They all come out as clock strikes 12

Nick Christensen

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

The scene in the bleachers at the Doolittle Community Center's William Jay Haynes Gym early this morning might have led some to believe it was time for coaches in the NCAA tournament to take their group photo.

More than 35 colleges sent coaches and assistants to this morning's Pangos Midnight Madness at Doolittle, the kickoff to this week's valley-wide high school basketball bedlam, where a high schooler's NBA or NCAA hopes can be set or broken.

College coaches still can't talk to prospective recruits, but they were able to start watching summer games as of midnight, according to NCAA rules. So just as coaches open practices at midnight on the first day of legal practice in the fall, tournament organizer Dinos Trigonis brought the coaches and players out for their first looks.

"They're already in town, and this is as diluted of a period as Las Vegas has seen," Trigonis said of the more than 4,000 high school players here for this week's Reebok, Nike and adidas events. "Most of the kids would be up anyway in their rooms, or on the Strip just horsing around."

As for the coaches, some might have been just as happy being asleep and waiting until later today. North Carolina coach Roy Williams had barely gotten off his plane when he headed to Doolittle to watch the games, which wrapped up at about 2 a.m.

"One of my assistants told me about it yesterday," Williams said. "It's just like midnight madness for all the college teams that start out early."

New Mexico coach Ritchie McKay, who arrived a half-hour early, making him the first coach on the scene, said it's also about standing out to players, even if they can't talk to them.

"We want to show them we're here at midnight, 1 a.m.," he said. "We want to show them how badly we'd like them to be a part of our program."

Wyoming coach Steve McClain, who came with two of his assistants, was happy about the games being a "one-stop shop" for coaches looking to get a few teams out of the way at once.

"There are so many teams this year, here's a great chance to knock off a couple," he said. "These events are so big, it's hard to see everybody. It gives us a chance to see a couple teams we wouldn't have seen."

With so many coaches in such tight quarters, what about performance anxiety for the 14- to 19-year-olds playing in the 25-minute games?

"There's no pressure. They've had plenty of time to relax and enjoy it," said Janet Hill, whose son Lawrence played for Arizona Magic Blue and is committed to Stanford. "They're up to the challenge."

Nate Schulte, a sophomore at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, said having so many coaches around got him more focused on his 12:30 a.m. game.

"It's fun. There are great coaches here," he said. "It gets me motivated."

He added that it's a mixed bag having the coaches there although they can't give them feedback on their performances.

"You like to hear how you did and what you need to work on, but you don't want it to be in your head if you did bad," he said. "It's good and bad."