The Great Seattle Shootout Preview
This weekend, some of the best AAU teams in Oregon and Washington will converge at Franklin High School in Seattle to participate in The Great Seattle Shootout. The tournament kicks off with four showcase games on Friday night and then continues on with pool and bracket play on Saturday and Sunday, with the 17U Open Championship game played at 2:35 pm.
The four showcase games on Friday night will feature eight of the top teams in the Pacific Northwest. The headline game will be the nightcap between arguably the two top show circuit teams in ML20 Enforcers (adidas) and Seattle Rotary (Nike). Adding to the rivalry will be the fact that standout forward Kendall Munson (2020 Rainier Beach) recently switched from ML20 to Rotary and the change is fresh on the minds of everyone involved. ML20 is still led by star forwards Marjon Beauchamp (2020 Rainier Beach) and Tari Eason (2020 Federal Way) while Rotary counters with Munson and their sophomore studs Paolo Banchero (2021 O’Dea), Nolan Hickman (2021 Eastside Catholic), and Shane Nowell (2021 Eastside Catholic). All of these guys impressed coaches during the lone April live evaluation period and a number of new scholarship offers were handed out and the battle should be one to watch for sure.
The ML20/Rotary matchup isn’t the only big game of the day as the previous games should be competitive. The night opens up with 509 Elite 2020 out of Eastern Washington taking on Local Hoops, and following that is Northwest Coastal Elite against Team Fly White out of Oregon. Northwest Coastal is led by the up-and-coming Mutdung Bol (2020 Edmonds Woodway). The third game of the evening is Team Fly Williams out of Oregon against FOH Seattle. All six of these teams have guys on their rosters with Division I and II potential.
The regular shootout play takes place on Saturday and Sunday where these teams (with the exception of Rotary) will battle it out for the open championship. The 16U Gold division promises to be competitive with ECBA, Rotary, FOH, and Team Fly in attendance and 15U’s top pool has FOH Seattle, ECBA, Team Fly, and Rotary.