Five things to learn from Tuesday night's boys basketball games

FROM KEITH GROLLER

League play resumed in high school boys basketball on Tuesday night and while we didn't have a lot of close games, we learned more about who truly are the best teams and players

Five things I learned from Tuesday's batch of games:

1. Central Catholic's Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman is really, really good -- not just for a freshman -- but for any player. I am trying to be cautious in my praise of this young man, but really, it's hard not to praise him. He really is a complete player; someone who can score by himself or create opportunities for others with remarkable court vision. He may be one of the four or five best players in the area right now. One can only imagine how good he is going to be in 2013-14.

2. Allen, Liberty, Nazareth and Easton are still the fab four in the LVC. I realize that Central Catholic and Emmaus are also good teams and are dangerous. The Green Hornets had to work hard to rally past Northampton on Tuesday night. But I see no reason to doubt that the Canaries, Hurricanes, Blue Eagles and Red Rovers will be the four teams involved in the LVC tournament.

3. Bangor, Saucon Valley and Wilson remain the class of the Colonial. Both the Slaters and Panthers rolled to easy wins and the Warriors, thanks to a big night by Kowan Scott, made a statement in beating rival Notre Dame. I was impressed when I saw Crusaders' freshman Tyler Kohl last week. He's also going to be a good one. Real good. But he's not quite as polished as MAAR (Abdur-Rahkman).

4. Nazareth's Chuck Dibilio deserves to be considered one of the area's best all-time athletes. That's right. One of the all-time best. Him going over the 1,000-point mark last night was just further testament to the fact that there's nothing this kid can't do. Plus, I just like his no-nonsense, go-all-out-at-all-times attitude. I know he'll likely play football at the I-AA level, at least that's what we hear. But to me, he's a Division I talent in everything he does.

5. Southern Lehigh isn't finished yet. The Spartans got a much needed win over Salisbury and improved to 2-8 overall and 1-4 in the league on Tursday night. They have a long road back into the district playoff picture, but I see them winning a lot of games over the remainder of the season and they'll make a run at it. The Falcons, meanwhile, might not be as strong as I first thought they would be.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/