Welcome to the Endless Summer of Basketball : Pressure Is on Players to Show Best Stuff

Looking as though he were sorting a pile of junk mail, Ryan Hickman sifted through the large stack of invitations to summer basketball camps he received in recent weeks.

“All of them said I had been selected as one of the top players in the country and they would be honored to have me,” said Hickman, a 6-foot-6 forward who will be a senior at Fairfax High this fall.

Hickman chose to play in two of those camps, Superstar in Santa Barbara and West Coast All-Star in Pomona, but that will represent only a small portion of his endless summer of basketball. He will also participate for Fairfax in various leagues and all-star tournaments.

From late June until July 30th, Hickman--and hundreds of players like him--will compete in approximately 60 games--twice as many as they will play during the regular three-month high school season.

They know the growing importance of summertime basketball. A good showing will likely mean a scholarship to a prestigious basketball power. A poor showing could cost them one.

Considered to be a touch slow by some college scouts, Hickman, a returning All-City player who averaged 15 points and 14 rebounds last season, wants to use this summer to remove any doubt about his speed.

“Believe me, I know the stakes are high,” he said. “It makes me a little nervous to think about it.”

Prior to the 1980s, there was little nerve-wracking about summer basketball. It was generally a low-key affair--a time reserved for prep coaches to condition their teams and set rosters for the upcoming season. There were summer league games, scrimmages and an occasional tournament.

But in 1983, when the NCAA adopted the early-signing period, things changed dramatically. High school seniors were permitted to sign letters of intent with colleges during a one-week period in November instead of the traditional April signing period.

Since an estimated 80% of Division I prospects sign early, there is a frenzy for scouts to try and be everywhere and see everyone. College coaches are allowed to observe and evaluate high school players starting today through July 31, a period crammed with camps and tournaments.

“During that time, my two assistant coaches and I won’t be home one night,” Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said. “We’ll spend every second of the day watching kids play all over the country. We basically size up our whole recruiting class during this short amount of time, so we’ve got to try and be as thorough as possible. It’s not easy, especially because we want to see our favorites two or three times.

“The big problem with the whole system is that you have to evaluate how a player will fit into your system almost a whole year after you see him. You have to base a lot of what you see on potential. If a good player has a bad summer, he may not get looked at again. I’m not saying it’s a fair system, but for right now that’s the way it is.”

Pepperdine signed all of its players early this year, including Dana Jones of North Hollywood. Jones turned in a solid performance at the Las Vegas Invitational last summer and impressed Asbury. When he was offered a scholarship, he quickly signed. He went on to have a banner season with the Huskies, guiding them to the City Section 3-A Division championship. If he had held out, he probably could have signed with a bigger school.

Such stories give Hickman and other borderline Division I prospects hope that if they don’t knock ‘em dead in the summer, they can come back and play well in the spring and still land a scholarship.

The April signing period has turned out to be mostly a time for the top prospects to decide where to go to school. This year, All-American forwards Shon Tarver of Santa Clara and Ed O’Bannon of Artesia signed late, opting for Nevada Las Vegas. College coaches normally will hold a scholarship until the spring if a big-name player is interested.

The trend of signing early bothers many high school coaches who have watched their players pick up bad habits over the summer while showing off for the scouts.

“We don’t encourage our kids to attend a lot of camps,” St. Monica Coach Leo Klemm said. “I think our program is visible enough that the college coaches will come watch us play in high school tournaments. When you let a good player go to an all-star camp, the people who run them often take credit if the kid does well. But the high school coach is the one who has been spending years developing him.”

Klemm maintains tight control over his players during the summer. The Mariners practice once a week and play twice a week in high school summer leagues. They also will participate in five different local tournaments. If a player wants to attend a camp, he must clear it with Klemm.

North Hollywood Coach Steve Miller is less demanding of his players, having them play together only once a week. He encourages them to take needed time off to pursue other interests.

“Summer is supposed to be a time to relax and enjoy yourself,” Miller said. “When the kids are playing together everyday, they get tired and bored. They no longer are having fun or playing well, and I don’t enjoy it either. No one comes out a winner.”

Miller has his team play together once a week so he doesn’t lose complete control of it. He is well aware of the increased competition among local schools fighting for top players. If Miller gives his team the summer off, he takes a chance that a star recruit will get snatched up by a rival school that is playing. If he works his team too hard, he runs the risk of early burnout and apathy.

On the other extreme is Crenshaw Coach Willie West, who has guided the Cougars to four state titles. Twelve years ago, West stopped having his team play together in summer leagues because he said opponents were going after them for blood every game. Since Crenshaw seldom loses during the season, rivals looked at the summer as a time of revenge.

“Since I didn’t practice my kids real hard in the summer, I didn’t want other teams using that time as a barometer to see how they matched up with us,” West said. “I decided there were enough other things going on in the summer that our players could stay busy. I know whether I keep them together or not that they’ll be playing basketball somewhere. I want them to have some freedom and try other things if they so desire. Some have to work to make money.”

Crenshaw’s top returning player, guard Kevin Ollie, has found plenty of ways to keep busy. The 6-2 Ollie, generally regarded as one of the top five prospects in the state, is a member of the American Roundball Corp.’s Mid Valley team. Mid Valley, ARC’s premier traveling all-star team, will play in tournaments across the country this summer, including the prestigious Las Vegas Invitational July 22-29.

ARC is the largest youth basketball program in the country, with more than 7,000 players nationwide. Founded 16 years ago by Rich Goldberg of Van Nuys, ARC operates year-round and has leagues in 32 cities. Most are in Southern California and feature some of the top local talent.

To showcase its best teams, ARC will hold its own tournament July 14-18 at Artesia High.

ARC’s main rival for luring top local players is the Slam-’N-Jam league, started 11 years ago by Issy Washington. Slam-’N-Jam sponsors high school leagues in the spring, with 560 players on 52 teams this past year. In the summer, the league maintains several traveling all-star teams, with most of its players coming from South-Central Los Angeles.

“I gave up on the summer leagues because the high school coaches were asking for more control of their kids,” Washington said. “Things were getting so out of hand, that the high school coaches didn’t want to lose total control. I want to maintain good relations with them, so I opted for other things.”

Slam-’N-Jam once again will hold a national tournament, with 44 teams competing July 14-19 at Cal State Long Beach. Last year, nearly every major college coach stopped by to watch. Teams come from as far away as Washington D.C. and Alaska.

It costs players less to play for ARC or Slam-’N-Jam than to attend most camps. ARC’s entry fee is $65, while Slam-’N-Jam charges $125, which includes a T-shirt and a pair of basketball shoes. ARC is sponsored by Nike and Slam-’N-Jam by Reebok, which help defray costs for gym rentals, coaches’ salaries, insurance and traveling expenses.

The premier event of the summer is the Nike Camp at Princeton, N.J., which starts Friday and ends July 11. This super bowl of summer camps is all-expenses paid and by invitation only for the top 120 prospects in

the country. Last year, more than 600 college coaches attended.

What’s unique about the Nike Camp is that it emphasizes academics over basketball. Players spend seven hours a day in class and counseling sessions and only four hours a day practicing and playing basketball. If a player skips class, he is sent home. Players are tested for reading and arithmetic skills and spend much of their time reviewing for the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Local players who have been invited to the Nike Camp include Ollie, Cherokee Parks of Marina, Ray Owes of San Bernardino, Tes Whitlock of Loara and Chris Ford of Fremont.

Since the Nike Camp started 12 years ago, those local players not fortunate enough to receive an invitation have usually attended the popular Superstar Camp in Santa Barbara. About 300 players and 200 college coaches are expected to attend this year’s event, which starts Sunday and ends July 13.

But the Superstar Camp faces new competition as the area’s biggest and best camp. The first West Coast All-Star Camp will run today through Monday at Cal Poly Pomona. Sponsored by local basketball guru Dana Pump of Tarzana, the camp was sold out weeks ago with a limit of 260 players.

“I’ve had people calling me around the clock asking if I could squeeze in one more person,” said Pump, an assistant coach at Valley College.

Pump said he sent out 350 invitations and the response was better than expected. He has plans for a bigger camp next year.

But Pump said that things are getting out of control.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “These guys are playing too many games. And if they do bad, it’s over. But this is what the system has created, and everyone is trying to take advantage of it the best way they know how. More camps mean more exposure. And that’s the name of the game right now.”

Basketball recruiting is such big business that Pump’s twin brother, David, started his own scouting service four years ago. Called the “California Cage Report,” the service rates the top players in the West, with California receiving emphasis. More than 150 colleges subscribe to the service.

The report lists Parks as the No. 1 prospect. The 6-10 center also is considered one of the top five recruits in the country.

Despite the criticism, the current system does have its backers.

“I think I’m one of the few who don’t think its bad for guys to play as much as possible,” said Harvey Kitani of Fairfax, who coached All-Americans Chris Mills (now playing at Arizona) and Sean Higgins (Michigan). “If a 14-year-old girl wants to be a concert pianist you don’t discourage her from playing every day because you’re worried she might burn out. The same thing is true with a basketball player. If they want to get better, why not let them play all the time?

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with playing as much as you can, as long as you receive good guidance from your (high school) coach and your family. It’s easy to get guided in the wrong direction during the summer, but not if you know what’s right and what’s wrong.”