OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — When Rikki Kendall and James Toliver meet up at next week’s Far East High School Boys Division II Basketball Tournament, it will mark the resumption of a family affair that has spanned the last 27 years.
Kendall, a junior guard, and his E.J. King team will collide with Osan — coached by Toliver — who as a high school student at Zwiebrucken, Germany, from 1988-90 played for Kendall’s father, Rick.
“It’s amazing to be facing him,” Toliver said of playing against the younger Kendall. “I saw him as a little boy and now, he’s all grown up. It’s a great feeling.”
Rikki said he’d heard numerous stories about Toliver, who went by James McKnight in the late ’80s, and first met him at last year’s D-II tournament, where the Kendalls and Toliver enjoyed a three-day reunion.
“It motivated me to do well in front of his dad,” Toliver said. “It was a great feeling to see him.”
“I was excited to talk to him in person and hear the stories about his days with my father,” Rikki said. “I consider him one of my greatest role models and really look up to him. One of the greatest players my dad has ever coached.”
Toliver (McKnight) was a three-time All-Europe player and a 1990 selectee to the old Team USA All-Star group that would tour Europe playing against top local talent. Toliver later played at Kennesaw State in Georgia.
His Cougars went 13-2 in Korea’s regular season, won the league’s postseason tournament and are seen as one of three teams favored at D-II along with host Perry (18-3) and DODDS Japan champion Yokota (18-0).
“It’s going to be a tough tournament,” Toliver said. “We’re all probably evenly matched. Yokota coming from D-I, I would expect them to have a little talent. We’re up for the challenge. Just as much as us getting up for it, they have to get up for it, too.”
Noting that Osan beat favored Seoul American for the Korea tournament title, Kendall feels while Yokota, led by Jadan Anderson, is the team to beat, the Cougars, paced by fellow senior guard Nick White, are in the mix, too.
“Coach Toliver could give them a game,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it when they beat Seoul. I was very impressed with Osan after that.
“Yokota plays so well as a team and not individuals,” he said. “They are just fundamentally sound and have amazing perimeter shooting. Their press is very good also and I think that’s how they blow teams out.”
The D-II was to have 10 teams, but Zama bowed out of the tournament due to a lack of players.
Teams in other tournaments, which all begin Monday, could also be missing key elements.
Yokota’s girls, also playing for the first time at D-II, may be without point guard Jamia Bailey and forward Sarah Claypool, each injured in the DODDS Japan tournament. Korea champion Seoul American, which hasn’t lost a game since its season opener, is without Chelsey Evans and Glenesha Berryman, who have transferred stateside.
And the Division I tournaments are noteworthy for how small the fields have shrunk. After each tournament fielded 15 teams last season, there are only seven on the boys side and just five on girls.
The large pool of Guam teams is absent this year, after the September decision in September by DDESS Guam to no longer participate in Far East tournaments. Seisen’s and Christian Academy Japan’s girls opted to attend a tournament in Thailand instead.
“To me, it’s not really a Far East tournament,” said coach Wil Ware of defending girls runner-up Kadena. “It’s more like a weekend tournament like we see during the season.”
Girls D-I co-director Tony San Nicolas called the loss of Guam, Seisen and CAJ “unfortunate” but whether five or 15 teams, “the chance to be crowned DODEA Pacific girls basketball D-I champions makes it worthwhile for all the athletes, coaches and supporters in attendance.”