This marks the end of day 4 of 5 in Las Vegas. At this point, all of the tournaments have finished pool play and have begun their bracket play, including the Reebok and adidas tournaments which we have teams in.
The U15 team continued to impress. They finished 2nd in their pool and then won their first bracket game. Today they faced a team from Indiana that had two, yes two, 7 footers! At 15 years old! Two of them. When I first watched this team from Indiana, I thought I was in the wrong gym. How could a U15 team have not only two 7 foot players but also a 6'10 and 6'9 player? Plus, is that Tom Crean, the Indiana coach watching them? Well, I wasn't, they did and he was. But our guys competed hard. They are such hard workers and man, do they listen well. Their coachability has kept them in every game they've had this summer. Looking forward to Los Angeles.
Our Black and White teams also won their initial bracket games. The White team won their first game today and then lost in OT to a solid Colorado Chaos team. The Black team is still alive after two wins today in bracket play. They take on the San Margarita Eagles tomorrow in the semi-finals. They probably haven't seen us play but we've seen the Eagles play a few times in Vegas the last few years. We have a lot of respect for this California high school program and can't wait to see how we do.
When you see these games, sometimes you see some things that you can't believe. Usually, you can't believe some plays that were made or, in the case of our 15 year olds, the size of the teams you play. Unfortunately, every now and then, you see the sad side of these teams and what lengths teams will go to win. Or what happens when someones ego gets in the way of common sense. Leave your roster alone and play the guys you are supposed to play.
I guess you learn to take things with a dose of humor. One of my favorites is the distorted sense of reality that some of these travel team coach's have. I watched one coach go into the "four corners" to try and pull a team out of a zone. He kept saying, "Just sit back and let them pull us out of it". The thing is, there was 14:30 left to go in the game! And, they were up 20 points! I'm sorry pal, but you ain't Coach K and you are not getting the next assistant job at ANY university. So lets just let the kids play ball and let the scouts evaluate and everyone will work out.
One of my worries while we are on the road is the facilitation of BAM Jam (www.bamjamboise.com). Thankfully, we have one of the best groups of people that I have ever worked with back in Boise taking care of all the details. Today, they did a promo at Edwards Cinema for the opening of the G-Force movie. Plus, they handle everything that has to be done in person. I've found that even a Blackberry has its limitations. Registrations are going great and we just announced that we are going to have a new Youth Center Court. Idaho's biggest 3 on 3 tournament is growing and maturing.