High Five: Final week of 2016 won’t disappoint
Louisiana high school basketball is giving all of us quite the show for the final week of 2016, so let’s jump right into it. Here are 5 random thoughts/things going on in the state. Got something that you think should…
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Continue ReadingLouisiana high school basketball is giving all of us quite the show for the final week of 2016, so let’s jump right into it. Here are 5 random thoughts/things going on in the state.
Got something that you think should be noted in upcoming High Fives, or something I missed in this one? Tweet me, @BHudson977, or comment on this post to let me know.
1. Scotlandville ranked in nation’s top 15.
The powers-that-be at MaxPreps noticed what the Hornetss did last week, taking care of Northshore, Karr, Riverside and St. Thomas More in consecutive days at the Metairie Park Country Day Tournament, and moved the Hornets up 14 spots for it. In those MaxPreps national rankings, Scotlandville is obviously now the top-ranked team in the state and if not for a pair of top five teams in Greensboro Day (N.C.) and Memphis East (Tenn.), it would be the Southeast’s highest-ranked team.
2. U High reppin’ Louisiana in Nashville.
The Next Level Hoops Fest in Nashville is as good as it gets in terms of regional high school basketball tournaments (with the exception of the few prep academy games that ESPNU broadcasts a few times a year), as the best of the best from Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana and Arkansas are invited for a straight-up 8-team tournament, classic winners’ and losers’ bracket style.
University Lab won this thing last year and is heading back for more this week. The Cubs will face Taylor County (Ky.) in the first round and will face either the winner or loser between Christ Presbyterian Academy (Tenn.) and Bentonville (Ark.), depending on how the Cubs fare in the first round
3. Undefeateds watch.
We’ve got three left: Scotlandville, U High and Delhi Charter. (Which of these things is not like the other?)
I already outlined Delhi Charter’s path to staying undefeated when I saw them beat Sterlington, so go give that a read to see their hopes for keeping that 0 in the loss column.
As previously stated, U High is going out of town this week to meet up with some of the best competition the Southeast has to offer. The Cubs did not lose there last year, but at this point in the schedule, that seems its most likely place to lose: U High goes into district play after this tournament, where it seems the only real shots at beating them are Brusly, Baker and West Feliciana, but that’s not to say any of those are favorites. There is a non-district game against Riverside in February, but still, that leaves U High with at most 4 or 5 losable games after this tournament, if the Cubs do what they’re capable of.
Here’s the thing with Scotlandville: the Hornets have good competition on their upcoming schedule, but most of it isn’t as good as the competition it has faced to this point and still come out unblemished. Scotlandville’s final non-district game of the year is against a pretty good Jehovah-Jireh team, but after that it goes into district play where I’m guessing the only real threats are Zachary and Walker. Long story short: Scotlandville certainly looks like the team most likely to finish its season undefeated.
4. Peabody figuring things out?
Remember when Peabody was a pedestrian 5-2? Go ahead, check the Warhorses’ record now; it’s 12-3. A one-point loss to Wossman (the buzzer-beater didn’t fall) and a…let’s call it puzzling…12-point loss to Lafayette gave the Warhorses more losses to Louisiana teams this season than it did in all of last season.
Since then, let’s look at what Peabody has done: beaten Washington-Marion twice, lost by just two to Natchitoches Central and ran a really god Woodlawn (Shreve.) team off the floor. It’s not unreasonable to think the Warhorses could get out of the regular season without another loss (the district is very getable and the season finale against Tioga might be the toughest game left), making the Warhorses a legitimate 3A contender once more. Not that we were doubting that after just seven games, but it’s worth following since Peabody seems to be playing up to its standard again.
5. Tournaments to watch this week.
Grace King: If you look at the top 25 our Chance Lemaire puts together, this tournament features top of the top 25 in the state in Bonnabel (No. 21) and John Curtis (No. 15).
West Monroe: Northeast Louisiana teams almost always play all the area tournaments, meaning Wossman, Carroll, Richwood, Ouachita and Rayville will be in attendance, but it gets better: Madison Prep will be in the building. The fact that I’m out of town this weekend and won’t be there to see those guys live and in person breaks my heart every time I think about it.
St. Thomas More: Going back to Chance’s rankings, the Nos. 5, 6 and 7 teams are in attendance in St. Aug, De La Salle and Riverside, respectively, but there’s more. St. Thomas More has a ceiling of being a Top 28 team in Division II, I’ve been quite impressed with Lincoln Prep so far, Episcopal (Acadiana) is one of the best in Division III and there’s more. We could debate for hours on a team-by-team basis, but based on the fact that this field is huge, this might be the best tournament in the state this week.
North Vemilion: St. Louis is probably the best team in the field (Chance’s No. 16 team), but they won’t (shouldn’t, just to be safe) dance their way to a tournament win here: North Vemilion is a solid 3A team, as is Centerville in 1A, plus Kaplan hasn’t lost very much this year.