LAKEPORT — Call in the curse of the Record-Bee Hoop Classic junior varsity most valuable player award.
Since the inception of the Hoop Classic in 1994, not one of the 13 players to receive the tournament”s most valuable player award in the junior varsity division have repeated that feat at the varsity level. That”s not to say that past MVPs in the JV division haven”t enjoyed success at the varsity level because they have, most notably Morgan Weiper (Kelseyville), Doug Arevalo (Kelseyville), Ryan Mayer (Clear Lake), Joseph Noel (Lower Lake) and Brad Finley (Middletown).
Of that group, Noel was certainly MVP worthy when he played for some great Lower Lake varsity clubs in 2002 and ”03. The varsity MVPs those years were Trojan greats Vince Alderman (”02) and Eric Freeman (”03). Eric”s younger brother, Kevin, is one of the top players on this year”s Lower Lake club.
If the Trojans go on to win this year”s Hoop Classic title, it will be the school”s fifth, which would tie Clear Lake for the most tournament championships. No one else has more than two.
In the JV division, Lower Lake entered this year”s tournament as the all-time Hoop Classic leader with five titles followed by Kelseyville with four and Clear Lake with three.
n Three-way tie
If three teams tie with 3-1 records in the tournament standings, the first tie-breaker is head-to-head record. If that can”t be applied (as an example, Lower Lake beat Clear Lake, Clear Lake beat Kelseyville, and Kelseyville beat Lower Lake), the next tie-breaker is points differential in games involving only those three teams (total points scored vs. total points allowed). If Kelseyville were plus-four in a hypothetical situation, Lower Lake was plus-two and Clear Lake minus-two, Kelseyville would be declared the winner and Lower Lake the runner-up.
But what happens if two teams finish with the same points differential? Then head-to-head results would break that tie either for first or second place.
Tournament officials would much rather have a clear-cut winner in the standings, but the points differential is certainly better than flipping a coin.
Why don”t you use points differential in all games? That could encourage stronger teams to run it up against the weaker teams, and no one wants that.
Hospitality room sponsors
Sears, J. David Markham (attorney at law), Holder Ford-Mercury, Perko”s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Hillside Honda are sponsoring this year”s hospitality room, which affords coaches, games officials, tournament staff, media members and other tournament VIPs the chance to get a bite to eat and take a break during a hectic week for all involved.
All six sponsors deserve a special thanks and your patronage for stepping up and supporting high school sports in Lake County.
