Featured

With 16 coaches, seven from the mainland and nine from the islands, the lure of the ‘Iolani Prep Classic proves universal every year. This season, the longstanding tournament has drawn teams from as California, Oregon, Utah, Indiana and Florida. Locally, the longest trip was made by Hawaii Preparatory Academy of the Big Island. Here’s what coaches had to say about playing in the 2018 Classic. >> What has the travel been to the islands been like? Anything unusual?  David Sobel, […]

Between Billy “Bonecrusher” Hull’s tourney preview and as historical take on the ‘Iolani Prep Classic in Tuesday’s edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, there may still be far too few words penned about the annual basketball tournament. In print, we took a look at the finest shooters, scorers, defenders and teams over the course of the Classic’s 35 years. Some of the notable performances by local programs over mainland powerhouses: >> 1983: The eight-team field of the inaugural Classic had just […]

Week 3 has a third different leader atop the Star-Advertiser Boys Basketball Top 10. ‘Iolani, which had a bye all week, collected half of the 10 first-place votes and outpointed last week’s leader, Punahou, for the No. 1 spot today. The Raiders (6-0) will play Farrington on Tuesday in the opening round of the ‘Iolani Prep Classic. Punahou (11-1) has won nine games in a row since losing to Damien on Nov. 25. The Buffanblu swept through the St. Francis […]

The 2018 ‘Iolani Classic tips off Tuesday for the boys with three of the top seven teams in the nation in the 16-team field according to the USA Today Preseason Top 25 rankings. Defending GEICO national champion Montverde (Fla.) returns to defend their tournament tile won last year. They were led by R.J. Barrett, who is now one of the top college basketball players in the country as a freshman at Duke. The Eagles lost the majority of their team […]

The shining, golden basketball will always be close by for Maryknoll coach Kelly Grant. “This is going in my office. I have one cabinet where I keep all my important trophies. This is another one,” Grant said of the trophy, a well-earned keepsake after the Spartans’ 60-35 win over No. 9 Kamehameha on Saturday in the title game of the inaugural Kaimuki Invitational. Balanced scoring made No. 4 Maryknoll (11-0) a major challenge for the young Warriors. Seniors Kala‘i Akaka […]