LOWER LAKE — With the exception of Clear Lake, every other team in the varsity division of this year”s Record-Bee Hoop Classic has one loss through the first two days of the week-long, round-robin basketball tournament at Lower Lake High School.
Clear Lake is 1-0, Middletown, Lower Lake and Upper Lake are all 1-1, and Kelseyville is 0-1. Each of the last seven Hoop Classic varsity champions has gone 4-0. In fact, only twice in the history of the tournament has the varsity winner not gone undefeated — Kelseyville won with a 3-1 mark in 2000 (beating Clear Lake on a head-to-head tiebreaker) and Clear Lake won with a 3-1 record in 1996, beating out three other teams who went 2-2.
The tournament has never had three teams finish 3-1, though that is mathematically possible. Should Kelseyville beat Clear Lake in today”s early varsity game, it could be a wild finish. Stay tuned.
Marty Udy reclaimed his title as the best 3-point shooter among the county”s varsity coaches Tuesday night by sinking 15 in 60 seconds during the annual contest. Mike Mullin of Middletown was the runner-up with 10. The gift basket that goes to the winner is a pretty nice one, with a value of about $100.
A minor scoring adjustment has been made in the varsity division where Middletown”s John Hays was credited with two more points than he actually scored in a loss to Lower Lake — 17 instead of 19.
No team or individual tournament records have fallen so far, but that could change by Saturday, especially in the varsity division.
In the Hoop Classic trivia department, here”s a piece of information that might surprise a few people. Of the 14 players to earn the most valuable player award in the junior varsity division, not one of them went on to win the award in the varsity division. Many of them did go on to receiver varsity All-Tournament honors, just not the MVP award.
From the e-mail bag at the Record-Bee sports desk. A reader wanted to know how we select the contestants for the junior varsity and varsity free-throw and 3-point contests. The answer is that the newspaper has nothing to do with the selection process. Each team decides who will compete in each contest. Players who win a contest and return to the tournament the following year automatically qualify. Of last year”s winners, two graduated and two aren”t playing this year, so each team will have just one shooter during Friday night”s contests.
Entering this year”s Hoop Classic, Clear Lake and Lower Lake were tied for the most varsity championships with five apiece. Lower Lake leads with five in the JV division, followed by Kelseyville and Clear Lake with four each.
Clear Lake”s JVs have won three straight titles.
