Zama's Ayden Helton, left, brings a career total of 1,281 points into next week's Far East tournament. (Jeunei Bodnar/Special to Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa – It’s not so much the teams you’ve already played, but the ones you haven’t seen that can make tournament play a challenge.
That’s the issue facing Nile C. Kinnick and St. Mary’s, who have won the DODEA-Pacific Far East Boys Division I Basketball Tournament the last two years, beating Kadena in each of the finals.
It’s the two teams unknown to them – Humphreys and American School Bangkok – that could throw a monkey wrench into their title plans.
Humphreys won Korea’s regular season and finished third in their postseason tournament, but didn’t play any teams from Japan or Okinawa. Bangkok is returning to the D-I tournament, hosted next week by Kinnick, for the first time in seven years.
“We have to control what we can control,” said coach Ashley Gooch of the Blackhawks, who went 9-1 in regular play and 12-3 overall. “We have to prepare for what we will face and play our caliber of ball, watch film and play to our strengths.”
In that respect, everything that’s come before means nothing going into the three-day pool-play and single-elimination tournament, Panthers coach Antiwon Tucker said.
“Records, they all go out the window,” he said. “Scoring averages go out the window. It’s a brand-new season.”
Also going out the window are plays like the one made by Kennedy Hamilton, a game-winning shot in the closing seconds of last January’s 87-86 Kinnick win in the D-I finals at Kadena.
Red Devils coach Robert Stovall remembers all that, and says he remembers what he saw of Humphreys a season ago, but that is meaningless given the new venue and the new faces on all the teams.
“They (Blackhawks) play early, so we’ll get a chance to watch them,” Stovall said. “We’ll watch with great interest. I’ve heard good things about them.”
So what does a coach tell a team that hasn’t faced the Blackhawks, or the Eagles, whose players none of the other six teams in the D-I tournament have ever seen?
“Discipline. Accountability,” Tucker says he emphasizes with his players. “When the going gets tough, who are you going to be?”
Nicholas Whyte and Kinnick and Caio Shiota and St. Mary's have won the last two Far East Division I boys tournament titles, each against Kadena. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
DeShaun Nixon, from left, and Mark Francis and Kadena didn’t win the ASIJ Kanto Classic, but in an early-round game, they did beat the team that won it, Father Duenas. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Reigning Division II MVP Jai Bailey and two-time defending champion Yokota went 10-14 this season, but opposing coaches say they can't be counted out during Far East. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Andrew Burks and Daegu went winless in the regular season, but won four of their last five games entering Far East. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Tre’shaune Johnson-Griffin and Humphreys enter the Far East D-I tournament with a 12-2 record; Jayden Hightower and Osan are 6-10 and will host the D-II tournament. (Ashley Angell/Special to Stripes)
Xavier Brown and Daegu hope to build on the momentum that saw them win four of their last five games entering Far East. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
E.J. King's Jeremy Phillips brings a school record 1,660 career points into next week's Far East D-II tournament. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena swept its regular-season series with Kubasaki for the third straight year, repeated its championship in the Okinawa-American Friendship Tournament, took third in the American School In Japan Kanto Classic and went 15-3 in the regular season.
Kinnick got off to a slow start, but found its footing halfway through the season and finished 16-7, taking fourth in the Kanto Classic. St. Mary’s finished second in the Kanto Classic and still has enough firepower to make a run at D-I.
The Division II tournament, meanwhile, returns to Osan for the first time in 21 years.
Yokota is the two-time defending champion, with reigning Most Valuable Player Jai Bailey, a senior in tow. But while the Panthers finished below .500, at 10-14, they won at home on senior night over Zama (20-3), considered the pre-tournament favorite.
But even with the Trojans posting their best regular-season record since going 33-2 18 years ago, that can be a bit misleading, Zama coach Sentwali Helton said.
“We’ve been in close games” with every team they’ve played this season, Helton said. “You can’t take anybody for granted, especially at Far East. It’s anybody’s game.”
Zama’s top scorer is Helton’s son, Ayden, who brings a career total of 1,281 points into Far East. E.J. King senior Jeremy Phillips tops that, though; he has 1,680 points coming into the tournament at Osan.
What does a team have to do to win at either tournament?
“You have to play smart,” Helton said. “You have to rely on each other. If you play as a team and stay disciplined, you can win. It has to be a total team effort.”
