Christmas high school basketball tournaments

Does anybody here cover any really big ones, either tournaments that draw high-powered programs from several states or a big local bragging-rights kind of tournament?
There's one tournament around here that falls into the latter category, to the point where one might think it means more than the states. Reading one paper's coverage of it, I get the feeling that if a team loses in the Christmas tournament, but goes on to win the states, it doesn't mean as much.
Can some of these things mean more than the state tournaments at the end of the year?

 

Our area hosts 16 of some of the best prep teams from around the country next week. I'm covering three games and the Slam Dunk Contest.

It's a big deal here, but means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

 

Some of the ones around here were big shit 20-25 years ago, but they've been hurt by consolidations, corporate ftardedness leading to less employment for lower pay, etc.

 

we've gotta big one and i could give a shit less. we have a monstrously absent staff, and i didn't say no to a anyone who wanted to leave in order to staff it. we're covering it with whoever volunteered.

i give zero priority to holiday tournaments. you wanna play basketball the day after christmas, go play in your back yard.

 

We've got a huge tournament in our area in February that draws the national powerhouses - the Prime Time Shootout.

This time of year we've got the approximately 2 dozen schools in our coverage area playing in about 16-18 different tournaments. I don't know which is worse -- trying to track down all those results or the uncooperative ADs (and secretaries) who couldn't respond to repeated requests to fax or e-mail their tournament schedule to use in the last two weeks.

 

we have five in the area, covering three the first day, and then probably just the big two after that, with a big roundup inside. they are kinda big, but usually just for money as they get teams from kentucky and tennessee to come down for a nice florida vacation and play some hoops.

 

Nobody in our area is in a really big one, but we've got our area teams entered in about a dozen of them that attract teams from around the immediate region.

We are lucky / unlucky this year because of the calendar: New Year's Eve falls on a Sunday, so there won't be any late-night boys' finals that ends at the stroke of midnight. In fact, all the tournaments are condensed into Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Which means fewer days to bust our ass, but in those days we're busting our ass even hader.

 

We used to have one big tournament that drew all of our area teams, so we staffed that heavily. It fell through several years ago and now teams are scattered. We have 3 8-team tournaments around here that we'll staff with stringers.

 

There's a big one out here with all the big-time local programs and four out-of-state powerhouses. Unfortunately, none of the teams in our coverage area play in this tourney, so I won't get to go watch unless it's just for sheer enjoyment (and maybe a column -- there are like 10-12 Division I prospects playing). Our teams are scattered about the state and it will be a huge pain in the ass to get results from all of them.

Christmas tournaments are teh suck.

 

I was mistaken in terms of the teams in our tournament. It turns out, there's a German team and a Bahamian team, as well.

 

Holy cow, I had completely forgotten about holiday basketball tournaments.

 

There's a nice one that takes place each year in Orange County, Calif., called the Orange High School Holiday Classic. The tournament is played at Division III Chapman University and it always has a few top teams from the area as well as San Francisco and one or two from Washington. The biggest match-up, at least judging from the tourney bracket, could have Mater Dei of Santa Ana meeting up with Artesia of Lakewood (Calif.) in the final. Both are defending CIF champs and both have a long history of producing top players and teams.

Happy hoops watching!