Thanksgiving Weekend Hoops
by Jed Tai
In recent years, Texas has become a haven for high school hoops talent. No longer is the Lone Star State only known for prep prowess on the gridiron, but people are realizing that there are some great players on the hardwood as well. In the past two years, there have been seven McDonald’s All-Americans from Texas – three from the Houston/Gulf area (Ndudi Ebi, Kendrick Perkins, Vakeaton Wafer), three from the Dallas/Fort Worth Area (Chris Bosh, Daniel Horton, Bracey Wright), and one from Austin (Brad Buckman) – that’s more than any other state in the Union. And it’s not just the numbers, the fact that Bosh, Ebi, and Perkins are all currently playing in the NBA goes to show the quality of the players as well.
This Thanksgiving weekend, many players from the next wave will be playing at the 24 Hour Fitness/TeamSports Texas High School Jamboree on the campus of Texas Southern University in Houston. It’s a two-day event held on Friday and Saturday, November 28-29, and it will feature some of the top teams and talents from the state of Texas. Top seniors who will be in action include Texas-signee Daniel Gibson (Houston Jones HS), TCU-signee Neimann Owens (Channelview HS), and unsigned Robert Lee (Fort Worth Eastern Hills). A number of top underclassmen will be there as well, including junior two-sport standout Byron Eaton (Dallas Lincoln), junior swingman Gerald Green (Houston Gulfshores Academy), and junior big man Jeremy Barr (Houston Westbury Christian).
But not all the teams are from Texas – Baton Rouge University Lab from Louisiana has also been invited, and they feature the one and only Glen “Big Baby” Davis, LSU signee and consensus Top 5 player in the Class of 2004. It will be a battle of likely future McDonald’s All-Americans on Saturday as University Lab will take on Houston Jones and Daniel Gibson in the nightcap.
The complete list of matchups is as follows:
Friday, November 28
3:00 pm Houston Strake Jesuit vs. Fort Worth Eastern Hills
4:30 pm Galena Park vs. Corpus Christi Miller
6:00 pm Houston Westbury Christian vs. Dallas Kimball
7:30 pm Houston Gulfshores Academy vs. Dallas Lincoln
Saturday, November 29
2:00 pm Fort Worth Eastern Hills vs. Galena Park
3:30 pm Dallas Kimball vs. Houston Strake Jesuit
5:00 pm Dallas Carter vs. Houston Gulfshores Academy
6:30 pm Dallas Lincoln vs. Channelview
8:00 pm Baton Rouge University Lab vs. Houston Jones
If you are in the Houston area, be sure to catch this event and some of the best talent in the Southwest!
