war2703

SoCalHoops High School & Prep Report

War On The Floor Finals. . .
Arenas Is The Stealth Bomber--(July 3, 1998)

Inglewood High and Sylmar got together for the finals of this one, and but for an unfortunate dunk taken with 11 seconds remaining in the game by Jeremiah Turner of Sylmar which had everybody doing a deja vu of Korleone Young in the Eddie Jones Classic, it was a great game. Jeremiah stole the ball from Teddy Fletcher of Inglewood on a fast break, and went up for the dunk, but he was going so fast that after he hung onto the rim, his body swung out, and since he didn't want to get called for the illegal hanging, he just let go of the rim. Only problem was he let go a little too soon, and he actually was almost upside down when he hit the floor square on his shoulder, which was the only thing that kept his head from being split wide open. Sylmar was leading at that point 67-59, and since there were only 11 seconds remaining, the game was called.

But prior to that, Gilbert Arenas put on a show for everyone for about 36 out of 40 minutes (less 11 seconds) that the game was played. Yes, Gil played again for Sylmar, but he didn't start, and in fact didn't play for the first 4 minutes of the first half. But given the way he fit right in with the Sylmar players, we'd be very surprised if Gil didn't "somehow" end up at Sylmar. But enough of the "transfer rumor" stuff. This was a basketball game, damnit, and we know you want to know how these guys played.

Well, ok, we'll tell you. Gilbert has got to be one of the best defenders on the west coast right now. Sure, we know that Mike Miller at WestCoastHoops likes Aaron Hamilton (6'-5" Sr. SF) of Artesia, and so do we, but we're willing to bet that if Michael had been at this game, that he'd also have to nominate Gilbert for top defensive honors. Gilbert stole the ball from Inglewood 8 times in this game that we counted, and he managed to score about 20 points, mostly on inside layups, but a couple of NBA three pointers and lots of free-throws. He stole passes, tipped rebounds, did his cat-like sneak up routine, and in short did his best to frustrate and dazzle Marvin Isaac (6'-4" Sr. SF), Gerrod Jenkins (6'-7" Sr. F), Skip Esene (6'-6" Sr. F), Noel Felix (6'-7" Jr F/C) and Paul Stewart (6'-9" Jr C) the entire night.

Noel Felix looked impressive, as did Skip Esene, and the two of them had a couple of very nice dunks. Esene is becoming a much better low post player than he was last year, and he's got a mean turnaround drop step to the hole, and he can also jump stop well. Teddy played point for virtually the entire game and did a credible job, dishing, distributing and running what passed for an offense, when it wasn't just fast breaking up and down the floor, which was actually most of the game.

But Sylmar physically out-matched Inglewood at virtually every position tonight. Jacobs (5'-10" Sr. PG) and Gilbert pretty much traded off bringing the ball up the court, and Brandon has clearly got the better handle than Gil, who's so quick he often outruns the ball. Brandon has such an explosive first step that there aren't many guys who will be able to stop him from driving in an isolation situation, and tonight he pretty much did that at will. Jeremiah Turner (6'-6" Sr. F) and George Wrighster (6'-5" Sr. PF) also looked impressive. Turner had a couple of very nice outside shots, and did his best to frustrate Esene in the post on defense. Wrighster, who is looking at several PAC-10 schools right now for a football scholarship, used his bulk on defense well, and also had some very nice inside shots, including a very nice 15' j from the left corner over Felix and Stewart that had everyone oohing and ahhing. Yeah, what might have been. . . we're still mad a George for leaving Buckley, because he coulda been da man. . . it's all right George, we forgive you.

But really, the big deal tonight was Gilbert Arenas, who played great. And he was what most people had come to see. There was some little kid sitting in front of us who turned to his father and said, "He's just like Kobe. . . sort of a showboat." Well, the kid had it right, but then that's what sells tickets, right. We counted about 6 or 7 fast break baskets that could have been made had Gilbert gone straight to the hoop rather than trying to out-manuever his defender. You know the type of shot. . . an easy lay-up made hard because of a double pump hang in the air or an attempt to make it a reverse spin layup. Not really necessary, but then it sure looks impressive.

We like the tricky stuff as well as the next guy, but Gilbert doesn't need to do this stuff. Sure, it's just summer play right? But bad habits are hard to break. Even if they are crowd-pleasers.

But enough of the preachy, soapbox stuff. Gilbert is, without question, one of the best players currenty among the rising senior class. He'll be visiting the Dave Hopla Shooting Clinic this Sunday at Cal State Dominguez Hills (from 9-3 p.m.) and if you're looking for a great shooting coach to work with on your technique, then check out the clinic because Hopla is one of the best.

Back to the War on the Floor: The third place game was between Harvard Westlake and Notre Dame. Notre Dame won it, and they won it pretty convincingly too. Cody Pearson (6'-3" Jr. G/F) and Dante Ward (5'-11" Jr. G) were both named to the All-Tournament team, along with Alex Holmes (6'-3" Jr. F) and Eric Geffner (6'-5" Jr. F). Surprisingly, Russell Lakey (5'-11" Jr. PG) struggled with his shooting a bit, but his handle is as secure as ever. H-W just couldn't get their shots off, even if Alex Holmes did get a couple of huge three pointers. Chad Garson (6'-3" Jr. SG) struggled with his shot, but played defense pretty well, ending the game in virtually the same fashion that Turner did for Sylmar with less than a minute to play. . . on the floor after colliding with another player so hard, you could hear his bones rattle. But after about a half a minute, he got up and continued to play on in the game, playing through was looked like it sure must have hurt.

Some others named to the all-tournament team were Shaun Michel of Simi Valley and Branduinn Fullove, Jeremiah Turner, Brandon Jacobs and George Wrighster of Sylmar, Noel Felix and a couple of others we didn't quite catch. But shock of shocks, Gilbert Arenas was not on the list of All-tournament team honors.

The only thing we can guess is that somebody wants to make it look like Gilbert was "invisible" at this tournament. But to all who witnessed it, there was only one conclusion to be reached: Gilbert is the real deal. Sylmar is a nice team, and can probably run with anyone in the City, and they can do it without Gilbert. They don't need him. Only time will tell if he needs them.