pump report 1

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

adidas Double Pump Fall Premier
Final Four Set For Today--(Sept. 26, 1999)

What: 1st Annual adidas Double Pump Fall Premier Tournament
Where: Cal State Dominguez Hills
When: Friday, Sept. 24-- Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999
Start Time: First Games on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Who: Top players from all over the West Coast
NCAA Certified Event

Semifinals:

12:45 p.m. Court 2 Pump N Run I v. Winner of BWBA v. No Limit

2:00 p.m. Court 2 Long Beach Poly v. Compton Dominguez

Championship Final --

4:30 p.m. Court 1

Based on the results from Saturday, the "Final Four" is now set and three of the four teams are already in it, and one will play a quarterfinal game at 9:00 a.m. this morning to decide the other spot.

We're not going to recap all of the games and players we saw today, at least not until later on, but for now, here's how three of the four final four teams got here:

The first semifinal game is set for 12:45 p.m. today and will be played on Court 2 at Cal State Dominguez. One of the slots is filled by the Pump N Run I team, which beat a very tough South Coast All Stars (SCA) team in a game tonight, and earlier in the day beat the Tucson II team.

The Pump N Run I team had Branduinn Fullove, Heath Bailey, David Gale, Torin Beeler, E.J. Harris, Danny Genung, and Jimmy Dadiotis in the first game of the day against Tucson, and then was joined by Aerick Sanders for the evening game against SCA, which had DeAngelo Collins, Jamal Walls, Rayshawn Reed, Jason Goodman, Tommy Smith, and one other guy we didn't know; Mike Strawberry was on the roster, but he didn't play. This was a great game at least for the first half as SCA hung in with the Pump I team, but then managed to fall way behind as EJ Harris hit some very nice floaters in the lane and a couple of important layups, Torin Beeler made some very acrobatic dunks, Branduinn Fullove made a couple of threes and David Gale hit some very nice pull up jumpers on penetration to the lane. DeAngelo Collins continues to get better and better despite his off-court problems, and Jamal Walls was about as impressive inside as we've seen him be, with some unbelievably acrobatic spin moves and finishes among the tall trees down low. Heath Bailey also played very well scoring about 17 points in the game, including several thunderous slam dunks. And the real surprise of the tournament for many college coaches we spoke with was Danny Genung, whose dad Randy is the coach at Redlands. Danny is one of those guys who, if he put on twenty pounds of muscle could be a very, very good impact Division I player; as it is now, he will certainly get some looks based on his play this weekend. He sometimes looks like you wouldn't think he'd be a big-time rebounder and scorer, but he does so many of the little things and scores so effectively that it's a pleasure to watch him work. He's the kind of kid who is always working hard, diving on the floor for loose balls, rebounding and putting the ball in the basket. And at 6'-7" he's also got plenty of potential at the college level.

In the other semifinal game, Long Beach Poly and Wesley Stokes, who played brilliantly today, virtually error-free basketball, beat a very nice Los Al team. We knew a couple of the guys on Los Al, but because the coaches' packet didn't have the Los Alamitos roster numbers, we were left guessing at some of the players. . . .we'll check the scoring books tomorrow and then tell you more about them. Poly pretty much dominated with great guard play from Wesley, AJ Diggs, Carlos Rivers and big inside play from Joe Travis. Oregon State is really high on Wesley, and two of the Beavers coaches were following Wesley around for much of the day at his games. Poly cruised to the win which was never in doubt.

In the other quarterfinal, the Tim Thomas players beat Dominguez by one point, but it was really a four point game which the Dons gave away by shooting the ball when they shouldn't have. . . .With less than a minute showing on the clock, and Dominguez leading, in a game played without a shot clock, Steve Moore jacked one up from just above the free throw line and he missed, T1T recovered the rebound, and Marcus Toney-El raced the length of the floor and put the ball in the basket and scored, going up by 1. Why they just didn't go to the "four corners" spread court to burn the clock is a mystery, but they didn't. . . . and then with time to score, Dominguez turned the ball over on an errant pass, and Eddie Griffin pounded the ball home to take the lead by three points. Dominguez then committed a foul, sending a T1T guy (we can't remember who it was. . . that's what 12 straight hours of hoops with no relief will do to you), who made one, missed one to give T1T the lead by four. And with just seconds showing on the clock, Steve Moore tried to redeem himself, hit a huge three before the buzzer, but it was too little too late and Dominguez lost by one.

BWBA I had a great run through the tournament today, beating IEBP Originals early this morning 66-48, and then squeaking out a win in overtime against Tucson Heat I, a game which saw Mike Stephenson from Fontana get injured close to the end of the game; it was a head banging when he fell on the floor, staying down for about 15 minutes after the game, and we just hope that everything is ok with him, because later in the evening, Bob Gottlieb was telling us that he couldn't reach Mike or his family and was worried that something might have happened to him. Ben Jacobsen of BWBA I, the very athletic SF/PF from Nebraska and Harrison Schaen literally brought BWBA back from the dead, down by 20 points, to get the win in overtime.

In any event, sleep calls now, and we've got games to see tomorrow. We'll have more reports later, but for now, we're off to bed. . . . Later.