Dibilio and Hilliard are in Sports Illustrated this week; plus the Friday night picks

FROM KEITH GROLLER

One of my favorite columns from the last year was the one I wrote before the Lehigh Valley Conference boys basketball game title game between Liberty and Nazareth.

It was about the No. 32s for each side -- the Hurricanes' Darrun Hilliard and the Blue Eagles' Chuck Dibilio.

Both may have worn No. 32, but deserved to be considered No. 1 in the hearts of fans of both schools.

Well, this week's Sports Illustrated has photos of both Dibilio and Hilliard.

But I am sure it's now how they really want to make the world's most famous sports weekly.

Dibilio was on page 14 in the "For the Record" where details were provided about the stroke he suffered last week while studing on the Princeton campus.

Hilliard, meanwhile, is pictured on page 52 where (No. 4 for Villanova) is seen trying to stop Seton Hall's Herb Pope on a drive to the basket. The story on Pope, who played at Aliquippa, is very good, by the way.

Hopefully, one day, Hilliard and Dibilio will be featured in major stories in SI -- Dibilio for making a fantastic comeback at Princeton and Hilliard for being one of the best players in the Big East. I'd love to see it.

Now on to Friday night's high school boys basketball picks:

LEHIGH VALLEY CONFERENCE

Parkland 61, Allen 57 -- This is where I'm ahead and the two localcable companies will have live coverage. The Trojans are coming off a close call against Pleasant Valley and may be looking ahead to Scranton on Sunday, but their defense will be the difference against a Canaries team that needs to finish strong just to make districts.

Emmaus 73, Becahi 50 -- Green Hornets still have all of the pieces to be a champion. Just need to put it together in the big games.

CCHS 55, Whitehall 53 -- The Zephyrs usually play well on Hall of Fame Night, but I just think the Vikings have more weapons.

Freedom 73, Dieruff 58 -- As we noted in today's column, Patriots have a big week coming up.

Easton 53, Northampton 49 -- Nice gesture for Easton to remember its 1971-72 team on Saturday.

Liberty 70, Nazareth 50 -- Special relationship still exists between these two schools and the Kehoe-Rothrock Night is always one of the best events of the regular season. The Weave is going with his alma mater, 55-44.

COLONIAL LEAGUE

Bangor 60, Northern Lehigh 58 -- Best game of the night in the Colonial League. Saw the first meeting between these two. Slaters not as deep as Bulldogs, but offer more scoring balance.

Catasauqua 57, Palmerton 40 -- Congrats to Ed Csencsits and Jerome Maiatico on going into the Roughies Hall of Fame.

Pen Argyl 41, Northwestern 33 -- The Super Bowl might offer more scoring than this one.

Notre Dame 60, Saucon Valley 55 -- Crusaders can't be counted out of anything yet.

Southern Lehigh 53, Wilson 43 -- Lots of coaching experience in this matchup of two of the longest tenured area coaches.

MOUNTAIN VALLEY CONFERECE

ES North 50, Lehighton 37 -- The Indians lost 62-39 in first meeting.

PM West 73, ES South 59 -- Rich Baker has still made an improvement with the Cavaliers.

Stroudsburg 63, PM East 58 -- It was nice to see Shawn Thornton on Weds night. He is one of my favorite people in local basketball and he's absolutely got himself a new Pocono Palace there with that new 2,400-seat gym. Of all the nice facilities in the MVC, this might be the best and the most convenient for Lehigh Valley people, too.

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