Out & About: Park Center MYAS Tournament

#2 posting 4.5.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

MYAS PARK CENTER TOURNAMENT
The summer season is probably divided into three groups.

1. The AAU group that is primarily for those that travel nationally to play basketball. You will find more all state type players in this group. Money is a factor as you will be traveling from West coast to East Coast and all stops in between.

2. The school based teams. These teams usually don’t kick in until after school is over. They primarily play week nights in a summer league setting. There are some tournaments. The teams that end up in the state tournament generally have some sort of school based summer teams.

3. The third is a mixture of the two—and it is MYAS. This is what I saw today at Park Center. In the MYAS circuit these teams are not gunning for national titles or national exposure. They tend to stay close to home. The athletes have more on their plate with multiple sports. Most are looking to get significant playing time on their high school teams. They are not, at this stage, looking for the college scholarship.

Today my main focus was on the 16u/10th grade division. There were a few school based teams, but most were multiple school entries. It was brackets, not pool play in this division:
Quarterfinals
MN Heat Red 37, Hill-Murray 34*
MN Dynamite 41, Maple Grove 23
Triple Threat 44, Swish 23*
MN Heat Black 47, Wear Out the Net 32
Semifinals
MN Dynamite 51, MN Heat Red 30*
Triple Threat 44, MN Heat Black 41*
Finals are tomorrow
* games I saw. I will report on these games in out & abouts in the upcoming week. Probably the quarterfinals on Monday, the two semis on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the final on Thursday.
The teams were more North metro based with the games I saw (from Anoka and Andover over to Hill-Murray and White Bear Lake).

Later in the day it the 17us that took the floor and it was X Factor beating Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 31-26. HLWW had two players that started in the state tournament a few weeks ago. X Factor is made up of Class A players from the Park Region, Prairie, and Little 8 Conferences. I will report on this game later.

Here are some other observations:
The halves were 14 minute stop time. Running time kicked in if a team led by more than 20 late.
Uniforms: This is a big issue with me. First have numbers on front and back and clear enough to read. It makes it easier for reporting and if you want to catch the eye of a recruiter it is essential. Second pick colors that show up well together. Black numbers on Red tend to be hard to read when players start sweating heavily. Also yellow/gold on white is miserable unless there is a dark trim around the number, but it would be better to have a dark on white. Fourth—if possible it would be a smart idea to get the names on the back of the jersey. That is key for recruiters.
I have started the rosters for the summer teams. If you have a roster, get it to me and I will post it. Many colleges run off copies of the rosters as they go out and recruit in the spring.

Next up: X Factor vs HLWW