Holiday Basketball Tournaments (December & January)

Mobile, Alabama — 32 teams from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana across two college venues over three days at the back end of Christmas week. Roster-heavy on D1 prospects, which keeps college-coach traffic strong on the sidelines.

Juneau, three days between Christmas and New Year's. Hosted at JDHS since 1991, Princess Cruises is the title sponsor. The largest high school holiday tournament in Alaska. Brings teams from across Alaska plus a few Lower 48 invites willing to make the ferry/flight to Southeast.

Naismith Hall of Fame's western showcase — runs the first weekend of January at Skyline High in Mesa. National-tier field built around the 8-team main bracket plus a 6-team round-robin and four Nike EYBL Scholastic games. Pairs with Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix the same week, so the Valley becomes a one-week recruiting hub.

Pine Bluff. Founded 1982 by banker Travis Creed and revived in 2018 after a long gap. Roughly half the field is Arkansas schools, half national invitees. Hosted the first regular-season high school basketball game on national prime-time ESPN (1987).

Rancho Mirage and Shadow Hills HS, the week between Christmas and New Year's. 117 teams across 11 divisions — the 16-team Open is the national-draw bracket, and the lower divisions are how regional programs actually get a competitive holiday tournament. Slam dunk and 3-point contests run during semifinal play.

Mater Dei hosts a two-day January slate at the Meruelo Athletic Center. Format is showcase, not bracket — teams come in for one marquee game. Mater Dei's boys play twice over the weekend; the rest of the field is California's top programs (Orange Lutheran, Servite, Sierra Canyon, etc.) with a few national invites mixed in.

Hosted at Damien High School in La Verne, CA. 9th edition in 2025. Massive field — 144 teams across 9 divisions, played at Damien plus other area gyms over five days. SoCal basketball density makes it a go-to for both California and visiting programs.

San Diego, last week of December. Five brackets played across six county high schools — National at Torrey Pines, American at St. Augustine, Senator's at Carlsbad, Governor's at Rancho Buena Vista, Mayor's at El Camino. Teams from 12 states fill the field. National Division is the showcase; lower brackets give SoCal mid-tier programs a real holiday event without being overmatched.

Founded by former pro Anthony Ireland through his nonprofit The Leadership University. Two days, eight matchups, mix of CT, NY, and RI programs — Crosby, Kolbe Cathedral, Northwest Catholic, East Catholic on the rosters in recent years. Doubles as a fundraiser and toy drive for the Rivera Memorial Foundation.

Lewes, Delaware — built to fill the void after Slam Dunk to the Beach paused. Eight Delmarva teams across two brackets (Bay and Ocean) at Cape Henlopen High over two days, hosted by the Cape boys program. The 2025 field included three Maryland teams alongside five Delaware programs.

One of the longest-running national-tier holiday tournaments in the country. Eight invited programs, single-elimination, played over four days at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers. The field is consistently top-25 nationally ranked.

West Palm Beach, late December. Run by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission. National invitational structure with the destination factor of South Florida in the holiday week.

Miami, late December. Hosted at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. The high school basketball event tied to the Junior Orange Bowl (separate from the college Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Sunrise). 37 years running. Mix of South Florida and visiting national programs.

Wesley Chapel, north of Tampa, late December. Two sessions across the holiday break (Dec 20-23 before Christmas, Dec 27-30 after). 9th edition in 2025. Sanctioned by NFHS. Larger field than the invitation-only events on the Florida holiday calendar.

Norcross, Georgia — partnership between the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Tipoff Club, and the Naismith Awards. One-day, twelve-team co-ed showcase at Norcross High the second weekend of December. Ken Nugent's Score for Scholarships pledges $1 to the Hawks Foundation per point scored.

Atlanta, Georgia — girls-only showcase, part of a six-market national series that also runs in Charlotte, Dallas, Jersey Shore, Nashville, and DC. Atlanta event runs the first weekend of January, drawing perennial powerhouse programs (Legion Collegiate, Valor Christian and others). Operated by The St. James organization.

Marietta, Georgia — held at Wheeler High School's 3,000-seat arena. The Tournament of Champions runs a Super Saturday in early December plus Christmas-week sessions, drawing top in-state programs (McEachern, Grayson) and out-of-state visitors. The 2025-26 season opened with Super Saturday on December 6.

Honolulu, mid-December. Hosted at Iolani School since 1983 (founded by Glenn Young). 16-team boys field plus an 8-team girls field. National-caliber mainland programs travel in to play Hawaii's top teams.

Punahou hosts a 16-team Christmas-week bracket at Hemmeter Fieldhouse. Field mixes ILH and OIA programs with mainland and international invites. Runs the same week as the Iolani Classic — the two combined make Honolulu the West's most concentrated holiday basketball destination.

Pocatello, mid-December. Run by Idaho Prospects Basketball at Mountain View Event Center. Smaller than the headline holiday events — practical December reps for southeast Idaho and bordering Utah programs without the travel cost of going to Boise or out-of-state.

First held in 1942, the Centralia Holiday Tournament is one of the oldest continuously running high school holiday events in the country. Sixteen teams, three days between Christmas and New Year's, drawing 6,000+ spectators each year to the home of the Centralia Orphans.

Pontiac, Illinois — running since 1925, the oldest holiday basketball tournament in the country. Sixteen invited teams, played at Pontiac Township High School over five days during Christmas week.

Founded in 1961 as the first holiday basketball tournament in the Chicago area. Sixteen teams, 28 games over four days. Between 1964 and 2008, 95 Proviso West teams reached the IHSA state tournament the same year — 13 of which won state titles.

One of the largest co-ed high school holiday tournaments in the country. Sixty-four teams (32 boys, 32 girls) play for four days after Christmas across multiple Bloomington-Normal venues. Started in 1975 as the Illinois State Classic. Awards four scholarships annually.

First played in 1916, ran through 1972, restarted in 2000. Sixteen teams, four days starting the day after Christmas, split between the two Terre Haute high school gyms. Sponsored by First Financial Bank.

Run by the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame at the New Castle Fieldhouse — at 8,424 seats the largest high school fieldhouse in the country. A flagship in-season high school basketball event in Indiana, with boys and girls games over the holiday break.

Early-December showcase hosted at Bill Green Arena — Marion's 7,500-seat high school gym, one of the historic large-capacity Indiana fieldhouses. Run by Marion Project Graduation as a fundraiser, the event is built around the Marion Giants tradition.

Topeka. Three-school city tournament (Topeka High, Topeka West, Highland Park) plus invited regional opponents like Wichita Northwest and Lansing. Played at Highland Park in mid-January as a midseason marquee for Shawnee County.

Held at Fairdale High School in the Louisville area. 44th edition in 2025 (founded 1982). 16-team field, mix of top Kentucky programs and out-of-state national-tier teams. Sponsored by Chad Gardner Law since recent years. Streams on NFHS Network.

Founded in 1947, Kentucky's oldest regular-season high school basketball tournament. Run as Louisville's biggest in-season showcase, with both boys' and girls' brackets. Has occasionally been delayed by weather (snow pushed the boys' bracket back in recent years).

Three-day national showcase at Reed Conder Gymnasium in Benton, Kentucky. Pulls top high school programs from 10 states. Booker, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Durant, Tre Johnson, and Derrick Rose all played here before the NBA. Affiliated with Nike's EYBL.

Hosted by Lexington Catholic across the Bueter and Alumni gyms. Forty games over five days with both boys' and girls' brackets and teams from 12 Kentucky regions plus out-of-state visitors. Travis Perry headlined the 2023 boys' field as a Kentucky commit.

Alexandria. Four-day holiday tournament hosted by Alexandria Senior High that wraps on New Year's Eve. Pulls central and north Louisiana programs (Denham Springs, Marksville, and similar) into a competitive holiday slate.

35-year-old showcase at the Portland Expo run by Portland HS coach Joe Russo. Pulls teams from Maine, NH, and New York for a 4-day post-Christmas slate. Roughly 24 games on the schedule across boys and girls. Benefits the Portland HS basketball program.

Salisbury, Maryland — running since 1981. About 134 teams across boys, girls, and JV brackets at four Eastern Shore venues with the Wicomico Civic Center as the centerpiece. Teams come from across the country and the field draws roughly 15,000 spectators over the week.

Hoophall's regional event that runs the weekend immediately before the Hoophall Classic. 2026 expanded the field after a 2025 debut — 56 boys teams, 20 girls teams across 8 Springfield-area gyms over Saturday and Sunday. Targets New England and surrounding-state programs that aren't in the Classic itself.

MLK weekend at Springfield College, the Naismith Hall of Fame's flagship high school event. Hosted at Blake Arena since 2003. ESPN broadcasts the marquee games on the family of networks. The 2026 24th edition has Long Island Lutheran, Sierra Canyon, Christopher Columbus, Brewster, Oak Hill, IMG and Prolific Prep — effectively the country's top half-dozen programs in one building.

The largest holiday basketball event in Michigan, debuted in 1995 at Calihan Hall and now run out of Ferndale High School. Pulls teams from across Michigan and into Chicago and Ohio. More than 25 years of continuous operation.

Eight-team south-central Minnesota holiday tournament played at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato. JV games in afternoons, varsity at night. Field includes Fairmont, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, Lake Crystal, Maple River, Minnesota Valley Lutheran, Mankato Loyola, New Ulm, and St. Clair.

Springfield, Missouri's national high school showcase. Eight teams over three days at Missouri State's Great Southern Bank Arena. The 2026 edition was the 41st annual and featured five teams in MaxPreps' national top 10. More than 60 future NBA players and 370 D-I signees have come through it — Wall, Cousins, Tatum, LaMelo Ball, Beal, Barrett, Hansbrough.

Founded by the late Bobby Small at Rocky Boy. Recent fields have grown to 14 teams from across Montana — south, east, north central, and west. Played both at Rocky Boy and at C.M. Russell HS in Great Falls. Cultural event as much as a basketball event — brings Native communities together during the winter season.

Omaha. Metro Conference's holiday tournament dates to the 1962-63 season. Five days, boys and girls, played across Bellevue West and Creighton Prep with the finals doubleheader on January 2. Routinely the strongest holiday field in Nebraska.

Las Vegas, mid-December. Massive field — 100+ teams across multiple competitive tiers, played at high schools across the valley. Named for Jerry Tarkanian. The scale is the differentiator: every team gets in if there's a tier that fits.

62-year-old Manchester holiday tournament hosted at Memorial High School. Eight teams, mostly NH Division I plus a Division II at-large — Bedford, Alvirne, Exeter, Goffstown, Manchester Central, Manchester West, Memorial. Bedford and Memorial have met in the last three finals; Bedford holds the most recent two titles. Central holds the all-time record with 25 titles.

One of the largest single-venue coed holiday tournaments in the country. Wildwood and Wildwood Catholic host the event in their convention center; tournament has raised over $400,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors at the host schools and other Cape May County schools since 1998. Mostly South Jersey and Delaware Valley teams.

Hoop Group's mid-season showcase in central Jersey. Recently moved from Brookdale Community College to Georgian Court. Slate is built around Shore Conference top-six teams plus a couple of statewide draws — gets you against ranked opponents in a one-day window.

Run by the NJ Basketball Coaches Association as the early-season measuring-stick weekend. Pulls in top NJ public and Non-Public programs (Don Bosco, Montgomery, Neptune typical). Held at member host schools in mid-December rather than a single arena.

Hobbs. Three-day mid-season tournament inside Tasker Arena that pulls programs from New Mexico, West Texas, and Arizona. The 63rd edition was held recently — one of the longest-running holiday tournaments in the Southwest. Hobbs is consistently a top-five girls program and a state finalist on the boys side.

Westchester County Center has hosted this since 1999 as a holiday-week showcase for Westchester and NYC-area programs. Mount Vernon vs Xaverian-type matchups are the bread and butter. Recent editions partnered with the Crusader Classic at Iona, but the County Center remains the home venue.

Morganton, North Carolina — 51st annual in 2025, hosted in Freedom High's Crump-Rogers Gym. Eight-team boys bracket, four-team girls round-robin (champion only crowned at 3-0). Field draws western NC programs (Asheville Christian, McDowell, West Caldwell) plus a Charlotte-area visitor or two.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina — 46th of the modern era, 71st overall, named for the late Winston-Salem Journal sports editor Frank Spencer. Twelve WS/Forsyth County programs plus four Northwest NC visitors split into the Atrium Health and Pepsi brackets across multiple host schools. West Forsyth took the 2025 Atrium Health bracket at Reagan.

Raleigh, North Carolina — 53rd annual in 2025. Boys games at Broughton, girls at Southeast Raleigh, four days the back half of Christmas week. Boys split into the Rudy Watson, Coby White, and Day'Ron Sharpe brackets; girls into the Frances Pulley and Wonderland brackets. Hoop State streams everything.

Mandan. Class B holiday tournament for small-school North Dakota programs, played the last three days of December at Mandan HS. Field draws from across the western half of the state — Flasher, Bottineau, New Salem-Almont, Linton-HMB, Glen Ullin-Hebron and similar.

MLK weekend boys' basketball event in Dayton, founded in 2003 by Eric Horstman. The 2026 edition drew 29 teams from eight states with 100+ college coaches and national media on-site. More than 90 alums have reached the NBA, NFL, or MLB.

Three days of girls' high school basketball in Ohio Amish Country over MLK weekend. Twenty games on a single floor at Hiland High School, with more than 100 college coaches working the gym each year. The 2026 edition was the 23rd annual.

Ohio high school basketball festival run by Bleacher Republic at the Columbus Convention Center. Started in 2024 with a 'Central Ohio vs. the State' theme. The 2025 edition expanded to 125+ games adding girls' high school games and youth/middle school divisions.

Tulsa Public Schools' 60+ year holiday tournament played in an NBA-grade arena (BOK Center). Eight boys and eight girls teams, three-day format Dec 29-31. Alumni list runs through Wayman Tisdale, Lee Mayberry, Kevin Pritchard, Shea Seals.

Portland, between Christmas and New Year's. 16 teams, 32 games, four days. The strongest holiday tournament in the Pacific Northwest. Moved out of Liberty High in Hillsboro after rental costs spiked, now plays at Portland State's Viking Pavilion. Nike-backed and selective — the field mixes Oregon's top six or seven programs with national heavyweights.

Western PA programs get an NHL-arena game once a year before the holiday break. Lincoln Park, Montour, South Fayette, Moon, Peters Township, Fox Chapel are typical. Started in 2023 and has run three straight years. Tip-off around 1 p.m., wraps that night.

Myrtle Beach Convention Center, late December. Sixteen-team national field — every team plays multiple games. Long history (since 1981) and consistent national media coverage put this near the top of the holiday tournament tier.

Columbia, South Carolina — in its 13th year at Ridge View High School. Six South Carolina programs and six national-draw teams play a nine-game weekend in early-to-mid December. The 2025 field pulled programs from Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia. Includes a Nike EYBL Scholastic matchup and a free kids camp.

Charleston, South Carolina — SCHSL-sanctioned holiday tournament running December 27-30 across the top high school gyms in the Lowcountry footprint. Four divisions: varsity boys and girls, JV boys and girls. BallerTV streams every game.

Columbia, South Carolina — multi-bracket holiday tournament that has hosted future NCAA and NBA stars for over two decades. Title sponsor changed after 2024 (the local Chick-fil-A operators stepped back), but the tournament continues under the same brand and management. Plays the back half of Christmas week across multiple Columbia gyms.

Bristol, Tennessee — running since 1981. Sixteen-team field at Viking Hall. The tournament has produced some of the deepest holiday-week competition in the East over four decades.

Memphis, Tennessee — high school basketball showcase running the first weekend of January across Harding Academy and Briarcrest Christian. Mid-South programs draw alongside out-of-state visitors. The event has produced future pros including Anthony Edwards.

Formerly the Arby's Classic, rebranded after Bristol Tennessee City Schools and AES Restaurant Group couldn't agree on naming. Same tournament, same week, same Viking Hall — 30,000+ spectators across six days. The 41st running drew 18 teams from nine states. Two dozen alumni have made the NBA.

Lubbock. About 96 teams across nine gyms in four ISDs over three days at year-end. Run by Lubbock Caprock AMBUCS, with proceeds funding adaptive AmTrykes for people with disabilities. Every team gets at least four games, no entry fee.

Allen, north Dallas suburb. Roughly 96 games over three days at end of December. Field skews heavy on Texas 6A programs with national invitees mixed in. The host gym (Eagle Fieldhouse) seats more than most college venues, so attendance is real.

Fort Worth / DFW Metroplex, late December. 65 editions running. Played across multiple Mansfield/Fort Worth high schools (Whataburger sponsors but is HQ'd in San Antonio — the tournament moved to DFW years ago). Operated by Championship Basketball Inc. Two divisions: Orange (top tier) and Blue.

Hosted by the Lehi boys program at the high school — Quincy Lewis built it into a national showcase. Recent fields have pulled teams from Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, New York, Virginia, Missouri, Colorado, California, Idaho, and Oregon to play Utah's best. KSL streams every varsity game.

Arlington, Virginia — 23 years running, started by Wakefield head coach Tony Bentley in 2003-04 and named for George Long, who died of ALS in 2010. Eight-team field, three days, late December, drawing programs from Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and Tidewater. Colonial Forge took the 2025 title over Forest Park.

Burke, Virginia — Lake Braddock hosts a three-day holiday bracket pulling in NoVA programs along with traveling teams like Atlee from Richmond. Field sits in the six-to-eight team range with mid-major caliber matchups across the weekend.

The largest holiday tournament in the Inland Northwest — 41 varsity teams across boys and girls in recent fields, hosted by West Valley HS in Spokane Valley. Used to lean on small-school participation; pivoted to bring Greater Spokane League teams home for the holidays. Two guaranteed games against similar-sized opposition.

Federal Way HS's MLK Day showcase — eight games, boys and girls, featuring South Sound contenders against statewide and out-of-region opponents. Has hosted matchups like Davis (Yakima) vs. Federal Way and Class 4A girls title contenders.

St. Albans, West Virginia — in its 26th year, founded by Coach Tex Williams and co-organized by FCA West Virginia since 2006. Pre-Christmas showcase format featuring matchups between WV programs and out-of-state visitors. Profits support FCA programming.

First running was December 2025. 11 Wyoming high schools brought 53 total teams to Casper for a season-opening event split between WYO Sports Ranch (multiple courts) and the Ford Wyoming Center's championship floor. Cody, Jackson Hole, Sheridan, Kelly Walsh, Natrona County, Lovell were in the inaugural field.