2005-2006 Boys Basketball  Week-3, Top-10 Poll A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith (12-24-2005)

VALPARAISO (12-24-2005)  It's hard to take anything too seriously on Christmas Day of the boys basketball season, 2 1/2 months before the state tournament.  But Munster won four times to take the Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) tournament, including a 53-51 win over Andrean.  They could not ask for more in one day than to beat arch-rival Highland and top league rival Andrean.  The Mustangs, notoriously fast starters and late faders, now have the toughest task in all of NW Indiana.  Maintaining their winning ways over the entire season.  It's like when Kobe Bryant scores 35 points in the first half.  There's no way he'll score 60, right?

Seriously, it's better of to lose a game or two than to carry that unbeaten load on your backs all season.  That's why the Indianapolis Colts will win the Super Bowl.  The ranks of undefeated prep teams dropped to two with Munster and Valparaiso (8-0) and, fortunately,  those two teams meet in late January.  With the end of most holiday tournaments in recent years, most teams use the holidays to rest up and get a second start on the season.  That's why the boys basketball season is structured better than the girls season is.

Gary West Side needs a second start after losing four of the Cougars' first five games.  The second half of their schedule is soft enough for West Side to turn it around.  West Side is going to have to be humble this season because they're looking at very close to a .500 finish.

The defending champs in the PCC, Boone Grove are without 6-3 ace defender Will Mitchell until mid-season.  So Hebron, if they can get in gear, has the PCC regular season title on the horizon.  Get ready for a comeback.  As logic tells you, with two players transferring into Lake Central (1-5), that  means they won't be what they can be till February.  But I'll say what I know you can't say.  Permission to speak freely, captain?

We need a dozen comebacks after the first of the year.  With suspensions, injuries, defections and truck loads of losses, this is an absolute train wreck year so far in NW Indiana boys basketball.  This whole season is like watching Michael Vick coming out and pretending to be a quarterback.  Ashlee Simpson actually continuing to record stuff that they actually try to sell in the 'music' section at K-Mart.  George Bush giving 20-minute speeches trying to convince people he has a winning war plan.  The level of success is occupying that empty space down there in the toilet just under the water right next to the little blue cake bar and we need some of you to come back to the surface.

With Gavit (2-5), Griffith (2-4), Lew Wallace (1-6), LaCrosse (1-6), Calumet (1-5), Morgan Township (1-6), River Forest (0-6), Portage (0-6), Whiting (0-6) and Kouts (0-5) joining perennial powers Hammond (2-4), LC and West Side on the poor side of town, February just cannot come fast enough.

1.) 4A Valparaiso (7-0)

22-3 (2005), 22-3 (2004), 17-4 (2003)

VALPARAISO -  Valparaiso has been dominant through seven games.  The Vikings, who are in the middle of an 11-day holiday break, have won every game by 14 points or more.  Here is clearly NW Indiana's best hope for a long run in the sate tournament.  The Vikings get senior 5-11 guard Kyle West back off the injured list (broken foot) to add depth and shooting to the most difficult team to attack in many years.  Valparaiso has two legitimate 6-8 perimeter players in juniors Rob Hummel and Scott Martin and 6-4 Paul Coburn is solid in the middle with 6-5 Travis Allen backing him up.  With 6-3 forwards Kevin Meyne and Nate Windsor adding strength on the perimeter, you quickly come to the conclusion that you have to beat this team down the floor.  I've said this before.  Barring foul outs or injuries, the team that beats Valpo needs a dominant lead guard so agile he can successfully attack a 6-8 defender or a college-size post man who can hurt the Vikings smallish back-to-the basket players.  Outside of Lawrence North, I don't know who has that.

2.) 4A Munster (9-0)

16-8 (2005), 20-2 (2004), 21-2 (2003)

MUNSTER -   Munster became the first school to win boys and girls Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) titles in the same year.  The Mustangs deserved to beat Andrean, as they led by 10 in the fourth quarter before winning 53-51.  Munster was strong defensively and sank 17 of 20 from the foul line.  Beware of the rematch in January, though.  A team with two 6-8 post players is at a disadvantage playing twice in one day.  That won't be the case on Jan. 6 when these teams meet again in Merrillville.  The January 28 game between Valpo and Munster probably won't be the biggest deal, because I'm not sure Munster can (or should want to) get there undefeated.

The wild horses rambled over Lake Central 51-39 Tuesday night (12-20-2005) as Scot Rutkowski had 10 with eight rebounds.  Munster was 13-of-15 from the line in this game and they are shooting almost 80% as a team after nine games.

The state tournament is like the NFL.  Nobody wins it undefeated.  Nobody needs to go undefeated through the regular season.  There is no cash prize for that.  Watch the Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl.  If Munster can be normal, winning almost all of them, they have great potential in March.

But the Mustangs are the Howard Stern of NW Indiana.  The king of all media.  No NW Indiana prep basketball team has been hyped more in this decade.  Munster should just relax, if they can.  There is a very long way to go.  And quick starts are nothing new for Munster.

3.) 3A Andrean (8-2)

21-3 (2005), 15-7 (2004), 11-12 (2003)

MERRILLVILLE - Andrean took a good loss, 53-51 on a neutral site against an undefeated foe that is not in their class (3A).  Believe me. This defeat will serve them well down the line.  If the Niners showed a flaw it's that they play as if they expect 6-8 senior Luke Harangody to carry them against good 4A teams.  He's not that caliber of player.  Few are.  The Niners can't be held to 16 field goals by any team.  The late 59ers rally in this game (they were down 10 with two minutes left) indicated what they could do.

Then Andrean took a bad loss, 84-67 at 1A power Lafayette Catholic.  They must've sent their defense home for the holidays a few hours too soon.  But the pre-season reality was that this is a new Andrean team.  I'm happy for them at 8-2 at mid-season, although that's going to be 9-3 after the Brebeuf tournament next week.  Andrean doesn't have a great team.  There is, at best, one great team in NW Indiana this year and they (Valpo) haven't proven it yet.

4.) 4A East Chicago (5-2)

13-8 (2005), 13-10 (2004), 18-6 (2003)

EAST CHICAGO - EC got 34 points from ETwan Moore in a 59-53 win over Lake Central Saturday (12-17-2005) and they got 27 more from Moore in a come-from-behind 69-66 win over Highland Tuesday (12-20-2005).  Has anybody else noticed that EC has lost only two distant road games?  Moore is averaging 25 points a game and he was 9-for-9 from the line against Lake Central and 4-for-4 against Highland.

The Cardinals have to be more of a defensive force.  They shouldn't give up 58 points a game and they probably know that.  Highland isn't good enough to score 66 points on East Chicago, if you know what I'm saying.  But the tip here is that the emphasis at EC is going to offense which will make them exciting to watch.  Also, someone at EC has to establish that they can and will score other than E'Twan Moore.  When one player scores 40% of the points, you probably don't have a championship team.

5.) 4A Merrillville (4-1)

18-4 (2005), 9-12 (2004), 15-11 (2003)

MERRILLVILLE - The first 25% of the Pirate season has been highly successful as the Pirates have lost only to Andrean.  The Pirates smoked out Lake Central 66-47 last Friday (12-16-2005) as 6-2 Greg hill scored 25 and 5-10 guard James Rowe and Darryl Evans added 14.  I refuse to call Darryl Evans by his nickname which, I'm afraid, is 'Boogie.'  I prefer to call him Darryl, the name his mama gave him.  I believe that Darryl Evans has a pro baseball future, but only if he never reveals his nickname to scouts.  The only folks named "Boogie' I know of are on FM radio or they DJ birthday parties.  Nothing wrong with 'Darryl.'  Nothing wrong with the Dec. 28 match of Merrillville (4-1) at Munster (9-0), either.

6.) 4A   Highland (7-2)

16-8 (2005), 16-7 (2004), 16-10 (2003)

HIGHLAND -   Highland won three of four in the LAC tourney but they let a 15-point lead get away against East Chicago in a 69-66 loss Tuesday (12-20-2005) night.  I think that new coach Eddie Fierek is getting all he can out of this team, which does not have a true center or a true point guard.  The Trojans have yet to beat a winning 4A team, something that is misleading since they have beaten West Side.  I like the physical nature and the feistiness of this team led by 6-3 football star Andrew Helmer, who scored 20 against EC.  But the lack of an inside game hurt the Trojans against Munster in a 55-47 LAC semifinal loss Saturday (12-17-2005).

7.) 4A Gary West Side (1-4)

19-5 (2005), 12-7 (2004), 7-12 (2003)  23-4 (2002)

GARY - Gary West Side got rejected again 79-67 by Arlington, a strong team from Indianapolis, as the Side's losing streak stretched to four games.  Jamil Tucker scored 26, but Arlington was 25 of 49 from the field.  Where's the defense?  The Cougars are allowing 63 points a game, which is far too many.  Coach John Boyd did some complaining about treatment on the road at Highland early in the month, but if kids in the stands did make racial remarks to the Cougars (not that unlikely, it happens at a lot of schools), West Side needed to bring it up at the time, not three weeks later in the newspaper.  It leaves the impression that 1) if the 'Side' was 5-0 instead of 1-4, there would have been no story, and 2) that coach Boyd is using this as a diversion to rally his team.  There's a danger that West Side isn't very good right now, which was said here weeks ago.  Give them 15 games to get it together.  The talent is obviously there.

8.) 4A Chesterton (4-3)

9-12 (2005), 13-8 (2004), 16-6 (2003)

CHESTERTON -  Chesterton turned back winless Portage 47-34 Friday, the Trojans' fourth win in a row.  How have they turned around a 0-3 start?  For one thing, they played weaker teams.  Chesterton opened the season with Munster (9-0), Mishawaka (6-0) and Merrillville (4-1).  They were SUPPOSED to lose those games.  6-5 soph forward Zack Novak is averaging 18 points a game and shooting 91 percent (32 of 35) from the foul line, both way up from last year.  Guard Curt Bradford is hitting at 12 points a game.  Here's a team like East Chicago that needs more scoring balance.  The Trojans will soon run up against teams (read: Valpo, on Dec. 28) that will stop Novak.

9.) 2A Wheeler (6-2)

16-5 (2005), 20-5 (2004), 21-3 (2003)

VALPARAISO - Wheeler split four games in the LAC tourney, losing to Highland in OT and Andrean 60-45.  Center Nate Kasper didn't stop Andrean's 6-8 Luke Harangody, but he wasn't expected to.  Wheeler is exactly where they should be after eight games.  The Bearcats have nine sub-.500 teams after the first of the year and the only winning teams they play are North Judson (4-2) , Boone Grove (4-1) and Clark (6-1).  It's good they play Boone, a sectional rival on Jan. 7, but Boone 's schedule gets tougher after the first of the year while Wheeler's gets weaker.  Truthfully though, Wheeler is the only 2A top-10 team right now.

10.) 4A Lake Central (1-6)

11-10 (2005), 14-6 (2004), 14-8 (2003)

ST. JOHN - I still look at the  losses (to Merrillville, Chesterton, Munster, Gary West Side, Valparaiso and East Chicago) and say that LC is better than the record.  Remember, they have two transfer students in forward Joe Wingis and guard Evan Lavery.  Lake Central and Gary West Side's presence is why you are reading this poll.  You want to know who the better team is.  You can't rank teams simply by won-loss record.  You folks already know who has the better record.  We're ranking teams here.  If you rank Clark or Hebron ahead of Lake Central, that mean you really think Clark or Hebron would beat Lake Central.  It also means you've already cracked open that Christmas bottle of wine your uncle sent you.

On the outside looking in...

11.) 1A Hebron (5-1)

11-11 (2005), 10-11 (2004), 9-11 (2003)

HEBRON - Hebron barely escaped with a 44-42 victory over winless Morgan Township, keeping them on the 'outside.'  That's just not good enough for a team with high hopes.  It you went overtime it means you probably deserved to lose and got lucky.  The Hawks are averaging 59 points a game and that needs to be about 65 per game if they are going to win any titles.  There is a feeling looking at Hebron that the season hasn't totally started yet.  Don't wait much longer, boys.  Hebron takes on arch-rival Boone Grove (3-1) in the semifinals of the old South County Tournament on Dec. 29 and things will get real that night.

12.) 3A Clark (4-1)

8-13  (2005),12-9  (2004), 6-14 (2003)

HAMMOND - Clark is funny.  The program has won 66 games in the previous 11 years (66-189), but because they start this season with four wins over mediocre (at best) opponents, they actually start complaining in the local papers about not getting 'respect.'   'Respect' is a word that should not be associated seriously with sports.  There are other aspects of school that deserve respect.  But the phrase 'quality boys basketball' gets earned at the end of a road that takes years and you don't get there by scheduling nonconference games against Joliet Baptist while neighbors Gavit and Morton are playing Crown Point.  Clark played Munster close, losing 72-60 but that was probably Munster taking a day off between games with Andrean and Highland.  But God Bless 'em.  Clark has 12 more losing teams on the schedule.  Maybe they can roll up an impressive record and 'deserve' the opportunity to talk.

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