Thursday, July 17, 2014

Who will make the Sweet 16 of the SportsFest "A-town Throwdown" boys basketball tournament?

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

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Tournament director Chris Lakatosh let me know about a slight change in lineup for the SportsFest "A-town Throwdown" that's set to begin tonight at Cedar Beach.
There was some doubt whether Constitution, the one defending state champion involved in the tournament, would be able to round up enough players to field a team. Rob Moore, the Generals coach who loves the Lehigh Valley, has been successful and the defending PIAA 2A champs are in.
However, Lincoln Leadership dropped and was replaced by Sankofa Freedom Academy, a charter school that's part of the Philadelphia Public League. Sankofa was 8-17 last season.
It's difficult to handicap a summer tournament. Teams are seldom at full strength and that makes predicting who's going to do what all the more difficult.
What I do know is that Parkland is good, real good. Allen, Emmaus, Liberty and Emmaus, among others, are not far behind. But the Trojans are clearly the team to beat this weekend and probably the team to beat all next winter.
Here's again a look at the 12 pools -- four teams in each -- that divide the 48 teams for this weekend's tournament.
Pool 1 Pool 2 Pool 3 Pool 4
Warren Hills Allen P.M. West Hempfield
Parkland Stroudsburg Ephrata Burlington 
Octorara SS Chestnut Hill Easton Liberty
N.D. Green Pond Palisades Souderton N. Lehigh
       
       
Pool 5 Pool 6 Pool 7 Pool 8
CCHS Del Val Charter Emmaus Brooklyn
Springfield Delco North Hunterdon Freire Nazareth
Quakertown Sankofa Upper Perk Catty
Exeter Freedom Pen Argyl Phoenixville
       
       
Pool 9  Pool 10 Pool 11 Pool 12
AFBE - Fri Becahi Reading Whitehall
Radnor Constitution Northampton Lehighton
S. Lehigh Salisbury Ben Franklin Marple Newton
Dieruff Phillipsburg Saucon Valley Manheim Twnshp
After pool play is competed, the 12 pool winners plus the next four best teams, will move on to the single-elimation phase on Sunday.
My picks for the 16 teams to move on:
Pool 1: Parkland
Pool 2: Allen
Pool 3: PM West
Pool 4: Liberty
Pool 5: CCHS
Pool 6: Delaware Valley Charter
Pool 7: Emmaus
Pool 8: Nazareth
Pool 9: AFBE (France)
Pool 10: Constitution
Pool 11: Reading
Pool 12: Manheim Township
Wildcards: Springfield-Delco, North Hunterdon, Whitehall, Hempfield.

No comments: