Borgia Turkey Tourney Kicks off Prep season

The 57th Annual St. Francis Borgia/Pepsi Cola Thanksgiving Tournament begins this week, celebrating the Thanksgiving holidays with fellowship and good high school basketball.
What a combination.
This year's Borgia Turkey Tourney features two defending state champions in Class 4 state champion Borgia and two-time Class 3 state-champion Maplewood-Richmond Heights. They are the top two seeds with Boriga getting the No. 1 seed and Maplewood getting the No. 2 seed in the eight-team field.
Rounding out the field at No. 3 Pacific, No. 4 Washington, No. 5 Wellston, No. 6 Union, No. 7 University City and No. 8 Carnahan.
Borgia will be led once again by the duo of 6'5" senior Nathan Scheer and 6'1" senior Tyler Ressel. Scheer signed with Missouri State University while Ressel is headed to Missouri Southern. I also like 6'6" junior Ben Ruether for the Knights. He had a nice summer playing for my buddy Mike Martin's St. Louis Gameface team. He could be a factor.
For the first time in four years, MRH coach Corey Frazier won't have all-star guard Bryant Allen to coach around any more. He's not ballin' at Minnesota, playing football and basketball for the Gophers.
For leadership this year, Frazier will look to senior guard Bryton Hobbs, 6'5" junior Calvin Belts, Jr. and 6'0" junior guard Tony King.
The first-round matchup between Washington and Wellston should also be interesting. Wellston has one of the area's top underclassmen in 6'5" junior Ben McLemore while the Bluejays have a talented senior guard in Aaron Spurgeon as well as 6'5" senior post player Skyler Suggs. "Big Sky" is the younger brother of former Washington standout Scott Suggs, who is now at the Univesity of Washington.
I will be at Wednesday night's first-round games. Hope to see your there. I will also be signing my new book, "You Might Need a Jacket: Hilarious Stories of Wacky Sports Parents."

Here is the tournament schedule:
Wednesday, Nov. 25
Borgia vs. Carnahan, 6 p.m.; Washington vs. Wellston, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 26
Maplewood vs. U. City, 6 p.m.; Pacific vs. Union, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 27
Semifinal Games at 6 and 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 28
Seventh-Place game, 3 p.m.
Consolation Final, 4:30 p.m.
Third-Place game, 6 p.m.
Championship Game, 7:30 p.m.