Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Basketball teams The adidas Big Time Tournament represents a huge opportunity for two groups of boys basketball players from Hawaii.
take show to Vegas
Hawaii high school stars get
a chance to show their stuff
to mainland college coachesBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comTeam Hawaii and the Hawaii Raiders are among the 344 squads converging on Las Vegas this week for the annual prep basketball fest. The tournament is a chance to get noticed by the hoard of college coaches gathering in hopes of finding a few gems in the Nevada desert.
"It gives the kids an opportunity to demonstrate their skills at another level," Team Hawaii coach Sol Batoon said. "And it's better known as an opportunity for college coaches to look at players who would not normally be seen and may not be on their recruiting list."
The tournament, which will be played at 13 high schools in the area, begins tomorrow and will be completed Saturday. By the time the champions are crowned in each of the divisions, 856 games will have been played.
"It's a really outstanding tournament for the kids, to give them exposure," said Conrad Shidaki, coach of the Hawaii Raiders.
Experience is the Raiders' strength as they return six players from last year's squad.
Iolani sophomore Derrick Low headlines the Raiders' backcourt. The trip is just another stop on a whirlwind summer for Low. He traveled to Italy with the Iolani team earlier this summer and participated in the Nike Hoop Jamboree in St. Louis.
He will be joined by Iolani teammate Bobby Webster at shooting guard with Zach Tolleson (Iolani) and Ryan Hirata (Maryknoll) coming off the bench.
Ikaika Alama-Francis, a 6-foot-6 forward/center, was a key to Kalaheo's state championship run last winter and anchors the post for the Raiders. He is joined in the frontcourt by forwards Joseph Udell (Iolani), Jonathan Grobe (Iolani), Eli Sather (Kealakehe) and centers Willy Melemai (Kamehameha) and Tyler McCreadie (Iolani).
"The chemistry is there," Shidaki said, "So hopefully we can go a long way and play more than four games."
Team Hawaii tuned up for the trip by winning its division in the Tourney Sports USA basketball competition last week at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. The team also won the King Kamehameha Summer Invitational.
The team features an athletic backcourt led by Jason Rivers (St. Louis) and all-state pick Eric Marshall (Leilehua). The guards include Trenson Akana (Molokai), JD Potter (Molokai), Sean Uyehara (Kamehameha), Nalu Perkins (Kamehameha), Jesse Wong (Kaimuki) and Desmond Hanohano (St. Louis).
Akana is the brother of former local college standouts Jarinn and Brandyn Akana.
Team Hawaii can also muscle inside with forwards Dane Uperesa (Punahou), brothers Melila and Amani Purcell (Western Samoa) and Troy Scanlan (Kamehameha). Chris Zabriskie (Punahou) and Chris Harkins (Kealakehe) are both 6-foot-7 centers.
"We can go inside real strong and we have some guards that can really penetrate, like Marshall and Rivers, and we have steady play at the point," Batoon said.
The teams will be divided into four-team pools for the first two days before playing in a single-elimination tournament. The tournament brackets will be determined by where teams finish in their pools. The top 56 seeded teams automatically advance to the Open Tournament along with the pool winners.
Second-, third- and fourth-place finishers in each pool will also be grouped together for tournament play.
The Raiders are joined in pool UUU3 by Youth Interlock of Delaware, Sunny Hills of Fullerton, Calif., and the Houston Gold.
Team Hawaii faces Sam Rines All-Stars II of Philadelphia, ARC Burbank of California and the Milwaukee Swish in pool YYY1.
"We're going to try to win our bracket, but I know it's going to be hard," Shidaki said. "That's our goal ... but the competition is really good."
Team Hawaii went undefeated in its pool last year, but was eliminated early in the Open Tournament.
"When you go into the open, now you're competing against 7-footers, point guards at 6-5," Batoon said. "You don't want to tell your players to play down so you end up in a lower pool. So we'll just be as competitive as possible and represent Hawaii as strong as we can."