Sports Media News

2010 Boost Mobile Elite Event on ESPNU HD

—Under Armour Slam Dunk Contest Live August 27

—Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game Live August 28

ESPNU HD will televise the 2010 Boost Mobile Elite 24 event live from Venice Beach, Calif., over two days this weekend. The event, launched in 2006 at New York’s Rucker Park, will feature 24 of the nation’s top high school basketball players in the Under Armour Slam Dunk Contest, Friday, August 27, 8 p.m. EDT, and the Boost Mobile Elite 24 game on Saturday, August 28, 7:30 p.m. EDT. Host Eamon McAnaney will be joined by ESPN Analyst Jay Williams, and Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love, who will call the game.

Friday night’s Under Armour Slam Dunk contest will be judged by Boost Mobile Elite 24 alums John Wall, Brandon Jennings and Tyreke Evans, and Los Angeles Clipper Baron Davis. In addition to event participants, the contest will feature local contestants Norman Powell, Lincoln High School (San Diego, Calif.) and Gabe York, Orange Lutheran High School (Orange, Calif.).

Saturday’s game will feature local high school basketball coaches Reggie Morris, Jr. of St. Bernard (Playa Del Rey, Calif.) and Derrick Taylor of Taft High School (Woodland Hills, Calif.), and SportsCenter’s Stan Verrett and Neil Everett with the Wizards’ John Wall and the Bucks’ Brandon Jennings.

2010 Boost Mobile Elite 24 Teams:

Raymond Lewis Squad

Head Coach: Reggie Morris, Jr.

Assistant Coaches: John Wall & Stan Verrett

Marques Johnson Squad

Head Coach: Derrick Taylor

Assistant Coaches: Brandon Jennings & Neil Everett

Boost Mobile Elite 24 participants are selected by high school basketball experts from ESPN RISE, ESPN College Basketball Recruiting and other leading talent evaluators.  Players were selected based on their performances at AAU tournaments and national summer camps. Boost Mobile Elite 24 player participation is strictly determined by parental/legal guardian permission, and high school and state association guidelines.

Event sponsors include: Boost Mobile, title sponsor; Under Armour, apparel and slam dunk content; Wilson, basketballs and Gatorade, hydration.

Media interested in media credentials should contact: crystal.howard@espn.com.

About Boost Mobile Elite 24

Launched in 2006 by RISE Magazine, the Boost Mobile Elite 24 is the only basketball event in the country to feature the top 24 high school male basketball players regardless of class year or shoe affiliation.  Launched and played in New York’s famed Rucker Park its first four years and moved to Los Angles’ Venice Beach in its fifth year, Boost Mobile Elite 24 touts alumni that include NBA rookies John Wall, Lance Stephenson and Derrick Favors, NBA players Tyreke Evans, Jerryd Bayless, Kevin Love and Brandon Jennings, and college-bound Harrison Barnes, Kyrie Irving and Jarred Sullinger. The game has featured guest coaches that include current and former NBA stars Chauncey Billups, Kenny Anderson, Ben Gordon, Jason Kidd and Baron Davis; and its inaugural game was the subject of the documentary “Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot”, which debuted at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, and was produced by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch and his production company Oscilloscope.

About ESPN RISE

ESPN RISE represents ESPN’s commitment to engage and elevate high school athletes by providing them with recognition, resources, information and inspiration that can motivate them to improve their skills and achieve their goals to be the best athletes they can.  ESPN RISE assets include ESPN RISE, GIRL, Hardwood and Gridiron magazines; ESPNRISE.com, and more than 160 high school events including Elite 11, Elite 24, ESPN RISE Games, ESPN RISE National High School Invitational, Faster to First, Area Code Baseball and Nike Combines/Nike SPARQ Mini Camps.  ESPN RISE is uniquely positioned to provide high school athletes and the company’s core fans with compelling high school sports content across all ESPN platforms.

About ESPNU

ESPNU launched March 4, 2005. The 24-hour college sports television network televises more than 650 live events annually. Action includes a variety of top football and men’s and women’s basketball games, as well as Olympic sports from 26 Division I conferences. ESPNU is the destination for premier high school programming, including elite football and basketball events. The network also has a wide-ranging agreement with the NCAA for extensive coverage of 22 NCAA Championships.

ESPNU offers over 400 original studio shows, including SportsCenterU, ESPNU Recruiting Insider, The Experts, The Bracket, BCS Countdown and is the television home of ESPN Radio’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd. The brand is also available in high definition on ESPNUHD, now in over 17 million homes. In addition, ESPNU Campus Connection is a multiplatform, student-generated content initiative to enhance the network’s link to college campuses nationwide.

ESPNU has seen a dramatic increase since its inception and is now in approximately 73 million households. The network has long-term carriage agreements with all 10 of the top multichannel TV providers – Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV (Channel 208), DISH Network (Channel 141), Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV and AT&T U-verse.

About Boost Mobile

Boost Mobile, one of Sprint’s prepaid brands, offers wireless phones and services with no long-term contracts. Boost Mobile redefines value for wireless consumers with its ‘Monthly Unlimited’ service, offering unlimited nationwide talk, text, Web, e-mail, IM and 411 for $50 per month, and with its ‘BlackBerry Monthly Unlimited’ service, offering unlimited nationwide talk, text, Web, e-mail, IM and 411 for $60 per month. Boost Mobile offers nationwide service on the Nationwide Sprint Network, reaching more than 276 million people, and on the Nextel National Network, reaching more than 277 million people, with no activation or long distance fees. Boost Mobile offers a selection of quality handsets from Motorola, Sanyo, Research In Motion (RIM) and Samsung, ranging from entry-level to high-end devices. Boost Mobile phones are available nationwide at nearly 20,000 major retail stores, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Wal-mart, Sprint retail stores, independent wireless dealer locations, and on HSN, a leading TV home shopping network; and Re-Boost^® is available at approximately 100,000 locations throughout the United States. Experience Boost Mobile on the Web at MySpace, Facebook and Twitter; and purchase products at www.boostmobile.com.

About Under Armour, Inc.

Under Armour^® (NYSE: UA) is a leading developer, marketer, and distributor of branded performance apparel, footwear, and accessories. The brand’s moisture-wicking synthetic fabrications are engineered in many different designs and styles for wear in nearly every climate. The Company’s products are sold worldwide and worn by athletes at all levels, from youth to professional, on playing fields around the globe.  The Under Armour global headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland, with European headquarters in Amsterdam’s Olympic Stadium, and additional offices in Denver, Hong Kong, Toronto, and Guangzhou, China. For further information, please visit the Company’s website at www.underarmour.com.

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ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU 2009-10 High School Basketball Schedule

Old Spice High School Showcase to Feature 14 Games; Coverage Begins Dec. 11

The ESPN family of networks, in conjunction with Paragon Marketing Group, will combine to present 14 high school boy’s basketball games this season on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, as part of the returning Old Spice High School Showcase. The series of regular-season games will include teams from 13 different states, including 17 teams currently ranked in the ESPN RISE FAB 50 Rankings. The series will open with a matchup featuring two Texas schools on Friday, Dec. 11, with No. 47 Duncanville vs. No. 40 Lincoln at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.  

The Old Spice High School Showcase is highlighted by games that will include the top four teams in the nation.  No. 1 Findlay Prep (Nev.) will play No.16 Northland (Ohio) on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m. on ESPN and No. 2 St. Patrick (N.J.) on Monday, Jan. 18, at 3 p.m. on ESPNU. No. 3 Oak Hill (Va.) will play Northland (Ohio) on Saturday, Jan. 16, at 4 p.m. and No. 4 St. Benedict’s (N.J.) will face Virginia-based Bishop O’Connell on Jan. 18, at 11 a.m. on ESPNU.

ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, will televise 10 games, ESPN2 will air two contests and ESPN will present three matchups. ESPN360.com, ESPN’s broadband digital sports network, will simulcast the ESPN and ESPN2 games.

ESPN Scouts, Inc., National Basketball Recruiting Director Paul Biancardi will serve as the primary analyst for the high school basketball telecasts. He will be joined by various play-by-play announcers throughout the season, including Doug Bell and Justin Kutcher.

This season, 19 players from the ESPNU 100 Class of 2010 player rankings are expected to participate in the series, including No. 1 Harrison Barnes, SF, Ames HS (Iowa); No. 2 Jared Sullinger, PF, Northland HS (Ohio); No. 3 Perry Jones, PF, Duncanville HS (Texas); No. 4 Brandon Knight, PG, Pine Crest HS (Fla.); No. 6 Kyrie Irving, PG, St. Patrick (N.J.); No. 10 Josh Smith, C, Kentwood HS (Wash.); No. 11 Tristan Thompson, PF, Findlay Prep (Nev.); No. 12 DeShaun Thomas, SF, Bishop Luers HS (Ind.); No. 15 Terrence Jones, SF, Jefferson HS (Ore.); No. 16 Roscoe Smith, SF, Oak Hill Academy (Va.); No. 17 Jereme Richmond, SF, Waukegan HS (Ill.); and No. 20 Fabricio Melo, C, The Sagemont School (Fla.).

ESPNU will supplement the game schedule with a weekly studio show, ESPNU Recruiting Insider, which evaluates the top high school basketball recruits and their classes based on research and analysis provided by ESPN’s Scouts, Inc. The show will air Wednesdays at 6 p.m. throughout the season with ESPNU anchor Lowell Galindo hosting alongside analyst Biancardi.  

ESPN’s postseason high school basketball coverage will feature the 2010 Powerade Jam Fest; the McDonald’s All-American High School Games (girls and boys); Jordan Brand Classic; and ESPN RISE’s National High School Invitational. Dates, times and networks will be announced at a later date.

2009-10 ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU High School Boy’s Basketball Schedule

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First Televised Coach Interview and Game Video

Featured in OTL’s look at 100-0 Game

Sunday’s Outside the Lines (9 a.m. ET ESPN, noon ESPNEWS) will examine the 100-0 Texas high school girls basketball game, and present the first televised interview with the winning coach and never-before-seen video of the controversial game.

The game at issue, The Covenant School’s January 13, 2009 victory over Dallas Academy, drew attention nationally. Covenant coach Micah Grimes, who was fired 12 days after the game, tells Outside the Lines he was not trying to run up the score and explains measures he took to keep the margin from being even greater. OTL has obtained exclusive, edited game video from a Covenant player’s parent, who would not provide the entire game video. Daren Lyn reports.

“Do I believe it’s (100-0) running up the score? I think it’s a wide margin of victory.” – Micah Grimes, Covenant coach

“It was obvious that … we were playing a team that was, I should say, they were talented in a sense, but they were not basketball players. And, after I noticed that, we just pulled back and played a zone for the remainder of the game.” – Grimes

Daren Lyn: “When you reached 100 points, what were you thinking?”

Micah Grimes: “Let the game end. I’m never concerned about a score.”

Lyn: “Was 100 points a goal?”

Grimes: “(Emphatically) No. Never. No way. Absolutely not.”

Lynn: “You didn’t feel that you needed to apologize for your game. Why?”

Grimes: “’Cause we did everything the right way. As a coach, I took precautions. We did not do what everyone else thought we did. So, I felt deep down that there’s no way that we should apologize for something we knew we did not do.”

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