It is no coincidence that the Classic is scheduled over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.

"That's a cause that's very near and dear to me," said Tom Jenkins, managing partner of Ohio Girls Basketball Magazine and one of the Classic's directors.  "I have two passions in life:  basketball and the civil rights cause.

"Dr. King gave us an extra day this weekend and if we're in the business of profiting from this weekend then we are duty bound to do something for him.  That's why part of the proceeds are going to the Perry Reese Memorial scholarship fund and the Dr. King Habitat for Humanity project in Canton."

Jenkins was raised in North Carolina and attended the first integrated high school in the state.  He later became a civil rights lawyer and worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  In memory of Reese and King, organizers of the Classic played snippets of King's "I Have a Dream" speech before each game, while the crowd rose for a moment of silence.

"I grew up in a small community in North Carolina and have always believed that athletics bridged the racial gap," Jenkins said.  "Our coach always told us that the definition of team is individuals with different personalities from different backgrounds working together to achieve a common goal.  To me that's what Dr. King taught us:  We have to work together to make this world a better place."

LOOKING AHEAD -- This year's Classic wasn't even in the books but Hiland coach Dave Schlabach was already looking ahead to next year's matchups.

"Probably  within the next two weeks we'll have the whole 20-game schedule set," Schlabach said.  "We've got about 16-18 of them set right now and it's going to be about the same amount of teams.  We're waiting to hear back from a few schools before we cut it off."

Schlabach said the organizers of the event want to get it established before perhaps expanding their pool of teams to the national level.

"We're going to tweak a few things in-house ... we've got two pages of notes here about things that we'll look at."

HOLMES COUNTY HOSPITALITY -- The Classic provided a great opportunity for more than 75 college coaches to view several of the state's top seniors and underclassmen.  It also provided some culture shock for some of the coaches who made the trek into the rolling hills of eastern Holmes County.

"I can't say how many of these things I go to each year, but this probably is the most rural area I've been to," said Rodney English, an assistant coach at Eastern Tennessee State University.  "It's beautiful, though.  On the ride in I was behind two buggies and I had to call my wife to find out if I should pass them.

"It's a great atmosphere and you get to meet some really nice people."

Almost all the Mid-American Conference teams were represented this weekend, while scouts from several Big 10 schools, Big East schools like Seton Hall, Syracuse and Georgetown, as well as Florida and Florida State, were on hand.

"I said going in that I would be happy if we had 75 college coaches," Jenkins said.  "We're at 81 right now and it's a good mixture from Div. I to Div. III."