SoCal High School & Prep Tournament News

40th Annual Arroyo Invitational
Basketball Tournament --(December 10,1997)

We happened to be in El Monte this afternoon and grabbed the local paper, and what do we see, but a listing, at 4:30 pm for a chance to see Bell-Jeff of Burbank take on Arcadia in a second round game at the 40th Annual Arroyo Invitational Basketball Tournament. So after we finished our business, we dropped over the Arroyo High just in time for the game tip-off.

But before our report on the game, first a little bit about this tournament. As the program guide tells us, a majority of the teams playing are from the San Gabriel Valley area, and this lends a sort of "cross-town" rival effect. Many of the teams play in regular season league play together, and this will be a chance for a first look. For others, it will be a chance to go up against teams that are better, and will serve as a sort of reality check. There are sixteen teams entered this year. They are:

Bell Gardens, Mark Keppel, San Gabriel, Bellarmine-Jefferson, Salesian, Los Altos, Arroyo, Garbrielino, Alta Loma, Arcadia, Monrovia, West Covina, Workman, Santa Fe, Bravo, and Mid City.

One thing we can say about this tournament is that it may have the largest collection of players at the varsity level under 6'-0" of any other tournament of this size we've seen in quite a while, particularly with as many Division I A and IAA teams (8 of the 16) as this tournament features. They may be small out there (maybe it's something in the groundwater, you know they say there are a lot of chemicals in the aquifer in the San Gabriel Valley, and it is an EPA Superfund site after all), but they sure can play fast, if Arcadia is any gauge. But back to the height issue. We went through the Tournament Program, which lists height, class, and the rest of the usual statitistics, we counted 240 (or so) players from the 16 schools. Of those 240, only 110 were taller than 6'-0". Of those, only 32 were 6'-3" or taller. There are a few teams with a whole bunch of 5'-7" players and nobody over 6'-1".

We don't have accurate information on the brackets so far, so we won't put that info up. Suffice it to say though that it looks like there will be games today, with tip-off times of 3:00 pm, 4:30 pm, 6:00 pm, and 7:30 pm at both Arcadia and Arroyo today (Wednesday) and tomorrow, Thursday December 11, 1997 for the third round at both Arcadia and Arroyo High Schools.

The Championship round will start at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday at Arroyo, and will continue until 7:30 pm, when we presume the Championship game itself will take place. We're betting that Bell-Jeff and Ruben Douglas and Co. will see it through until the finals, but then we haven't seen a lot of the other teams yet. Anyway, if you are out in the San Gabriel Valley, there's some good hoops going on. Stop by and check it out.

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