nick922

SoCalHoops High School Tournament News

Double Pump Correction
Re: Nick Booker--(Sept. 22, 1998)

What is it about the name Booker? Last weekend we confused Nick and Tony Booker, and this weekend, we simply were wrong about Nick attending the Double Pump Fall Discovery Shootout.

We earlier reported that Nick Booker (6'-5" Jr. F) from The Bishop's School in La Jolla, was listed in the Pump-N-Run I team roster. However, he didn't play with the Pump 1 team at the Double Pump shootout, and instead he and his Future Star teammates played at the Southern Pacific Shootout. Seems that he had already committed to playing with his club team before he could be contacted by the Pumps.

According to our sources who attended the Southern Pacific Shootout, the Future Stars did quite well, winning games against IEBP, ICAN, TPI and Just Say No Classi, then losing in the semi-finals to The Hood 68 to 77. The final was a very close game for the first half, but Future Stars lost one of their key players, Wayne Bernard, to foul trouble. According to those who saw the game the refs called 29 fouls against the Future Stars alone, but the Future Stars went to the line and shot 33 free throws too, so The Hood must have had close to that number of fouls called against them. Unfortunately for the Future Stars their bench wasn't nearly as deep as The Hood's and Tyson & Co. simply took over in the end. The consensus though was that the game would've been much closer if Bernard hadn't fouled out as he was having a great game.

And speaking of Nick Booker, while he's only a junior, we hear that he is currently in the process of beginning the recruiting process. Nick has 'narrowed' his list of prospective schools to about 30 he wants to research. He is currently in the process of compling a fact sheet on each one.
After he finishes that, he plans on comparing them, then will discuss them with his coaches, in order to determine how he might fit into each
one's program. He is currently receiving mail from about half of the schools on his list.

Nick is scheduled to take the SAT at the end of his Junior year, and he sports a GPA and PSAT scores which would indicate that he should qualify academically to go where ever he wants. The school he attends is a rigorous college prep, and the work is reportedly up to college level in some instances. Nick is a hardworking kid, and he gets up at 4:45 am in order to get to school at 7:30 am. He doesn't arrive home until about 5:00pm, often 9:00 or 10:00pm during the season when there are practices, and given his work ethic, we're certain that he will do well at even the most difficult academic college environments. And with all of that in his schedule, he still manages to practice, lift weights and have a great attitude.