FROM KEITH GROLLER
Back to hoops tonight.
Yes, I will miss the first half of another bowl game as I attend and cover Central Catholic at Freedom, but it is time to hear the thud, thud, thud of a bouncing ball inside a gym again.
Can't believe it, but we're almost halfway through the regular season.
And, as I said in the newspaper this morning, some really good teams are emerging. One of them is unbeaten Bangor in the Colonial League. The Slaters made it easy for me to rank them No. 1 in that league.
The Lehigh Valley Conference isn't that easy. Four quality teams are at the top and they're bunched fairly tightly together. Once they start playing each other, we'll really get the season going.
With league games resuming on Tuesday night, here we go with another batch of league rankings:
COLONIAL LEAGUE
1. Bangor (7-0, 4-0) .... Ranked No. 1 in last poll on 12/21 .... Slaters will get tested when they face the South teams.
2. Saucon Valley (4-3, 3-1) .... Ranked No. 3 in last poll ... Two of three losses were to LVC teams.
3. Wilson (5-3, 3-1) .... Ranked No. 2 in last poll ... Warriors have athletes and depth, but no proven scorer.
4. Notre Dame (6-2, 3-1) .... Ranked No. 4 in last poll ... Got my intro to Tyler Kohl over the holidays. It won't be the last time I see him as this kid will be in a lot of big games through 2014.
5. Salisbury (4-3, 2-2) .... Ranked No. 5 in last poll .... Falcons must take care of business when they play the North Division if they want to make league playoffs.
6. Northern Lehigh (5-1, 3-1) .... Ranked No. 6 in last poll ... Bulldogs have recovered nicely from opening-night shellacking at Bangor, but haven't played tough competitiion since the Slaters.
7. Palmerton (4-2, 3-1) .... Ranked No. 7 in last poll ... Bombers have already matched last year's win total, however their four wins have come against teams who are a combined 5-23.
8. Palisades (3-5, 1-3) .... Ranked No. 10 in last poll ... A prediction: Pirates will go 4-2, at least, when they play North Division teams. Congrats to Josh Parris on going over 1,000.
9. Southern Lehigh (1-7, 0-4) ... Ranked No. 8 in last poll... Hard to believe the Spartans have dropped this far, but they, too, will win some games against the North.
10. Catasauqua (2-6, 1-3) ... Ranked No. 9 in last poll ... I know Eric Snyder was happy to be back in the Lincoln Gym for that game against Lehigh Valley Christian last week.
11. Pen Argyl (2-6, 1-3) .... Ranked No. 11 in last poll ... On positive note, Green Knights have already matched last year's win total.
12. Northwestern (1-6, 0-4) .... Ranked No. 12 in last poll ... Have been held to 31 points or less four times and kept in the teens twice.
LEHIGH VALLEY CONFERENCE
1. Liberty (6-1, 2-0) .... Ranked No. 3 in last poll ... Wins over Allen and Easton put the 'Canes at the top for now.
2. Nazareth (7-0, 2-0) ... Ranked No. 2 in last poll ... My buddy the Weave is now doing basketball predictions. He's going with Nazareth 42-21 over Dieruff tonight. I think he's got the margin of victory correct, but it will be more like 72-51.
3. Allen (5-1, 2-0) ... Ranked No. 4 in last poll ... Don't expect the Canaries to be tested again until they get rematch with Liberty on Jan. 14.
4. Easton (6-1, 1-1) ... Ranked No. 1 in last poll ... I know his team won Easton Rotary tournament last week, but Jim Hutnik would have preferred to have his team challenged in a tourney far away from Easton.
5. Central Catholic (5-2, 1-1) ... Ranked No. 5 in last poll ... Will get a chance to see how everything is coming together now that football is over for the Vikes tonight at Freedom.
6. Emmaus (5-2, 0-2) ... Ranked No. 6 in last poll .... Green Hornets better enjoy game vs. Northampton tonight because they get CCHS, Bangor and Nazareth in next three.
7. Whitehall (3-5, 1-1) ... Ranked No. 9 in last poll ....It was only a three-team tournament, but Zephs went 2-0 against Faith Christian and Saucon Valley last week to build some momentum. Liberty will be tough tonight, however.
8. Dieruff (4-5, 1-1) ... Ranked No. 8 in last poll ... Huskies impressed me against Catty last week, but have suffered bad losses to Pocono West and Stroudsburg since that one.
9. Freedom (3-6, 1-1) ... Ranked No. 11 in last poll ... Have a feeling the Pates are not as bad as record indicates. Will see for myself tonight.
10. Becahi (3-4, 0-2) .... Ranked No. 7 in last poll ... Allen, Easton and Central Catholic is a tough way to start the new year.
11. Parkland (2-4, 1-1) ... Ranked No. 10 in last poll ... Trojans are averaging just 40.7 ppg.
12. Northampton (1-5, 0-2) ... Ranked 12 in last poll ... K-Kids took out frustrations in a 78-40 win over Catty in tourney consy last week.
MOUNTAIN VALLEY CONFERENCE
1. Pocono Mt. West (6-2, 2-0)
2. Pocono Mt. East (6-3, 2-0)
3. Pleasant Valley (5-3, 1-0)
4. Stroudsburg (1-6, 0-2)
5. E.S. North (5-2, 1-1)
6. E.S. South (2-5, 0-1)
7. Lehighton (0-7, 0-2)
http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/
On this page I will have all information on sports events from Nazareth High School and all other sports events in the country. I will also have news about myself and other people.
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