Three-time champion Fairfax headlines the 16-team field on the boys side of the 2015 ‘Iolani Classic scheduled for Dec. 17-22.
The eight-team girls tournament will be held Dec. 10-12 at ‘Iolani’s Lower Gym.
The Lions — ‘Iolani Classic winners in 2001, ’02 and ’05 — and Sierra Canyon will represent California in a field that includes teams from Utah, Indiana, West Virginia, Maryland, Florida and China.
The top player to watch according to ESPN’s Top 100 recruiting rankings for 2016 is Frank Jackson, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Lone Peak High in Utah. Jackson committed to Duke over a year ago as a junior.
Here’s a highlight video of him on YouTube.
The other teams from outside of Hawaii are Guangdong Experimental High out of China, La Lumiere (Ind.), Martinsburg (W.Va.), Mount Saint Joseph (Md.) and The Master’s Academy (Fla.).
‘Iolani is joined in the field by Farrington, Kahuku, Kaiser, Kaimuki, Kamehameha, Leilehua and Mid-Pacific.
La Lumiere, which is located in La Porte, Ind., is loaded with talent, including 6-foot-11 senior James Banks, who is ranked No. 56 in ESPN’s list of the top 100 prospects for 2016.
Banks’ offer sheet includes Texas, Auburn, Georgetown, Georgia, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, N.C. State, Syracuse, Tennessee and USC.
The Lakers also have two of the top 25 juniors in the Class of 2017 according to ESPN.com in 6-7 forward Brian Bowen (No. 20) and 6-9 center Jeremiah Tilmon (No. 23).
Bowen has been offered by Louisville and Boston College.
Sierra Canyon also has a pair of top-ranked juniors in forwards Cody Riley (No. 22) and Ira Lee (No. 34).
The 6-foot-7 Riley has offers from Arizona, UCLA, USC, Arizona State, Auburn, Cal, Connecticut, Kansas and Maryland while Lee has already been targeted by Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, Connecticut, California, South Florida, Texas, Tulsa, USC and UCLA.
Mount St. Joseph has the top sophomore in the tournament in 6-foot-7 power forward Jalen Smith, who is ranked No. 17 in the 2018 class by ESPN.
On the girls side, 2014 ‘Iolani Classic runner-up Konawaena returns along with host ‘Iolani, Lahainaluna, Mililani, Punahou and Radford.
The two mainland teams making the trip are South Medford (Ore.) and Bishop O’Dowd (Calif.).
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