SoCal High School & Prep Tournament Report

Wooden High School
Inivitational Classic--(December 4,1997)

We're going. Got tickets on the floor. Front row. Wouldn't miss these games for anything. Not even for work. Not for family. No sireee. You see, De Matha is coming. Wootten's gonna be there with Wooden. Two masters. Maybe they'll do a Vulcan Mind-Meld for the crowd. The two greatest coaches (at least in our opinion) together in one place. And they'll also have the greatest "program" there too in Mater Dei. Actually Mater Dei just might have the best record in all of high school basketball in the last 16 years; at least they do in SoCal. Coach Gary McKnight has compiled a 454 and 35 record in those 16 years. That's an average of only a bit more than 2 losses per season, and an average of 28.38 wins per season. Year in and year out. For sixteen years. I don't care if they're going through a "rebuilding" year. They still deserve to be at this tournament. And there's also Los Alamitos. DeMatha and Los Al will do a rematch of their 1990 game. Two newcomers too. . .lambs to the slaughter. We'll see if Crespi and Ayala have the mettle to play in the big time. We're betting they do.

So here are the teams and the games. We've provided links to each of the team previews here at SoCalHoops.

5:30 Glendora vs. Ayala
7:00 Mater Dei vs. Crespi
9:30 Los Alamitos vs. DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, MD)

We haven't done a preview of DeMatha, principally because they're out of the area, and the only information we have on their current team is from the LA Times "Wooden Classic" advertising supplement. Since it's our guess the Wooden Tournament folks printed that advertising supplement for a reason, i.e., to get the word out and gain exposure, we've simply put it up here at SoCalHoops as it appeared in today's LA Times, verbatim. We trust the Wooden Tournament folks won't mind. (Remember the "fair use" doctrine guys--we don't care what the Ninth Circuit says. . . there is too a "fair use" in a non-commercial setting). Anyway, here it is:

"DeMatha Catholic High School or Hyattsville, Md.
(Stags)
1996-97 Record: 27-7 (10-3 in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference)
Head Coach: Morgan Wootten (l,120-169)

"Notes: Wootten's 1965 team broke the 71l-game winning streak of Lew Alcindor's (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) Power Memorial Academy in New York. Some notable DeMatha graduates who moved on to the NBA include Danny Ferry, Adrian Dantley and Kenny Carr. DeMatha has five national championships, the last in 1983-84. DeMatha has also been the top-ranked team in the Washington, D.C. area 20 of the past 33 years.

"DeMatha's success this season will hinge on the cohesion of its young nucleus. Junior Keith Bogans (6'-5") returns at small forward position. Bogans averaged 18 points per game last season and has many scouts believing he could emerge as one of the top 11th graders in the country this season. DeMatha will need consistency from Bogans and 6'-3" junior Joe Forte to be successful. Forte averaged 13 points per game last season.

"One of the players to watch is sophomore center Andre Scott. Scott, already 6'-9", has a tremendous amount of natural abillty. Scott has good rebounding skills and is quick on his feet. If he develops as advertised, DeMatha will be a difficult team to beat.

"But youth is not the only reason that DeMatha enters the season ranked sixth in the nation by USA Today. Newcomers Renard Phillips (5'-8", senior), Daryl Greene and Brett Herberger (6'-5" sophomore) are all expected to contribute in starting roles. Most notable is Phillips, who will command DeMatha's deadly offense from the point; DeMatha also sports depth on the bench. Junior Derick Ahern (6'-10" sophomore) Matt Salinka (7'-2") and freshman Jordan Collins (6'-9") give DeMatha some when needed against larger teams. "

Wow. 6'-10. 7'-2". Should be a pretty good game. If Los Alamitos decides to come out of the locker room.

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