Who will prevail on Survival Saturday in District 11 boys basketball?

FROM KEITH GROLLER

I'll state the obvious: Today is the biggest day of the boys basketball season.

It's even bigger than next Saturday because most of the teams who are playing next Saturday are guaranteed of moving on to the state tournament.

But today in 4A boys, winners are guaranteed of two more games and a full week ahead; losers pack away the uniforms. It's truly do-or-die time.

It's brutal that Freedom and Parkland are matched up this early. This should be a semifinal matchup, not a quarterfinal.

But thanks to the preferential seeding that elevates the league champs to the top of the bracket, you have this matchup one round early.

I have covered both previous Freedom-Parkland games and both went down to the final minutes. I have no reason to doubt this one won't be the same. (See Justin Zajko and Joe Lococo going at it in the LVC semis last week in the photo.) Lococo

Who will win? I think if they played 10 times, they'd go 5-5. I think it's Parkland's turn, as long as the Trojans shoot a little better than they did last time.

In the other 4A matchups, I give Whitehall and Allen a puncher's chance to knockout league champs Pocono Mt. West and Emmaus.

I think Emmaus has proven itself to be a much more reliable and consistent team than Allen and deserves to be a solid favorite tonight. Likewise, Pocono Mountain West, the only truly quality team in the MVC this year, is probably better than Whitehall. Doesn't mean hot shooting and a few funny bounces of the ball can't change things.

But I do think Emmaus and Pocono West, the top two seeds, will win.

Easton is the one team that's a mystery to me. Having seen the Rovers a half-dozen times this season, you never know what you're going to get. I've seen them stage a big rally to beat Parkland; I've seen them blow a big lead to lose to Central. I've seen pull out a squeaker over Liberty and lose a squeaker to Freedom. Last time I saw them, they were totally overmatched by Emmaus.

So, it's hard to get good read, except to look at Jim Hutnik's history and know that his teams are generally tough at this time of year.

Pottsville is good. Maybe not as good as last year, but the Tide is still a quality team and Easton had better be on its game. I'll go with the Rovers, but it's hardly a stone-cold lock.

In 2A, the only local team involved today is Notre Dame. The Crusaders play Panther Valley at Dieruff.

You have to respect all of the scrappy, aggressive kids in the Schuylkill League and I saw one last night in Marian, but I just have to believe that Notre Dame -- with all of this time to prepare -- will have too much depth for the Panthers.

I still think we're looking a Salisbury-Notre Dame rerun for the District 11 2A title, which would be the fourth meeting of the year between them.

Hoping for a great crowd tonight at Easton and a big week of basketball ahead.

Gotta savor these games on five of the next eight nights because the season has gone way too fast and it's all going to be over -- for most -- soon.


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