Schenley alums going for four in row
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For D.J. Kennedy, the next few weeks will likely representa final run in a summer tournament in which he has won three consecutive titles and pocketed nearly a halfmilliondollars.
Kennedy, a schoolboy legend in the Hill District and at old Schenley High School, has had little time to spend with his 18-month-old daughter Nola during the summer in between long seasons playing overseas.
“I think this will be it for me. I want to spend time with myfamily,” Kennedy said.
Meanwhile, a new experience awaits Montour graduate Dustin Sleva, a two-time Division II All-American who recently finished a fantastic career at Shippensburg University.
“I’ve always wanted to play in it,” said Sleva. “It’s always intriguing and every game is onESPN.”
Kennedy and Sleva are among the local contingent playing in The Basketball Tournament, an event in its fifth year that has soared in popularity in recent summers and features former NBA players and many who play overseas. Picture the NCAA tournament — a single-elimination format with 64 teams in the main field (after preliminary games) — but instead of a trophy, the last team standingtakes home $2 million.
Kennedy and longtime friend/former Schenley teammate DeAndre Kane play for OverseasElite, which went 170 the past three summers. Kennedy played on all three teams and Kane the past two. Another former Schenley star, DeJuan Blair, joined them last year, but will not play this summer. Each earned $147,000 last year and Kennedy made the all-tournament team for the second year ina row.
“We’re looking forward to it. We don’t feel like we have anything to lose,” said Kennedy, who spent this past season playing in Turkey. “Teams want to be the one that took down Overseas Elite. That’s something we look forward to and use as motivation. Our guys will be ready.”
Overseas Elite is the No. 1 seed in the South Region and Saturday will play the winner of a preliminary-round game in Richmond, Va. The preliminary game pits Team ABC2 against Rock City Scorchers. Should Team ABC2 advance, it will set up a Schenley reunion. One of Team ABC2’s players is Gerald Brooks, who was a year ahead of Kennedy and two ahead of Kane at Schenley. Brooks and Kennedy were starters on the 2006 Schenley team that lost to Lower Merion in the PIAA Class4A championship.
Another pair of Western Pennsylvania players are teaming up as Sleva and former Franklin Regional standout Nick Novak will play for Sideline Cancer, the No. 12 seed in the Northeast Region that takes on No. 5 Gaelnation (Iona’s alumni team) July 21 inBrooklyn.
It’s Novak’s second run in The Basketball Tournament. He made his debut with Sideline Cancer last summer when the team knocked off Zoo Crew (Pitt’s alumni team) in the first round before losing to Team FOE in the second round.
“I think it’s pretty incredible how big [the tournament] is going to be. And it’s the perfecttime, right in the middle of the summer,” said Novak, who played in Spain and Romania last season. “There are so many overseas guys. I’m in kind of a lull waiting on a deal. This is something to look forward to that’s not a localpickup game.”
Sleva also hopes to play overseas this season, but in the meantime will join forces with Novak in hopes of making a deep run. The two met for the first time only a few months ago. Novak has followed the PSAC closely since playing at Pitt Johnstown, so he was well aware of Sleva, the PSAC East Player of the Year the past two seasons. Novak called Sleva and told him to reach out to him if he had any questions about playing overseas, and eventually suggested to Sideline Cancer general manager Billy Clapper that Sleva would be a great additionto this year’s team.
“He was a Division II AllAmerican. I told [Clapper] he could play with us. In a singlegame elimination tournament, I’ll take someone who could surprise teams, someonewho could drop 25 points,” Novaksaid.
Added Sleva: “They said they needed a guy, and I’m new and fresh having just graduated college. We’ve really become close friends the lastcouple of weeks.”
The two work out most mornings at Chatham University with Pete Strobl of TheScoring Academy.
The tournament concludes with the championship game Aug. 3 at Coppin State University in Baltimore. The semifinals and championship will betelevised on ESPN.
In addition to Overseas Elite, the other No. 1 seeds are Scarlet & Gray (Ohio State alumni team), Boeheim’s Army (Syracuse alumni team) and Team Challenge ALS. Scarlet & Gray features Greg Oden — a former NBA top overall pick — and Jared Sullinger.
“The talent is insane, honestly,” Novak said. “Overseas Elite has like three or four EuroLeague players. That’s the 1 percent of the 1 percent of players in Europe. The level of talent in this tournamentis just so high.”