Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Van Gundy's great speech, and tonight's boys hoops predictions

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/ FROM KEITH GROLLER The Yasso-Rothrock Christmas City Classic banquet was well done as usual on Monday night at Moravian's Johnston Hall with a number of nice tributes. But to me, ex-Knicks coach and current ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy was the standout. They have had some terrific speakers over the years, including Doug Collins, Jim Boeheim and Michelle Marciniak. However, JVG goes to the top of the list for me because he really hit on some issues that are important as we dig into the high school basketball season. Hopefully, the kids were listening. He talked about preparation, dedication, sacrifice, accepting roles and perhaps my favorite issue -- not getting parents involved when things don't go your way. And, I wish he would have added to the parents for them not to get involved when they think things aren't going their kid's way. Let the kids handle it. Here's my quote of the night from Van Gundy: "Don't complain to your friends, your teammates or your parents. Don't have your parents talk to your coach for you. You walk in there and give him or her your honesty, but then open your ears when they tell you their truth as well. Learning to handle your business is one of the greatest things you can learn by playing high school sports." Fantastic. The whole speech was excellent, using NBA examples to tell their kids how they can best have successful seasons. But that part about the parents was the best. I wish those words would resonate with the kids, and, especially, the parents. But from my experience it won't and we'll again have more than our share of parent-coach confrontations this winter and parents threatening to go to the school board or transfer to another school if they don't get their way. I understand we've already had some tension in some places. Anyway, the Colonial League begins tonight, and we've got some good nonleague games on tap as well. Here are my predictions: Allen 60, Pocono Mountain West 58 -- A possible District 11 4A playoff preview. The Canaries have a lot of depth and might wear down the Panthers, who are not as deep as in past years. Pleasant Valley 55, Dieruff 49 -- I know. I predicted the Huskies would win this game in the Groller-Zambelli Challenge, but I've learned since that Dieruff is missing a key player for non-injury reasons. The Bears might be as good as anyone in the MVC this year. Emmaus 51, Strouddsburg 47 -- The Green Hornets looked good in defeat against Easton on Saturday and could build up some steam entering Friday's game against Allen with a win here. Conwell Egan 57, Becahi 51 -- After a hard-fought loss to Whitehall, the Golden Hawks need to build confidence and get into the win column. But Egan might be a little too tough. Scranton 58, Pocono Mountain East 44 -- After dropping a 57-54 decision to Pocono Mountain West on Saturday, look for Scranton to extract some revenge on the other Pocono Mountain school. Parkland 64, GAR of Wilkes-Barre 61 -- Great test for the Trojans who are coming off a disappointing season-opening loss to Freedom. GAR was 20-3 last season. Hazleton 56, Whitehall 46 -- Hazleton won this one 37-35 last year. The Zephyrs are under the radar as the season begins, but could draw some attention with a win here. COLONIAL LEAGUE Bangor 51, Northern Lehigh 45 -- I am headed to the Slate Belt for this one. Slaters have been able to handle the Bulldogs in recent years by pushing them around and being more aggressive. We'll see if Harvard-bound Caleb Johnson and the rest of the 'Dawgs fight back tonight. Salisbury 60, Palisades 53 -- I think this is going to be the best Pirates team in Mike Viglianti's tenure. Not sure if they're ready to beat the defending league champs, however. Wilson 70, Southern Lehigh 55 -- Our apologies to Gerald Terry, who has been called Gerald Perry twice already this season by our newspaper. Believe me, the rest of the Colonial League knows who Gerald Terry is. Pen Argyl 59, Northwestern 52 -- This one's more of a rivalry game than you know because of the two head coaches. Dan Eddinger used to be on Al Blount's staff at Becahi. Both programs need this one to build some positive vibes. Notre Dame 54, Saucon Valley 44 -- The Crusaders getting beat by Pius X in the Jeff Dailey Tournament surprised me, but not as much as a Panthers win tonight would. Catasauqua 60, Palmerton 45 -- The Rough Riders need to take advantage of a soft portion of their schedule coming up to rack up wins and get all of the football out of their system entering the holidays.

No comments: