Chad Groth and D. Wade
Description coming soon. More »
Northern Arizona Spring Showcase 2012 Highlights
Click here for highlights from the Northern Arizona Spring Showcase 2012. More »
Ben Howland UCLA
Herb Sendek
San Diego Magic – making noise this year
Las Vegas, NV – Little Things Learned from over the Weekend
It is found in almost every team that has success early on during the club ball season; a little complacency will sit in especially for a young team.
Teams that play against top competition should always be aware of the pitfalls to losing a game or games, if everybody isn’t on the same page.
Some athletic teams can play without having everybody in sync, because of their athleticism or because this specific team has a top 100 player or has a player that is 2 years removed from high school – (Prep school player) that is visibly older than some of the parents watching the games….just kidding!- But, you get my point!!!!
That team in regards is the San Diego Magic (AZ) coached by Simon Phipps (Point Loma Nazarene University ’97-99 in San Diego) and the team is young but can arguably be one of the toughest teams playing on the invitational floor this club season on the west coast-Bar None!.
No player is taller than 6’6 and the starting lineup has three players for the class of 2014. With wins against a fully loaded Belmont Shore team (Magic Memorial Tourney 2012), D1 AZ Ambassadors (Elite 8 summer 2012), I-Can All-stars, AZ ACES Elite 17, China U-17 national team, and played a hard fought game against the eventual winner Play Hard Play Smart Elite 17, with scoring the most points (68) than any other team in championship bracket play in the Pango’s Cream of the Crop, against (P.H.P.S) this past weekend.
San Diego Magic dropped a couple games early on against formable opponents (LA Rockfish Elite & AZ Stars) but turned it up during bracket play with an upset win against the AZ Aces with the High major Division 1 prospect Joe Boyd.
San Diego Magic picked up a couple of new players in forwards 6’6 Chris Bailey- Clovis East HS & 6’4 Gavin Pearce St. Marys’ HS, in which complimented the other players in 6’1 Isaiah Lopez 2013, 6’8 Dane Norman 2014 & 6’2 Alex Solarez 2013. The sizes of the players were needed because San Diego Magic relies on shooting & error-free basketball but the chemistry was off immediately.
The team had to get back to the basics and focus on the “little things” in basketball (setting good picks, transition defense & ball movement) but worked through the losses (4 games) until the team learned the roles needed to be played in order to play with fluidity on the court in which resulted in better play in front of the college scouts and also wins!.
So, look out for the San Diego Magic in the Las Vegas Fab 48 tournament this week competing against some of the nation’s best club teams in America and witness the effort put forth by this team and that’s why they have a chance… every game!
