SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

Double Pump Best of Summer
H.S. Boys Tournament--(July 5, 1998)

The Pump brothers, David and Dana are having a little tournament from July 21-25, 1998 at Cal Sate Dominguez Hills in Carson, and it's going to feature some of the best high school teams and club teams from in and around SoCal, from out of state on the west coast, the mid west, and the east. This is actually a huge tournament, and it's run at the same time as the Slam N' Jam NIT tourney in Long Beach, so you'll see a bunch of the same teams entered there as are entered here. What it means for the players is shuttling between venues all day, and in some cases shuttling between teams, with some guys playing on their high school team and then one or more club teams as well.

But since this one is about the Pump Best of the Summer tourney, it's also time for a little shameless plug. Double Pump has it's own website, and if things work according to plan, you'll be seeing some reports of the action from the adidas Big Time tourney (the week before the Best of Summer) and from the Best of Summer.

But for now, here's the complete list of who's coming (at least as of June 30). We'll also have rosters and a complete bracket soon. For now, here are the teams with the coaches listed. Note that the city listed is not necessarily where the players are/will be from, but it's where the coach lives or has his mail sent. But its a pretty good idea of the general area from which each team is fielded, with the exception of the SoCal teams which draw from all over the area. Anyway here's who's coming so far:

We're pretty sure about the players that some of these teams will be featuring. Since this is a Double Pump, Inc., event, the Pump-N-Run teams will feature guys like Gilbert Arenas, JJ Sola, Nick Booker, and others on the I team. On the II team, you're likely to see a bunch of the Chaminade guys, including Cayce Cook and Scott Borchart. On the Rockfish team, Dave Benezra and Mark Mayemura will only be sending their "I" team (unless things change between now and then), so look for Brian Wethers, Shantay Legans, Rafael Berumen, Dalron Johnson of Verbum Dei, and Nick VanderLaan.

Actually with the Pump-N-Run teams, it will be pretty interesting to see whether Gilbert is actually there for them, because for the first time in recent memory, Bort Escoto is bringing his Spartans team (which is basically Sylmar High), featuring Bradley Jacobsen, Jeremiah Turner, George Wrighster, et. al., and at least for the meantime, Gilbert was playing for them and not for his own Grant High team. Frankly we don't understand why Grant isn't in this one, because as far as we know, summer league is over and it doesn't conflict with anything (except the NIT, and Grant isn't going to that one either). We expect that Gil is going to be a busy guy.

All you UCLA fans will also get a look at Carlos Boozer who will be playing for EBO, along with DeShawn Stevenson, Willie Johnson and probably Brett Nelson. IEBP features players from the great secret Inland Empire area (i.e., San Bernardino-Riverside counties, where the LA Times dares not to tread, and hence we all get very little in the way of basketball news), such as Matt Santos, Trennell Eddings and others. We know that Central Cal Express is basically the Santa Paula team with some Santa Barbara guys thrown in, including Nick Jones, BJ War and others. Looks like JR Allen will also play, and shortly thereafter, he'll be leaving for prep school.

And while Belmont Shore is still on the list, we wonder if they'll actually show, given that Dinos is behind the Rim Rattler camp which is being held at Redondo Beach High the same week as the Pump West Coast All-Stars Camp (week 2) from July 11-14, which is actually the big week at Pump Camp (the first week is not as heavily scouted by the college coaches because most of the really top players are at either the Nike or adidas camps which take place during the first week of Pump West Coast All-Stars I). Apparently both camps have lists of the same players who are supposedly attending both camps, and it will be interesting to see who actually shows at which camp. We're betting that anyone affiliated with adidas will be at Pump, while the Nike, Reebok and Converse (are there really still any Converse teams left) will make up their own minds. Frankly, we don't know if Rim Rattler can compete, but they're making a valiant run at it. Anyway, assuming that Belmont shows, they'll have players like Julius Barnes, Jack May, Erick Knight, and possibly Casey Jacobsen (assuming that he's not at a Nike tournament somewhere else).

QBL is basically Artesia High, coached by Wayne Merino, and featuring Jason Kapono, Apolinar Fernandez, Andre Hazel, Aaron Hamilton, Jack Martinez, and others. Look for DC Assault to feature Joe Forte and Keith Bogans, both of DeMatha, although neither of them has shown up together in SoCal unless Morgan Wooten.

And there's going to be that really great team of all Chinese players, coached by Mark Borgeson (ARC Lakers 14's).

This is one tournament you don't want to miss. See you there.

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