Reserve your Hoopfest spot

Don’t wait around to enter your team in Hoopfest.

The annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the streets of downtown Spokane is June 26 and 27.

Team entries received between now and May 3 are guaranteed to be in the tournament.

Entries received between May 4-17 will be accepted into the tournament on a space-available basis.

Teams can pick up an entry form at Bruchi’s and Yoke’s Fresh Market locations, or enter their team online at spokanehoopfest.net.

Hoopfest uses more than 3,000 volunteers each year and has needs for all kinds of volunteers. Volunteers can also register online.

This year’s Hoopfest poster features Spokane’s Briann January, now a player with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.

January, a 2005 Lewis and Clark High graduate, played at Arizona State before the Fever drafted her.

Posters can be purchased for $5 and are available at the Hoopfest Store presented by Nike during the tournament weekend.

To purchase a poster before the tournament, contact the Hoopfest office at (509) 624-2414.

Blanchette voted top columnist

Spokesman-Review sports columnist John Blanchette was chosen as the nation’s top columnist in 2009 for newspapers in the 40,000-100,000 circulation category.

The contest is run by and judged by the Associated Press Sports Editors group. The award is presented at the annual APSE conference in June. This year’s conference is in Salt Lake City.

Each entry consists of five columns. Blanchette’s columns included a piece on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar prior to Hoopfest, Gonzaga basketball player Steven Gray and his lead role in a play at GU, and Spokane Indians catcher Vinnie DiFazio and his relationship with his uncle who died in the 9/11 attacks.

Five Wildcats declare for draft

Basketball: Freshman All-Americans John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins are among five Kentucky players who have declared for the NBA draft.

Junior forward Patrick Patterson, freshman guard Eric Bledsoe and freshman center Daniel Orton are also entering the draft.

Wall and Cousins are expected to be among the first few players selected.

Associated Press