Red Sarachek Tournament

The annual Red Sarachek Tournament took place from Thursday March 26th through Monday, the 30th. One of the major purposes of the tournament is to allow prospective Yeshiva University students to see the campus and witness what it’s like to be a student here. The tournament accomplished just that as sixteen teams from all over the United States and Canada competed. The tournament, as it has done in years past, produced much excitement on campus, as the attendance levels were high. Yeshiva students from out of town obtained a rare opportunity to watch their home teams play basketball. The students took full advantage of this fact. This was particularly true with the teams from Miami, Los Angeles, and Toronto as many fans from these areas contributed extremely enthusiastic fan support.

Many of the games were very intense as several games were decided by four points or less. Yeshiva University basketball head coach John Halpert, who assisted John Bandler in running the entire event, remarked, "The games were generally very competitive. The semifinal games and even some of the first round games including Ida Crown, were very exciting to watch." John Bandler, who in addition to running the event also coached the MTA basketball team stated, "This tournament was very interesting. For many of the players on several teams, it was their second year playing in the tournament. They gained a certain amount of maturity, which was especially true with the programs from both Cleveland and Detroit."

The championship game matched YULA, the number 1 seed who had defeated their previous opponents by no less than twenty points, against tournament host MTA. The local high school was the number six seed in the tournament as they overcame major obstacles in defeating the numbers two and four seeds, Flatbush and Torah Academy of Baltimore. It was a capacity crowd at the Max Stern Athletic Center as many onlookers were forced to watch from the track. The game was extremely competitive as both teams traded baskets throughout the game. YULA came out the victor as they won by six. Chants of "finally" were heard from the Los Angeles fans as YULA has often come in second place in years past.

John Bandler who in addition to running the event, coached the second place MTA Lions, was asked how he felt about his teams performance. He responded, "I’m very pleased and proud of my guys. We started off as the sixth seed and went on to beat Flatbush, a team that not only won the Yeshiva League Championships but also defeated us during the regular season. We ran out of steam but it wasn’t from lack of effort. We accomplished a lot in this tournament and lost to a very good team."

The tournament MVP was Eli Hammy from Los Angeles. The All-Tournament team consisted of Russ Shukes from Hillel of Miami, Eli Hammy from YULA, Eric Braun from MTA, Tamir Goodman from Baltimore, and Farzan Vlosgi from Valley Torah. When asked about the talent level in this year’s tournament as opposed to years past, Coach Halpert said, "There are less potential college ball players in this tournament than past years. The local schools are down whereas the out of town schools are up. I think these schools have improved largely because of the Sarachek tournament. The out of town schools have now become more interested in their basketball programs. I can see maybe three or four players possibly playing for the YU basketball team."

The 1998 Red Sarachek Tournament proved to be a great success. The attendance levels were high and the games were both competitive and exciting. This years tournament will be remembered by a strong showing by MTA and the long awaited championship victory by the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles.