Looking at the league tournaments in area boys basketball

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Here's what we know after Tuesday night's games:

In the Colonial League -- Bangor (14-1), Salisbury (14-1) and Northern Lehigh (12-3) are definitely in. The last spot will go to either Notre Dame (11-4) or Southern Lehigh (10-5). Solehi would need to beat Salisbury and then hope Notre Dame loses to Wilson to force a one-game playoff. Considering three things need to happen there for Solehi -- two of them being unlikely -- look for Notre Dame to get the last spot.

If Bangor and Salisbury both win on Friday, or both lose, Salisbury gets the top seed by virtue of winning their head-to-head meeting.

So, from here, it looks like 1. Salisbury; 2. Bangor; 3. Northern Lehigh; 4. Notre Dame going into the tournament, which is supposed to begin Wednesday night.

That means you'd have a rematch of that great game last Friday between Salisbury and Notre Dame. They have split their two meetings this season. The other matchup wold be Bangor-Northern Lehigh and the Slaters have won both previous meetings.

The only other team, besides the four league tournament qualifiers, to qualify for the District 11 tournament from the Colonial League team will be Wilson (12-9 overall).

In the Lehigh Valley Conference -- Freedom (11-2), Emmaus (11-2) and Parkland (11-2) are in and based on head-to-head matchups Parkland would be the top seed assuming it beats Whitehall on Friday night.

Assuming both Emmaus and Freedom win as well on Friday and finish tied, I believe the second seed would be Emmaus based on previous its win over Freedom.

The fourth spot is going to go to either Liberty or Easton.

Assuming Easton beats Becahi and Freedom beats Liberty on Friday, Easton is in.

If both Easton and Liberty win, however, we believe -- but this hasn't been confirmed -- that the two teams would have a one-game playoff on Monday night to determine the final slot and that would push the start of the LVC tournament back by one night until Wednesday.

My feeling, however, is that Freedom will beat Liberty to knock the Hurricanes, who probably won't have K.J. Williams, out of the last spot.

So, my best guess at this point is that the LVC tourney will look like this:

1. Parkland; 2. Emmaus; 3. Freedom; 4. Easton and then you'd have Parkland-Easton and Emmaus-Freedom in the semis, both great matchups.

But stay tuned. We'll try to get more information leading into Friday's final regular season games.

And when it comes to districts, seven LVC teams are definitely in -- Parkland, Emmaus, Freedom, Easton, Liberty, Allen and Central Catholic. The only other team with a shot of qualifying is Whitehall. The Zephyrs need to beat Parkland on Friday night at Parkland to get in. How ironic this is because last year it was the Zephyrs who beat the Trojans twice within a matter of days to keep them out districts.

Revenge could definitely be in the air here.

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