mlk inghram

SoCal High School & Prep Report

MLK Challenge: Daily News'
Jim Inghram's Story--(January 20, 1998)

Since the Daily News doesn't have a website, we think it's critical that news which is directly related to and important to SoCal hoop fans receives the widespread audience it deserves. We'd encourage you to go buy a copy of today's Daily News, just to spend the quarter so that the paper can continue to support Jim and the other fine sports writers. But because there are people who can't do that (because they live out of the area of the paper's coverage) who have an interest in this event, the players and the story, and because Jim Inghram has written such an excellent and and informative article about the 4th Annual MLK Challenge, which was held at Pauley Pavilion yesterday, January 19, 1998, we're going to reprint his story verbatim. "Fair Use" and all that, and we acknowledge that it's a Daily News story, and we are presenting this solely for educational purposes only. We've made a couple of editorial comments throughout, and would like to make one major comment here: Remember as you read this that it was not a tournament: It was instead an exhibition; a tournament would typically feature pool-play, then playoffs, leading to a championship. Instead these were pre-arranged matchups of some of the area's finest teams and talent. But having said that, here's Jim's excellent story from the January 20, 1998 Daily News Sports section, page 3:

THIS IS KING OF ALL TOURNAMENTS
Top Teams, Players Compete At Pauley

By Jim Inghram
Daily News Staff Writer

It bills itself as the premier regular season basketball event on the West Coast. With all of the Division 1 signees, college coaches, high school coaches, UCLA basketball team and various hoop junkies in attendance, it's hard to argue.

The fourth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Challenge at Pauley Pavilion on Monday had 15 of the best teams in the L.A. area and one from San Diego playing in eight games from 9:30 a.m. until after 11 pm. In its brief four-year history, it has become a must-see for basketball fans.

"It's a major basketball event around Southern California," Joel Francisco said. Francisco runs a basketball scouting service called So Cal's Finest [Jerry's note: They are not affiliated in any way with SoCalHoops.com], based in Los Alamitos. "Every top team is entered. It's a chance to watch top prospects, discuss players you've seen, see if they've gotten better or not. they create matchups here that maybe you'd get to see in a tournament, but most teams would never have a chance to play each other besides in this event. It's nice to see some of the top kids play against the other top kids."

The event's impact is greater than just the Southern California region. In addition to coaches from UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, Arizona's Lute Olson and Brigham Young's Steve Cleveland were on hand, as well as assistants from Kentucky (George Felton), and Houston (Dick Lien).

Olson caught a 7 a.m. flight from Tucson, Ariz., to Los Angeles just to be there. He was at the 9:30 a.m. game between Redondo Union and South Torrance and stayed to watch recent recruit Ruben Douglas and Bell-Jeff take on Glendora [Jerry's note: which finished after 11 p.m.].

"There are two reasons for being here," Olson said. "First is to be here to watch the kids you have signed (other Arizona signees were Ricky Anderson of Long Beach Poly and Luke Walton of University of San Diego High), and second to see some of the good freshmen, sophomores and juniors. This is a great opportunity because during the season with practice and games it's hard to get out and see just one kid. It allows you to get done in one day what would take a couple of weeks if you had the time. It worked out great. We had a game (Sunday) so (Monday) was a day off. It's close enough and there is so much talent in Southern California that it's a must to be here."

Thirteen players who played in the event have signed with Division I schools, one has signed a baseball letter of intent and several others will likely sign in April. Then there were the area's best freshmen, 7-foot Tyson Chandler of Dominguez, 6-foot-9 sophomore Andrew Zahn of Redondo and 6-foot-7 junior Jason Kapono of Artesia.

The 13 players in the tournament who have signed with Division I schools were: Artesia, Jamal O'Quinn (Boise State); University of San Diego High, David Abramowitz (San Diego State), Luke Walton (Arizona); Compton, Milton Riley (Washington State), David Hamilton (Auburn), DeAndre Moore (Vanderbilt); Canyon of Anaheim, Andrew Gaulden (New Mexico); Long Beach Poly, Ricky Anderson (Arizona); Etiwanda, Matt Donohue (Cal State Fullerton); Westchester, Tony Bland (Syracuse), David Bluthenthal (USC), Dominguez, Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky), and Bell-Jeff, Ruben Douglas (Arizona).

That doesn't include Rudy Simpson of Etiwanda, who has signed a letter of intent with Cal State Fullerton, but in baseball.