we care classic scores and standings

Last night we came out to Manual Arts for the "We Care Classic" in particular to get a better look at a couple of teams we only saw glimpses of on Tuesday. One of those teams was Hollywood, and when we got a glimpse of them on Tuesday we were intrigued, and thought we'd come back a bit earlier with more time to spend to watch them.

And we weren't disappointed. This is a team which is well coached, disciplined, and has great athletes. Jason Sanders is the first year head coach of the Shieks. He's a graduate of Azusa Pacific University where he played for two years; prior to that he was at San Diego State University. Last year, and for several years prior to coming to Hollywood High, he coached the JV team at Westchester under the tutalage of Ed Azzam, the head varsity coach at Westchester. "Everything I learned about coaching has come from Coach Azzam," Sanders told us yesterday before the start of the game. "My coaching philosophy is the same as his. I try not to over-coach, let the players play their game, play to their strengths in an organized way."

"Last season Hollywood was 3-11 in league and 6-20 overall," Sanders told us. "The team was not very good then. But we've got a lot of new guys, and we think we'll surprise a lot of people." And he's right, they will and they surprised us with their athleticism and their team play, running, pressing and after Monday's 41 point loss to Manual Arts, they look like a different team than the one Mike Miller wrote about over at WCH.

Here's the roster for yesterday's game, and for tomorrow's probable third place showdown with Monroe at 4:00 p.m. at Manual Arts High:

Orville Allen (6'-2" Jr. PG/SG) Gerald Collins (5'-9" So. PG) Kenny Johnson (6'-2" Sr. G) Richard Wright (6'-0" So. G) Vahe Melikyan (6'-0" Sr. PF) Leon Robbins (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF/PF) Jamaal Simpson (6'-0" Sr. G) Eric Hall (6'-5" Sr. PF) Eric Smith (6'-4" Jr. PG/SG) Keilon Maddox (6'-0" So. G) Jamond Netters (5'-10" Sr. G) Craig Banks (6'-2" Sr. SG)	(clockwise) Craig Banks, Leon Robbins & Eric Smith
	(clockwise) Banks, Robbins, Gerald Collins, Smith, Richard Wright

Last night Hollywood employed the running style of play which should help them surprise more than a few teams, and they did it to a very undermanned Jordan team, which was missing a lot of it's frontline to football, but which still had some great athletes like , Alton Davos (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF), Byron Chambers (6'-1" Sr. SG/PG) who is also an excellent student and reportedly scored 1200 on the SAT and who can flat out play, Leon James (6'-1" Sr. SG), Larry Carter (6'-1" Sr. SF/SG), and Virgil Kennerly (6'-3" Sr. PF). Missing to football were Tyrone Riley (6'-6" Jr. PF/SF), an All-City player, Ricky Gallagher (6'-6" Sr. PF/C), another All-City selection, Kevin Patton (6'-5" Sr. SF), an exciting wing player who was second team All-City last year. We also know that the team will have David Jackson (6'-5" Sr. C) who is also the starting QB for the football team, Resaad Marry (6'-1" Jr. PG), Stevie Williams (6'-1" Jr. SG/SF) and perhaps a couple of others. The Jordan team is coached by Ron Quiet (pronouned "Quee-et"), who was an assistant coach and former player himself at Verbum Dei. In fact, Ron was pleased to tell us that he'd been at Verbum for more than 20 years, off and on, and just landed the job at Jordan.

This was a pretty evenly matched game for a while, and then Hollywood just took off, pulling away by at least 15 points at the half, and they kept it up pretty much throughout the entire game. Although Eric Smith didn't play because of his ejectment in Tuesday's game for "an incident", young Gerald Collins handled the point duties well with the assistance of young Richard Wright who is up from the JV for this tournament. Collins hit for 6 points and at least 5 or 6 assists, and Wright only had 2 points but managed 12 assists. Vahe Melikyan was the biggest surprise for us. While the roster and his coach listed him at only 6'-0" and that's about right from what we could tell standing next to him, he plays like he's about 6'-5", with great post moves and pushes his man right out of the paint using great footwork. He's also a smart player, and Hollywood must have gotten at least 10 of their 74 points last night on "cherry picking" plays where Vahe would literally stay down court under the Hollywood basket (or he got there so fast after the offensive shot that he's got to be a great sprinter) and Banks, Allen, or Wright would inbound the ball after a made basket by Jordan (which wasn't often) and pass it to him standing all alone upcourt for the easy basket. Vahe might not be D-I (well, maybe low D-I), but he should be looked at by some D-II and D-III programs for sure.

One other player we were really impressed with was Eric Hall, who was listed at 6'-6" but looked a lot bigger and taller. He bears a striking resemblance facially to Tyson Chandler, but is built more like Joe Shipp. He's very strong, has great muscle definition on his upper body, and can run, jump and shoot the ball extremely well. He's a smart player too, and played very well, getting six points, and at least 8 rebounds. The top scorers for Hollywood last night were Leon Robbins, and Kenny Johnson, both of whom hit for 12. Robbins is a savvy wing player with good athletic ability and at least one more year to mature under coach Sanders' leadership, and he's also an excellent defender, and is not selfish with the ball; he also got 4 assists. Banks hit for 8 points, and shot 4-4 from the field, and also got four assists. He's very athletic, runs the floor well, jumps great, and has good hands and court knowledge. When he plays, he's similar to a slightly smaller version of Gilbert Arenas, sort of smooth, fluid and effortless, but he goes very hard.

Hollywood Shieks' Craig Banks (left) and Leon Robbins
(with Gerald Collins visible in background)

There were a couple of other players on the Hollywood team yesterday who saw only limited action or who didn't score. One was Keilon Maddox, a young Soph up from the JV, who also says that he's Tito Maddox' cousin. Jamond Netters was listed on the roster but we didn't really see him play and he didn't score, which might explain why we didn't see him play.

Hollywood was always at all times in control of the game against Jordan. With only two minutes to play they were up 50-39, and ultimately stretched the lead to 17 points to win 74-57.

Hollywood will play tomorrow at 4:00 for third, and will face off against Monroe, another very surprising team (at least Mike Miller is going to be surprised when he reads that they are 2-1, and ahead of at least four other teams in this tournament).

Following the We Care Classic, Hollywood will have a little bit of time off, then they jump right into league play against Verdugo Hills on December 8 at Verdugo, followed by another league game on the 9th at Franklin, and then they take their winter session break. We know they will be appearing in the Valencia High School Holiday Tournament from December 14-19 at Valencia High School where they will face teams like Alemany, Little Rock, Santa Paula, Burbank, Valencia, LA San Fernando, Compton Centennial, Rialto Eisenhower, Simi Valley Royal, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Ventura, LA Chatsworth, and Antelope Valley. If they get seeded against teams like Centennial, Notre Dame or Valencia, or maybe even Chatsworth, they should see some stiff competition.