It's like a high school version of the NCAA Tournament, with great teams from all over the country vying to be the champions of Real Deal in the Rock.
The difference is there are a lot more teams, and they all come to Little Rock for the first big tournament of the summer.
There are a handful of really big tournaments around the country that are open to all teams regardless of shoe contracts, and Bill Ingram kicks it off this weekend with the tournament he founded and serves as chairman.
On Monday, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Coach Mike Anderson said he believed the Razorbacks had turned the corner and are a top 25 program again. He said with full confidence that he will have three freshmen joining the team from Arkansas, who last year played in Real Deal.
Before that, at the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina Coach Roy Williams brought up the players Arkansas has signed or received oral commitments from and said he was impressed.
The Arkansas Hawks -- from which all five starters have committed to the Razorbacks, four of whom are set for the 2018-19 season and one for the 2019-20 season -- will be one of the featured teams Friday night at P.A.R.K. on Geyer Springs Road when they take on the Dallas Pacers at 7 p.m.
There will be great games all weekend, and some of the future standouts in the NCAA Tournament will be here.
Many of the players who have come through the event have gone on to play in the NBA.
So how does Little Rock become host of the kickoff event for summer basketball when tournaments this size are usually held in Las Vegas or Orlando, Fla.?
Several years ago, Ingram and Mike Conley, who founded the Hawks organization, had just spent a couple of expensive weekends traveling with their team, and they asked themselves, "Why not us?"
The tournament started in Fayetteville, outgrew the area because of the need for gyms, and moved to central Arkansas.
It has grown ever since.
It has attracted teams that came by van, bus, plane and even a private jet (that's a rarity). The kids use this tournament as a tuneup for evaluation time when college coaches are allowed to see them play in person.
There will be numerous scouting services here to keep the coaches abreast of how the kids perform.
At one time, it seemed like a feather in the cap to have coaches from all over the country convening first in Fayetteville -- where Duke's Mike Krzyzewski turned down an interview with a radio reporter -- and then in Orlando, where one coach in the Final Four told an 8-year-old girl he was too busy to sign an autograph.
The coaches, though, can be a distraction. They jockey for position under the goal hoping a five-star recruit will chase a loose ball into his lap, where he can help the player and say a few words.
Once in Orlando, yours truly watched an assistant coach bend over and tie his shoe for 15 minutes waiting to have incidental contact with a recruit.
Another time, in Vegas, a now head coach who was then an assistant gave his card to a woman who had brought a player over from Africa, telling her he'd like to meet with her.
Neither of them knew yours truly was a reporter who knew those tactics were against the rules.
Instead of coaches vying for attention, this weekend is all about the young players, the future college and potential NBA stars.
And Friday night is a great time to see what Anderson and Williams were talking about when the Hawks play the Pacers.
Sports on 03/30/2017