominguez HS
Larry Johnson (6'-6" Sr. SG) Dominguez HS
Darius Sanders (6'-5" So. PF) Dominguez HS
Keion Kindred (6'-2" So. SG) Dominguez HS
Sherman Gay (6'-6" Sr. SF/SG) Dominguez HS
Bobby Jones (6'-5" So. SG) Dominguez HS
Jamel Gay (5'-10" So. PG/SG) Dominguez HS
Samir Hernandez (6'-7" So. SF) Dominguez HS
Mingis Murray (5'-8" Fr. PG) DominguezHS
Gary Looney (5'-10" Sr. PG) Dominguez HS

We caught about half of the Hood v. ICAN game, and much to our surprise, ICAN was not only playing even with The Hood, they were outplaying them. We have no idea who finally won, but Dominguez looks like they haven't played together in about a month, which is actually about right. Tyson Chandler was looking a lot stronger, tougher and more cut, and he was even playing more aggressively than he was this summer, almost leading to a couple of fights with DeWayne Harris and Doug Thomas. Leroy Dawson, who has re-enrolled at LA High was playing pretty well, and we hear that he has a good chance of getting his 5th year of eligibility from the LA City Section Commissioner's office. We were sort of surprised to see Samir Hernandez having transferred in to Dominguez (he was at New Roads last year) and we were equally surprised to see that Gary Looney from Crenshaw is now a Don too. Gary and freshman Mingis Murray were playing point for Dominguez because Keilon Fortune came as a "civilian". When we asked him why he wasn't dressed for the game he said "I missed practice." Oh well, there's a price to pay for everything, and Keilon is getting a lesson, which was a shame because his teammates could have used him.

We haven't seen Intensity or No Limit yet, so we can't really comment. We won't even begin to predict the order of finish, but we will venture a guess that this one will really be a two team race between ICANN and The Hood. The winner of this pool will play the winner of Pool G (Bay Area Ballers, BWBA II, H Squad or On2Hoop Future Stars), at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday at LBCC Main. But between now and then, there are a lot of pool play games to be played.

Teams--Friday, September 10	Time	Location
The Hood v. ICAN All-Stars	4:00 p.m.	LBCC Main Gym
Intensity Basketball v. No Limit	7:45 p.m.	LBCC Main Gym

Teams--Saturday, September 11	Time	Location
The Hood v. Intensity Basketball	11:30 a.m.	LBCC Aux Gym
ICAN All-Stars v. No Limit	11:30 a.m.	Long Beach Millikan HS
The Hood v. No Limit	4:30 p.m.	Long Beach Millikan HS
ICAN All-Stars v. Intensity Basketball	5:45 p.m.	LBCC Aux Gym