This is both the busiest and best week of the high school boys basketball season.
We've got semis tonight and Wednesday and then championship games on Friday and Saturday.
It's hectic, but a lot of fun, too.
I am still kind of digesting all that transpired over the weekend.
We had some milestones set, like Central's Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman reaching 2,000 and Parkland's Justin Zajko getting to 1,000 (see at right), and some great performances by several teams.
We also had the season end for some outstanding teams and players and in rewinding the tape recorder, you can hear a lot of nice tributes from coaches about their kids.
Saucon Valley coach Matt Brown was one of those who paid tribute to his kids and he's looking forward to a bright future with many of his returning players.
I also asked Brown what he thought of Central Catholic after Saucon was eliminated by the Vikings on Friday, and like most coaches, he was impressed with CCHS and Abdur-Rahkman.
"That kid plays hard," Brown said. "He's got a great attitude. He deserves [the 2000-point milestone]. He's a great player."
As for Central advancing deep into the state tourney, Brown said: "You always need a couple of pieces. You need a great player and they have a great player. You need rebounding. You've got to be able to clear the boards. They have that. And they have some great shooters. But they're going to run into some great teams and they know that. There's going to be a tight game where they're going to need some luck. You always need some luck."
And then Brown said something, something unsolicited by the way, that caught me a little bit by surprise.
"I'm still going to be rooting for Pottsville or Blue Mountain to beat them because I root for the public schools to win," Brown said. "Once they get to states, I'll root for Central Catholic, but first I am rooting for Pottsville or Blue Mountain."
Brown never said it was off the record and I give him credit for being honest because a lot of public-school coaches feel the same way, but don't want to creave waves by making their feelings known.
Again, it goes back to my post about Becahi being put on probation a few days ago. There are a lot of hard feelings out there. There are a lot of people here who feel it's comparing apples and oranges when it comes to public and private schools.
I am hearing more clamoring for separate tournaments than ever before.
Personally, I am not at that point yet, but there is definitely more rancor out there and it certainly came to a head in that Becahi/Palisades wrestling situation. And there's going to be increasing animosity, unfortunately, as the Central and/or Becahi boys and Becahi and/or CCHS girls continue on the road to Hershey.
But my guess is that by now, the private school programs are used to the animosity and will just deal with it as they've done for many years.
As for tonight's predictions:
CLASS 3A
Central Catholic 67, Bethlehem Catholic 54 -- It's tough to beat the same team three times in the same season, except when you're clearly superior to that team and CCHS is definitely superior to the Golden Hawks. Don't know who will be healthy enough to play for Becahi, but even at full strength, CCHS is about 10 points better.
Pottsville 58, Blue Mountain 50 -- Veteran official Frank D'Angelo correctly pointed out that this is actually the fourth meeting between these two, and not the third. They also met in a Schuylkill League Division 1 tiebreaker game. Pottsville has taken two of the previous three games, winning the most recent meeting on Feb. 8, 51-42. These are both good teams, but it seems to me like the Tide has been more consistent and should be able to get to the district title game.
CLASS A
Mahanoy Area 57, Notre Dame-ES 47 -- Mickey Holland has a great program and does things the right way. His team is fundamentally sound and on a collision course with Pius X for a third straight meeting in the district title game.
Pius X 63, Nativity 51 -- The Royals are on a roll, but haven't had a lot of close games lately. It'll be interesting to see how they respond if things get tight late. Still, this is an athletic, polished and poised team. Can't see a slip here.
RECENT DISTRICT 11 TITLE GAMES
CLASS 4A
2009 – Parkland 76, PM East 64
2010 – Liberty 55, Whitehall 37
2011 – Allen 45, Liberty 35
2012 – PM West 57, Parkland 53
2013 – Parkland 65, Freedom
CLASS 3A
2009 – Southern Lehigh 48, Pottsville 35
2010 – Pottsville 63, CCHS 58
2011 – CCHS 62, Wilson 57
2012 – CCHS 64, Wilson 57
2013 – CCHS 87, Becahi 61
CLASS 2A
2009 – Notre Dame-GP 40, Salisbury 37
2010 – Notre Dame-GP 64, Tri-Valley 37
2011 – Salisbury 60, Pine Grove 51
2012 – Pine Grove 43, Shenandoah Valley 41
2013 – Notre Dame-GP 59, Catasauqua 49
CLASS A
2009 – Williams Valley 62, Marian 39
2010 – Marian Catholic 56, Pius X 39
2011 – Marian Catholic 53, Mahanoy Area 43
2012 – Pius X 38, Mahanoy Area 36
2013 – Mahanoy Area 57, Pius X 55
No comments:
Post a Comment