Weekly Notebook #5
Just when I thought I had this MIAA thing figured out Central Catholic drops a conference game to Lowell. I still believe that Central will be the favorite entering the DI North, but there are some teams that are flying under the radar that could cause serious trouble. In fact, they all come from the same conference, the DCL. #13 Acton-Boxborough, #14 Westford, and Boston Latin are all well coached and have one player that can take over a game (A-B's Joey Flannery, Westford's Ryan Jann, and Latin's Jack Duggan).....In the DI South, current #1 Catholic Memorial is the early favorite, with #2 Newton North, #5 Brockton, and #11 Weymouth as possible contenders.....Another big story last week was the fight, which included fans from the stands, at the CM/BC High game. In the middle of league play, it is not uncommon for tempers to flare, but it can't escalate like the way it did. I think it is time for the MIAA to highly consider a third referee for the regular season. Other states have a third, and come playoff time a third is used here. I'm not saying that this fight could have been prevented, but a third ref could have helped this situation from blowing up the way it did.....Please MIAA, hear me out again. You want everyone to have a chance and for more teams to be successful, right? OK, so everyone needs to be in the playoffs. Teams are power ranked at the end of the year by the coaches and high seed/low seed games are played accordingly. It will take one more week for this to happen and more games means more money for the MIAA. More importantly, teams will stop scheduling weak teams to get in, which means more better non-league match-ups, exclusion games go away, and the Sullivan Rule will become extinct. I have a lot of respect for Coach Harrington at Watertown and what he has accomplished, but the simple fact that they are 3-12 and have already qualified for the playoffs in this current system is ridiculous. Just let everyone in MIAA and this is not even a debate.
Players of the Day for February 4th
Boys: Westford's Ryan Jann scored 26 points, including the final two free throws with 2 seconds left, in his team's one point win over Boston Latin
Girls: Weston's Saliah Serrette had 25 points and 19 rebounds in her team's win over Wayland; Acton-Boxborough's Liz Belanger had 40 points in her team's OT loss to Billerica; Nantucket's Jess Halfordregistered a triple-double (25 points, 10 assists, 13 rebounds) to become the school's all-time scoring leader
Weekly Notebook #4
Who thought that bingo could decide a conference champion? That might be the case this Monday as the St. Mary's boys plays at Arlington Catholic for first place in the division. St. Mary's hosts bingo nights on Tuesday's at their school which has prevented the boys and girls teams from playing on those nights.....In other non-related bingo news, teams are already punching their tickets to the post-season, while other teams are scrambling for those key wins to push them into contention. I don't need to go into a long spiel about this one like I do every year, but the MIAA needs to get rid of the Sullivan Rule and Exclusion Games. O.K. I'm done ranting......Is it possible to lose a game and still move up in the rankings? In the case of the Billerica girls that may be the case. They showed they are more than worthy of playing with the #1 team in the state when they pushed Andover to the final buzzer.....Looking at the Boston City playoffs at the end of the year it is going to be tough to pick a favorite. It has been pretty easy the last couple of years with New Mission, Charlestown, Eastie, and Madison Park being the cream of the crop, but you have to add Brighton to that group and their is still no clear cut favorite. All of them are ranked in our Top 20 and could beat each other on a given night. It will be an interesting tourney.....How does a team lose by almost 50 points and then win the next meeting? Such was the case as Malden Catholic took down a declining St. John's Prep team. The loss dropped SJP to its lowest Beantownhoops ranking in three seasons and another league title looks bleak at this point. I'm not ready to count them out however. Stay tuned......In girls basketball news, some big upsets occurred last week as Lynn English and Masconomet fell from the ranks of the unbeaten with losses to Medford and Pentucket respectively.....The Watertown girls have turned it around under second year coach Pat Ferdinand. The Lady Red Raiders have struggled of late, but have developed a style that has established them for the future. Watch closely sophomore point guard Gabby Coppola (yes, she is the younger sister of the Coppola brothers) as she we will be a rising player in the 2014 class.
Weekly Notebook #3
A busy sports weekend in Boston is highlighted by a highly anticipated match-up today with #1 Central Catholic taking on #6St. John's Prep. The last two Division 1 state champions do not have the high DI college prospects this season, but are paced by great team play and coaching.....Lost in this busy weekend was the return of Central's Carson Desrosiers. His Wake Forest team defeated BC 71-56. Carson's line: 2 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks, and 1 steal.....East Boston's dismantling of Fenway two Friday's ago needs mentioning. Eastie won 100 to 10 and surprisingly there has not been extreme backlash in the media. There seems to be a score like this every year across the nation and right away people begin to look at the winning coach and the fact he or she could let the score get that out of hand. Danny V confirmed that school officials were not happy about the outcome, but the story seems to be slowly going away. Let's wait and see......Watch out for the Billerica girls. They are not surprising anyone now as they post a 10-1 record and a #9 ranking. They are tied with #1 Andover for the league lead and something will have to give as they meet this Thursday.....Hardest boys division to figure out this season is the Catholic Central League. Cardinal Spellman and St. Mary's had great runs last season and were predicted to be the favorites. Both teams were ranked in the pre-season, but have fallen off. Arlington Catholic defeated Spellman twice and St. Mary's on the road, but then they lost to Cathedral at home. Cathedral looks to have the upper hand right now with AC right there. But don't be shocked if Spellman and St. Mary's make a second half of the season run.....West Roxbury lost a lot this off-season, but Sophomore Markus Neale is still there and having a huge impact. The 6'2" combo guard has been a scoring machine this year, as evidence by his 28 point output against #5 Brighton the other day. One of the shining stars in the City, watch his development closely.
Weekly Notebook #2 (MLK Weekend recap)
The past week of MIAA basketball was overshadowed by the HoopHall Classic in Springfield. The top high school and prep schools in the nation were in action including a slew of high Division 1 coaches looking to finalize some of these players for their 2012 and 2013 classes. Watching the Tilton/Brewster game was like watching a college game. Great size, athleticism, and skill on both teams, but also many players doing a post grad year and players I hoped were still at their local schools (Wayne Selden at O'Bryant, Georges Niang at Methuen, Nerlens Noel at Everett). It is the culture here in New England that if you are a high DI player that prep schools offer you more exposure, more player development opportunities, and for many, the chance to reclassify to a lower class to improve your recruiting. I've said my peace about this in previous articles, just wish these players can just enjoy being a kid and play at their local schools with the neighborhood kids. As Danny V pointed out, and I agree 100%, if you can play, it doesn't matter where you go to school.....Friday night I was in Waltham for their game against Wayland. My main focus was 2013 point guard Jaleel Bell from Wayland. I saw him play last year against A-B and was intrigued by his potential. He is bigger physically and has better body control to go along with an improved shot. His stats from Friday:
24 points on 9/14 shooting, 3 assists, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, 7 turnovers
Not bad until you get to the turnovers. Jaleel will have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and have better understanding of time and situation in the game (he fouled out in the 4th, which ended any chance of Wayland winning). However, he is a natural scorer and has a lot of college potential. Keep a close eye on him the rest of the season.....A couple of teams have already qualified for the tourney from the DCL in Boston Latin and Westford......The big story in the Catholic League is SJP dropping two league games to BC High and Catholic Memorial. It will be an interesting league race to watch down the stretch......Alright, a small request from me. Fans, thank you for all your support and following of the site, but please refrain from criticizing coaches in your correspondence with me. I agree, there is some poor coaching going on, but that is happening everywhere and in every sport. Again, coaches need good players to be successful and a majority of the criticism I am hearing is coming from teams with limited talent......Quick little shout out to CMass correspondent Chris Bradley who is covering everything in site for us and NERR. Keep up the good work Chris!
#16 Boston Latin making noise
Playing in one of the tougher leagues and playoff divisions in the state (DI North), the Boston Latin Wolfpack have had a long road to respect. Just two years ago, the team was 2-20, followed by an 11-11 season, but now are 10-1 and ranked in all the major polls in the city.
Coach Brendan Smith has built a team of non-selfish players looking to break through into the upper echelon of the Eastern Mass basketball scene and has a couple of good ones in senior Jack Duggan and junior Miles Wright. Duggan is averaging 16.5 ppg and 5 steals per, while Wright is at 13 ppg and 9 boards. We caught up with the three at practice to talk about this season and what lies ahead:
Coach Smith
Beantownhoops: Just two season ago we talked about your youth and that there would be struggles. How does it feel now?
Coach Smith: I knew we would take our lumps (2009-10), but its been great to see them grow and mature into this season. It really makes you appreciate patience and sometimes that's tough. What's nice is that these guys have made a commitment to improving as a group and they really enjoy playing together.
Beantownhoops: How have the players reacted to the attention they are getting now from the media, fans, and opposing teams?
Coach Smith: They are excited. They wanted that respect in the city, but I keep telling them you have to keep moving forward and getting better every day and that is what we really want to accomplish.
Duggan and Wright
Beantownhoops: What has it been like to be 10-1 after two rebuilding seasons?
Duggan: It's been a great achievement. People looked down on us as a program, but now they have to take us seriously.
Beantownhoops: How does it feel now that you are the team that people are looking to beat?
Wright: It feels way better (smiling)! I remember two years ago when we were losing and it just feels good to be winning and getting revenge on teams who beat up on us.
Beantownhoops: What will make this season complete for you?
Duggan: I really want us to win the league. We work well together and play hard and we know it will be tough, but that is our focus right now.
Wright: Like Jack said, winning league would be great. Obviously we would like to make a run at state and hopefully go far.
Things are looking good for the Wolfpack right now, but a true test of who they are will be coming up where they face a string of quality opponents: Wayland, Acton-Boxborough, Catholic Memorial, and BC High. One thing is for sure, this team has faced adversity in the past couple of seasons and want to remain one of the top 20 teams this year.
Game of the Week: #5 Weymouth vs. #6 Newton North
The much anticipated match-up between two top 10 ten teams turned into a blowout win for the Tigers, 62-36. A sloppy first half was followed by Newton North showing great patience and execution in the third and Weymouth continuing to struggle. The Tigers would maintain their twenty point lead through the second half and the victory gave them sole possession of first place in the Bay State Carey Division.
Some important questions needed to be answered during this game and that was our focus tonight:
Question 1: Is Weymouth's Damian Lugay for real? After being named Beantownhoops Player of the Day twice for scoring 30+ points, Lugay struggled mightily tonight. He had more turnovers than points for a good majority of the game and was stymied by the Newton North defense. Damian is going to be a good player this season and will chalk this one up to a bad game, but he will need to improve his ball handling and passing to further diversify his game.
Question 2: How would Newton North small ball match up against Weymouth? It was clearly going to be a guard's game tonight with Lugay and Newton North's tough combo of Michael Thorpe and Luke Westman, but how would the Tigers transition to playing a quick game against a quality guard oriented team? Simple, they pressed to slow the game down and forced Weymouth to have less than 15 seconds on the shot clock to run their half court offense. When a Weymouth player was forced to take a shot, there was always a hand in their face and plenty of Tigers clogging the paint. By the final score, I would say they matched up pretty well.
Question 3: Could one of these teams be considered the DI South favorite? The verdict is still out, but Newton North does have an opportunity to be that team. They run the floor, space their offense in the half court, and always seem to take the right shot. Both teams still need to find some kind of inside game because there will be nights outside shots don't fall, but the Tigers do have the tools and the attitude to accomplish it.
Notes: It was Coach Paul Connolly's 200th win at Newton North....Keep a close eye on Weymouth soph Ryan Jones. I am dead serious when I say this, I haven't seen someone snatch boards like him since Charles Barkley. If he gains a couple of inches, he will be a dominant inside/outside player for Coach Jim Dolan....Great to see the guru of high school sports Danny V at the game, be sure to check out his recap of the game as well....Shout out to Hooprootz who was there and I still think that the Newton North student body is still one of the best around.
Weekly Notebook
Our weekly notebook (published every Sunday) is back to start the new year and what a crazy season it has been thus far. The only stable thing we can point to is on the girls side where #1 Andover continues to be the dominant program in the state. BC commit Nicole Boudreau will be player of the year barring any injury and there is no reason to doubt that the Lady Warriors will win the DI state tournament again....On the boys side it is a different story. Previous #1 St. John's Prep lost to #10 BC High and new #1 Central Catholic is very good, but clearly not as dominant as it was the last two years with Carson Desrosiers and Jimmy Zenevitch....Speaking of players that are no longer around, when Jarred Terrell left Weymouth to go prep this season, a big scoring void was supposedly gone as well. Not the case as point guard Damian Lugay has taken up the slack. Damian scored 30+ points for the second time this season and has the Wildcats undefeated and up to a #5 ranking....Haven't heard of Danvers' George Merry? Will you better start paying attention. Merry went for 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 blocks in a win over Lynn English and has Danvers as a favorite in the D3 North. In addition, the 6'7" big man also qualified for the state golf tournament this past fall....On the girls side, watch the progress of Nantucket's Jess Halford. Already a 1,000 point scorer, she averaged 23.3 points last season and is just under 27 a game this year. She is on pace to break the girls scoring record at the school of 1,402 and can break the school's overall record of 1,486 as well....Big props go out to Boston Latin coach Brendan Smith and Arlington Catholic coach Joel Burke for great seasons thus far. Boston Latin is 9-1 and up to a #16 ranking after beating Lincoln-Sudbury and Brookline and Arlington Catholic got two quality road wins beating Winthrop and St. Mary's and earned the #20 spot in our poll....Has anyone looked at some of the girls scores recently? These are not blowouts, these are embarrassing. Here is a sample from the past week: Oliver Ames beat Stoughton by 41, Reading beat Lexington by 48, Medfield beat Westport by 37, and Braintree beat Norwood by 36. Not to mention there were more scores like those as well....On the boys side of scores that were surprising, how about Catholic Memorial putting up a 100 spot in a conference game vs. Xaverian (107 to be exact)....We have grown accustomed to seeing the Cambridge and Watertown boys programs being amongst the top ones in the state, but this season has been a struggle for both. Cambridge lost DI recruit Jacquil Taylor to Beaver Country Day and Watertown graduated a ton of seniors including WPI's Marco Coppola. Both teams are posting losing records for the first time in a long time and as many of our loyal readers know, even with two good coaches in Cambridge's Lance Dottin and Watertown's Steve Harrington, you still need good players to win.Have any good stories or players we should know about? Contact us at webmaster@beantownhoops.com. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
