The 2023 King Cotton Holiday Classic is just under two weeks away, and tournament organizers are promising a high-octane style of basketball.
Tournament director Sam Glover said when selecting teams to invite, King Cotton looks for teams who are talented but also play the right style of basketball.
“We don’t want someone who plays this half-court style basketball that they’re scoring 40 points a game,” Glover said. “We’re looking for teams that do like to fill up the basket, because that’s what the fans want to see. They play high-caliber basketball, but they are playing a high-action ball. They like to play above the rim or beyond the arc. We look for teams like that.”
The field this year consists of five Arkansas schools. Pine Bluff and White Hall will be joined by Benton, Little Rock Central, Little Rock Christian and 11 out-of-state teams.
The out-of-state schools scheduled to participate are Archbishop Wood (Penn.), Booker T. Washington (Texas), Duncanville (Texas), Gonzaga College Prep (D.C.), McDonough (Ga.), Pinson Valley (Ala.), Sandy Creek (Ga.), Silsbee (Texas), St. Frances Academy (Md.), St. Joseph Santa Maria (Calif.) and Westminster Academy (Fla.).
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
A total of 30 blue chip players are expected to compete in this year’s tournament, which will be held Dec. 27-29 at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
The teams will be divided between the King and Creed brackets. When the teams were announced Oct. 11, tournament organizers announced initial bracket assignments for the schools, but Glover said bracketing and the schedule remain subject to change through the end of this week based on results and potential roster changes.
“We don’t like to lock in and say, ‘This is what we’re doing,’ two, three, four months out,” Glover said. “Doesn’t make any sense to us, because you may have a totally different team Nov. 1 than you see Nov. 15, and we need to continue to have the creative control to do the things that we need to do to make it the best family fun experience that any fan has ever seen in high school.”
One challenge Glover and his team face in bracketing the teams is avoiding conference matchups among the Arkansas schools, and that is especially difficult this year as Pine Bluff, White Hall and Benton all hail from 5A South. White Hall is scheduled to travel to Benton the Friday prior to King Cotton and to Pine Bluff the following Friday.
Even with two brackets, at least two of those teams will have to be placed in the same bracket. Glover said while he is director, Arkansas teams will be placed on opposite sides of the brackets from each other to minimize the chances of it happening, but it is possible.
King Cotton has a proud history, but there remains a question about its future. The tournament was revived in 2018 in part by Go Forward Pine Bluff. Now that voters have twice voted against continuing GFPB’s five-eighths-cent tax, the tournament is having to seek other funding.
Glover said there is concern about the tournament’s future without the tax and suggested the City of Pine Bluff get involved as a major sponsor.
“We’re going to continue to look for sponsors,” Glover said. “But if those sponsorships don’t come through, I think the city of Pine Bluff should host the King Cotton every year regardless, because again, it is what proves that we’re a destination city and that we can bring in visitors and tourists from all over the country and see what wonderful things we have to offer here, and they come into the 7,000 seat arena and see it rocking.”
Clockwise from left: Randy Emerson, Courtney Crutchfield, Deriyon Graydon and Braylen Hall plan to lead Pine Bluff High School to its first King Cotton Holiday Classic championship. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)