It’s difficult to win one of these major AAU Summer Events. I don’t care if you have the Dream Team on your bench. Without team chemistry, great players and coaches, you just won’t be able to hoist that trophy and say we did it at the end of the day. Team chemistry is proving to be the vital component on the AAU circuit – if you want to win championships that is. Some club members are just looking to put up numbers and concerned only about their own personal agendas. On the other hand, many clubs do have all the bells and whistles – 5 star athletes at every position – only to see themselves knocked off in early tournament play. Team Eleate, out of the Inland Empire, has no 5 star athletes but do have players that compete at a high level – when it counts – and appear to have found that missing component of Team Chemistry.
Team Eleate was able to show great team chemistry and execute down the stretch, to win the 2016 DoublePump 17u Open Division Best of Summer Tournament Championship. The team has proven to be very effective considering they don’t have a lot of high level recruits, on paper that is. There’s always a sleeper and that sleeper, if you can refer to him as one, is Matt Mitchell. He played last season for Eastvalle with star point guard Jemarl Baker (will the kid really make the jump to Mater Dei). Matt is a special player whose game seems to get better and better every minute on the court. That’s an indication that we have something special folks – the ability to show improvements as a game progresses, and when situations become intense. This kid has that ‘Ice water thang’ runnin’ through his veins. As cool as a cucumber, ya dig.
Team Eleate (CA) was able to take home the title in the 2016 DoublePump Best of Summer Tourney by knocking off Team Lilliard (CA). The game was played July 17, 2016 at the American Sports Centers (CA). It will be very interesting to see if teams continue to do the same things or will they twerk… I mean tweek, and adjust strategies of play, so that everyone becomes a unit and plays as one.
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