Summer shootout season in full swing

When in Rome, do as the Roman do.

And that, helps explain why Oswego East boys basketball coach Jason Buckley was watching soccer (Italy vs. France in the Euro 2008 Tournament) on ESPN earlier this week when we contacted him for information about his program's summer basketball shootout.

Soccer?

"I'm certainly no more than a casual (soccer) fan and that's all I'll probably ever be," said Buckley, who said the only other time he could recall watching on TV was when the World Cup was held in the U.S.

But Buckley and his wife, Jennifer, the former AU women's basketball coach, had just returned from a trip to Italy that Jennifer won in a restaurant contest.

"We saw went to Rome, Naples, Pompei and Positano, which is a town right on the cliffs along the sea," he said. "It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We had a blast."

And they saw, firsthand, how the rest of the world feels about soccer.

"They tell you, when the (Italian) national team is playing on TV, don't even go out to dinner," he said. "All the cooks will be watching the game on TV.

"Being there, you really learn to appreciate the passion they have."

Italy won 2-0 to advance to the tourney quarterfinals.

Back to hoops

It's the third straight week an area school hosts a shootout, and this will be the fourth annual tourney for Oswego East. It continues to grow.

"The first year we had only 13 teams," said Buckley. "The second it was 16 teams and last year we had 24. With 25 this year, I think that's our max, given our facility and the number of games we want to have.

"We have a nice mix of smaller schools and bigger schools."

Action starts Friday at 10 a.m. and continues until 8 p.m. Play begins Saturday morning at 8 o'clock with a single-elimination tournament beginning at noon.

"Everybody gets at least six games," said Buckley, who wasn't on hand last week at West Aurora, where his team went 1-4.

There is no admission charge.

Area schools in the field include Waubonsie Valley, East Aurora, Oswego, Aurora Central, Sandwich, H-BR, Somonauk and Newark.

The recap

• Two weeks ago, host East Aurora won its Tomcat Classic, beating Upstate Eight Conference rival Neuqua Valley in the title game to cap a 7-1 tourney run that included splitting a pair of games with Homewood-Flossmoor.

The Tomcats played without point guard Ryan Boatright, who was in California, for a camp at Southern Cal. It's the same camp he attended a year earlier as an eighth-grader, catching the eye of USC coach Tim Floyd who made national headlines with a scholarship offer to the youngster.

• Both East High and host West High advanced to the Elite Eight of the Fourth Annual Hoop Mountain Shootout last weekend at West. The Blackhawks dropped a 67-52 decision to Morton and Neuqua Valley avenged the loss from a week earlier by claiming a 57-50 decision over the Tomcats.

Both semifinals were close calls with Warren beating Morton on a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Niles Notre Dame, coached by WSCR 670-AM morning celebrity Mike North, edged Neuqua Valley 75-72 in overtime.

North, a volunteer assistant last season, was filling in for head coach Jim Les.

Warren claimed an 11-point win in the title game.

Kudos of the Day

Gordie Kerkman earned North's daily "attaboy" on his Monday show for finding the radio personality's lost billfold before he left the gym Saturday night and going to great lengths to return it.

"I'm an early riser, so on Monday I called the station about 20 minutes before he went on the air and got him," said Kerkman, who was unsuccessful in reaching him on Sunday.

On the air, a relieved North vowed to make a donation to help pay for new uniforms for Kerkman's club.

"He was a lot different in person," Kerkman said of North. "On the radio he's very abrasive, but that's the way those talk show hosts are. Coaching, I thought he would be a wild man, but he wasn't. He was very calm."

Assessment

Kerkman said it's hard to tell how much stock to put in summer games, "because you never know if (other teams have) got all their players there or not."

Looking at the field last weekend, he said, "I don't know that there were any great teams there but there were a lot of good teams."

The Blackhawks included freshman Juwan Starks and sophomore Kyle Pitmer.

Junior Derrick Johnson turned in one of the top scoring performances of the event. He had 25 in a win over Ridgewood.

• Batavia's Ben Potter scored 26 against Maine South and 23 against Morton, both on Saturday. Other top performances by area players included ACC's Anthony Kelley (25 vs. Plainfield Central; Oswego's Chris Ogliby, 23 vs. Rockford Boylan; East's Will Brown, 23 vs. Plainfield Central; and Oswego's Andrew Galow, 21 vs. Boylan.

• ACC forward Mike Adams, who also plays quarterback on the football team, attended a camp at Western Michigan this week. He may have a future as a tight end.

Adams noted that he started the football season last year at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, but he's currently 6-3, 215.

Adams' older brother Mark, The Beacon News Player of the Year last season, will likely end up at North Central College in Naperville, but it's not official.