Five things to take away from this past weekend's District 11 boys quarterfinal-round games

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

FROM KEITH GROLLER

I said the other day that the quarterfinal round of districts can be either classics or clunkers, but the four games I saw over the weekend were definitely leaning toward the classic side.

The best offensive game I probably saw was the girls game between Minersville and Salisbury when the Battlin' Miners and Falcons combined for 110 points without going to overtime and three different players scored 17 points or more, topped by the 24 registered by Falcons sophomore Meagan Eripret.

But in terms of the boys games, we saw three close ones and some tough endings for Wilson, Easton and Emmaus.

Here's what I'll take away the most from what I saw and what happened around the district in boys bsaketball:

1. It's absolutely a difficult task to have to beat the same team over and over again. Take nothing away from the victories by Salisbury over Wilson and Stroudsburg over Pocono Mountain West, but if you give quality teams multiple chances against the same opponent, they're eventually going to get one. That's why you see so few sweeps in the NBA playoffs.

2. It is far better to keep playing on a regular schedule than have a layoff. The one exception to this rule was Central's absolute blowout over Tamaqua. Rust is not going to come into play when simply one team is so much better than the other. But Liberty was definitely affected by not playing in over a week and I am sure Pocono Mt. West was probably bothered by it as well, although Brad Pensyl didn't use it as an excuse. It will be interesting to see what the caliber of play is in those 2A boys games on Wednesday night since everybody involved has had long layoffs. Catty, for example, will have had a layoff of nearly three weeks. Scrimmaging and practicing is one thing. Going against another opponent in a real game is quite another.

3. The frustration of Easton coach Jim Hutnik. He was bitterly disappointed that his team lost on Saturday night and didn't get to the district semis after going all of the way to the state quarters a year ago, which means his team played three weeks deeper into the season last March. 
Throw in the fact that Easton didn't make the league tournament either and the fact that Hutnik was deeply saddened by the passing of his former coach Stan Sutphen and you could sense the stress Hutnik was feeling. He is an old-school guy and some of the new-school attitudes and him simply don't jive. He had several discipline-type issues this season, and some kids either simply didn't want to play or transferred.  You wonder how long a guy like Hutnik can hang in there battling against the raging tide of the "It's All About Me" generation.  

4. The heartbreak for Wilson coach Bob Frankenfield. I'm not saying there's not heartbreak involved for players, but they will go on to their AAU teams in a few weeks and possibly college careers and their high school seasons become distant memories fairly quick -- at least for a lot of them. But coaches put their hearts and souls into their jobs, almost 24/7 and almost 12 months a year now. When Frankenfield isn't coaching his own team, he's out scouting. I see him more than any other coach, so you know how heartbreaking it must feel to have a 22-win season end in an instant like it did on Friday night. It was a very difficult interview with him on Friday, even for 30-year veterans like me and Bruce Buratti of the Express-Times and for a veteran coach like Frankenfield. He doesn't want to say much in a situation like that and we understand that. In fact, he would have preferred if he didn't have to talk to us at all. It's just a necessary evil in both of our jobs. We got through it. But it just wasn't fun.

5. Dan Reichenbach's 35-foot shot at buzzer to give Salisbury that stunning win over Wilson. It will take its place in district history along with moments like Jerry Lloyd's bomb that gave Whitehall the district title in five overtimes over Parkland back in 1997 or Adam Kaunitz's shot for Emmaus that ended Parkland's unbeaten season in 2002 or going way back to 1987 and Tom Kresge's game-winner for Lehighton with a second left to beat defending state champ Central Catholic in the district finals at Stabler Arena. I had to watch it on replay several times on Saturday just to see it again to believe it. When it first happens, you're so stunned that you don't see everything. But on the replay, I witnessed the celebration and the piling on of Salisbury players and the sheer joy of everyone connected to the Falcons. It reminded me of what high school sports are all about.