By Wayne G. Brumm
SYF Nike Coach
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Do you believe in southern hospitality? SYF sure does after competing in the Nike Peach Jam Invitational. I know other shoe companies are trying to mimic Nikeâ??s premier event, but it wonâ??t be imitated.
The reason? Several hundred smiling faces from volunteers whose only purpose is to make your day complete. They had volunteers to host an opening-night dinner at a community center for all 24 teams in a country club atmosphere. Others cooked, prepared, and served food all day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all the teams and their personnel, in addition to the college coaches in attendance.
Volunteers even ran the valet service for the teams so we could enter through the back entrance to avoid the crowds.
The volunteers went out of their way to make you feel special. I have never seen so many smiling faces in one place. They were so genuinely friendly that you actually wondered if we were in another era where friendship and hospitality were so valued. I know SYF will never forget our six days in North Augusta, S.C. It will be forever treasured.
Our inaugural trip will be remembered for reasons other than hospitality. Until the tournament championship game, our only loss came in the first game of the tournament. It was a game that needed to happen to get us focused on how we went 26-3 with our full squad prior to this tournament: fundamental basketball. Thatâ??s hard-nosed defense, rebounding, and a hard-to-guard motion offense.
Our first game was a total disaster. I do not believe I have ever witnessed a worse performance by some of these players. It caught me by surprise, as we appeared to be very mentally ready. In fact, I think that was the problem — we were too ready. Edgar Sosa (Louisville commitment) and the New York Gauchos tore us up. He headlined all of the first day media wrap-ups based on his performance.
After the game, I wondered if we could regain the toughness, both mental and physical, that defined us. We now had to face the South Carolina Ravens, who played us to a one-point game in the Kingwood Classic earlier in the year. I had visions of not making it out of pool play. In this tournament, there are six-team pools, and only two teams advance into tournament play. Was our season about to take a turn for the worse?
The Ravens gave us everything they had. It seems as though we are evenly matched. We didnâ??t play outstanding, but we got back in the groove. We survived by taking a two-point victory.
Next up were the Illinois Warriors. They have 12 alumni currently playing in the NBA. Their 2005 roster is headlined by Jon Scheyer, a Duke commitment. He finished with only 10 points, and we totally dominated them. Our defense was tremendous. We held them to 15 points in the first half for a score of 40-15. We are back!
We went on to win our pool by beating both BABC (sponsored by Leo Papile, director of player personnel of the Boston Celtics and coached by the former head coach of the Boston Celtics, John Carrol) and the New Jersey All Stars.
The first game out of pool, we met Brandan Wright and the Murphysboro Stars. I will always remember Brandan, all 6â??10â? with an out-of-the-gym vertical leap aided by a reach that could stretch from one end of the floor to the other. The Stars played zone, and we couldnâ??t buy a shot from outside. Our zone offense, though, routinely gives us good shots around the basket. Unfortunately, that was the home of Brandan. He rejected shot after shot. The Stars led well into the late stages when Greg Hill found his shooting touch and hit two back-to-back threes. That gave us the lift we needed to finish strong and come out on top by five.
Next up was the Houston Hoops. They are loaded with Top 100-ranked players (led by Nick Wise, Arizona commitment). We actually took a 19-point lead in the second half, and then relaxed. They have the quickest guards you can imagine, and their pressure wore on us.
With under 2:00 to play, we had a 12-point lead. Then we turned the ball over on three consecutive three-on-one fast breaks due to lack of focus. They converted the turnovers into 3-point shots, and all of a sudden we had a noose around our neck and it was strangling us. The crowd (almost 1,500 people) went crazy, and before we knew it, they had tied the game on a tip-in with six seconds to go. Pandemonium!
Tyrone Appleton took the inbounds pass and went straight for the basket. He was met by three players just inside the free throw line, where he lofted a soft shot over all three sets of outstretched hands. The shot was long and fell off the left side, where Scott Martin gave us a one-handed tip-in at the buzzer. Whew!
That would have been a devastating loss after leading by 19, but we could now only think about playing in the championship.
Boo Williams, stocked with 10 high-major Division I players, is our opponent. They have been destroying everybody and are the media darling. The crowd cheers for them also as their acrobatic dunks excite everyone in the gym. They are a high-scoring machine with stars such as Vernon Macklin, Duke Crews, and Scottie Reynolds (Oklahoma commitment).
We rose to the challenge. Our defense was exceptional once again. We slowed their high-scoring machine down to a crawl. Much to the chagrin of the crowd and the media, it was a tie ball game with 1:00 left, and we had the ball. But we had an ill-timed miscommunication between two players and ended up throwing the ball straight to their guard, who converted into an uncontested lay-up. We ended up losing, 56-51.
The players were devastated. We had the game in our hands and gave it away at the end. We played at our tempo and controlled the game from start to finish. It was a great effort, but we left unrewarded.
The only part of the game we couldnâ??t control was the officials. Numerous people came up to us after the game and stated the game was called very one-sided against us. The scorebook demonstrated the tragedy: Boo Williams shot 27 free throws to our two! This fact will not be lost on our kids if we see them again in July.
All in all, it was a great tournament. We survived Nikeâ??s best and proved that we belong.
Catch you on the rebound.
Wayne
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