Memphis Roar

Luring in loads of college coaches and scouts the past few days, the River City Showdown tournament provided excellent entertainment and showcased some of the premier talent in Memphis and across the country. With non-stop basketball games taking place in the Finch Center and courts around it, big name AAU teams were given the opportunity to display their talent in front of hundreds of friends and family, scouts, and coaches.

President of BEAC, Ryan Luttrell, helped organize and plan the River City Showdown and was very pleased with the results.

“The tournament has gone phenomenal. Everything was organized, everything was great. Talked to several of the AAU coaches and college coaches and they said that the two things that they look for in a tournament of this magnitude are that the games all start on times and that the officials are somewhat competent so they can call the games evenly,” said Luttrell. ”Above and beyond, everything has gone great, real smooth, and we’ve gotten a lot of comparisons to the competitors and a lot of the big tournaments like the Peach Jam. It’s flattering but at the same time, we’ve still got a lot of room to grow. “

Plans to do more things?

“Absolutely, we’re planning on doing a bigger and better one next year. We’d like to extend the field, but keep the same format,” explained Luttrell. ”Try to get 50% of the teams from Memphis or somewhere regionally like north Mississippi, west Arkansas, and west Tennessee in general, so that we can get all of the talent in the area exposed but at the same time, bring in those elite teams because then they bring college coaches who will ultimately be looking at these kids and hopefully give some of them a shot. We’re going to be doing several different events in the future. We’re still looking into doing an elite camp in the end of the month at the end of the month, featuring Joe Jackson, Tarik Black, Adonis Thomas, Mardracus Wade, players like that, and hopefully some outside talent just to get them in Memphis and get them some exposure from that. Another big tournament we’ll be doing will be over Thanksgiving week, the Penny Hardaway Roundball Challenge. It will be an event featuring several high school teams. Looking to pair up White Station with some top teams, Ridgeway, Melrose, Raleigh-Egpypt, Southwind, and all of the regional teams.”

More info?

“We have a bunch of information on our site, which is beaconline.net. You can find a lot of information about our tournaments and events on there and also memphisroar.com. If a coach or team is looking to play in one of our events, they can contact me. My email address is contact@beaconline.net.”

Thanks

“Thank you to all the Memphis fans for coming out to this event. It looks great even though the University had nothing to do with this event; it’s just great to have the exposure for them, for the city, and for the kids. Memphis has got top talent and it’s time for people to start recognizing that Memphis will be a top a national power on every level of basketball.”
“We’re not sure the exact number of the attendence, but for the Monday night game between the Memphis Magic and M33M, I’d say we had roughly 1,000 people that night. I’ve been in Memphis a long time and this was the most packed I’ve ever seen the Finch Center. It was less than standing room only and it was a great time and great game. People got to see Joe Jackson go up against Mardracus Wade, and see Adonis Thomas play; those guys, and all the other talent that was out there.”

 
All Tournament Teams

15-U

Nicholas King – YOMCA – MVP

Jonathan Williams III – YOMCA

Laron Black – Memphis Magic

Sam Craft  – Memphis Magic

Austin Nichols – War Eagles

Matthew Butler – War Eagles

16-U

Andre Hollins- YOMCA – MVP

Jeremiah Davis – Indiana Elite

Wayne Martin- YOMCA

Nino Johnson – YOMCA

David Gardner – Da’ House

17-U

Casey Prather- Nashville Celtics – MVP

Shovone Coleman – Lousiana Future

Austin Hollins- Nashville Celtics

Chris Jones- M33M

Joe Jackson- Memphis Magic

Adonis Thomas

Stay tuned to MemphisRoar as we bring you our scouting reports and more interviews from the event in the coming days.