No this is not a Football headline but a High School Hoop Update. Sorry it has been a while, don't you just hate it when work gets in the way. Speaking of work, I was working late again tonight when I saw that it was 7:00 PM so I decided to get the heck out of there, travel across the street and watch the Troy Colts play the Berkley Bears. Turned out to be a good decision. Not only did I see a close basketball game but I got to see one of the states best sophomore wing guards. I arrived late for the start of the game and Troy had 16 first quarter points when I got there with 2 1/2 left in the first quarter. Troy raced out to a 26-16 first quarter lead and extended it to 45-31 at half. The game looked like it was going to be a surprising one sided affair when Troy took an 18 point lead in the second quarter. Berkley was missing Guard Justin Puguese, their leading scorer due to foul trouble but they battled back to close it to 55-52 after 3 only to lose 72-70 on three missed close shots at the buzzer. I really went to see sophomore James Young play since I had not seen him since last year. Boy what a difference a year and summer of AAU basketball will do for a talented player. If you haven't seen him play make an attempt to get out to see him. I saw him score 22 points and I don't know what he dis before I got there. It is possible he went over the 30 point mark again. This is a trimmer, slightly taller (6'4-6'5)more mature and confident player than a year ago. He is there go to player but involves everyone. He has a real nice lefty outside shot. Has range to 25 feet easy. He was a bit streaky from the outside but all his shots were right on rim. He is both a hi and low dribbler with the ball, has a good fake step pull up jumper, floats to the hole and a good passer off the drive. Don't get me wrong, he is a shooter and knows it, when he has the look and separation, he will shoot it. However, he also knows when to give it up. He is a smart player. He does have that tendency to what to take everything eventually to his left so it looks like he has more work to do with his ability to go right and use the right hand on a right sided drive. He reminds me alot of Lester Abrams that use to play for Pontiac and then Michigan but only a much better shooter. He is a nice player and will be fun to watch for another 2 years. Troy also had a freshman that caught my eye. He is Maceo Baston, a 6'1 kid, that based on the size of his shoes, will grow a bit more. This kid was a spot up shooter who took aim from the corner on several threes and has real nice form and mechanics on his shot. I think he chipped in with 7 in limited time. Might be one to keep your eye on. Berkley battled back in this game and have some talent. Unfortunately foul trouble plagued them all night. They have a good compliment of outside shooters and had a real nice performance from Ryan Bush who assembled quite a few buckets down low against the Troy 1-3-1 defense. Puguese, who sat more than he played, you could tell is a nice player but had an off game and Connor Reid can launch the three ball. Young was well worth the admission and I got a bonus with a good close game.
Southfield needed a 3 pointer at the buzzer to beat Southfield Lathrup tonight 48-47 Didn't see that one coming. Also see that Flint Powers lost earlier this week to I think Bridgeport. Another surprise. Not sure what Kozmo (Oakland Press) was thinking when he picked Bishop Foley to beat Detroit Consortium by 7 the other day. Consortium was without super sophomore Vincent Hunter, who was suspended for one game after getting thrown out of the Flint Beecher game, but they still won easily over Foley by 18. The big Center, Willms, got to play and led the team with 19. He must not have seen this team play this year because they should not lose a game to anyone but a class A school and they could beat most of them right now.
I had one of my basketball spies (BD) at the Flint Beecher (#3 in Class C) Saginaw Buena Vista (#2 in Class C) game earlier this week and apparently I missed a good one. Beecher came out on top with a 88-80 win. Sophomore guard Monte Morris had a nice game and played assist man to some good outside team shooting. This team has a couple of guys (Burks to name one) who can stroke the long ball. The state's leading scorer, George Goodman, who is averaging 30 a game, had another nice night with scoring somewhere in the 20's. The report I got on him is that he is a lightning quick, 5'11 guard that probably is a mid major player. He cooled off in the 4th quarter otherwise the outcome may have been different.
On to College Hoops. My Syracuse Orangemen (#3) took it on the chin with the 74-66 loss at Pitt (#4). They were 18-0 going into the game and hoping to match their best start (19-0) ever but Pitt was too strong and too deep. I did not realize that Pitt can go 10-11 deep. Their inside strength outmatched Syracuse in this game. It also didn't help when they spotted Pitt a 19-0 lead. Cuse missed Kris Joseph and can't wait for the rematch in the Dome.......I will have to wait until next year.....Pitt skirted us on that one....because it seems like there are 26 teams in the Big East....they only meet them once this year. Hopefully they will meet again in the Final Four. The Cuse is looking to rebound with another big game this Saturday with #7 Villanova coming to town. They are expecting a record crowd of almost 35,000 for this one in the Dome.
Michigan is struggling losing their last 5 games. The shame here is that they play Kansas and Ohio State down to the wire and then they get blown out by Indiana and Northwestern, two beatable teams. They need an upset win over #15 Minnesota tomorrow.
UD is finding they are still a notch below the best teams in the Horizon league as they lost to Cleveland State (17-3) by 12, 81-69 the other night. Butler and Cleveland State are the class of this league
Oakland Continues to roll in the Summit League. Coach Kampe has this team playing well and sharp shooter Travis Bader gave them the midseason outside threat they were looking for to compliment the good guard play and Big man Kito Benson down low. Talk about balanced scoring they had 5 players in double figures led by Benson with 28. Hamilton had 18, Bader 17 (5-9 from 3 pt) Hudson 16 and Valentine 11 in a 97-88 win over South Dakota St. They stay in the Dakotas but travel North to play the North Dakota State team on Saturday.
I am certainly not use to seeing the losing ways of the 2010/11 version of Spartan Basketball. They dropped another one on Tuesday at Illinois 71-62. They got flat our dominated on the boards and it was ever so obvious what I have been saying all year, this team has no strength, dominance or inside presence. It is becoming real clear that this team is determined to win on the outside shot. They had too much one and done. Down the stretch they could not make an outside shot and were outshot at the free throw line by 12-0. This team, although still ranked until Monday, is not a top 25 team. Enough said....except you have a must win game against Purdue on Saturday
Saturday Matchups of Top 25 teams
#1 Ohio State (19-0) vs. Illinois (14-5) Freshman Craft great addition off bench - difference maker in this one
#2 Kansas (18-0) vs. #10 Texas (15-3) Soph jordan Hamilton poised to drop 25 on Kansas in upset win for the Longhorns
#3 Syracuse (18-1) vs. #7 Villanova (16-2) - Cuse crowd carries Orange to 5 pt win
#14 Purdue (16-3) vs. # 17 MSU (12-6) - Wont be able to contain big 6'10 Jujuan Johnson. He will have a double double and Etwaun Moore has nice game
Looking forward to the game tomorrow....or should I say today now that it is past midnight. Look for HS team and player rankings this weekend.
Your Basketball SNOB
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