The 26th NIKE Tournament of Champions was held Dec. 18-21 at Legacy Sports Park on the Arizona Athletic Grounds in Mesa. The tournament consisted of seven divisions of 16 teams. Over the course of the event, 123 colleges (mostly NCAA Division 1 with some sending more than one coach) watched one or more days of the competition. In this article the Joe Smith (second Federation division) is featured. In other articles in this series, the Vincent Cannizzaro (top Federation) and Claire Droesch (non-Federation) divisions are discussed.

Final:

Bullis School (Potomac, Maryland) 66-31 Windward School (Los Angeles, California)

There was not much drama to this final as Bullis led 14-9 after quarter one and 31-20 at half. The Bollis defense essentially shut Windward down in the second half only allowing 11 points. Bullis was led in scoring (21 points) by unsigned senior Cameron Spinner (all-tournament selectee) whose performance at TOC should have helped her with scholarship offers. Ivanna Wilson Manyacka (Division MVP) posted 15 points, but this does not begin to tell you her contribution to winning the division. Already considered one of the very top players in the 2027 class, Manyacka is powerful and tall enough to play in the key but skilled enough with the ball to be successful on the perimeter. Windward was led by junior point guard Olivia Lagao (all-tournament selectee) with 11 points.

Bullis Coach Justin Leith on Ivanna Wilson Manyacka: "She is one of the most special kids that I have ever coached. Not only is she talented on the offensive end, she is also a dominant defender at only 14 years old.”

Below is the all-tournament team for the Joe Smith Division with players listed alphabetically, with listed height, position, graduation year, school, and state location. Special thanks to Erik Boal who served with me on the all-tournament selections committee and helped provide stats used in this article.