Boys’ basketball: Las Vegas is hot and full of coaches

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If you didn’t make a reservation for a rental car, be prepared to pay $130 a day or higher in Las Vegas because this city is loaded with high school basketball players and coaches for a week of travel ballgames.

I’m in Henderson, Nev., watching the GBOA Challenge of Champions. You can always identify which coaches are here because they show up with their colorful shirts making sure everyone knows who they are.

In the morning, Team Odom, which includes guard Austin McBroom from North Hollywood Campbell Hall and 6-foot-9 forward Norvel Pelle from Compton Dominguez, will be playing. I must have picked the right games because there’s lots of media and Internet recruiting people already here.

Later in the day, it’s going to be UCLA’s Ben Howland versus Washington’s Lorenzo Romar as both come to watch 6-9 Josh Smith from Kentwood (Wash.).

A team of Inland Empire players struggled against a team from Chicago, losing, 69-36. Gary Johnson, a 6-6 senior from Moreno Valley Canyon Springs, scored 10 points. I see coaches from Notre Dame, Colorado, Stanford, North Carolina State, Providence. And this is just one game of many to be played around town today.

-- Eric Sondheimer