2020 Hoopsfest lineup revealed

The premier high school basketball showcase in South Mississippi is back for a 26^th time in Biloxi.

This afternoon, the 2020 Hoopsfest lineup was revealed at the Coast Coliseum, home to the all-day hardwood exhibition on Saturday, January 25^th.

Overall, fourteen schools will be participating in this year’s event with 12 of those hailing from the six coastal counties.

The main event is an 8 p.m. tipoff between Biloxi and Oak Grove, but no matter when these teams play their head coaches are more than ready for the big show. D’Iberville Head Boys Basketball Coach Robin Sikes said, “Life is about opportunities, and so this event gives us the opportunity to put our skills and put our talents out there. And so all day, we get to prove ourselves. And so I think the Mississippi Gulf Coast – I wouldn’t call it a chip – but we do want to prove ourselves that we belong with the big dogs and so this is a great event to be able to do that.”

Pascagoula Head Boys Basketball Coach Lorenzo Wright said, “What I do with my guys is, we treat it almost like an all-star weekend in a sense. We kind of get away from wearing the team shoes and the team socks and we kind of just let them wear their own individual shoes and have their own little freestyle, but we’ve still got to do what we’ve got to do to get that win.”

If you didn’t hear from your coach, there’s plenty of more preview coverage still to come leading up to the big day.

You can see why Coach Wright compared this to an all-star weekend, starting with the early game between Long Beach and St. Stanislaus, a battle between SSC alumni in head coaches Brandon Cobb and Aaron Dunklin.

Next up is the third meeting of the year between D’Iberville and Bay High followed by St. Martin and Picayune in the first afternoon game.

Then it’s Ocean Springs taking on Pass Christian with Gulfport-Pascagoula to follow.

Back for a second time is the unified game at 5:30 which was a huge hit last year.

Rounding out the nightcap is Harrison Central taking on Clinton out of the metro, setting the stage for the annual three-point shootout.

For the main event, an extra spicy top 10 matchup between Biloxi and Oak Grove.

Head coaches Seber Windham and LaRon Brumfield were college teammates at William Carey under the legendary Steve Knight.