vegas who isn't coming to town

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SoCalHoops Tournament News

Vegas: Who Isn't Coming To
Town This Year--(Dec. 16, 1999)

Those of you who have looked at the brackets for the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic will notice a lot of good teams there this year: Fairfax, Long Beach Poly, Long Beach Jordan, Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, and so on. In fact, upon closer examination, you'll see that like past year's tournaments, there is an abundance of teams from SoCal, good solid teams who will all contend for league titles and will be tough at playoff time. Teams like Sylmar, Montclair Prep, Campbell Hall, Newbury Park, North Hollywood, Westchester, Bakersfield, Serra, Harvard-Westlake, Cajon, Anaheim Canyon, and Venice. But you'll also notice that most of the teams are either from SoCal, the Las Vegas area, or they are teams from outside the region that you've never heard of before. Many have played in the tournament before, many haven't. It's going to be a good time to discover talent, including many players who are, at least for now, virtual unknowns. Good games, good solid teams in a playoff atmosphere. You'll see plenty of that.

But what you won't see this year in Vegas are any of the USA Today Top 25 teams. Why not? Well, we spoke with Larry McKay, the director of the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic (who is also the director of several other tournaments in Vegas, including the gargantuan adidas Las Vegas Big Time), and here's what he told us: "This year the National Federal of High Schools changed the rules on the amount of support that we can offer to teams in terms of travel expenses, hotels, rooms and meals, and frankly, we just don't have the budget this year to be able to attract all of the national teams," McKay said. "We missed out on a couple, and we would have loved to have had Oak Hill because they draw a huge crowd, but we think we've got some really excellent local teams. And with the brackets divided up into four separate tournaments, we'll draw some very large local crowds too, perhaps even better than some of the big time name teams which don't bring a lot of spectators with them."

Will the tournament continue on with the four bracket format next year? "We haven't decided yet," McKay said. "We'll take a look at it in January after the tournament, and if it looks like it worked, then we'll probably stay with it. And we should also have some of the bigger name teams back next year, so a lot will depend on what the makeup of teams looks like for next year's event. But this year we do have a lot of very good teams and we'll draw some big crowds."

So where are all the top "national" teams going this year? Here's a look at where some of the USA Today Top 25 teams (we'll only list the top 20) will be this coming week:

1. Rice, Manhattan, N.Y. --Rice has been a frequent participant at the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic years past. This year they'll be at the Nike Holiday Invitational in Oregon, where they'll play Lake Oswego.

2. Artesia, Lakewood, Calif.-- Artesia is going to be appearing at the new "Royal Invitational" at San Marcos HS in Santa Barbara this weekend. We'll have more details about that posted today.

3. Westinghouse, Chicago--They've not traditionally been at the Vegas Reebok tournament, and after beating former No. 1 Oak Hill last week at the KMOX Shootout, they'll be playing a local game in Joliet, Illinois.

4. Oak Hill, Mouth of Wilson, Va.-- Oak Hill won the Reebok Vegas Holiday Prep Classic last year. This year they're at the Iolani Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, which has attracted some big talent, including three USA Today Top 10 teams which include Compton Dominguez, and Montrose Christian of Rockvillle, Maryland. Other top teams include last year's Arkansas state champion, Central of Little Rock, Washington Union of Fresno with DeShawn Stevenson (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) who has signed with Kansas, Provo from Utah, and Wilson of Florence, South Carolina. Marcus X who used to write for WestCoastHoops from time to time and who now writes at NorCalPreps.com will be there, so scores will be reported regularly, unlike previous versions of the Iolani.

5. Seton Hall Prep, West Orange, N.J.-- Not going to Vegas this year. They'll be playing locally in New Jersey this week.

6. Mater Dei, Santa Ana, Calif.--Mater Dei, which last year finished in the top four of the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic will instead be traveling to Ft. Meyers for the Nations Bank City of Palms Classic. They've got a good website up and running and hopefully they'll be posting the scores regularly so we can keep up with the results.

7. Ballard, Louisville--They're pretty good, but it doesn't look like they're going to any big time tournaments this week, at least if they are, we don't know about it.

8. Montrose Christian, Rockville, Md.-- They'll play Saturday against Radford (Honolulu) at the Iolani Classic in Honolulu. No Reebok Prep Classic this year.

9. Roman Catholic, Philadelphia--Eddie Griffin is averaging 26 points. They're not coming out West to Vegas this year, but they will be in Los Angeles in late January for the SoCal Classic hosted by Artesia and Long Beach Poly at LA Southwest College. For now, Roman Catholic will be at the D.C. Classic in Washington, D.C., where they'll play USA Today's No.22 Archbishop Spalding (Severn, Md.).

10. Marion, Ind.--Zach Randolph's team will be playing locally in Indianapolis. No Vegas this year.

11. Gainesville, Fla.-- They're staying local too, playing at the Great Florida Shootout at Kissimmee Civic Center.

12. Dominguez, Compton, Calif.-- USA Today's preseason No. 6 team lost to Clovis West and dropped in the rankings to No. 12. They'll be in Hawaii, not Vegas as they have been for the last four or five years.

13. Jefferson, Portland, Ore.--Brandon Brooks (6'-0" Sr. PG) is having a great season, averaging 26 points, five assists and three steals, and his Pump N Run teammate Antone Jarrell (6'-6" Sr. SF/SG) is averaging 15 points and 14 rebounds. They're staying local and will play in Portland.

14. 71st, Fayetteville, N.C-- Also staying local in Raliegh, North Carolina for the holidays.

15. Duncanville, Texas-- They'll be playing Santa Rita (Tucson) in the Great Florida Shootout at Kissimmee along with Gainsville.

16. Saginaw, Mich.-- Anthony Roberson's team will be staying in Michigan.

17. Christ the King, Queens, N.Y-- Last year's USA No. 1 (at least for a time when Oak Hill wasn't No. 1, which wasn't long), lost to No. 2 Rice. Omar Cook's team is also staying local.

18. DeMatha, Hyattsville, Md-- No big long distance travel for DeMatha this year. They're staying local and playing in Annapolis.

19. East, Denver -- They'll be at the Fort Meyers City of Palms Tournament with Mater Dei.

20. Southern Lab, Baton Rouge-- Trayvean Scott is burning it up and so is Nick Anderson. Anderson is averaging 24.7 points and 17 rebounds, and Scott is averaging 19 points and eight assists. They're staying home for the holidays as far as we can tell.