May 29, 2007
Rumble in the Bay: South beats North
Turnovers, unconscious shooting but more conscience-less chucking was offset by tremendous effort, gritty determination and uncountable floor burns at Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center as part of the Rumble in the Bay tournament on Monday.
More turnovers than Sara Lee. Spacing resembling that of a can of sardines. Some unconscious shooting but more conscience-less chucking. But this was offset by tremendous effort, gritty determination and uncountable floor burns.
Such was the continuous loop of hoops on display at The Leavey Center on the campus of Santa Clara University Monday as part of the 6th Annual Patrick Dennehy Memorial Rumble in the Bay basketbll tournament.
The LA Dream Team’s Renardo Sidney is the top-rated prospect in the 2009 class
6-foot-9 southland phenom Renardo Sidney led his squad, matched up against recent UCLA signee Drew Gordon, headlining the Soldiers. Sidney versus Gordon generally came out a draw as both had their spectacular moments but Sidney profited from being surrounded by a number of other top Los Angeles-area talents. This ultimately proved to be the difference.
With Gordon and Sidney cancelling out each other, Justin Cobbs, Jalonni Diggs, A.J. Gaspora and Nigel Ajere, plus a couple of ‘ringers’ from Harmony Prep in Cincinnati, proved too much for the Soldiers to handle. The Oakland-based team lacked frontcourt size other than Gordon and, at times, also missed matching the athletic prowess and the top level playing experience of the Dream Team. In the backcourt especially, the group from southern California proved too experienced, continually trapping and forcing the younger Soldier backcourters into errors.
The assembled crowd was curiously quiet prior to the game’s beginning, giving the impression of being hoop church. But the peace didn’t last long as, throughout the game, each side’s coterie of fans had plenty of ‘advice’ to offer to the referees.
The Soldiers came out strong with a Gordon dunk followed by a Collin Chiverton trey. Sidney got his team started with a rebound dunk but Chiverton answered with another three-pointer. Sharp offensively and playing zone defensively, Coach Lou Richie’s team led 8-6 at the 13:30 mark.
That’s when the Dream Team started rolling. A Sidney steal and flying dunk made it 20-12 at the 8:38 mark. The Los Angeles-based squad changed strategy and began holding the ball out near halfcourt, forcing the Soldiers to come out and match up one-on-one. Again, in some cases, Richie’s players didn’t have the size, at other times the quickness, to defend in the open court.
At the half, it was 39-31, in favor of the Dream Team.
Early in the second half, a surge put the southland squad up 44-31. It was 56-36 with 10 minutes remaining. The lead generally remained in the 13-to-15 point range until the Soldiers made a run to close it to 10, 65-55, with 2:25 left.
But the Dream Teamers held on to finish it out.
Notes From The Leavey Center Three Dot Lounge Rivals.com currently has Sidney listed as the top overall prospect in its 2009 class... McClymond’s Frank Otis continued to demonstrate his warrior attitude but being 6-foot-5 limited his effectiveness against the larger Dream Team...anyone observing Gordon with his jersey off would easily note that he hasn’t reached anywhere near his capacity in upper body strength and muscle--isn’t that a scary thought?... Chiverton surprisingly was a non-factor against the Dream team after the opening minutes...Monday should prove a valuable learning experience for Soldiers’ William Brew and brother Chris, Omari Evans and Tim Harris as each youngster struggled against traps and presses.
Finally, here’s one recommendation for next year’s tourney, in fact, for all basketball tournaments. The promoter should exclude any team from championship eligibility if the jersey numbers on the submitted roster do not match those actually worn during the games.