Tournament Draws Competitive Field : Basketball: Peninsula, Serra and Inglewood are among 37 teams entered in Summer Hoop Spectacular.

The ninth annual Summer Hoop Spectacular has always attracted many of the top boys’ high school basketball teams in Southern California and this year’s tournament is expected to be as competitive as ever.

L.A. City powers Manual Arts and Fremont as well as South Bay teams Peninsula, Serra and Inglewood are among the 37 teams entered in the tournament, which starts Monday and ends July 14 at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park.

This year’s tournament will also feature a change in format. Tournament founder and director Jorge Calienes switched to a pool-play format to be followed by a single-elimination tournament.

Under the format, 36 squads will play in one of nine four-team groups and will be seeded for a single-elimination tournament, which starts July 12. The exception is Diamond Bar, which will compete only in the tournament.

Calienes said there is a specific purpose for the change from a double-elimination format.

“The reason behind it is that I noticed a lot of teams lost their intensity after they lost their first games,” he said. “This way they’ll have a reason to play hard all the way through the tournament.

“With the pool play, this still gives the good teams a chance to be in the tournament even if they have some players missing (because of other camps or tournaments) for some of the games. It also gives the (college) recruiters a chance to see a player or team more than once in the tournament. Before, if they missed a certain player in a game and the team lost, that was it.”

Calienes, who has coached the East L.A. men’s basketball team the past three seasons, said games will be divided into two 16-minute periods. In past years, a running clock was used.

“That’s something the coaches really want,” he said. “They want to have a chance to see their bench play and when you play running time you can’t always do that.”

The coach said he isn’t sure if the tournament will continue in its present format next year or return to the previous format.

“I want to get a feel for this at the end of the tournament so I will be talking to a lot of coaches about this after it’s over,” Calienes said. “I want to see how the coaches like it and how the recruiters like it. I’m trying to do what everyone wants and at the same time keep the costs reasonable.”

The tournament may have lost some luster when perennial CIF Southern Section power Mater Dei of Santa Ana also decided to hold its tournament July 12-14.

“I still think we have some pretty good teams,” Calienes said. “If I had 10 more teams playing in my tournament, they would probably be ones that are in the Mater Dei tournament. There may be some teams that don’t belong in here but it’s too early to tell about that. A lot of people laughed when we had Ribet Academy last year and look what they did. They won the (Division V) state title.”

Mater Dei will not completely skip the Summer Hoop Spectacular. The Monarchs will play Manual Arts in an exhibition game at 7:20 p.m. Monday at East L.A.

Calienes says the top teams are probably Manual Arts, Fremont, Washington, Lynwood and La Canada.

Inglewood had the best record last season among South Bay participants in the tournament. The Sentinels won the Bay League title, reached the second round of the Division I-A playoffs and finished 17-9.

Peninsula features players from Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Miraleste, which are being consolidated to form one high school on the Rolling Hills campus. Serra was 5-17 last season, although the Cavaliers reached the IV-A quarterfinals.

Monday’s opening-day games include: Peninsula vs. La Canada and Serra vs. Hart at 12:40 p.m. and Inglewood vs. Serra at 2.

Peninsula will also play Locke on Wednesday and South Hills on July 11 in pool games; Inglewood is matched against San Fernando on Tuesday and L.A. Wilson on July 11. Serra will play Blair on Wednesday and Garfield on July 11.