long beach pool E preview

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 "E" (note: We'll include the roster numbers where they are available):

1 Tough School of Basketball

Coach: Richard Prospero

Eddie Draughan (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF0 Mayfair
Pete Decases (6'-5" So. SF) Capistrano Valley
Jake Franzen (6'-2" So. G) Capistrano Valley
Patrick Lefler (6'-4" Jr. SF) Esperanza
Jeffrey Gloger (6'-0" Jr. G) Capistrano Valley
Conner Lefler (6'-1" So. PG/SG) Esperanza
Josh Childress (6'-6" Jr. SG) Mayfair
Jamal Sampson (6'-11" Jr. F) Mater Dei
Drew Terry (6'-3" Fr. G) Northwood
Jeff Bonds (6'-5" Sr. F) Mayfair

BWBA I

Coach: Bob Gottlieb

5. David Gale (6'-0" So. PG) Buckley
21. Brandon Brooks (6'-0" Sr. PG) Portland Jefferson
22. Nicholas Paige (6'-3" Sr. SG) Bay Shore, MS
24. Ryan Westbrook (6'-3" Sr. PG/SG) Ocean View
30. Ryan Wilbur (6'-5" Sr. F) Brea Olinda
35. Martin Iti (6'-11" So. F/C) Cardinal Gibbons, Fl
41. Ben Jacobsen (6'-7" Sr. F) Omaha Central
43. Michael Phillips (6'-6" Jr. F) Leflore, Alabama
44. Steve Miller (6'-3" Sr. G) Anaheim
53. Harrison Schaen (6'-8" Fr. SF/PF) Mater Dei

Orange County Rebels

Coach: Roger Hogan

4. Roger Hogan (6'-1" Sr. SG/PG) Servite
12. Geoffrey Clayton (6'-2" So. G) Magnolia
20. Alex Rasmussen (6'-4" Sr. SF) Foothill
21. Robert Turner (6'-8" Sr. F) Western
22. Akachi Azubuike (6'-1" Sr. G) Fullerton
30. Maan Sidhu (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) Fullerton
40. Allen Purnell (6'-4" Sr. SF/SG) Savanna

Redondo

Coach: Jim Nielsen

00 A. Morris (5'-8" Sr. G)
1. Sam Chance (5'-8" Sr. G)
8. Dylan Mathis (6'-5" Sr. F)
11. Ryan Mollins (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF)
12. Brendan Behan (5'-8" So. G)
16. Adam Zahn (6'-7" So. F)
21. Dijon Thompson (6'-6" Jr. F)
32. Walter White (6'-5" Sr. G/F)
33. Andrew Zahn (6'-9" Sr. PF)
      Keith Ellison (5'-8" So. PG)
      Paul Just (6'-1" Jr. SG)
      Sam Chance (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG)
      Paul Meynan (6'-9" So. PF)

Teams--Friday, September 10	Time	Location
Redondo v. 1 Tough School	5:15 p.m.	LBCC Aux Gym
BWBA I v. Orange County Rebels	6:30 p.m.	LBCC Main Gym

Teams--Saturday, September 11	Time	Location
Orange County Rebels v. 1 Tough School	11:30 a.m.	Long Beach Jordan
BWBA I v. Redondo	12:45 p.m.	LBCC Aux Gym
Redondo v. Orange County Rebels	4:30 p.m.	Long Beach Jordan
BWBA I v. 1 Tough School of Baskeball	5:45 p.m.	LBCC Main Gym

Yet another pretty evenly matched pool, but we'd have to give the edge to either Redondo or BWBA I, even though 1ToughSchool has Josh Childress and Edwin Draughn. Oh, those wanting to see Childress with his road-buddy Jamal Sampson will be slightly disappointed because Jamal won't be with the team this weekend. We're not sure why, but coach Rich Prospero told us before the start of their game that Sampson wouldn't be at the tournament, and he even produced a different roster, which he handed us, and it didn't include Jamal. We couldn't catch the BWBA I game on Friday night (a little thing called Rosh Hashana and we were doing our Sandy Koufax imitation), but BWBA I beat the Orange County Rebels by about 25 or 30 points. Brandon Brooks played his usually strong style of play; Harrison Schaen was also one of the bright spots for BWBA, showing some really nice moves and scoring from inside, as well as demonstrating just amazing skills and fundamentals for an incoming freshman. He was not as effective from the perimeter, but there's no doubt that he'll be a huge talent and can write is own ticket in four years. We understand that Lute Olsen was at the Mater Dei practice yesterday and he was very impressed with Harrison. We also heard that (but didn't see) Robert Turner, who impressed a lot of people tonight.

Again, we think anybody can win this bracket, but we're betting on either Redondo or BWBA to finish first. Guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow.