First, the scores from Saturday, straight from our Twitter account @dreamleague, which is duplicated on our Facebook page, the Dream League Bay Area Group. I’ve also added my comments to each game…

6FT+1: Lifted (LA) 62, Jumpmen (SF) 61. I didn’t see this game, but it must’ve been a good one. LA Lifted certainly has the length and athleticism, but don’t underestimate the talent, tenacity and balanced scoring of Jumpmen. Jumpmen never goes down without heart. The thing about Jumpmen is, there’s about four or five guys who could be the leading scorer on other teams. You never know which guy will come out and have a big game.

6FT+1: Lifted (LA) 94, LA Kimchi 70. I didn’t see this game, but on paper KimChi doesn’t have the length or athleticism to match up against the Lifted’s stallions.

6FT+1: Jumpmen (SF) 66, Pineapples (SJ/LA) 42. As mentioned above, Jumpmen has many weapons. Probably were too much for the Pineapples.

6FT+1: PacRim West Covina 70, LA Rage 48. I didn’t get a chance to see LA Rage at all, but PacRim is a very well-balanced team with plenty of talent. They are run-n-gun and epitomize the saying “a game of runs”.

6FT+1: LA Freestyle 67, Organized Noise (LA) 65. I missed this game as well, but it looks like Organized Noise really had some good, close games this tournament. Rey Saldiver can get hot at any moment, but Freestyle is a veteran team that has played together many years, and would probably be unfazed by someone breaking out for 25 pts or more, like Saldiver can.

6FT+1: PacRim West Covina 74, LA Freestyle 66. A battle between very familiar faces, PacRim’s younger guns probably outran the older veterans of Freestyle.

6FT+1: Organized Noise (LA) 73, LA Rage 36. LA Rage is new to this tournament and probably got a little baptism by fire. Organized Noise was once the newbie and has certainly paid their dues over the years. It’s clear they came to this tournament ready to make a statement.

ELITE: Dream League Juniors (SF) 69, LA Freestyle/Flava 64. Flava was missing one of its triumvirate of athletes, but still, the DLJ came with a lot of intensity and urgency, and refused to let the more athletic team take control of the halfcourt, by hitting a lot of outside shots and hustling after every rebound. The young DLJs rose up to the occasion and played up to their potential, even being shortstaffed on the frontline.

ELITE: Taiwan Center (LA) 66, San Diego Heatcheck 48. Heatcheck didn’t have one of their bigs available on Saturday and boy what a difference he made, or rather lack thereof. Meanwhile, Taiwan Center used its more traditional lineup and good outside shooting to methodically defeat Heatcheck.

ELITE: Dream League Juniors (SF) 60, Taiwan Center (LA) 52. After going up by double-digits and riding the momentum from their win over the more athletic Flava, the DLJs relinquished the lead to TWC’s good shooting, good defense, and solid rebounding. But then DLJ’s star Ross Nakamura hit a key trey late to pull away by 5, followed by a runout steal off a turnover, and that finished off TWC, which couldn’t hit late from outside. TWC didn’t get a couple of shots deep to go in as Drew Bryant never pulled out one of his patented fireball runs, didn’t have as much of a presence inside as it would’ve liked, and succumbed to the faster style of play exhibited by DLJ.

ELITE: Southbay LA All-Stars 50, Blue Canvas (LA) 48. I didn’t get a chance to see SBLA much, but I was impressed by their on-paper results. I do know that the coach of Blue Canvas came into their first game wanting to give everyone on their team some minutes, with our “everyone makes the playoffs after pool play” format. That strategy may have come back to haunt them as they finished Day 1 with the #7 seed, forced to play a really hot #2 team that had the height and size to match Blue Canvas, Team Obvi.

ELITE: Team Obvi (Santa Cruz) 67, MoneyTree (SF) 61. Obvi brought some talented players in both the frontline and backcourt and took the defending champion MoneyTree, which has some versatility in their lineup, out of their comfort zone in Game One of Pool Play.

ELITE: Team Obvi (Santa Cruz) 58, Southbay LA All-Stars 55. Simply a great game that I missed. Again, for SBLA to go down by only three to a meatier frontline and a thirsty up-and-coming Obvi backcourt — that says a lot about SBLA which as far as I know did not have college experience in most of their roster slots.

ELITE: MoneyTree Prodigies (SF) 81, Blue Canvas (LA) 75. Blue Canvas shot the lights out with a 32-27 first quarter, but the resilient veteran MoneyTree weathered the storm.

With REC in round-robin form, the 6FT+1 and ELITE went into Sunday with these seeds and point differentials. Here’s 6FT+1…

1. Pac 2-0 +28
2. Lifted 2-0 +21
3. Jump 1-1 +19
4. OrgN 1-1 +18
5. KimChi 1-1 +0
6. Free 1-1 -6
7. Rage 0-2 -40
8. Pine 0-2 -40

And here’s ELITE…

1. DLJ 2-0 +13
2. Obvi 2-0 +8
3. Free/Flav 1-1 +14
4. TWC 1-1 +10
5. MTP 1-1 +0
6. SBLA 1-1 -1
7. BlueCanv 0-2 -8
8. SDH 0-2 -37

So here were the schedules, which were determined by scorekeepers that played on various teams, but mostly by the fact that KimChi had players in both 6FT+1 and REC, and Freestyle in 6FT+1 and ELITE, forcing them to be at Nogales due to the structure of the Sunday schedule. Some people were needlessly pissed off about that. I’m not sure how else I could’ve scheduled things. Heck, I had to put my REC team at MBHS, which forced me to miss playing the game, because I had to put the ELITE team that I coach at LPRC, which I had to scorekeep and forced me to miss the game as far as coaching was concerned (and they could’ve used my help as you’ll read below!).

The 6FT+1 Playoffs were all at 9am:

• NHS1: #6 LA Free vs #3 Jump
• NHS2: #5 KimChi vs #4 Org Noise
• LPRC: #8 Pine vs #1 PacRim
• MBHS #7 Rage vs #2 Lifted

The ELITE Playoffs were all at 10am:

• NHS1: #6 SBLA vs #3 Free/Flava
• NHS2: #5 MTP vs #4 Taiwan
• LPRC: #8 SD Heat vs #1 DLJ
• MBHS: #7 BlueCanv vs #2 Obvi

Here were the playoff results from Sunday. First, the REC round-robin scores…

• REC: Riverside PK 70, Dream League SF/NYC 41.
• REC: LA KimChi 69, ReDream Team (Oakland) 53.
• REC: LA KimChi 84, Dream League SF/NYC 61.
• REC: Riverside PK 53, ReDream Team (Oakland) 46.

I missed all of these games, but Riverside PK (2-0) and KimChi (2-0) were veteran teams with plenty of guns and chemistry, whereby ReDream was more of a pure REC team and DLSF/NYC was a collection of players that had never played together before. So it came down to the point differentials as we never had a real game between Riverside and KimChi due to Riverside’s inability to play Saturday, and the fact that we didn’t have gym time past 3pm on Sunday to play any REC championship. KimChi ended up beating both of their teammates by more than 20, which was a more powerful result than Riverside. Incidentally the difference between DLSF/NYC and ReDream turned out to be Kwong’s missed trey at the buzzer.

Therefore, KimChi won the REC championship.

Here were the 6FT+1 playoff results…

6FT+1 QTR: 1-PacRim 87, 8-Pineapples 57. Adrian Buencamino 16p4a,RJ Salazar 13p5r7a,Mark Necor 12p10r. Ryan Toscon 16p,Omar Truong 13p8r6to. I scorekept this game. True to form, PacRim came out blazing and the Pineapples couldn’t get a good shot off, let alone make a shot, as Toscon was the only one to catch any sort of a spark, albeit from outside. Without good ball movement or a presence inside, the Pineapples fell behind pretty quickly. Truong finally got into a rhythm in the second half, but it was way too late. PacRim had too many weapons.

6FT+1 QTR: 4-OrgNoise 71, 5-KimChi 67. Rey Saldiver 33p,Abe Edens 18p8r,Klint Penamark 6r. David Villagomez 25p,Mike Do 15p6r3a,J.Choe 15p. KimChi made a game of it, but Saldiver was just a little too much for them.

6FT+1 QTR: 3-Jumpmen 63, 6-Freestyle 43. Joerdan DeGuzman 18p, Francis Diaz 14p, Eric Velez 11r1b. JR Buensuceso 16p8r, Rocky Hernandez 2b. With a 20-point loss, it is very likely Freestyle was missing a few of their regulars on Sunday, but as mentioned before, credit the versatility and all-around talent of Jumpmen’s lineup. Young phenom pickup DeGuzman, who is one of the newer members of the squad, took the torch for this contest.

6FT+1 QTR: 2-Lifted 76, 7-Rage 56. Greg Plater 29p7treys, Bryce Gallow 19p11r, Donovan Morris 9a. Jason Arroyo 15p8r, Peter Vandergeld 14p8r. When Plater is hitting from outside, what can you do? He’s too athletic to let inside the three-point line. Unfortunately Rage’s inaugural tournament was met with very, very difficult matchups against PacRim and Lifted, the eventual Finals teams. Rage’s third opponent was Organized Noise, which held its own against eventual runner-up PacRim.

6FT+1 SEMI: 1-PacRim 71, 4-OrgNoise 68. Adrian Buencamino 20p, Mark Necor 13p11r, Joe Tablante 6a. Rey Saldiver 30p7to, Sam Yang 20p6r. Saldiver came out and scored Noise’s first 15 points to keep pace with the red-hot PacRim, and that slow start by his other teammates had them playing catchup all game long. Yang stepped up big time at the 4, but once again Buencamino’s timely treys, Necor’s inside play, and Tablante’s distribution played a huge role in another PacRim advancement win. Saldiver did go down with an injury late, banging into the baseline wall after a layup, but by that time, PacRim had somewhat adjusted to his play and he ended up making a late turnover hampered by the injury. Noise needed a third weapon on this day, but that third gun did not appear. Let’s not forget the smaller-sized but gritty Chris Hart, who didn’t factor into the stats leaderboard but always got tough rebounds.

6FT+1 SEMI: 2-Lifted 77, 3-Jumpmen 53. Bryce Gallow 21p8r1b, Greg Plater 17p4a, Donovan Morris 7r5a. RG Mangahas 16p, Joachim Perlas 14p. I missed this game, but I imagine Lifted’s three athletic and long players were just too much for the smaller Jumpmen to handle.

6FT+1 CHAMP: 2-Lifted 92, 1-PacRim 73… Bryce Gallow 29p7r5a, Greg Plater 21p8r8a3s, Don Morris 14p9r4a. Chris Hart 17p16r, B.Pagdilao 22p. This was basically a shooting contest between the teams, with Lifted having more athletic and long offensive rebounding advantages. Of course, PacRim still made a run for it and closed the game to within two possessions late, but couldn’t sustain it and would’ve REALLY had to shoot the lights out so as to render Lifted’s rebounding irrelevant. Hart did everything he could with 16 rebounds, but the Buencamino fireballs never caught fire.

LA SHOWCASE TOURNEY 6FT+1 DIVISION CHAMPIONS: LIFTED (LA). Team photo…

Here were the ELITE playoff results…

ELITE QTR: 8-San Diego 81, 1-DL Jrs 77. Rick Shaw 16p16r6a,Armando Higuera 23p,Chris Robinson 17p4a. Ross Nakamura 25p,Mike Hicks 18p12r5a3s. This #8 beating #1 seed in hindsight was not a surprise considering Heatcheck was missing one of their bigs on Saturday and the young DLJs were a bit too pleased with their own #1-earning success from the day before. Heatcheck came out playing like their backs were against the wall, while the DLJs played like they were entitled to make mistakes without repercussions or that the referees, who had not seen them play the day before, owed them something. Robinson was hitting treys and Higuera was getting huge buckets underneath, while Shaw was the glue, getting timely rebound after timely rebound while dishing dimes to teammates at appropriate moments. Johnny Mendoza as an oversized 3 and the veteran pg JP Pagalan both hit clutch shots, showing that every Heatcheck starter rose up to the occasion. Still, incredibly, the undersized DLJs mounted a furious comeback as Hicks, Nakamura, and the heretofore absent big man Thomas Fang (who finally woke up with 15 points, all in the 2nd half) hit clutch treys late to bring the game within one possession. After a missed free throw, DLJ found itself down by just two with about 12 seconds to go. Nakamura got the ball up top and drove to the hoop, getting fouled but missing the layup that could very well have been a make-able and-one play. With 7 seconds to go, Nakamura stepped to the line for two and missed the first, making the second. DLJ was left to foul and even though Heatcheck missed again from the line, DLJ’s pg Kyle Takahashi drove into the teeth of Heatcheck’s defense and was called for a walk. End of game. However, it was evident that when the DLJs played with a sense of urgency, they could certainly let out an explosion of points.

ELITE QTR: 2-Obvi 54, 7-Blue Canvas 44. Ralph 15p6r, Ryan 13p, Brent 10r. Emil 11p, Sam 9p, Kevin 10r. Obvi’s size was just too much for Blue Canvas, which with a smaller lineup basically had to shoot well the entire game. The Obvi backcourt was young enough to counter the quickness of Blue Canvas.

ELITE QTR: 3-Flava 68, 6-Southbay 63. Jay Hollis 29p, DeSean Williams 13p8r, Ray Hong 4a. James Chang 16p,Joey Saveedra 15p8r,Kelly Hwang 8r. Southbay made a game of it, but once again the Big Three athleticism of Flava got them the rebounds and attacks of the hoop they needed. Hong and pg JR Buensuceso filled in the blanks when the athleticism and size of the frontline of Flava wasn’t needed for any particular play. Southbay’s backcourt would have had to completely outplay that of Flava’s, but Hong and Buensuceso wouldn’t let that happen.

ELITE QTR: 5-MoneyTree 60, 4-Taiwan Ctr 46. Sunny Margate 18p1b, Taraz Lee 12p7r, Mike Lee 7r4a, Mike Reding 11p. Matt 20p, Drew Bryant 6p. With Bryant not catching fire and sg/sf Billy Hoffman not producing big numbers, MoneyTree’s deliberate and solid team play outplayed that of TWC’s. With TWC lacking inside firepower, Margate busted out at the pivot for 18 points.

ELITE SEMI: 3-Flava 68, 2-Obvi 64… Jay Hollis 15p8r, DeSean Williams 16p1b, Chilavo Anderson 13p13r3b. Ryan 25p4s2b, Ralph 12p16r. In an obviously (no pun intended) athletic game, the speed and ability to hit the tough shot inside proved to be the difference for Flava. Obvi had the inside presence to put Flava’s length and power at bay, but couldn’t hit a clutch power bucket late in the game. The outside shooting was also spotty, yet Obvi only lost by two possessions. Free throws were also an issue for Obvi. Bottom line, Flava hit a few more big shots while the rest of the play was pretty much a stalemate.

ELITE SEMI: 5-MoneyTree 80, 8-San Diego 73. Sean Caiola 20p,Taraz Lee 18p,Sunny Margate 14p7r. Chris Robinson 21p,J.Mendoza 18p,J.Juan 12r. Heatcheck used its momentum from beating the #1 seed and rolled into this semifinal still hitting outside shots via Robinson and Mendoza, and still converting down low. But MoneyTree buckled down the interior defense and let loose the guards Caiola and Lee, and outran Heatcheck late. This was indicative of MoneyTree’s versatility. With inside stalwarts Margate and Mike Lee, and swing pass sniper Mike Reding ready to hit treys, you rarely see them being led in scoring by both their setup man Lee and playmaker Caiola. Usually it is the other way around.

ELITE CHAMP: 3-Flava 80, 5-MoneyTree 76. Sean Jackson, DeSean Williams, JR Buensuceso 14p each. Taraz Lee 15p10r6a1b, Sunny Margate 21p7r. The theme of LA Showcase (at least in both the 6FT+1 and ELITE divisions) this year seemed to be length and athleticism, and while the MoneyTree defense tried their very best to contain that, Buensuceso stepped up for Flava and found himself at the rim attacking and causing MoneyTree to backpedal. Another factor was Caiola going down with a pop in his knee midway through the 4th quarter. Led by a Margate surge late in the game, MoneyTree kept things close, but Flava had its points distributed effectively and there wasn’t really one thing MoneyTree could stop, despite being very smart on both ends of the court. The Flava big men would get a few more timely offensive rebounds and that was the difference.

LA SHOWCASE TOURNEY ELITE DIVISION CHAMPIONS: LA Freestyle/Flava. We don’t have a team picture and we weren’t able to give the champions their awards due to team entry fee payment issues.

Below were the notes and INFO/FORMAT for this year’s tournament…

SAT 4/16 (9:15PM) — Here’s the schedule for Sunday. We’re in 4 gyms, so in the 6FT+1 and ELITE divisions, that means we progress every other hour through the bracket. REC is still Round-Robin.

6FT+1 is 9a, 11a, 1p championship. ELITE is 10a, 12p, 2p championship. I had to put KimChi (6FT+1 and REC) and LA Freestyle (6FT+1 and ELITE) at Nogales, and everything else flowed from there. There are definitely some changes from the first draft of the Sunday schedule.

Here’s the final draft for Sunday (addresses for gyms are underneath the table)…

• NHS1 = Nogales High School Court #1 (nearest bleachers), 401 Nogales Street, La Puente, CA Google Map
• NHS2 = Nogales High School Court #2 (against wall), 401 Nogales Street, La Puente, CA Google Map
• LPRC = La Puente Rec Center, 503 N. Glendora Ave., La Puente, CA Google Map
• MBHS = Montebello High School, 2100 Cleveland Ave., Montebello, CA Google Map

Saturday schedule

WED 4/13 (8:00AM) — The following (scroll down) is the schedule for this Sat 4/16. Below it will be the schedule for Sun 4/17 as far as the structure goes. For Sunday, some of the seeds could move to a different court based on my scorekeeping staff (I have scorekeepers playing on teams), so I can’t really predict that exactly as of this writing, but you get the general picture for Sunday.

For Saturday, I must implore you to START THE GAMES ON TIME. We are mandated to end at 3:00PM because Nogales is running a swap meet the same day and we simply have restrictions — my hands are tied. As such, here are the basics…

1. PLEASE PAY YOUR REMAINING BALANCE TO THE SCOREKEEPER BEFORE YOUR FIRST TIPOFF. I will have my people at the gym. If all else fails, text me. If you don’t have my phone number, ask around or email me.
2. The bad news is, we gotta start early to end early. Both days. The good news is, you end early.
3. We reserve the right to run clock if we are behind. However, we will stay true to the stop clock on all whistles and made baskets with 2:00 to go in the 4th quarter. If your scorekeeper does not properly do that, try to talk to our pro-am refs or text me on the spot. If you call a timeout merely to resolve such an issue regarding scorekeeper error, I will grant you your timeout back (within reason).
4. The Elite division is 6’4″ without shoes and the 6FT+1′s 5th player can be no taller than 6’2″ w/o shoes. If someone needs to be measured, text me. Please file all protests ASAP as we cannot go back in time and undo play that has already happened.
5. Point differentials will be capped at 20. So there is no need to be forced to disrespect the game and launch a 35-foot trey in someone’s face when you’re already up by 30 on that team. That’s not basketball.
6. For the 6FT+1 and Elite, please allow me until 6pm Saturday to figure out the seeds for Sunday. Note: in the first round of playoffs, you will NOT be playing a team you already played in pool play. Also, the REC is just a simple round-robin. Again, the Sunday schedule below is just a shell.
7. Please figure out where these gyms are ahead of time, such as using Google Maps. Arrive early and budget time for getting lost and parking. I have never been to either of the gyms other than Nogales, so asking me for directions would be futile. Figure it out now!!!
8. Montebello HS is about 20 minutes due west of Nogales and La Puente Rec Center. Some teams will be required to play there on Sunday morning, then winners travel back to Nogales.

GYMS:

• NHS1 = Nogales High School Court #1 (nearest bleachers), 401 Nogales Street, La Puente, CA Google Map
• NHS2 = Nogales High School Court #2 (against wall), 401 Nogales Street, La Puente, CA Google Map
• LPRC = La Puente Rec Center, 503 N. Glendora Ave., La Puente, CA Google Map
• MBHS = Montebello High School, 2100 Cleveland Ave., Montebello, CA Google Map

SATURDAY POOL PLAY SCHEDULE:

NOTES FOR SATURDAY: 6FT+1 Pool W plays at 9a, 12p, but the Loser has to travel from Nogales to LPRC. This is because there are players on both ELITE Dream League Juniors and REC Dream League SF/NYC, therefore these two teams must remain at Nogales with the potential back-to-back. Pools X, Y, and Z are pretty straightforward and all stay on the same court no matter if you win or lose your first game.

FORMAT FOR REC: Simple round-robin, each of 4 teams plays each other once for 3 games. Best team as determined by W-L, head-to-head tiebreakers, strength-of-victory, and point-differential wins the championship. Prize: t-shirts.

FORMAT FOR ELITE AND 6FT+1: Two pools of four teams, winner of first games play each other, as do losers. All 8 teams advance to single-elimination playoffs Sunday. Seeds determined by W-L, head-to-head, strength-of-victory, point-differential. Highest seed vs lowest seed in initial matchups, unless the two teams have already played each other, in which case the next-highest vs lowest seed matchup will occur, as long as it is not a repeat matchup. Therefore, you are guaranteed 3 games against 3 different teams. Prizes: team trophy and individual t-shirts.

SUNDAY SINGLE-ELIMINATION PLAYOFF SCHEDULE (REC REMAINS ROUND-ROBIN)

”

WHEN: Apr 16-17, 2011

WHERE:

• Nogales High School, 401 Nogales St, La Puente, CA - Google Map
• La Puente Community Center, 501 N. Glendora Ave, La Peunte - Google Map
• BACKUP: Franklin High School, 820 North Avenue 54, LA – Google Map

TIPOFFS:

• Saturday 9am-2pm at Nogales, 10am+ at LPCC, 10am+ at Franklin
• Sunday 10am first tipoff, championship 5pm (Nogales/LPCC)
• Any special tipoff requests that you have will be taken in order of teams that have paid in full, then teams that have paid the minimum deposit, in chronological order.

WHAT: Pool Play tournament. This means two pool play games on Saturday. There may or may not be a third “play-in” game for the right to be one of the eight teams remaining in the single-elimination playoff bracket on Sunday. (Exception: INT/REC division will be Consolation format, read below)

• ELITE = all players 6’4″ without shoes and under
• 6FT+1 = four players 6’0″ w/o shoes, fifth player can be up to 6’2″ w/o shoes
• INT/REC = “for fun only” (NO RINGERS PLEASE!!!)

WHO: No ethnicity requirements, since we have requirements based on height already. For verbally confirmed teams, please read below.

COST: DUE TO GYM RESERVATION ISSUES, DEADLINE TO PAY MINIMUM DEPOSIT ($100) IS FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2011

• $400 team entry fee (pay here for $100 deposit to hold your place)
• Note: INT/REC division is $300 due to Consolation Format, read below

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: skip down to see FAQ

DIVISIONS: read below, last updated WED 4/6 (8:00AM)

ELITE (6’4″ w/o shoes and under)

• Taiwan Center (LA) — DEPOSIT PAID
• Team Obvi (Monterey Park) — DEPOSIT PAID
• Dream League Juniors (SF) — DEPOSIT PAID
• San Diego Heatcheck — DEPOSIT PAID
• Blue Canvas (fka Woree) — FULL ENTRY MAILED
• MoneyTree Prodigies (defending champion) — FULL ENTRY PAID
• LA Freestyle/Flava (Mario’s team) — VIA PACRIM ENTRY
• Southbay All-Stars (Jin’s team) — DEPOSIT PAID
• The Yay?
• Inside Moves?
• Bout That Action (SJ/LA)?

6FT+1 (all 6’0″ plus one 6’2″)

• Pineapples (SJ/LA) — DEPOSIT PAID
• Jumpmen (SF) — DEPOSIT PAID
• Organized Noise (LA) — DEPOSIT PAID
• PacRim Select (LA) — DEPOSIT PAID
• LA KimChi — CONFIRMED
• LA Lifted — DEPOSIT PAID
• LA Freestyle (Mike’s team) — VIA PACRIM ENTRY
• LA Rage — DEPOSIT PAID
• Dante U.’s team?
• SF Eagles?
• Pacific Hoopsters?
• Delano Allies?
• Delano Killa Beez?
• Def Squad (LA)?

INT/REC (Intermediate/Recreational, for fun only, NO RINGERS!!!)

• ReDream Team (Oakland)
• Poorcats (SF)
• Riverside PK?
• USCSD?
• PacRim Int/Rec?

The INT/REC will be a Consolation Format, which means a set number of teams (either 6 or 8 ) and the first game will determine which direction you are heading in the bracket. It will end up with 1 game on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday. We do this format because it is not as competitive, and therefore does not require Pool Play (which would also cost more).

The INT/REC entry fee is only $300 as compared to $400 for the other two.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Where should I book hotel, if we don’t know where gyms are finalized? Personally, I will be flying into SNA airport on Saturday morning. If the gym turns out to be in West Covina, it will only take me 10 more minutes drive as compared to LAX. It appears that rental cars from SNA are a bit cheaper than LAX too. I actually booked my hotel room near Ontario airport, which I found much cheaper than anywhere else being a member of the Starwood/Sheraton hotel system. My hotel is a 25-minute straight-shot to West Covina. So I’m staying an okay distance from the Sunday gym and much further from SNA for my flight back Sunday night.

…BROUGHT TO YOU BY DREAMLEAGUE (BAY AREA) AND SB NATION…

(special thanks to PacRimSports for securing the gym)

Recap from TheNoLookPass.com (2/21/2011)
Boxscore for Game 1 of 3: TheBasketballJones+ 52, TheNoLookPass/LakersNation 46
Boxscore for Game 2 of 3: SB Nation+ 59, TrueHoop 48
Boxscore for Game 3 of 3: (pending)

More links, video clips, blogposts, etc. coming…Please check back soon!!!

WHEN: Sunday morning, Feb 20th, 2011 at 8:00AM. If there are enough participants for a second game, that game will occur after 9:00AM. Remember, there are still tons of stuff going on for All-Star Sunday, so we need to start and end early.

1. We will determine teams based on a first-come-first-served policy (see also “Swag” below).
2. At whatever time you arrive, report directly to the scorekeeper’s table to sign in.
3. Teams will also be split based on blog affiliation, height, position, and level of experience.
4. These are organized games with refs and clock. Also, we are running NBA format/rules.
5. You may be asked to play against another person affiliated with your blog, depending on the numbers.
6. The first tipoff will be roughly 8:15AM. The second tipoff will be roughly 9:15AM.
7. You can arrive late at whatever time and still play, so long as there are other players to play against at that time.
8. We may or may not have a 3-Point Shootout. It depends on the turnout.
9. Up to four teams can be accommodated. Due to first-come-first-served policy.
10. Due to the unpredictable turnout, I reserve the right to “make it up as I go” on the day of. I encourage you to help out and share your ideas with me at the scorer’s table. We are all in this together.

• SWAG: Here’s some motivation to arrive on time: The first 30 participants will receive a FREE T-SHIRT!!!

WHERE: Franklin High School, 820 North Ave 54, Los Angeles, CA 90042.

• I have not been to this venue before. Please keep checking your Twitter and mine (@poormanscommish) for specifics like where to park, etc. I will, of course, endeavor to arrive early.
• Don’t forget to budget time for LA traffic. Also, if it rains, turn on your headlights!

WHAT: SB Nation team of bloggers vs TrueHoop Network team of bloggers, also Independent Bloggers are invited, please email us! Read more about the Bloggers Throwdown from this past Summer League in Vegas here.

We might even do a Three-Point Shootout or, as @JohnKrolik has suggested, a farthest-shot contest, time-permitting.

WHO: Here’s a list of who’s playing. At Summer League Vegas, we had enough bloggers to split into SB Nation (plus TheNoLookPass) vs TrueHoop Network. This time around, who knows?

We hope to have at least 16 players to split into two teams. If there’s more, we can goto three or more preferably four teams. We’ll figure it out soon, but the list of players thus far is…

1. @clippersteve of ClipsNation
2. @TrueHoop aka Henry Abbott of TrueHoop
3. @TheNoLookPass of TNLP (and 2-3 others…)
4. @illastrate of TNLP
5. @YungBolo of TNLP
6. Nick Perkins of TNLP
7. @fosterdj of Clippers.com
8. @Suga_Shane of Stacheketball
9. Jeffrey Gomez of Stacheketball
10. @ahmong of Stacheketball
11. @rikdaddy of Stacheketball
12. @LakersNation (Gary Lee, and 1-2 others…)
13. @DanielBuerge_LA of LakersNation
14. @PurpleGoldSholl of LakersNation
15. @AtTheHive of AtTheHive
16. Brian Ball (AtTheHive)
17. @JohnKrolik of CavsTheBlog
18. @thejonlee of AccuScore
19. @FEARLAdotcom of FearLA
20. Matt Sager of FullyLoadedClips
21. @FabioLlanes of StayUpOnGame
22. @ESPNMarkJones of ESPN
23. @LD2k of TheLakersNation
24. @jeskeets of TheScore (holy moly: 13,000 followers!)
25. @TasMelas of TheScore
26. @treykerby of TheScore
27. @GamEtiTe80 of MinoritySportzReport
28. @SnottieDrippen of SavingTheSkyHook and FullyClips
29. @LowerEastScribe of BounceMagazine
30. Chris Clark of SilverScreenAndRoll
31. @SherwoodStrauss of WarriorsWorld
32. @poormanscommish (yours truly!) of GoldenStateOfMind.com
33. _________________ (you?!)

Here’s a list of players from the Vegas Summer League Throwdown (I was not there to keep stats for the second game). Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like these guys will be able to play in LA coming up. Let me know if I missed anybody…

• @SaltCityHoops (Utah Jazz)
• @RobMahoney (Dallas Mavericks at TheTwoManGame.com)
• Andrew Tonry (PortlandRoundballSociety.com)
• @MBSchwartz (ValleyOfTheSuns.com)
• @ptknicksblog (New York Knicks at PostingAndToasting.com)
• @WinInTheEnd of TLNP

Interested in joining us for the game(s)? Email me at info(at)dreamleague(dot)org.

WHEN: Sunday, Feb 20th, 2011 at 9:30AM

WHERE: Franklin HS, Los Angeles, CA or other similar gym in LA school district

WHAT: SB Nation team of bloggers vs TrueHoop Network team of bloggers, also Independent Bloggers are invited, please email us!

WHO: Here’s a list of who’s playing. At Summer League Vegas, we had enough bloggers to split into SB Nation (plus TheNoLookPass) vs TrueHoop Network. This time around, who knows?

We hope to have at least 16 players to split into two teams. If there’s more, we can goto three or more preferably four teams. We’ll figure it out soon, but the list of players thus far is…

1. @clippersteve of ClipsNation
2. MAYBE: @TrueHoop aka Henry Abbott of TrueHoop
3. MAYBE: @kevinarnovitz of TrueHoop, MiamiHeatIndex, and ESPNLosAngeles.com
4. @TheNoLookPass of TLNP (and 3 others…)
5. TLNP #2 of 4
6. TLNP #3 of 4
7. TLNP #4 of 4
8. @fosterdj of Clippers.com
9. @Suga_Shane of Stacheketball
10. @poormanscommish
11. _________________ (you?!)
12. _________________ (you?!)
13. _________________ (you?!)
14. _________________ (you?!)

Interested in joining us? Email me at info(at)dreamleague(dot)org.

MORE INFO COMING SOON!!!

Read more about the Bloggers Throwdown from this past Summer League in Vegas here.

1. Read about Info/Format (8 teams maximum!)
2. Register
3. Pay

Here are our past events…

• 2009 Dallas (no tournament,)
• 2008 New Orleans (no tournament)
• 2007 Las Vegas …redirects to old Dream League site
• 2006 Houston …redirects to old Dream League site

National tournaments will be posted on this site.

For the San Francisco Bay Area leagues, please click on the menu in the upper righthand corner.

For the New York leagues, please go back to our old site, which is accessible also in the menu in the upper righthand corner.

In due time, the New York leagues will migrate to this site as well, and the old site will automatically redirect to this new site.