Friday’s Daily Dive: Carmel’s Groove, Jimtown’s Defense, Delta For Real
The end is near for the local county tournaments but some of the big action is happening in other parts of the state. Today, we look into Carmel’s win over Center Grove, Jimtown’s defense, and Delta’s respect among other topics. …
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe end is near for the local county tournaments but some of the big action is happening in other parts of the state. Today, we look into Carmel’s win over Center Grove, Jimtown’s defense, and Delta’s respect among other topics. Here. We. Go.
Carmel Keeps It Going Against Center Grove
Now sitting at 8-0, Carmel is primed for a big run this year. We will get to that in a minute. But, their win over Center Grove, doing it scoring just 47 points, is vintage Carmel and they look like they have things working perfectly right now.
Center Grove isn’t a slouch. Neither were New Albany, Jeffersonville, Zionsville, or Lawrence Central. And Carmel has wins over all of them. No losses to anyone either. 8-0. Their schedule doesn’t get easier but that is pretty normal for a MIC team as they will have Cathedral, Pike, Brownsburg in the next two weeks alone.
As for their run this year, this seems like a team that will be playing late into March. They get to go North which is way easier than South. They also have their big man, John-Michael Mulloy, playing like a high-major player, and have plenty of depth. This team also knows how to close games out. No win has been less than five points. They have a lot going for them, have proven their on the same page, and have a path that is winnable.
Jimtown Getting It Done On Defense
When looking into surprise teams, Jimtown has to be on your list. Now 8-2 on the year and coming off a key win over South Bend St. Joseph on Friday night. But, part of their success is their defense.
Only giving up 43.9 points per game, Jimtown ranks as the 18th best defensive team in that category. Allowing so few points has put them in a position to win a lot of games, keeping them in the tough ones to at least have a chance. The flip side is they are only averaging about 47.5 points per game on offense with a season high of 62. So, it’s not as if their offense is doing much to help them at this point making their defense the key in each game. Even in their two losses, the separation was a combined 5 points.
Can this be sustainable throughout the season? Not sure but they do hold wins over South Bend Washington, NorthWood, and South Bend St. Josephs now. The game to look at is on February 5th when they play Mishawaka Marian. A top team in the state and in their Sectional. If they can do it there, they might have a chance to make a run.
Delta Now 10-0, Time For Respect?
Strength of schedule plays a huge part in our rankings. Who have you played? Have you won those games? But at a certain point, you have to give credit to those teams that might not have a ridiculously hard schedule but one tough enough. Delta, now 10-0, sits as a team that has knocked off Connersville, Hamilton Heights, Muncie Central, Alexandria, and now New Palestine after last night.
We knew this team could be pretty solid but in 3A, there are a lot of very qualified teams to be ranked so high with much tougher schedules. By now, thought, Delta has been consistent in their approach and hasn’t wavered with their success and has enough key wins to make it more realized.
The thing we are most surprised about is the margin of victory. They are 3rd in the state in average margin at 27 points. They are 22nd in offense at 70.1 points per game and 15th on defense in 43.1 points per game. Looking at the rest of their schedule, it doesn’t get easier and this is interesting as they still will face Mt. Vernon-Fortville, New Castle, Pendleton Heights, and Shelbyville. Those are a step up from the first half and so far, they have only had one game within 10 points in the final score, the first game of the year. Would expect some of these in the back half to be much closer.
Quick Hitters:
- Greene County Invitational Championship will be between Linton-Stockton vs. Bloomfield on Saturday. This is a battle of two of the better small school teams and would be a huge win for either program.
- Avon will face Brownsburg in the Hendricks County Tournament Championship game on Saturday. Brownsburg looked as good as they have all season and Avon was locked in. Will be a tough matchup, though, for Avon.
- Westview gets back in the win column by beating Hamilton, 91-50. In the win, Charlie Yoder surpassed the 1,000 point career mark. Westview is now 8-4.
- Warren Central continues their winning streak as they knocked off Lawrence North, 49-40. They are now 9-0 on the year but their schedule doe not get any easier as they take on Hamilton Southeastern on Saturday and the Marion County Tournament next week.
- Southwestern (Hanover) is now 12-1 with a win over Trimble County (KY). This team has been one of the more impressive teams with their consistency and averaging nearly 70 points per game. Lanesville is up tomorrow so a big one on their schedule.
- Plymouth knocked off Elkhart Memorial to give them their second loss of the season. Memorial is an interesting case as they have beaten some solid teams like Penn and Portage but the loss in overtime to Plymouth will hurt a bit.They still have a few tough games ahead with Washington, Riley, and Mishawka Marian.
- Northwestern pulled off a huge win over Hamilton Heights to move to 9-0 as they hit a near halfcourt shot at the buzzer. The Tigers have been really solid this year winning big and in close games. Lock in January 11th as they will take on Tipton. Could be a fun game.
- Lafayette Central Catholic moves to 8-2 as they get a win over rival McCutcheon by 20 points. Their only losses are to Northwestern and Lafayette Jeff. They look like they are going to be a force in 1A this year as they have been very consistent in their defensive effort.
- Jeffersonville knocked off rival New Albany. This is a big win as they look to possibly take control of the Kentuckiana area. They already have wins over Silver Creek and now New Albany with Floyd Central just a week out. Now 6-3 on the year, Jeffersonville is setting themselves up to emerge from their very difficult Sectional.
- Greensburg picks up their second straight win over Connersville as they have played them in back to back games. Unlike the last game, that went into overtime but still had Greensburg win by 19 points in OT, they pulled this one out by 9 in regulation. Greensburg is now 11-1 on the year with a fairly easy back half of the schedule. 20+ wins is very likely for this team.
- Fort Wayne Northrop’s win over Snider is huge as Northrop now has key wins against Fort Wayne area teams like Snider, South, and Luers. They did split with Snider in their last two games played. The really good Fort Wayne teams come late in the year. This team could be hitting on all cylinders by that time.
- Although Crown Point had three straight losses before their win tonight against Michigan City, this team is quite good and could surprise some. In their three recent losses, they lost those games by a combined 5 points. 8 more points in those games and this team is 9-1.
- In one of the more convincing and confusing wins of the year, Castle knocked off Evansville Memorial. It wasn’t that Castle beat Memorial, that was probably likely. But to do it 72-43, a 29 point win, that is a little crazy and begs the question, “what is going on with Memorial?”