I attended the Detroit Country Day - Saginaw Arthur Hill game Saturday night as my default game. I really wanted to attend the Romulus - Kalamazoo Central game but couldn't work it into my schedule and of course missed the better game. Anyway more on that later.
Detroit Country Day maintained their number 1 position in my rankings based on a furious fourth quarter pull away victory where they scored 30 points in the 4th to finish off SAH, 86-68. DCD started strong out of the box led by Amir Williams 8 points and 7 rebounds in the first quarter to stake them to a 21-7 lead. SAH Big man Jordan Hare picked up his second foul only 4 minutes into the game and sat for the remainder of the half. DCD led 39-26 at half as SAH outscored Country Day 19-18. Saginaw had an explosive 3rd quarter outscoring Country Day 30-17 to tie the game at 56 at the end of three. Arthur Hill got back into this with aggressive defense, quickness and attacking the basket. Just as Saginaw did it to Country Day they returned the favor in the 4th quarter by outscoring them 30-12 and running away with this one. Amir Williams was dominating presence underneath. He scored 32 points, had 18 rebounds, and 6 monster dunks. He was 8-10 from the free throw line and the remainder of his scoring came from within 6 feet. Jordan Price contributed 14 and Lee Bailey chipped in 12 in the win. Country Day is a deep team with players like sharpshooters Zavadil and Umasanker coming off the bench. Then you add sophomore Austin Price, who is too good to be sitting the bench as much as he does. However I did notice a weakness to this team in this game, their defense. They are known for have tough defenders but I will tell you that I did not see it in this game. They were definately outquicked in this game and Chris Fowler has been slowed by the knee injury and is not the defensive player he once was. Benjamin Batts led SAH with 21 and got by the DCD defense too easily in the second half. Jordan Hare also played well considering the limited time he played. He went right at Williams in the second half and hit three consecutive bank half hooks over Williams. He finished with 15 points, 13 in the second half with 2 dunks. He showed some tenacidy that I hadn't seen in him before. He will be tough to stop next year especially if he puts on about 25 lbs of muscle.
Hillsdale was there looking at Fowler. I hope for football because this guard is not as good as he thinks he is.
Albion was also there but not sure who they were looking at. Ray McCallum was there to see his old team mates play.
Romulus will move up in my rankings based on their strength of schedule and 69-68 come from behind victory over K-Zoo Central last night. Justin Moss led Romulus with 14 points but as usual was very balanced. This team is deep as well and I am really looking forward to their showdown with Country Day on Thursday, 3/3 at DCD. This will decide the number 1 ranking going into States.
SNOB's Rankings:
1. Detroit Country Day (1)
2. Romulus (3) Move up based on SOS and win over Kzoo Central
3. Ann Arbor Huron (2)
4. Detroit Southeastern (4)
5. Lansing Sexton (6)
6. Kalamazoo Central (7)
7. Saginaw (5)
8. Detroit Cody (9)
9. Gull Lake (12)
10. Lansing Eastern (10)
11. Grand Rapids Christian (13)
12. Flint Powers Catholic (15)
13. Chandler Park Academy (16)
14. Southfield (11)
15. Warren DeLaSalle (14)
My Strongsville Spy reported in late last night that he just saw a great game in the Cleveland area. The Number 1 team in the state of Ohio, Garfield Heights, who was 19-0 got knocked off by #15 Strongsville (15-5) 86-79 in OT in the season finale. Strongville was lead by their Big man, Aaron White (Iowa) with 36 points and guard Gurjeet Gil who finished with 27 pts. Garfield is a talented team and whose star player, Trey Lewis will be attending Penn State, who my spy says has better all around game than Keith Appling. Lewis had 24 but sophomore Tony Farmer led the losers with 30 points.
In case you were wondering, Ohio has some pretty good high school basketball too.
College Hoops
Jimmer Fredette and BYU showed they are the better team in the Mountain West and will fare well in the tournament with their 80-67 win over San Diego State. Fredette had 25 pts and showed he can shoot and score from the Moon. He has no limit on his range. He shots are as deep as Peeper Roberson (Saginaw) used to take except Fredette's go in. Fredette is from a small community in Glen's Falls NY called Lake George. I know it well as I spent a few lost weeks there in my youth vacationing and partying. It is known for its beautiful lake and a quaint resort town but soon will be known as the place Jimmer Fredette grew up. BYU stroked 14 - 3 pointers in that game and have others that can shoot as well. They are a tall team and will make some noise in the Dance. As Good as Fredette is, Kawhi Leonard is better. This kid is only a sophomore and has some much athleticism it is scary. He can flat out play.
My Syracuse boys pulled out another strong win over Georgetown, 58-51 as Scoop Jardine came to play and led the Orange with 17.
St. John's did it again and knocked off another top 15 team, this time on the road, beating Villanova 81-68. Dwight Hardy had 34 points and is the leader of this team that is on a mission. With the win, they might finish in the top 4 of the big east which would give them a double bye. My bold prediction is that St. John's is going to win the big east tournament. They are dancing for sure. They are the comeback team of the Year.
Kentucky beat Florida as I predicted, why not, they were at home.
I believe there is a relation between the #1 seed and the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. #1 Duke falls to Va Tech, 64-60 and that might be enough to get Va Tech in to the tournament.
Baylor, who I thought was out, is a little closer to being in after knocking off #21 Texas A&M, 58-51.
#5 Texas gets upset by Colorado 91-89 but that victory won't be enough to get Colorado (18-10) in to the tourney.
#10 Arizona gets clobbered by UCLA 71-49 and UCLA (21-8) is quietly kicking it into gear, just in time.
#18 Vanderbilt (21-7) is a team to keep an eye on in the tournament.
Michigan's big win over Minnesota gets them one step closer to the dance. A win over MSU on Thursday, will secure a spot for them. Hardaway and Morris are playing outstanding basketball for the Wolverines. Hardaway was 5-5 from behind the arc in the first half over Minnesota.
MSU lost ugly at home today to Purdue. Johnson showed Izzo and the Spartans the importance of a big man that can contribute on both ends. MSU will probably make the dance but I think they don't deserve it.
In case you haven't figured it out by now, my loyalties lie with the Orangemen and the Big East. Marshon Brooks broke the Big East single game scoring record this past week by scoring 52 in a 94-93 loss to Notre Dame. He broke a record that stood for almost 20 years. Brooks can flat our score, he is 2nd in the nation in scoring averaging 25 a game. You don't hear much about him because Providence is not one of the 11 teams that will make the Tourney. The Big East is the BIG BEAST. They will most definately get 11 teams in. They have 8 teams in the AP top 25, which has never happened before in the NCAA. They have 10 teams in the RPI top 40 and 26 out of 70 games between ranked opponents have been Big East clashes. It will be interesting to see how they will be distributed throughout the brackets in the NCAA.
That's it for now. Don't forget the big games on Thursday, 3/3:
Michigan State at Michigan
Romulus at Detroit Country Day
High School playoffs begin March 7 cultivating in the State Semi-finals at the Breslin Center March 24-26.
Your Basketball SNOB
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