Peach Jam has put stars on fast track to NBA

NORTH AUGUSTA --- The path from the Nike Peach Jam AAU basketball tournament to NBA millions has seemingly been shrunk.

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Two years ago, John Wall was about to begin his senior year of high school in North Carolina. Attending the Peach Jam, he wore a backpack around the gym when he wasn't playing, often stopping to joke with other players. He appeared every bit a teenager. Not even two years later, he was the first player selected in the NBA Draft.

The Peach Jam returns to North Augusta's Riverview Park Activities Center this week for the 15th consecutive year. Its longevity has made North Augusta the college basketball capital of the world for one week.

The tournament will unveil a new structure this season under the umbrella of Nike's Elite Youth Basketball League, which consists of 42 17-and-under teams playing for 24 spots in the Peach Jam, which will serve as the new league's championship. In the past, about half of the teams in the 17-and-under division were selected to compete based on unclear merits, coaches said. For the first time this year, there was a clear, black-and-white qualification process that whittled the field down to 24 during three weekends of play in April and May. Those 24 teams will compete for a championship this week.

"It's one of the best things Nike has done so far," said Jim Hart, who directs and coaches New York's Albany City Rocks.

Hart's team, featuring perhaps the best junior player in the country in the 6-foot-8 DaJuan Coleman, is competing in its fifth consecutive Peach Jam. It nearly didn't get here. The Elite Youth Basketball League met for three tournaments: in Hampton, Va., Houston and Los Angeles. The teams with the 24 best records were promised spots at the Peach Jam. The City Rocks went 0-4 at Houston and had to win at least three games in Los Angeles to advance. They went 4-1.

"It made it exciting, because the kids felt the pressure," Hart said.

For the teams that did not qualify for the Peach Jam, there was still a way for them to spend the week in the area. Dameon Key, one of the organizers of the separate Peach State Showcase AAU event, said three of the 17-and-under teams who did not qualify will attend his tournament. The Peach State Showcase, in its fourth year, stages games across four age brackets in Aiken during the same time of the Peach Jam, offering coaches another option to watch and evaluate talent.

The event will be held at the USC Aiken Convocation Center, the USC Aiken Student Activities Center and Aiken Tech. The 17-and-under Southern Kings, for example, feature several members of the Richmond Academy team that advanced to the state semifinals, as well as former Evans big man Jaleel Roberts, now of Greensboro Day School in North Carolina.

The Peach Jam, without a local presence, still holds the national talent edge, with the three top players in the country set to attend: Kentucky recruits Michael Gilchrist and Marquis Teague, and point guard Austin Rivers, son of Doc Rivers.

Winning this year's championship could prove to be tougher for the 24 qualifying teams. All-Ohio Red triumphed last year and is set to return along with familiar names Boo Williams, Team Final and the New York Gauchos.

"It's always been intense," Hart said. "But this is going to be the first week we actually play for a championship. That's going to make it even more intense."