Linn-Mar basketball players go through a rite of passage each summer when they play pickup games in the high school gym, but these aren't ordinary pickup games.

Instead of playing against teammates and stragglers who wander into the gym, the Lions compete against an all-star team of Division I players who know the ropes.

Many of those guys have their pictures on the walls at Linn-Mar High School and their name in the record books, because the college all-star team is comprised of Linn-Mar alums.

On any given day the alumni team could include any of the Bohannon brothers - Jason, Zach or Matt - along with Grant Gibbs, Jordan Printy and Nate Hutcheson. It's a formidable group for the current Linn-Mar kids to face.

All of those Linn-Mar alums helped the Lions win Class 4A state titles in either 2004, 2007 or 2011, creating a rich tradition at the school. This year's team hopes to follow suit in Des Moines this week, beginning at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday with a date against Dubuque Senior in the quarterfinals.

Marcus Paige played for the current group of Lions during those summer pickup games, but the rest of the team was comprised of young players who were still hoping to make a name for themselves in a Linn-Mar varsity uniform.

Jason Bohannon was an all-Big Ten guard at Wisconsin, Zach Bohannon began his college career at the Air Force Academy before transferring to Wisconsin this season, and Matt Bohannon was a freshman at the University of Northern Iowa this year.

Gibbs helped Creighton win the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Sunday with a career-best 20 points, Printy helped Indiana State make the NCAA field last year and Hutcheson is playing at Western Michigan University.

They are all Linn-Mar alums, and they don't take it easy on the current Lions in those summer games.

"Oh yeah, they play to win," said Linn-Mar junior Matt Lassen. "We might not have won too many of those games.

"They don't want to win as much as they play to push us and make us better, because they want the tradition to continue as much as we do, even though they aren't playing and they have no control over it. They try to make us better players so we can be a better team and make it to state.

"Those guys are great," said Lassen. "If I did something great, they'd tell me 'Good job' and boost my confidence. If I did something wrong, they tell me how to fix it and how to become better."

Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson thinks those summer pickup games are an important part of the program.

"When those guys come back and they can get together on their own time, it's a lot of fun," he said. "I don't necessarily see them, but it's fun to hear about their battles."

Robertson also likes to hear what the alumni think about the current players, and he was especially happy to hear what they said about Paige last summer.

"The last time they were here, they all commented, 'Man, he's really good,'" said Robertson. "And to hear those guys - who are playing at high levels themselves - to hear them say he's really good, it just shows the respect they have for him and the kind of player he is."

Paige leads the state in scoring this season at 28.4 points and has been named a McDonald's All-American.

Robertson said many of Linn-Mar's former players keep in touch during the season, taking time from their busy schedules to keep tabs on the current Lions.

"That's probably the neatest thing as a coach about this program, is how much those guys still care," said Robertson, who is thinking about staging an alumnni game for Linn-Mar fans at some point.

Lassen got to know many of the alumni when his father, Ron, was one of Linn-Mar's assistant coaches, and those alumni came to Lassen's side when he suffered a severe concussion in early December and missed two months of the season.

"I've been close to those guys for a long time," he said. "They called me when I was in the hospital and they'd come to see me and stuff. I really appreciate it. Those guys are great."

Linn-Mar will be playing in its ninth straight Class 4A state tournament this week and has an 8-0 record in the opening round. There are many reasons for the program's success, and one of the biggest is those summer pickup games.

"No school in the conference gets an opportunity to play against Division I alumni like that during the summer," said Lassen. "I think this past summer was huge for us, because we got to play good competition and jell with Marcus a little bit, because he didn't get to be with us at the summer camps because of his incredible schedule."

Paige toured the country with an elite AAU team last summer before joining those pickup games. He's had an incredible senior campaign with the Lions and will be joining the North Carolina Tar Heels after he graduates this spring.

It won't be long before Paige is a member of that Linn-Mar alumni team that challenges the younger kids in the school gym every summer. That could be a pretty good club.