This weekend I’ll be in Louisville for the Grassroots Shootout, an event organized by Eddie Ford. Tournament play kicks off Friday night at 6:00 p.m. at the Hoops facility in the east end of Louisville. Pool play will continue through Saturday with the finals being held early on Sunday. A complete schedule of the event can be found here.

Among the top players and teams I’ll be keeping an eye out for (and hopefully grabbing some video of):

• Cody Zeller (Washington HS) and Spencer Turner (Bloomington South) from the Indiana Elite One 17 & U team. (Matt Carlino and Marshall Plumlee will reportedly not make the trip to this weekend’s event.)
• D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (North Central)
• Obij Aget (Central Park, Birmingham, AL) and Hanner Perea (Central Park, Birmingham, AL). Both Aget and Perea are a part of Mark Adams’ A-HOPE Foundation.
• Former Kentucky commitment and sophomore-to-be Michael Avery
• Justin Gant (Terre Haute North) and Jeremiah Davis (Muncie Central)
• Team Southern Indiana Red, a team organized by Matt Denison that won the Indyball.com Tournament last weekend.

In unrelated site news, beginning this Monday, April 20, we will begin a bi-weekly live chat on the site. The chat will be moderated by myself and Chris Korman of the H-T/Hoosier Scoop and will be available here and on the Scoop. It will take place at 7:30 p.m. The plan is to have guests join us from time-to-time to field questions and also discuss all things Indiana basketball.