Knights to appear in First 8 tournament at hoops Hall of Fame

Members of the Lone Peak boys basketball program have been invited to play in the First 8 Tournament held in conjunction with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame National Invitational next week in Springfield, Mass.
The IWC-Lone Peak club team was already entered in the 17-and-under portion of the Invitational as part of a field of about 75 teams in this NCAA-certified AAU event, according to tournament director Colin Tabb.
This is the eighth year for the Invitational. The First 8 tournament, which retains its original name but has now been expanded to 16 teams, is held on July 10, the day before the Invitational.
This season, the First 8 has been arranged as Super Pools, filtering into the National Invitational tournament.
All teams in the First 8 will play three pool-play games and then advance automatically to the Gold Bracket (the highest) for single elimination bracket-play with other qualifying teams from the National Invitational starting on the night of the 11th.
Participation in the First 8 is by invitation only, from the list of those already accepted into the national event.
As is usually the case on the AAU circuit, the IWC-LP team is one of the very few squads that represent a single institution.
"Wanting to compete as a high school team is very rare," Tabb said. "In AAU, we generally see only all-star teams, and some of them draw from a wide area.
"Once they sent their roster over, we could see this was a really good team," the director continued. "Obviously the program has a great track record, so we did a little more research into the players.
"When we evaluate our selections for the First 8 tournament, we try to choose the teams with top players," Tabb said. "This is an important time for D-I coaches to see the athletes they want to see. We feel they have players who fall into this category."
Incoming junior Nick Emery and sophomore TJ Haws were both named to MaxPreps All-American teams for their class years in recent weeks. They also show up in various rankings and scout sites. Other members of the squad are also potential D-I prospects.
Last year, almost 150 college coaches attended this event. Tabb said most simply show up, but he's already heard from coaches at North Carolina, Duke, Arizona, U-Conn, the University of Washington, West Virginia, Syracuse, Cal-Davis, Xavier, Boston College and Villanova who are planning to be there.
In addition, Tabb said, selection factors considered included the team's overall competitiveness in the field, geographic reach, and a desire to provide the visitors with the best possible trip for the time spent.
The four Super Pools contain squads representing Canada, Maine, New England, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and California, in addition to Utah. The overall 17U tournament has teams from a number of other states plus Belgium as well.
"Getting invited to the First 8 portion of the tournament was a little bit of a surprise, but we're looking forward to the challenge," said Lone Peak coach Quincy Lewis. "This is a really big deal for our guys.
"Those top AAU teams have the top players in the country at each position," he added. "If we can hang within 10-15 points of them, we'll be doing well." The pool IWC-LP is assigned to also has two New York teams and the Grassroots Canada squad.
The Hall of Fame event is part of a two-tournament swing for the squad, which starts Tuesday in Indianapolis at the Hoosier Shootout, another NCAA-certified event.
The field there has representatives from 14 states and Canada. IWC-LP's pool includes teams from Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee.
"It's a really good experience for our kids to go to other parts of the country and play some different competition," Lewis said. "Our primary goal is to have our kids pushed from a straight basketball standpoint, and we'll certainly get that from these appearances.
"We just feel like the state 5A teams this year will be as good or better than we've seen it before," he added. "With American Fork, West Jordan and others in the field, we're going to have to be battle-tested to compete in that company. We've got to be ready."
In addition, the coach said these trips provide a great team bonding experience and really enhance and establish the leadership and relationships among the players. As always, they will visit the local athletic and historical sites as well.
The players have worked very hard to earn the money to make the trip. They did roofing during spring break, staffed a couple of camps at the school and held a car wash and clothing drive to raise the necessary funds.