For college coaches, Las Vegas is the center of the universe – at least from July 22-26. For club teams it is the peak of the summer with nearly 1,000 teams converging in the city.
Las Vegas has owned the start of the second 10 day recruiting period in July for years. And while some tournaments have come and gone, the lure of Vegas still draws the biggest turn out of any time of year for colleges, players and teams.
This week there is the Big Three: the big daddy (adidas Super 64), the up and comer (Fab 48) and the come back (Las Vegas Live). All three tournaments have their niche and draw big names. And while there are other, less relevant tournaments (Coach Tree’s Invitational which only draws 8 clubs) and lesser known (Starbound JUCO 100) it is the Big Three that will garner the most attention from coaches, recruiting services and grassroots blogs such as Five Star Basketball.
adidas Super 64 – www.adidassuper64.com
Still the biggest and most relevant (and longest running since the Reebok tournament ended last year), it draws teams like the Atlanta Celtics (GA), DC Assault, SoCal All Stars (CA), the Florida Rams and Team Rose (IL). It draws 180 teams…in the 17U division alone. From Idaho it will host four Idaho Select teams (two 17U teams, a 15U team and 14U team) and a 16U team from Hoop Dreams.
Fab 48 – www.lasvegasfab48.com
The F48 is in year number two. It did a very good job last year of garnering attention and is building on it. It features a 48 team top division (there are five different divisions) with teams like Belmont Shore (CA), Team Breakdown (FL), New York Panthers and Seattle Rotary (WA). The Idaho teams that are participating (Boise Flight and Boise Slam) got a rough draw, being placed in the fourth division.
Las Vegas Live – www.bigfoothoops.com
Hal Pastner (father of Memphis coach, Josh) returns to the tournament industry after leaving in 2007 when he sold his company, Vision Sports. His new company, Big Foot Hoops, is in the same mold. In the first year back for LVL there is a respectable number of teams, including two Idaho high school teams, Madison and Century.