The 2009 Magic Invite is this weekend at Kennedy. Here's a quick look.
17U
6 teams in the tourney with Magic Black highlighting the list out of Pool A. David Michaelson and the Magic Blue squad look like the class of Pool B. Magic Black the favorite here to win it all.
16U
5 team round robin tourney here. EOTO, Wear Out The Net, MN Wrath, Magic and Grassroots are the teams here. This looks like it could be interesting but I like WOTN after their impressive performance at the Pump N Run tourney last weekend.
15U
Also a 5 team round robin. Don't know if Magic Knutsen (sp?) is in this one or not, if they are that's very interesting. Otherwise Heat Elite steamroll through it. List of teams is Magic Red, Magic Gold, Heat Elite, EOTO and Metro Elite.
Czar,
ReplyDeleteBeing a fan of Mn basketball, this weekend is concerning to me. You have few teams showing up for the Magic and Select tournaments while a large number of schools are heading down to Kansas. I know 43Hoops tried a National Tournament which I don't think is planned for '09 and then HP has the Sabes which the big Mn AAU programs typically avoid. We were in Ohio last weekend and saw just outstanding basketball at all levels. What's the solution for Minnesota? How about this? The Tubby Smith Classic presented by Mn Prep Sports with proceeds going to some charity. I've a free weekend and nothing to watch!
To the contrary, I don't think teams avoid the Sabes. That may be the reason many teams go to the Jayhawk, to get their shot at Howard Pulley.
ReplyDeleteThe Jayhawk is one of many great events around the country during the spring, hard to fault teams for playing a high quality regional or national event (wait until the PNR tourney here in July.
The closest we may get is the big Comets tourney at the start of the year. But it would be nice to have something like it at the end of July during the open period. As to solutions, the politics of an organization running an event can sometimes be too much. Somebody independent with connections could maybe step in and get all the teams to show up, but timing would be difficult with all of those top events that the top teams attend.