State lands showcase basketball tourney

By Staff
Alabama will play host to one of the premier high school basketball tournaments this year when the T-Mobile Invitational visits Birmingham in late December.
The exact dates and location have yet to be decided, but the tournament will be sometime between Christmas and New Years and will be played at either the Birmingham-Jefferson convention Complex, Bartow Arena on the University of Alabama-Birmingham campus or at the Pete Hanna Arena at Samford University.
"This is a great event for the State of Alabama," said Alabama High School Athletic Association Executive Director Steve Savarese. "It is an educational based athletic event that will be nationally televised."
There will be two tournaments, one featuring four girls teams and one featuring four boys teams. One boys team and one girls team will be from Alabama while the remaining participants will be top teams from around the nation.
The two schools from Alabama have not been chosen yet. Savarese said the team selections, dates and locations would be releases as soon as possible.
This is the fourth year of the tournament and the third year a team from Alabama has participated in the event.
Two-time defending girls 6A champion Bob Jones finished second at last year's tournament in Muncie, Ind. While Mobile-LeFlore finished second in the boys final at the 2006 tournament in Seattle, Wash.
the tournament was in Albuquerque, N.M. in 2007.