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SoCalHoops Tournament News

ARC/Slam-N-Jam Las Vegas
Grand Finale Preview--(July 27, 1998)

Leave it to the local papers. The Las Vegas local papers that is, because for the local SoCal media (other than us here on the internet) the Las Vegas Grand Finale just doesn't exist. And when we spoke with Rich Goldberg last week, he was absolutely running around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to get everything done before the start of the tournament, literally by himself. So he didn't have too much time to sit and chat.

But the Las Vegas Review-Journal had a nice story in today's paper about the Grand Finale. And they also managed to get a word or two from Rich. In the article, Goldberg, the president of ARC (American Roundball Corporation) described the overall tournament structure, and the article also pointed out the difference between the Grand Finale, and the Big Time tournament which wrapped up last week before the Best of Summer and the Slam-N-Jam NIT.

Rather than paraphrase it, here's the article:

Prep basketball teams prepare for Grand Finale tourney

By Damon Seiters
Review-Journal

One week after the last slam dunk of The Big Time Basketball Tournament, another national tournament hits town. The Grand Finale will bring 158 teams to seven sites around the city, beginning today at 1:30 p.m. But unlike The Big Time, which featured 224 teams of high school players, the Grand Finale has several age divisions.

The 70 high school teams are split into three divisions. There will be 34 teams competing in the high school all-star division, 16 in the high school varsity division and 20 in the high school 16-and-under division. The high school varsity division will feature teams with players from one school. All three divisions will play at Mojave and Cheyenne. The remaining 88 teams are girls and grade school ones.

An interesting side-note here: The above description is not entirely correct. Rich told us several months ago that a player can play with both his high school team and a club team, so you might be seeing a lot of the same players at this tournament on several teams.

"I think with three different divisions for high school-age kids, we make it fair," said tournament director Rich Goldberg. "If somebody's going to play in the high school all-star division, they should really be ready for that division."

The teams will compete in a four-team round-robin format today through Wednesday. The top two teams will advance to the championship bracket, and the bottom two will go to the consolation bracket. The finals will be Friday.

Two area teams will be competing in the all-star division -- the Las Vegas Heat and the Las Vegas Select. The Heat went undefeated in pool play at The Big Time before losing its first game in the tournament's open division to Santa Margarita (Calif.), 75-61. "Nobody likes to end with a loss," Heat coach Daron Park said. "It's been on the kids' minds. The good thing about it is we were able to see some of our weaknesses. We're just trying to do what we can to be a little more prepared for the next go-round." The Select went 3-2 in The Big Time, advancing to the second round of the open division. The team received an assist for its Grand Finale entry fee. "The coaches got together and got it for us," Select coach Ken Bradley said. "I sure appreciate that because I think these kids deserve to get into the tournament." The Heat and the Select have games tonight at 6 at Mojave.