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Jul. 28, 2006
Hoops in the summer: Vegas style
LAS VEGAS -- Talk about attention to detail - or avoiding a logistics nightmare. The program detailing the rosters, pairings and brackets for the 2006 Main Event Invitational Basketball Tournament is a half-inch thick. By the way, the program is not for sale; coaches, players, administrators, and the media can get one, with the right credentials. It is the product of the work generated by Hal Pastner, who has a staff of one - himself - to get all of the work done before the event began a five-day run in Sin City last week. Nah, forget Sin City ... for those few days, Las Vegas was, and to some degree, still is Hoops Central USA. Pastner is running the National Youth Basketball Championship, which started Thursday and will conclude Monday; the headquarters for that tournament will be at Durango High School, where most of the key Main Event games were contested. There were two other prep tournaments in the city. Team USA - with some of the best National Basketball Association players in camp - was working out at the Cox Pavilion as it prepared for the World Games, to be played in Japan next month. Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dwayne Wade of the world champion Miami Heat on the same court ... that's cool stuff, basketball fans. "Sure, it takes a lot of work, but to give these high school kids a chance to display their skills in front of college coaches ... it's worth it," said Pastner, who acknowledged as he pointed to his head, "Sure, I have a couple people helping me, but most of the details are here." And to show that mind works non-stop, with nary a care for his own best interests, Pastner is preparing to run the Academy National Invitational Dec. 28-30 in Houston, as well as the 2007 Vision Sports trifecta: the Mae Fisher Memorial Las Vegas Easter Classic April 5-8, the 13th annual Kingwood Classic in Houston, Texas, April 20-22, and the Las Vegas Spring Showcase April 27-29. The key element for the trifecta: all three events are during the live period, when NCAA Division I men's coaches can attend. "The Kingwood Classic is the greatest event of its kind," said Pastner, not shy about promoting any of the events he runs. "We will have more than 600 teams, who will play more than 1,000 games in almost every gym possible, and hundreds of college coaches will be able to be there," said Pastner. "And most of the action happens in a span of 48 hours; it's basketball almost non-stop." Each of the teams is guaranteed three games, with competition in nine age groups, starting at 9 and under, up to 17 and under. The Fisher memorial will be operated under the same format, with girls competing in 11-, 12-, 13-, 14-, and 15-and-under divisions, along with varsity teams. The Spring showcase will include a varsity girls' division as well. For the Main Event, 33 locations throughout Las Vegas, including Bonanza, Centennial, Chaparral, Cimarron-Memorial, Durango, Green Valley, Spring Valley, Valley and Western high schools, were game sites. Which means Pastner may have had all the details in his head, but there were plenty of others taking the responsibility of making sure officials, timers, scorekeepers, concessionaires, and many, many other helpers showed up - on time, and ready to go. On Sunday, for instance, there were 26 games played in the two Durango gyms, starting at 8 a.m. and concluding at sometime after 11 p.m. Another 25 games were played at Spring Valley, with 26 contested in the UNLV McDermott (no relation) Center and 25 at Bonanza High. That's 102 games, and on Monday, another 102 were played, to establish brackets for championship rounds Tuesday and Wednesday. The adidas Super 64 and Big Time were also being held in Las Vegas, and if one pays attention to the so-called experts, the top players (and young men college and NBA fans will notice in the future) were Austin Freeman, who averaged 22 points per game for D.C. Assault; Eric Gordon, who scored 30 and 26 points in back-to-back games for Meanstreets Express; Taylor King, who played for the Southern Cal All-Stars; Kevin Love, a 6-foot-10 center headed for either UCLA or North Carolina; O.J. Mayo, a 6-foot-5 guard who played for North College Hill, which won consecutive Ohio high school Division III titles; Kosta Koufas, a 7-foot center headed for Ohio State, and Jai Lucas, who starred for the Houston Hoops. Is all of the attention high school basketball players receive at these high-pressure, competitively intense tournaments warranted? Yes, especially if a college coach can watch every player - and not just the so-called super stars - with an objective viewpoint. No - if all of the players are not given fair treatment by their own coaches and are not given equal playing time. And is this style of basketball entertaining? Is a shot from beyond the 19-foot, 9 inch arc worth three points? Yessss!!! NOTES -- Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday that Henderson Warren-Walker, a prep school that competes in Nevada Class A athletics, wants to field a high-powered elite team in boys basketball, imitating Oak Hill Academy of Virginia, which has been one of the top-ranked USA Today teams for years ... That intent is known by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, so it will be of great interest how the NIAA responds at its September meeting ... The Warren-Walker team would play 30 to 40 games a season, several in out-of-state tournaments, as well as many against Nevada teams ... Warren-Walker is in the Nevada Central Class A Division for most sports ... A player reportedly headed for Warren-Walker is Bill Walker, a teammate of O.J. Mayo at North College Hill ... Walker was ruled ineligible for the 2006-2007 season because he has competed in eight semesters, meaning he has used up his eligibility in Ohio. |
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