National Exposure Basketball’s Showtime Shootout was once a premier stop on the travel circuit for top-level teams and an excellent way for programs to play real competition before their exposure season began. Last weekend, we witnessed the return of this outstanding event and got a look at some of the top talents in the southeast, as well as a glimpse into what the 2019 circuit has in store. The Showtime Shootout featured over 80 teams from four states in Bedford and Rutherford County gyms, an area that is a girls’ basketball hotbed in its own right. The Showtime Shootout’s reemergence on the NEB circuit once again provided a successful platform opportunity for teams to get some games in before the NCAA evaluation period, April 26th-28th.
Here are my notes from the event, focused primarily on teams as opposed to individual standouts. More information regarding individual evaluations can be found on the TN Report.
The 2020 and 2021 division featured strictly showcase games, with each team guaranteed four games in the event.
2020 Divison
Kentucky Premier 17U EYBL won Pool A, going 4-0 in the event. Their biggest wins being a 53-49 win over Flight Silver EYBL and a 55-53 thriller over Woodz Elite. Flight Silver finished 3-1 in the event, with Woodz Elite coming in at 2-2, and the Lady Silver Foxes ending the weekend 1-3 despite a highly talented roster.
Flight Silver 2021 EYBL won Pool B despite playing up an age division. The group went 4-0 in the event with wins over TN Team Pride and Woodz 2021 Elite.
Kentucky Clutch won Pool C in the 2020 division going 4-0 with some impressive wins over Kentucky Premier-Trumm and TN Flight Navy.
Kentucky Premier 2020 Souder won Pool D going 4-0 with wins over TN Pride West and Lady Copperheads-Harper.
Lady Copperheads-Johnson won Pool E going 4-0 with wins over Kentucky Premier Owsley and Lady Runnerz Elite
2021 Division
Woodz 2022 Elite went 3-1 and winning Pool A with wins over Kentucky Premier 16U Cann and Tennessee Shock 10th Elite.
Kentucky Premier 2021 McClain went an impressive 4-0 with wins over Team Pride and Kentucky Premier-Dial.
Woodz Elite 2021/2022 Kursh won Pool C going 3-0 with wins over Ibreathehoops and Kentucky Premier 2021 Spalding.
2022 Division
TN Flight Silver 2022 went 4-0 in Pool A, TN Flight 2023 went 4-0 in Pool B, and Kentucky Premier-Foust went 3-0 in Pool C. In bracket play, Kentucky Premier-Foust won 3 straight games by double digits en-route to winning the championship.
2023 Division
Kentucky Premier-King went 2-0 winning Pool A. Kentucky Premier West went 2-0 in Pool B while Team Nike Select Healy finished 1-1 in the same pool. Kentucky Premier Anderson won Pool C, going undefeated as well.
Despite finishing runner-up in Pool B, Team Nike Select Healy made quite a run in bracket play, winning three straight games and avenging a pool play loss to Kentucky Premier West by beating them 60-56 in the championship.
2024 Division
Kentucky Premier Robinson and TN Flight Coleman both went 3-0 in pool play, each winning their respective pools. TN Flight Coleman won the 2024 division championship with a 57-39 win over Team Elite in the championship game.
2025 Division
Kentucky Premier Robinson 2025 cruised through this division, going undefeated in pool play and winning big over the Mid-South Banshees in the championship game.