May 14, 2009

Mike Pegram
Peegs.com Staff Writer

As we peruse this year adidas May Classic schedule for this weekend it is pretty apparent---once things kick off at 7 pm on Friday, there really isn't a time where there isn't some top player or team to watch.

"We have a lot of good kids coming in, a lot of IU prospects," said AMC organizer Criss Beyers.

The headliner is NJ Roadrunners guard Kyrie Irving, the 2010 point guard that Rivals boosted up recently to #21 nationally and others have now slotted for the top 10 in the rising senior class. His Roadrunners team squares off against Indiana commit Matt Carlino and Indiana Elite One at 1 pm on Saturday at Assembly Hall in what may be the most interesting of the early pool games. Teams at the AMC have been grouped into pools of three and the results of that round robin action will determined the seeding and bracket that teams receive for tourney play that begins Saturday night at 6:15 pm.

Top out of state teams in the seniors group include Irving's NJ Roadrunners team, the Michigan Mustangs, D1E (Derrick Rose) from Chicago, defending 16U champ Gateway Basketball from St. Louis and Illinois based Full Package. The team traveling the farthest is the So Cal All-Stars.

"They have had 30 some kids go to the NBA out of that program," said Beyers. "One of the better programs in the country, year in and year out."

This may be the best the AMC has been for in-state talent as most of the top rising senior, junior and soph teams are making it to Bloomington. This includes the Indiana Elite, Spiece, SYF and Eric Gordon All-Stars program teams.

"The state is well represented," said Beyers. "We have teams from Evansville, Indy, teams from the northern part," said Beyers. "I am not sure there are too many tourneys with all this talent from the state of Indiana."

The rising senior division includes top 15 ranked 2010 prospects Dominique Ferguson (SYF Players) and DeShaun Thomas (Spiece Indy Heat) as well as top 10 2011 guard Marquis Teague (Spiece Indy Heat). The winners of the recent Run-N-Slam junior division (Indiana Elite - Team Indiana) and sophomore division (Spiece Indy Heat - Quarles) will be at the AMC and must be prepared to face many teams raring to knock them off their perch.

Assembly Hall will be used to host some of the more showcase games for both pool and tourney action. The Bloomington Sportsplex has five courts that will be used constantly and remaining games will be played at nearby school gyms. Here is the complete schedule and pool lists:? Schedule | Pool listing

As we always do for this tournament, we have created the IU fan guide for the pool games featuring Indiana commits and prospects. We have also added some other Big Ten commits/prospects to the list. This year we have it in both a simple Excel spreadsheet and an easy to print web page: Excel spreadsheet | Web page

Games are all open to the public and there is no need to buy tickets beforehand. So come catch the action starting tonight. The tourney runs through Sunday with finals slated for 4:45 pm.? Follow Peegs.com for daily updates including the tourney matchups.