Coach Talk: Breaking down the title race in Class B
I have spilled plenty of (theoretical) ink on this here website on the changes brought about by instituting the select/non-select split in basketball for the first time this season. All of that having been done, Class B is primarily unimpacted…
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Continue ReadingI have spilled plenty of (theoretical) ink on this here website on the changes brought about by instituting the select/non-select split in basketball for the first time this season. All of that having been done, Class B is primarily unimpacted with the exception of one of last year’s semifinalists, Grace Christian, heading off to Division V.
Since we could have a similarly entertaining chase for the Class B championship like we did last year, I stopped Simsboro coach Josh Brown at the Sterlington Christmas Tournament a little while ago to get his thoughts on the classification and the race for its championship. Here are some of the notes from our conversation.
- I asked him straightforward: “Who’s good in Class B this year?” (It’s worth noting that we had just got done talking about how absurdly young his roster is this year: four juniors, four sophomores, two freshmen and three 8th-graders.) He listed off Zwolle, Florien, Hathaway, Weston and Glenmora, but couldn’t resist adding, “And, hopefully, you have to throw us in there.”
- This conversation also came the day after I witnessed his star player junior Deonte Levingston, hang 26 points and an otherwise well-rounded performance in a loss to Delhi. Brown said, “I wouldn’t trade him for anybody in Class B,” but did list some other stars in Class B: Zwolle’s junior big man Quinn Perry, Florien’s 6’5” junior point guard Brock Booker and Hathaway’s well-rumored size like senior forwards Trenton Guidry and Timothy Miller (Miller is the only one not ranked in our PrepHoops rankings). Brown said he hadn’t seen Hathaway in person yet but had heard about that size: their MaxPreps roster has four listed a 6 feet or taller and two more at 5’11”.
- The fact that Simsboro has been competitive with Class B’s best while Brown is merely hopeful his Tigers will become one of those indicates that most of these teams are on level grounds. Throw out the 13-point loss to Zwolle (Simsboro had some off-court stuff going on at the time), Simsboro beat Weston and Grace Christian earlier this year. Florien is as close to the favorite as Class B is going to get, having already beaten Zwolle, Weston and Simsboro this year.