Are Canaries and Hurricanes on another collision course?

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Hey, we can dream, can't we?

Allen and Liberty are in opposite ends of the PIAA 4A bracket, which means that if they both win three more games, they would meet at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 26 at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center.

As someone who has covered both of these teams a lot this season and has gotten to know the kids on both squads, I would love it. Absolutely love it. It would be the biggest basketball story ever written around here.

The first commandment of being a sports writer is no cheering in the press box. You can't root for any team.

But I will admit, at this point of the season, it's hard not to root (internally) for the teams that are left and I really do like Doug Snyder and Chad Landis and the kids on both of these talented 4A squads.

There's not a bad guy in the bunch, and I really enjoy talking with the Canaries' Robert Rodriguez, D.J. Brown, Daquan Holiday, Branden Harrington (below) -- all of them.Branden

Ditto for Liberty's Darrun Hilliard, Izel Dickerson (right), Dante Holmes, and others.Izel

Both teams were outstanding on Saturday.

It gets tougher from here, of course. Remember, since the 4A bracket began in 1984, just three District 11 teams have reached the 4A semis (Whitehall in 1984, Parkland in 2004 and Liberty last year). Just one has made it to the state final (Parkland) and no one has won it all.

So, the odds are long. If you're a betting man, you're still going with Chester, Plymouth-Whitemarsh or Council Rock North.

Yet, having seen Liberty and Allen at their best, you feel like if they can continue to play the defense they played on Saturday, they have a chance. Despite the guy who kept yelling behind the Allen bench that Norristown was "better than y'all!" the Canaries were clearly better than a five-loss Norristown team that won a lot of games in rugged District One.

And Liberty clearly outclassed Roman Catholic. That one shocked me with how much better the Hurricanes were.

Now, we're on to much larger challenges.

As of 11:30 Sunday morning, no sites have been released for Liberty-Council Rock North or Allen-La Salle College. It would be neat if both teams were in the same location on Wednesday night but it's quite unlikely.

For now, let's just savor what happened at Parkland on Saturday.

Each team can now say they won a championship and a state playoff game and that's not a bad resume, no matter what happens from here.

For Liberty, I was just glad that the 'Canes came back and played the way they were capable of playing after a rough outing in the district final and I was happy that Hilliard was able to have a good game and show once again why he's going to Villanova.

Liberty was too good for too long not to come back strong.

"This is our sixth consecutive year in the state playoffs but we've never entered states before coming off a loss," Landis said. "We've either won the title or the consolation game. We didn't know how we'd respond, but we responded pretty well. The kids played super."

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