AAU Basketball: Philly Spring Classic

4/6 - 4/8 2007 Philly Spring Classic, Philadelphia, PA
La Salle University, 3-game guarantee: Pool play and single-elimination tournament

4/7	11am	Court 3	Team Philly	Lost	56-30
4/7	3 pm	Court 2	Coast to Coast	Lost	---
4/7	9 pm	Court 3	Delaware Panthers	Lost	47-19

Like Twin Valley the week before, this was an open tournament; that is, it was not a sanctioned AAU tourney, just an open invitation to come and play. The level of competition was high, but there was evidence that the playing field/court was not level. We played in what was called 14U, and unless Pennsylvania gives driver's licenses to 14 year olds, we suspect not all of our opponents were truly 14 and under. There is no age verification process for this tournament.

Except for a few games that we weren't involved in, the tournament was held in the Tom Gola Arena, where the LaSalle Explorers play Atlantic 10 Basketball. I have never seen this setup before: the arena is about three basketball courts wide, main court in the center and a full-size practice court on either side. The seating is much like what I'm used to seeing at high-schools only taller. When the seats are fully "pushed back", all three courts are exposed. For normal games, the seating is pulled out completely, covering up the practice courts. There is no seating on the ends. And with the seats pushed back and the practice courts exposed, there is no seating anywhere, except folding chairs. I thought it was strange also that the courts were above the entrance by a flight of stairs. Anyone know what was on the main level, and if there was a lower level? Maybe athletic offices?

We were missing our starting center, and for all the games we were short by six inches at every position at each tipoff. Because the third game was not on the schedule at the beginning of the day, we also lost our next two biggest bigs for the final game. When we drove, we got blocked. When we shot, we didn't get rebounds. Given the height difference, we generally held our own on the defensive boards.

I got cheesesteaks at Explorers Den right around the corner--excellent. I assume "Explorers" is a reference to Robert de LaSalle and the LaSalle mascot/team name (Explorers) Took a few pictures, too. As usual, not a lot of action--partly because of the photographer, partly because of the camera. All pictures are captioned, if you don't see the captions, try hitting "Hide Captions" then "Show Captions".

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