Five Key Questions: 6A
With one week of games under the belt, below are 5 questions that will be answered shortly in 6A.
Can Anyone Beat Pinnacle?
A week ago, most would have answered yes and stated Perry. While Perry is not out of the race and is still waiting for important football prospects to return to the team, specifically Kyle Patterson, they do not look up to the challenge at this point. With that said, this is a long year.
As far as teams who could take the court and compete with Pinnacle right now, the top competition appears to be Mountain Pointe. Khalid Price and Jalen Graham are one a mission. Fortunately, this question will be answered quite soon as Mountain Pointe and Pinnacle will take the court on December 4th.
Pinnacle will be coming into this game after a highly anticipated game against Shadow Mountain. Needless to say, this two game stretch has the potential to be two of the biggest games of the year with Nico Mannion as well as the other talented players of Pinnacle going toe to toe with one of the top teams in the nation in Shadow.
How Good is Westview?
At the time, Westview’s win against Perry looked like the biggest upset of the week. While that still might be the case, Westview then stumbled in their game against Pinnacle.
With that said, what everyone wants to know is how good is Westview? Their wins over Perry and Williams Field might be the two most surprising wins of this young season as Westview lost three of their four leading scorers from last year in Cameron Katal, transfer; Cedric Bridges, graduation; and Christian Diaz; graduation.
While this question will inevitably be answered throughout the course of the season, it appears as though D’Maurian Williams is on a mission. After four games, he is nearly averaging thirty points per game for the team.
Westview will need more players to step up in order to make some real noise. However, Williams is showing the rest of the state exactly what he is capable of doing; thus keep an eye on Westview.
Is Khalid Price the Most Slept on Guard in the State?
Most figured that Pinnacle would be better than last year and Mountain Pointe would be good, but not as good as last year due to losing key prospects.
While Pinnacle might live up to that expectation, Mountain Pointe is doing their job in defying what people thought of them. Price has been one of the biggest keys to this due to his ability to impact the game in an array of ways.
He is scoring the basketball at an improved rate while still getting others involved. He is fundamentally sound and makes people around him better while being an elite on ball defender. Further, he is a winner. Yet, he has struggled to earn the interest of potential college suitors.
Many college coaches claim they want winners; however, plenty are dropping the ball on Price. While he is not a high or mid-major D1 guard, Price has a level and will make someone look very smart for their investment into him.
Is Mesa a Contender?
Mesa is under new leadership and made it to the championship of the Fear the Hop tournament. They lost in the championship to Corona Del Sol. In recent years, that would be understandable. However, Corona still has plenty of questions to answer as well with Dalen Terry transferring to in-state Hillcrest Prep.
With that said, Mesa did beat Boulder Creek, who is missing their best player to injury, in overtime and finished the tournament 3-1 with convincing wins over Queen Creek and Campo Verde.
Mesa has plenty of senior leadership and should be alright as they adjust to a new head coach. They will rely heavily on Zach Hobbs and Tony Adame.
Is Sandra Day O’Connor a Top 10 Team in 6A?
SDO went toe to toe with Apollo, despite the close loss; beat Ironwood and Estrella Foothills all in one weekend of action. They enter powerpoint games with a 3-1 record and look ready to make some noise.
This team is well-coached and they are locked in. They have good leadership on the floor with Chase Morley. Further, Eljah Trice and Keaton Rodgers another dynamic to the team with shooters filling in the gaps to extend the floor.
While I don’t see SDO winning a state title, the group is competitive and has a high basketball IQ. With the region that they are in and the talent that they possess, it would not be surprising to see them get a first round bye in the state tournament. This would mean that they finished in the top 8 in 6A according to the AIA powerpoint rankings.