Hoop Spectacular Features Another Competitive Field : Basketball: Many of Southern California’s top boys’ high school teams will compete in 37-team tournament.

The ninth annual Summer Hoop Spectacular has always attracted many of the top boys’ high school basketball teams in Southern California and this year’s tournament is expected to be as competitive as ever.

L.A. City powers Manual Arts and Fremont as well as San Gabriel Valley teams Diamond Bar and Alhambra are among a field of 37 teams entered in the tournament, which starts Monday and ends July 14 at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park.

This year’s tournament will also feature a change in format. Tournament founder and director Jorge Calienes switched to a pool-play format to be followed by a single-elimination tournament.

Under the format, 36 squads will play in one of nine four-team groups and will be seeded for a single-elimination tournament, which starts July 12. The exception is Diamond Bar, which will compete only in the tournament.

Calienes said there is a specific purpose for the change from a double-elimination format.

“The reason behind it is that I noticed a lot of teams lost their intensity after they lost their first games,” he said. “This way they’ll have a reason to play hard all the way through the tournament.

“With the pool play, this still gives the good teams a chance to be in the tournament even if they have some players missing (because of other camps or tournaments) for some of the games. It also gives the (college) recruiters a chance to see a player or team more than once in the tournament. Before, if they missed a certain player in a game and the team lost, that was it.”

Calienes, who has coached the East L.A. men’s basketball team the past three seasons, said games will be divided into two 16-minute periods. In past years, a running clock was used.

“That’s something the coaches really want,” he said. “They want to have a chance to see their bench play and when you play running time you can’t always do that.”

The coach said he isn’t sure if the tournament will continue in its present format next year or return to the previous format.

“I want to get a feel for this at the end of the tournament so I will be talking to a lot of coaches about this after it’s over,” Calienes said. “I want to see how the coaches like it and how the recruiters like it. I’m trying to do what everyone wants and at the same time keep the costs reasonable.”

The tournament may have lost some luster when perennial CIF Southern Section power Mater Dei of Santa Ana also decided to hold its tournament July 12-14.

“I still think we have some pretty good teams,” Calienes said. “If I had 10 more teams playing in my tournament, they would probably be ones that are in the Mater Dei tournament. There may be some teams that don’t belong in here but it’s too early to tell about that. A lot of people laughed when we had Ribet Academy last year and look what they did. They won the (Division V) state title.”

Mater Dei will not completely skip the Summer Hoop Spectacular. The Monarchs will play Manual Arts in an exhibition game at 7:20 p.m. Monday at East L.A.

Calienes says the top teams are probably Manual Arts, Fremont, Washington, Lynwood and La Canada.

The valley will be represented by Diamond Bar, West Covina, Alhambra, Ganesha, Blair, Bosco Tech, Wilson, South Hills and Maranatha.

Monday’s opening-day games include: Bosco Tech vs. Ocean View at 10 a.m.; West Covina vs. Maranatha at 3:20 p.m.; South Hills vs. Locke at 6, and Blair vs. Garfield at 8:40.

Alhambra opens against Whittier Christian at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday and Ganesha will play at 8:40 p.m. against L.A. Jordan. Wilson will play Whittier Christian in its opener at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The valley’s best teams entering the tournament appear to be Diamond Bar, West Covina, Alhambra and Ganesha.

Diamond Bar finished 17-8 after reaching the Division I-AA playoffs last season and the Brahmas return an outstanding front line. The leaders are 6-foot-5 Olin Chamberlain, 6-6 Keith Van Horn and Damon Hendrick--all juniors next season.

Ganesha also enjoyed success in its first season under Coach Mel Sims. Sims, who guided the Muir girls to the state Division II final two seasons ago, directed Ganesha to a 16-12 record and the Division III-AA semifinals last season.

Another top team should be Alhambra, which was 22-4 and advanced to the I-AA quarterfinals last season. The Moors will benefit from the return of 5-9 guard Hon Trieu, who averaged 20.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists as a junior and is also a brilliant three-point shooter.

West Covina also has an outstanding point guard, Jameel Mahmud, who led the Bulldogs to a 12-11 finish as a sophomore last season. Mahmud averaged 13 points, five assists and 3.6 rebounds.