Prep b BB: Martin coup

By Ed Piper

My great grandfather's name was Edwin Martin (Piper), but Montgomery High's coach's name is close--Edward Martin.

He has pulled off the coup of the winter by enticing Sierra Canyon to play the Aztecs in the feature game of the first Aztec Tip-off Challenge Thursday night, Nov. 15.

Sierra Canyon features the sons of former NBA stars Scottie Pippen and Kenyon Martin, among others, who are star players in their own right. (The Trailblazers also have two seven-footers on their team.)

So, Martin, not my great grandfather, was able to coax and cajole Coach Andre Chevalier's big-name celebrity team to his tiny unknown tournament held at the far southwestern corner of the United States beginning on the first allowable day of the new season. (November 15 is two weeks earlier than any previous season started, due to the push for state playoffs in every sport, thereby lengthening all three sports seasons, fall, winter, and spring.)

Scottie Pippen, himself, might be at his son Scotty's game Thursday night, courtside in the New Gym on the Montgomery campus. (Dad is pictured online attending a game.) Wouldn't that be fun?

You may or may not recall Kenyon Martin. He was a 6'9", physical player. He was also an early one to have his visible body pretty much covered in tattoos. Now, that is pretty common.

I was talking with a La Jolla High basketball parent. I told him Sierra Canyon is likely to beat every team in the South Bay tournament this week by 60 points. That was before I looked at Montgomery's record from last year--pretty darn good, at 23-6 overall, 10-2 in the Mesa League. I missed a year or two in there. When Coach Paul Baranowski's Vikings first started playing in the Montgomery summer league, the Aztecs didn't have any good players, as far as I knew. At least, they weren't a stellar team.

So I now retract my statement to the LJ parent. Sierra Canyon isn't likely to beat Montgomery Thursday night by 60 or 70 points. I would expect them to win, but it will be more competitive than that. I don't know who else entered in the tournament is going to be competitive, though. Justin, an assistant coach at Santa Fe Christian, was the first one to alert me that Sierra Canyon is playing in the Aztec Tourney. He advised me that the winner of the Eagles-Vikings game Thursday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. goes on to play the winner of the Sierra Canyon-Montgomery game Friday night. That's when I started to look into this thing.

Another occasion when local basketball fans can watch some fun competition at a high level will be the annual Torrey Pines Classic at Torrey Pines High School, beginning the day after Christmas. Sierra Canyon usually plays in that tournament, too. There will be 10's, scores of very good and great teams there.

With a check of Sierra Canyon's schedule, I see the Blazers won't be in the Torrey Pines event. Instead, Chevalier is taking them to Oregon for the Les Schwab Invitational. Before Christmas, they play in Hawaii in the Iolani Classic.

Before that, in the Sierra Canyon Invitational, my alma mater, Camarillo, will face Sierra Canyon Dec. 3.