Published: July 15, 2008 12:40 am      

Hoop Group Jam Fest begins

FAIRMONT — As interest continued to build for the Triple S Harley-Davidson/Buell Hoop Group Jam Fest, organizers of the tournament need more room for all the teams.

Enter Fairmont State University.

The Jam Fest moved its 16-under division almost exclusively to the FSU campus, utilizing seven courts — four in the Falcon Center, one in Colebank Hall and two games on the floor of Joe Retton Arena at the Feaster Center.

In all, 54 games were played on Monday, the tournament’s opening day, featuring a bevy of the top high school prospects in the country and beyond.

Many of the top college coaches in the game where either in Fairmont or had a representative of their coaching staff on hand to keep an eye on potential recruits.

Coaches from Kansas, Akron, Dayton, Ball State, Butler, New Mexico State and others were joined by West Virginia University assistant Billy Hahn, Fairmont native and Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart and Fairmont State head coach Tim Murphy, scouting talented players like Nick Kellogg of the CBIZ team from Ohio.

Nick is the son of Clark Kellogg, a game and studio analyst for CBS the past 16 years and has just been named to take over for Billy Packer as the lead NCAA basketball analyst for the network.

While some of the favored teams in the tournament — DC Assault, Team Kobe, Jersey Shore Warriors, King James Shooting Stars and CBIZ — are from out of the area, West Virginia is well represented in the 16-u brackets.

There are four teams from the state in the tournament — Nelson Jordan Center, West Virginia Rush, West Virginia Mohigans (made up of mainly Morgantown High School athletes) and the West Virginia Reign, which includes West Fairmont point guard Logan Moore.

The tournament, which finished up its first round late Monday evening, will pick back up at 9:30 a.m. today.

The last of today’s games are scheduled to tip-off at 3:30 p.m.

E-mail Mike Bowen at mbowen@timeswv.com.