The quest for the national title goes through Hamilton High School, one of the high-class facilities in the Chandler School District that houses the five divisions and 72 teams each year. This year, the prime suspects are Northern Virginia’s Notre Dame Academy and Southern California power Long Beach Poly – but nine of the Full Court Press Top 25 are in the Black Division bracket, so it’s hardly a done deal that the Dragons and the Jackrabbits will make it to the finals.

Of course, that’s what makes the TOC special. Even the best summer tournaments offer up a couple patsies to the powerhouses early on – but not in Phoenix. Poly, for example, opens up with No. 8 H. D. Woodson of Washington, D.C., a team with enough quickness and athleticism to handle the Jackrabbit press. Woodson has a quality win already, over St. Michael’s of New York, but also fell to St. John the Baptist, another top New York team.

Poly, though, already picked up a loss, in the championship of the Northwest Nike Invitational in Beaverton, Ore. That defeat came at the hands of Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco, which capped a great tournament with the come-from-behind win over the Jackrabbits. The Irish started the tournament by beating No. 20 Highlands Ranch, the defending large school champion in Colorado, and then did the same to host Southridge, 15th in the nation, the defending large school champion in Oregon. The final victim was Poly, the defending large school champion in California.

Also in the mix is Sapulpa of Oklahoma, led by Tennessee-bound Alyssia Brewer. The Chieftains rolled through the tough Oklahoma’s Best tournament, though drawing Highlands Ranch in the first round will be a test for number three Sapulpa. (A note on the rankings: Strength of schedule is crucial, and teams that go to the Nike TOC will obviously play a very strong schedule, so they get a bump in the early season rankings. Going 0-4, as one of these strong teams will, however, drops a team out of the top 25 in a hurry.)

Another Oklahoma team, Sequoyah, is also in the Black Division, led by 5-3 Angel Goodrich, a Kansas signee. Everyone is back for the Indians, who were 27-0 last season but were upset in the semis of the Oklahoma’s Best tournament by Washington of Tulsa (which has lost only to Sapulpa).

Another star, Elena DelleDonne of Delaware’s Ursuline Academy (18th in the country), will miss the TOC because of mononucleosis, and the 6-4 pure shooter’s (think Dirk Nowitzki) absence will make it very hard for the Raiders at this level of competition.

Though Southridge of Oregon (15th) is well known on the national scene, and will bring 6-3 USC-bound post Michelle Jenkins to bear on Narbonne, another SoCal power, in the first round, the Northwest sleeper is Auburn Riverside. The Ravens are 19th, based on four returning starters from a Washington champion, and this is their first opportunity to show how they fit into the national picture. Their first-round matchup, however, is against Tennessee power Shelbyville Central (25th), which has been to the TOC several times already, and is used to playing through the glare of a national spotlight.

Archbishop Carroll of Philadelphia, 24th in the country, has an interesting unknown in the first round: Punahou of Hawaii. Prior to this year, Hawaii, for reasons unclear, played girls’ basketball in the spring, so teams like Punahou (and players such as California- bound Shawna-Lei Kuehu) never got out and about. This will be the first chance for any Hawaii team to see how the island schools rank against the nation’s best.

The final first-round pairing is Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, which was highly ranked before losing to Bolingbrook of Illinois in the first game of the season, and Christ the King of New York, perhaps the most storied school in girls’ basketball history. But Christ the King doesn’t have talent to compare to alumnae Sue Bird, Chamique Holdsclaw and a host of others, and may have problems matching Gorman’s athleticism.

All this reasoned analysis aside, there are always upsets. Most of the time, at least one of the pre-tourney favorites makes it to the finals, and occasionally, the seeding goes as planned, but more often than not, a highly ranked team will relax for just a few minutes – and all of a sudden, the loser’s bracket beckons.

Which of course is one reason why the Nike TOC is what it is, and why so many teams are eager to test themselves against many of the best teams in the country. And why the winner usually moves right to the top of the national rankings.

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