SAN DIEGO -- San Diego will give outdoor hoops another shot this week with the Bill Walton Basketball Festival, which began Monday at Petco Park.
The seven-day event is highlighted by a game between San Diego State and the University of San Diego -- now rescheduled for Sunday because the Mountain West Conference football championship game between the Aztecs and the Air Force Academy will be played at Qualcomm Stadium Saturday.
After some corporate 3-on-3 games, the first day of the festival will feature high school contests. The tourney is named for Walton, the former Helix High, UCLA and Portland Trail Blazers star. Walton went on to play for the then-San Diego Clippers from 1979-1985.
The opener at 3 p.m. Monday will match traditional girls' powers La Jolla Country Day and Mt. Miguel. The La Jolla Country Day boys will follow with a game against San Ysidro. The nightcap at 7 p.m. will be the San Ysidro girls against Castle Park.
The week will also include physical education classes for nearby schools, a coaches clinic and open court play for various organizations.
The festival is a variation of the short-lived aircraft carrier game rage a few years ago. North Carolina and Michigan State played on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson on Veterans Day 2011 in San Diego Bay in a very well-received event that spawned a few spinoffs that didn't go as well.
The next year, a game between San Diego State and Syracuse was postponed for two days by bad weather, and when it went on, players from both teams were bothered by the sun and breeze.
Two other games that were to take place on vessels on the East Coast were canceled because of poor court conditions.
The weather forecast in San Diego this week calls for mostly sunny skies and light breezes.
