THE DREAM LEAGUE
National Basketball Tournaments
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2005_SF Gold Rush Basketball Tournament (6-Foot) |
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 Last Updated: 12/15 9:00PM PST (James Love)6 of 8 Back from Vegas OAKLAND, CA -- Eight of the thirty-five teams playing in our 4 divisions this weekend will be in the 6-Foot-and- Under division, which will be a very competitive division. Six of the eight teams in this division competed this past summer in our cut-throat Vegas Tourney. Pools and Brackets  The field of eight is divided into 2 pools: Group S and T. Teams were placed in each pool primarily according to scheduling issues and logistics, followed by whether or not they had played each other in previous tourneys. Likewise, the groups were not really based on any subjective or objective ranking of teams. Each team will play 2 games against teams in the same group, in bracket format. At the end of group play, all 8 teams will still have a shot at the championship. Teams will be ranked. The rankings after group play will be determined by the standard Dream League and NFL-adopted tiebreaker rules: (a) win-loss percentage, (b) head-to-head matchups, (c) record against common opponents, (d) strength-of-victory which is defined as point differential in games won, (e) point differential in all games won or lost, and (f) coin flip. Please note that tiebreakers (a) thru (c) will likely not provide any solutions due to the pool play separations. However, any team that forfeits will automatically be ranked lowest.The "Final Six" tiered bracket gives the #1 teams from each group a bye until the Final Four. The seeds will be determined by the aforementioned tiebreakers, but we want to avoid having too many repeat matchups from group play, so we might mix it up a little not only by pairing up teams from opposite groups, but also re-seeding the bracket as we go to ensure that the highest seed continues to play the lowest seed. However, this might be easier said than done since there is only a 1-hour rest period between the 2nd and 3rd rounds for one side of the bracket. So we're not quite sure if that will be ample time to call the appropriate team. We'll play that one by ear in terms of figuring it out late Saturday night. Check out the Road to the Gold Rush section for a better understanding of how the weekend will unfold. Venues There's good and bad for any gym ranging from "rinky-dink" (good: cheap, bad: smaller than regulation size) to "world class arena" (good: playing where the pros play, bad: need to be a millionaire to afford it). Dream League prides itself on finding venues somewhere between "affordable" and "regulation size". So here's the good and bad of our venues. Scroll down to the Schedule Grid and click on the gym name for directions. OCHS -- Good: Newest public high-school gym in SF, best scoreboard including shotclock among other SF gyms in tourney, ample parking when rear gate is open (should be open during tourney), Mexican food places 1-2 blocks away. Bad: New glass backboards won't have been installed yet by tourney time, nearby street parking necessary when gate is closed, not-so-great neighborhoods 3-5 blocks away. When parking in the lot, please enter from Harrison St and park PERPENDICULAR to the gates! EDMS -- Only one game is scheduled here and it's PBL vs Prodigies on Friday night. Good: Safe neighborhood, ample street parking. Bad: Scoreboard is "minimal" (only shows time, score, and quarter) and lighting in the gym is just barely adequate. PHRC -- Good: Best floor in town, shotclocks on top of backboards, grocery store 2 blocks away. Bad: Very bad neighborhood only one block away opposite of grocery store (don't park there!), street parking necessary, only one antiquated minimal scoreboard (only shows time, points and quarter). SSRC -- Good: Safe neighborhood, excellent food 5 minutes away. Bad: An old facility, somewhat out of the way, neighborhood street parking required, antiquated minimal scoreboard, no built-in shotclocks. Why use separate gyms? First off, we'd rather be using separate gyms instead of one complex that has multiple (smaller) gyms right next to each other. This is for basketball "purists", because in multiplexes you'll be in situations where you can hear a ref's whistle or a buzzer even though it is coming from the other court. So that's why we use separate gyms. We usually give at least 1 hour to get from Point A to Point B. Will your team be shuffling between gyms on the same day? If you lose your opening game and it's not on Friday, then you can expect to shuffle from either OCHS or PHRC to SSRC. Please note that SSRC is on the other side of town, whereas OCHS and PHRC are minutes away from each other. On Sunday, the championship will be at OCHS and your side of the bracket could either be at OCHS or PHRC. From OCHS to SSRC (Sat): From the parking lot, make a left onto Harrison St, then follow these directions. From PHRC to SSRC (Sat): From the gym, head back down the hill north on Arkansas and follow these directions. From PHRC to OCHS (Sun): From the gym, head back down the hill north on Arkansas, follow these directions. Road to the Gold Rush FRIDAY NIGHT -- The tourney actually kicks off Friday night with local teams PBL and the Prodigies squaring off at EDMS. SATURDAY -- Bay Area Select and Oxnard Unicon22 start off bright and early at 9:30am. We had to give higher preference priority to the teams that paid on time, so these two teams represent two of the latest to get their team entry fees in. The Delano Renegades and Zapatos Locos, the other two "S" group teams, go at it at 10:30am. On the other side in Group T, PAA and LBC Oxnard don't get started until 6:15pm. The winner of that game will stay in the same gym (PHRC) and face the winner of Friday night's game at 8:15pm. SSRC is an inferior gym to OCHS and PHRC, therefore we're sticking the losers of the opening games for Group S and T there. The winner of the opening Group S game gets to stay at OCHS, although the game is much later in the evening at 7:30pm. We won't know what the seeds for Sunday are until the 8:15pm games are done, so don't bother calling the commish until after 10pm. SUNDAY -- Traversing each side of the bracket, we have a 10:30am start followed by 1:30pm followed by 3:30pm followed by 6:30pm. On the other side, the long road starts at 12:30pm followed by 2:30pm followed by 4:30pm followed by the same 6:30pm championship. This means if you are in the bottom two of your group, you'll have to win 4 games to come back and take the championship on Sunday. Team Profiles Bay Area Select: No roster yet, but primarily led by SF captain Jerico Camasura and PF Dan Hipolito, who won the MVP for the AAA-6FT division of last season's Dream League. Delano Renegades: Captain Mike Laboca brings his Vegas championship squad back for more. No roster yet, but essentially they are the defending champs. LBC Oxnard: Formerly known as Team Roadrunner from the Summer Vegas tourney. No other information. Oxnard Unicon22: Also making another run at it after participating in Vegas. No other info at this point. PAA: Played great in the inaugural 2004 Dream League Vegas tourney, then showed it was no fluke finishing as runner-up in 2005 Vegas to the Renegades. Captain Alex Yang has this well-balanced and strong shooting team ready for any challenge, but it looks like they are only bringing 6 bodies. PBL: No info, but these are players from a Filipino league, so there's bound to be some quality talent in that collection. Prodigies: The 6-foot version of their up-and-down championship AL-Premier and contending AL-Elite squads from seasons past. PG Barry Lee is the leader and sparkplug. SF Rhodel Rosales can get hot quick and if SF Raphael Ranola is available, look out. It is unknown if the roster is intact from before. Zapatos Locos: No info, but longtime Japanese tournament veteran SF Conlan Kwong is on the roster. Schedule Grid (scroll down as necessary) | ||||||||||||