1999 Reebok Holiday Prep Classic
Our Insane Saturday Itinerary--(Dec. 17, 1999)

The 1999 Reebok Holiday Prep Classic gets started tomorrow morning, and unfortunately, we won't be able to get out of town and over to Vegas until Monday morning.  We've got some things to do here in LA tomorrow and also have to catch the UCLA v. DePaul game, and since that starts late (3:00 p.m.) it won't be over in time for us to catch more than one or two games on Saturday (if any) since we'd probably not make it to the airport until about 7:00 p.m. and even if we managed to get to Vegas by 8:00 or 8:30 p.m., we'd miss everything except maybe the final minutes of the last games of the day. . .  not really worth the trip.  We'll probably head up to Santa Barbara for the San Marcos tourney in the morning and then back down to Westwood for the impending doom that is DePaul. . . . .

But for those of you who will be there for all of the festivities tomorrow, we've cooked up a little itinerary of what we'd be doing if we were there.  If you're insane enough to attempt this, then you qualify as one of our staff people, and we'll gladly compensate you for any writing you do.  We don't expect any takers on that, but here's what we'd be doing if we were in your shoes in order to get the maximum viewing bang for your buck and to see most of the SoCal teams competing against the out-of-towners on the first day of the tournament: 

Remember, the tournament is spread out between two different venues, and this time, the venues are actually pretty far apart. Allow about 1/2 hour driving time to get between gyms.  Obviously, you'll have to make choices about where you'll be.  Green Valley is about as far from Durango, driving-wise, as any of the many high schools in Vegas are, and we preferred it the past few years when Cimarron-Memorial was the other venue. . . oh well, can't please everyone.

But if you're going to be there tomorrow, here's what we'd be looking at:  

10:00 a.m. --The first games get started, but there are no SoCal teams playing. . . Well, Central from Fresno is playing East Jefferson from Metaire, LA, at Green Valley's Main Gym in a Gold Cup game, and we might check that one out for a half, just long enough to get over to Durango, because we wouldn't want to miss the second game at Durango's Main Gym. . . which is. . .

11:25 a.m.-- Head for Durango HS, Main Gym for the Roswell HS (Ga) v. Fairfax HS game, in the Millenium Cup.  A terrific matchup (could be the best matchup all day) and one that could give Fairfax trouble very early. Roswell is famous for great shooters, like Auburn's Scott Pohlman, and this year they've got Kris Lowe (6'-6" Sr. F) who is reputedly averaging something like 28 ppg already this season.  Roswell also has some height, in fact a lot more than Fairfax in Patrick Ridley (6'-10" Sr. C), who is averaging 11 rpg. They've got Jon Gardner (6'-6" Sr. F), James Pattman (6'-2' Jr. SG), who is averaging 14 ppg, and they've got a soph point, Brian Watts who is supposed to be pretty good.  Fairfax of course has Evan Burns (6'-7" So. F), Craig Smith (6'-7" Jr. C), Jason Morrissette (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF), Scottie Stern (6'-4" Sr. SG),  Fowzi Abdelsamad (6'-2" Sr. PG/SG), Ishmael Torres (6'-2" Sr. SG), Marqui Jones (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF) and Lovestor Adams (6'-2" Sr. SG).

and/or

At 11:35 a.m., in the Durango Auxiliayr is the Montclair Prep v. Smokey Hill from Aurora, Colorado, and fortunately, it takes place in the Auxiliary gym at Durango, so it will be easy to keep an eye on one or both (the Fairfax v. Roswell) of these games.  Montclair has Josiah Johnson (6'-8" Sr. F), Jesse Bronner (6'-5" Sr. F), Will Sheslow (6'-1" So. SG), Andre Freeman (5'-10" Sr. PG), and a bunch of other guys.  Maybe even Tony McFadden (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) and the new big guy, Derek Daniels (6'-8" So. PF) will play too. There are a lot of other players on the Montclair bench, but these will be the guys gettng the bulk of the minutes.   Smokey Hill actually looks like they matchup well with the Mounties, at least on paper:  They've got Matt Carroll (6'-8" Jr. PF) who should be able to matchu up with Josiah, and they've got four sophs who can run and shoot:  Johnnie Jones (6'-0" So. PG), Ryan Katz (6'-1" So. SG), Jeremey Dougherty (6'-3" So. SF), and they've also got Brian Chiri (6'-5" So. C) and Supo Jagedy (6'-7" So. C). Young but decent size and quickness. Should be an interesting game.

or

At 11: 55-- head back over to Green Valley Auxiliary, to watch  Sylmar v. St. Mary's Phoenix in a Silver Cup Game, and  if both the Montclair Prep and Fairfax games are getting out of hand, we'd head over to Green Valley a bit earlier to catch more of this one. Sylmar is young, and will have all they can handle with Jason Fontenet, one of the best guards in Arizona, and they've also got Channing Frye (6'-10" Jr. F), and other starters like Tarek Abdala and Nathan Ballestero, and they've also got Jason's younger brother James (5'-10" Jr. SG).  Sylmar has been getting some good experience and is getting better, and they beat LA Fremont and gave Crenshaw a game too. Sylmar doesn't have much height to counter Frye, but they've got George O'Garra (6'-6 Jr. C) who is getting better, and they've also got John Valdez   (6'-1" Jr. SG) a great outside scoring threat. We'll see if the rest of the young Spartans can step up.

or

At 1:00 pm., we'd head back to Durango, and go to the Auxiliary game to watch Venice v. El Dorado in a Bronze Cup Game-- Venice is young, and brings a whole bunch of new guys in addition to the returning starters:  Kevin Eleby (5'-11" Jr. PG), Kyle Morrison (6'-1" Sr. SG), and Montel Duhon (6'-6" Sr. SF/SG). El Dorado is a local Vegas team, so they should be a heavy crowd favorite. It will be interesting to see how Venice's new guys have melded in and whether there's any chemistry developing.

or

1:20 p.m. Stay at Green Valley (if you pass on the Venice game) or head over there to the Auxiliary Gym to watch Bakersfield v. Hitchcock from Texas in a Silver Cup game. Bakersfield is really, really good with Alfred Williams (6'-3" Sr. SG/PG), Anthony Guerrero (5'9" Jr. G), Marcus Jennings (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF), Charles Black (6'-1" Sr. SG), Mark Bruley (6'-2" Sr. SG), Jason Jackson (6'-5" Sr. C), Johnny Wiley (6'-5" Sr. F), and Brandon Huggins (6'-0" Jr. G). We have no idea who Hitchcock has right now, but this should be fun, at least for a half.

or

2:45 p.m. (possible) Stay at Green Valley Auxiliary for the Newbury Park v. Rancho (Las Vegas, NV) game.  Check out the latest version of the Bobick brothers up against a local team.  Not one of the most compelling games of the day, but still ought to find out what Newbury Park looks like this year.

but this is a definite

3:40 P.M.--Head back to Durango HS, Main Gym:  Westlake (Austin, TX) v. Long Beach Poly--Actually this will probably wind up being a sort of mismatch, no offense to Westlake, but Poly is just way deeper in our view.  Austin has senior guards Drew Gressett and Trennis Jones, Kevin Dischert (6'-5" Sr. F), C hristian Scacco (?? Sr. G),  Brad Buckman (6'-8" So. F) who is still very young and Teddy Boxberger (6'-5" So. F) who transferred from Harvard-Westlake to Austin Westlake. This, my friends, is a very young team, and while Buckman is talented, why they are in the Millenium Cup and Simi isn't, is a mystery. Oh, well, someone's gotta lose. And they're going to lose too, if we can make a prediction.  Poly is just too fast, too deep, too tall, and much better. Austin doesn't have anyone like Wesley Stokes (5'-11" Sr. PG);   Poly does, in fact they've got several sorta, kinda just like him: Ramaan Shotwell (6'-0" Sr. PG/SG), Carlos Rivers (5'-10" So. PG),  Justin Marshall (5'-11" Sr. G) A.J. Diggs (5'-9" Sr. PG), Adrian Martin (5'-11" Sr. PG/SG),
Tim Thomas (5'-11" Sr. G), and now that football is over, all of those guys will be back too.  Poly should also have Lonel Penman (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF), Travis Wilder (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF), Marquee White (6'-7" Jr. F) a tremendous talent and a wide receiver too, Chuck Jones (6'-5" Sr. F), big Joe Travis (6'-8" Sr. PF/C), Mike Roche (6'-5" So. F), Mercedes Lewis (6'-7" So. F), Ryan Love (6'-5" So. F),   and Patrick Phillips (6'-2" Jr. SG).  We're still not sure whether Johnathan Harper (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) will play or not given his back injury earlier this summer.

and/or 

3:50 p.m. Durango Auxiliary-- check out the Chatsworth v. Mojave game. Chatsworth had Adam Drell (6'-6" Sr. F), Ronald Ruffin (6'-6" Sr. F/G), and Shane Berry (5'-11" Sr.PG), not to mention a whole bunch of other guys.   Mojave is another of those local Vegas teams and they will be quick, fast, and shoot well.  Don't know much about them, so we'd take a longish look at this game to see who's who.

or

4:10 p.m. head to Green Valley Auxiliary for the Harvard-Westlake v. McQueen (Reno, NV) game.  Russell Lakey (6'-0" Sr. PG), Eric Geffner (6'-5" Sr. SF), John Karavas (5'-10" Sr. SG), Craig Weinstein (5'-10" So. G), and the rest of the Wolverines against a team that has a little more height but otherwise should matchup well. We'd say this is a pick'em game, but then there's no telling what Russell will do and if he goes off for 28+ HW should win.

or

5:05 p.m. --Stay at Durango Main--Westchester v. Greensboro Day (NC)--Westchester is a good, but not great team this year, no where near the talent level that the Comets had two years ago when they won the State Championship in Division I (with Tony Bland, David Bluethenthal, Brandon Granville, etc) and also down a bit from last year with the graduatoin of big man Chris Osborne and the transfer over the summer of super-shooter "Sweet" Lou Wright (NBA Lorenzen Wright's brother).  Still the Comets have some guys, and they should be all right: They've got Jason Breland (6'-3"Sr. SG), Terrance Lawson (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF), Chad Bell (7'-0" Jr. C), and a bunch of young, very young, new guys, mostly a lot of sophomores, including Keith Everage (6'-6" So. SF), Brandon Heath (6'-2" So. SG), and others.  Greensboro Day Has some big guys, or at least they'll match up well with Westchester's forwards:   Brent Halsch averaged 17 ppg last year; Konroad Wysocki averaged 11 ppg. Ron Bradford is a decent shooting guard who averaged 12 ppg while there are some nice juniors, Matt Newton (5'-10" Jr. G), Dyson Anderson (6'-0" Sr. G). The Bengals also have Mike rogers (6'-3" Jr. G) and Thomas White (5'-11" Jr. G), as well has Shane Lowery (6'-3" Fr. G).  We'll give the edge to Westchester in this one, but not by a lot.

or

5:15 p.m. Continue at Durango and walk over to the Auxiliary Gym for Campbell Hall v. Galena (Reno, NV).  Without little Lance Buonchristiani who graduated and is now playing D-I ball, Galena will be a different team and they are probably way down this year unless they've got some guys they're not telling us about.  Campbell Hall should win this one with their good guard play from Robert Locke, Hassan Bassiri, and Jesse Foster inside;

or

5:25 p.m. Head back over to Green Valley Main Gym for the Long Beach Jordan v. Highland (Gilbert, AZ) game.  Jordan has the usual suspects, including Travon Bryant (6'-8" Sr. PF) one of the top recruits in the country, and ordinarily we'd say that they'd win this game easily, but lately Jordan has been playing very inconsistently in tournament play. The Panthers also have some quick guard play from Alshawn Rodgers (6'-1" Sr. SG), Jonathon Holly (5'-8" Sr. PF),  Nick Tamarao (5'-11" Sr. G), Keith Rogers (5'-8" Jr. G), and Anthony Massey (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG)--ron's son-- and they've got good shooting and scoring from juniors Rashawn Childs (6'-3" Jr. SG) and Ron Banks (6'-2" Jr. SG). Out on the wings, Jordan has some very athletic slashers who can get to the rim, including the high-scoring Donald Williams (6'-2" Jr. SG), newcomers Clay Salima (6'-4" Jr. SF/PF) Donte Cottrell (6'-1" Jr. G), and returnee Kendall Lucas (6'-4" Sr. SF). We don't know who is on the Highland team, but Arizona teams are usually very tough.

or

6:40 p.m. Stay at Durango Auxiliary again (or head over there), for North Hollywood v. Silverado-- We've seen a lot of North Hollywood this past year, with Kenny Hauser (6'-6" Jr. SF/SG) who is starting to score and really mature, and the rest, Gus Ruiz, Nathan Stern, Eric Roller, etc., and we'd probably feel compelled to stay just for a bit to see how they play against some of the local Vegas talent from Silverado, but really our hearts would be for. . . .

or

6: 50 p.m. Head to Green Valley Main Gym for the Simi Valley v. Lexington (SC) game. We haven't a clue who is on the Lexington team, but Simi's got Branduinn Fullove (6'-5" Sr. SG), Brett Michel (6'-6" Sr. SG/SF), and Dustin Villepigue (6'-9" Sr. PF), as well as Shaun Michel (6'-2' Jr. PG),providing he's playing and not still benched.  We looked at the program materials for Simi, including the profile of the team that's been posted at the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic website, and it's wildly inaccurate, and still has Dean Bradshaw coaching the team. . . sheesh.  Dean will be there to watch his son, but not to coach. Christian Aurand can handle that just fine.

or

7:00 p.m. Stay at Green Valley and check out the Auxiliary Gym at some point during the Simi Game to catch Serra v. Upper St. Clair, a Silver Cup Game.   We had heard that Aerick Sanders (6'-9" Sr. C/F) didn't play against Pacific Hills, but we assume that he'll be here, as will Doyle Cole (6'-6" Sr. SF/SG).   Upper St. Clair is one of those teams that keeps coming back to the Reebok and getting hammered each year. They've got some good guards, but if Sanders is there, they should take this game.

That's probably about the extent of what we'd actually really watch if we were going tomorrow.  Oh, we might also catch the Rancho Bernardo v. Mars (PA) game too at 8:05 p.m. in the Durango auxiliary just to see what the team has left after senior Aaron Abrams (6'-4" Sr. SG) graduated. And any team from Mars (they're actually from Pennsylvania, but it's still a great name:  "Where are you from?"    "Mars.")  we've also got to see, if only for a moment before we collapse in a heap from exhaustion. Or we might take a look at Chugiak from Alaska because we've heard a lot about their big man.  But all things considered, the interesting thing about the Reebok Tournament is that this is a short schedule compared to the Big Time, which isn't usually over until well after midnight each night.

For those of you who want to make up your own minds, we've also posted the official game schedule, unadorned and unedited. Consider yourselves warned.

Have fun, and see you on Monday.

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