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2016 Renegade Boys Basketball Week-12 PollA USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith03-10-2016 |
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2016 Renegade Boys Basketball Week-12 PollA USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith03-10-2016 |
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| It could be a little quiet at high noon Saturday in East Chicago because the Cardinals will be in Michigan City battling the Crown Point Bulldogs in Class 4A Regional play. This will be East Chicago's first regional appearance in eight years. (Photo by Mark Smith), |
EAST
CHICAGO (3-12-2016) The sectional round of the 106th Indiana state high
school basketball tournament saw few major upsets which is always good. Upsets
are short term thrills for long term boredom. Top teams losing early means
mismatches deeper in the tournament and that’s not always watchable.
Class 4A is the best example. Even with No. 2 Merrillville (22-2) losing early in overtime, eight of the top-11 big school teams in the state survived the sectional round. The two 4A teams with the most losses? Eight. Crown Point and Carmel have eight losses but both played very difficult schedules and are worthy regional participants.
The worst example is in Class 3A where only
five of the state’s top 10 remain in the tournament and No. 3 Griffith goes
against a very low rent Northwestern (10-12) team in a Kankakee Valley Regional
semifinal. It might be a good ‘story’ to see a sub-.500 team advancing to
regional play, but nobody (outside of Lake County) is going to want to see
Northwestern vs. 3rd-ranked Griffith this weekend.
The team to watch from Northwest Indiana: Bishop Noll. You don’t have to be a
genius to see that coming. Old timers can whine about class basketball, but
nobody’s complaining at Noll. Bishop Noll had won eight sectional basketball
titles in history until class basketball began in 1998. Last week’s title was
the eighth in 16 years for the Warriors.
You don’t have to travel far to see the playoffs this weekend. but again, there
are no regional tournaments in Lake or Porter County. Note for followers of
Gary’s 21st Century. Marshall County is on Eastern standard time and, it's my
understanding that the 21st Century-Triton game begins at 10 am. Triton time
which is 9 a.m. Gary time. That’s a ridiculous starting time.
With that said, the four regional sites: Triton (1A), which is ‘down the street’
from Plymouth in Marshall County, North Judson (2A), Kankakee Valley (3A) and
Michigan City (4A) are all classic old gyms that are well worth the trip for
daytime regional semifinals.
If you count Class 1A South Newton (did you know South Newton was 23-2? I
didn’t.), there are just seven Northwest Indiana teams in regional play because
Twin Lakes defeated an all-NWI field in 3A Sectional 18.
But four local schools matchup up in regional semifinal play so there’s only two
guaranteed regional finalists (at North Judson and Michigan City) from this
area. Again, don’t expect to watch the regional level of the state tournament on
TV. Northwest Indiana is again the only part of the state where the ‘Wit and
Wisdom’ of Dr. Wayne Dyer and ‘The Cat in the Hat' have programming priority
over the state basketball tournament.
1. (4A) East Chicago
(18-5)
2015 (20-4), 2014 (12-10), 2013 (10-11)
EAST CHICAGO: The Cardinals turnaround a 21-point loss at Lowell in
February and topped the Devils 71-53 for the East Chicago Sectional championship
last Friday. If you simply go by who has the best talent, then EC is No. 1 in NW
Indiana and everybody knows it.
The double dealing of Damien Jefferson (35 points) and Jermaine Cousinard (25
points) was too much for the Devils (20-6) and indicated that you’re going to
have to slow the game to top EC.
Hard to believe this is the first sectional title for the Cardinals in eight
years.
EC’s wins over Lowell (20-6), Bowman (15-9), Griffith (23-3), Crown Point
(18-8), Lawrence Central (19-7), Attucks (19-6) and Bishop Noll (18-7) make them
the No. 1 team right now.
It will be interesting to see if the traditionally large fan following that EC
usually has makes the trip to Michigan City for the high noon showdown with
Crown Point.
Last time EC reached regional play they defeated Crown Point 52-37 and lost to
(South Bend) Riley 61-60 in 2008.
2. (4A) Merrillville (22-2)
2015 (18-9), 2014 (4-16), 2013 (22-4), 2012 (16-8)
MERRILLVILLE: Merrillville lost two games a year: On the road at Crown Point (18-8) and to Valparaiso at the Crown Point Sectional 66-59 in overtime. The Pirates could not survive the opening game playing a team they’d already defeated on a neutral site. It’s a hard fall for Merrillville, which graduates six seniors including several who had played regularly for three years. Merrillville may not like to hear this, but they overachieved at 22-2 and that’s a compliment. The Pirates defeated Valpo (20-7), Lowell (20-6), Carroll (22-6), Southport (20-6), East Chicago (18-5), Riley (22-5) and Bishop Noll (18-7). This was a team that was 4-16 two years ago with some of the same boys. Nobody who fails to win the sectional had a great season, but to me, Merrillville won more games than their talent would indicate. The season was a job very well done by coaches and players.
3. (3A) Griffith (23-3)
2015 (19-4), 2014 (16-7), 2013 (11-11)
GRIFFITH: The Panthers got through sectional play without any impressive wins, but they are carrying the burden of being a heavy favorite. Griffith is 42-7 the last two years and they are about to be 43-7 because the semifinal opponent they drew (Northwestern) at the Class 3A Kankakee Valley Regional, is arguably the worst team still in the state tournament. The Panthers’ 6-foot-5 Tremmel Murphy scored 22 in the 65-53 sectional title win over Hammond high (13-11) after he posted 23 in the 61-46 semifinal victory over Kankakee Valley (7-16). Griffith’s big wins are over Crown Point (18-8), Lowell (20-7), 21st Century (18-6), and Bishop Noll (18-7). The Panthers have not played the caliber of teams that Merrillville and East Chicago have and there’s a wonder what they can do if they fall behind a strong squad. But Griffith isn't playing a strong squad in Northwestern (10-12), Saturday’s regional semifinal foe. If the Panthers can win easily Saturday afternoon, they’ll have an advantage heading for a second consecutive regional championship.
4. (4A) Crown Point
(18-8)
2015 (19-9), 2014 (12-9), 2013 (5-16)
CROWN POINT: Crown Point survived Valparaiso (20-6) in double overtime to win the Bulldogs’ second consecutive sectional championship. Junior Sasha Stefanovic tied the game with a 25-foot shot at the end of regulation time for the Bulldogs. CP also shot 31 of 35 from the foul line in a 78-64 semifinal win over Chesterton (16-9). Crown Point has won six in a row. The big wins are over Merrillville (22-2), Lowell (20-6), Valparaiso (20-7), (South Bend) Washington (17-6), Boone Grove (17-7) and Chesterton (16-9). But here’s a team that has been strengthened by road losses at Pike (17-8), Lawrence North (19-6), East Chicago (18-5), Valparaiso (20-7) and Griffith (23-3). Few teams in NW Indiana have played this level of schedule. The Bulldogs finished the home season with a 13-0 record and they now will take on an East Chicago team. Crown Point’s strength is their weakness. CP is a 40% 3-point shooting team and a 74% foul shooting team. That’s their ‘business model’. The Bulldogs have to shoot well twice to win the regional on the road and that’s a tall order against good teams.
5. (4A) Valparaiso
(20-7)
18-5 (2015), 12-9 (2014), 18-5 (2013)
VALPO: The Vikings fell victim to the toughest draw in Class 4A Sectional 2, but they are at least the fifth best team in NW Indiana. The Vikings defeated Merrillville before losing to Crown Point 59-54 in two overtimes. Seniors Steve Helm (27) and Conner Ten Hove (17) combined for 44 of the Vikings’s 54 points. Valpo was 17-0 at home the last two seasons, but there’s little consolation after losing to CP two years in a row in sectional play. The Vikes did beat Merrillville (22-2), Crown Point (18-8), Bishop Noll (18-7), Jefferson (15-9) and Boone (17-7). The Vikings are an example of how difficult it is to advance beyond NW Indiana in state tournament play. So many big schools from the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) are loaded into the same sectional and they eliminate 2/3 of the league. There isn’t a team in the Michigan City regional the Vikings couldn’t beat, but they’ll be sitting at home instead of playing.
6. (2A) Bishop Noll
(18-7)
2015 (13-14), 2014 (21-4) 2013 (19-5)
HAMMOND: Noll topped Bowman 62-59 and River Forest 68-53 to win the Boone Grove Sectional despite foul shooting issues. The Warriors sank just 28 of 46 free throws on the last two nights, but came out on top anyway. Guard Roman Penn (14.3 ppg.) scored in double figures the last two nights. I did not know that Bishop Noll has played 11 games this season decided by 10 points or less and the Warriors are 8-3 in those games. I also did not know that in the Warriors' last 24 state playoff games, Bishop Noll has won 19 times. The Warriors traditionally benefit from playing many of the teams they played when they were a much larger school in past decades. Noll has lost to Merrillville (22-2), Griffith (23-3), Valparaiso (20-7), East Chicago (18-5), Chesterton (16-8), (Chicago Heights, Ill.) Marian Catholic (23-6) and Mount (Chicago) Carmel (24-8). The theory is that those games help them when Noll faces Class 2A schools in the post-season. That ‘theory’ rarely leads to an 80% post-season winning percentage. It doesn’t take a basketball ‘crystal ball’ to predict good things for the Warriors. Bishop Noll has now won 16 sectional championships, including the last three in a row and they face a Marquette team that the Warriors defeated by 10 points in January. Only six of the top-15 ranked Class 2A teams are still playing. The winner of Noll-Marquette should reach the semistate and that winner should be Noll.
7. (4A) LOWELL (20-6)
2015 (11-14), 2014 (16-5), 2013 (9-13)
LOWELL: Lowell lost 71-53 in the East Chicago Sectional championship game after they had defeated EC 22 by points last month. That’s actually the second consecutive season Lowell has been eliminated by EC in sectional play. It's now been 23 years since Lowell won a boys basketball sectional championship. But 20 wins, I believe, is a school record for Lowell and the last four losses were to Griffith (23-3), Merrillville (22-2), Crown Point (18-8) and EC (18-5.) The Devils can't feel too bad for too long about this season even though a Crown Point-Lowell regional matchup would have been very watchable. Lowell didn't play Bishop Noll. I don't know if they would have defeated them. I drop them behind the Warriors, but that may change as Noll keeps playing. Lowell graduates four seniors, but they should certainly have a winning team again next season.