By Tom Hickey, Special to The Review
Last week, nine teams from Michigan joined 83 teams from around America to compete in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) 15-under Boys Basketball National Championships.
The event, sponsored by the Detroit Metro Sports Commission, was hosted by various middle and high schools in the area (The CERC building and Waldon, Scripps and Oakview Middle Schools among them), and was headquartered at Lake Orion High School.
This year’s tournament was the second in a row held in Lake Orion. Event organizer Sean Krabach attests to its success, saying, ‘Lake Orion High School works very well. It’s a top notch venue’Everyone enjoys the venue.?
While the tournament will move to another state next year, Krabach hopes to see Lake Orion host the 2008 AAU junior Olympics, and a 2009 basketball tournament for middle school aged boys.
The 92 tournament teams first competed in pool play, in which each team faced three others. The most successful pool play teams advanced to the championship bracket, while teams with losing records competed in the classic bracket.
While an Ohio team, All Ohio Red, won the championship bracket, Michigan teams were reasonably successful, as three teams made it to the third round and one, Common Bond, advanced to the quarterfinals.
Michigan teams were much more successful in the classic bracket. An Oakland County team, TEAM Basketball, won the bracket, defeating Kalamazoo Blues by a score of 84-66 in the championship game.
After losing their first two games in pool play and failing to advance to the championship bracket, TEAM Basketball went undefeated for the rest of the tournament.
LOHS student Derek Coe is a guard for the team. TEAM Basketball also has players from Adams High School, Stoney Creek High School and various other Oakland County High Schools.
Big man C.J. Olaniyan of Warren Mott dropped 26 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in the victory, while forward and Stoney Creek student Kevin Bolhuis put 21 points on the board, 18 in the first half.
For full brackets and tournament information visit www.aauresults.org/boysb/re_nationals.php.