After a good showing last year...

[WPIAL~Titan]

WPIAL Girls hoops isn't "bad" but certainly not great.

Mount Lebo is the best team in the state and has been for 2 years. Anyone in D6 loses to them by 25+, including BG and NC. The other girls AAAA teams are good, not great.

Hopewell and New Castle are excellent teams. Indiana and Char Valley are solid as well. Those 4 could beat anyone in D6.

I saw Cone Valley play in the Indiana Tourney at Christmastime. If you think they're good, you're kidding yourself. They lost to a below average WPIAL AAAA team by 100. They looked like they were playing in slow motion.

On the boys side, honest to God, I have seen JV teams at the WPIAL AAAA level that could make the 5A or 6A playoffs.

[sydfinch]

BG will roll as there is no competition in class A ball outside of NC. Too bad they are both in the west -- at least we would see a competitive state final.

Um, Northern Cambria and Bishop Carroll both are in the East bracket. If Northern wins their first game, they'd likely get a rematch with Nativity BVM.

http://www.piaa.org/assets/web/document ... B_Brax.pdf

[Reflexin]

Titan.... If you are going to post something bad about a team, get your facts straight.

I saw Cone Valley play in the Indiana Tourney at Christmastime. If you think they're good, you're kidding yourself. They lost to a below average WPIAL AAAA team by 100. They looked like they were playing in slow motion.

Little ole' single A Conemaugh Valley lost to AAAA Penn Hills by about 17 points CV was playing without their all-state player and their first sub off the bench. Plus playing a large amount of sophomores.

You can't compare classifications because naturally, the bigger school should be better. Same with comparing a public to a private even if they are in the same classification.

[the cricket]

I think 1 team out of girls and boys 5a will win a first round game. It quite possibly could be Tussey in both situations.

[zonebreaker]

in girls A and AA over the last handful of years, d6 owns the wpial. the record is something like 20-8 ... it might be worse. i do think d6AA might be down this year (most of the top AA teams lost to the A teams) so maybe this will be the year d7 gets some revenge.

[the cricket]

Southern Huntington will do well again this year

[WPIAL~Titan]

I was at the CV-PHills game. My facts are indeed straight...They lost to PHills by 17, but it may as well have been 100 because CV had no chance at any point in that game. At one point, they were down by almost 30. CV was horrible that night and showed me nothing. I am aware that their best player wasn't playing, but good teams overcome that kind of thing, especially against bad teams like PHills. I was being nice when I called PHills a "below average" girls' AAAA team. They're in the bottom 5-6 teams in WPIAL AAAA.

Here's my point: Girls' basketball in western PA isn't bad, and that includes the WPIAL; Boys' basketball in western PA is as bad as bad can be.

[westpac bball]

Boys' basketball in western PA is as bad as bad can be.

I agree that the boys basketball is bad in the westpac. It is probably the worst in the whole state. But there are some good teams in the westpac. Those teams would be Conemaugh Valley and North Star. Shade had a good year but they play in the south and it is very weak and couldn't get too the playoffs. But just because the basketball is bad overall doesn't mean that all the players are bad. There is some good players in the westpac and i don't think i have to name them.

[ladyhoopsters2007]

Girls D6 A and AA has dominated WPIAL last 7-8 years because we had a competitive AAU program here. That is no longer the case so you are seeing the result in the drastic drop in level of play.

As far as Mt Lebo is concerned, Westmont 06' with a coach would have beaten todays Lebo team. That's how good the were. I know because i played with alot of them in the summer.

Mr Titan, you are correct -- CV is a joke as is the entire westpac conference anymore. Yet just watch -- the conference will have 3-4 all state players this year, who you will never hear from again. As I have read on this board before and confirmed for myself, our local newspaper sports department is made up of 3 reporters -- all of whom attended westpac schools. They lobby for their own and usually ignore more deserving kids from the LHAC and other schools. NC's Sedlock being left off the all state team a couple years ago is a stunning example, but there are many more. The guys who pick the all state team fall for it not knowing how terrible the competition is in westpac. Anytime a westpac team steps out to play a real team --like CV did with Penn Hills and Windber did with Delone and Hollidaysburg this year -- they get spanked. It's really sad yet our local press will promote these kids as some sort of basketball goddesses when they play absolutely no competition whatsoever. And they do it solely because they want to take care of their own thus demeaning and making a mockery of the selection process and the all state team. That's the way it works up here.

[WPIAL~Titan]

LOL @ the assumption that the '06 Westmont girls would beat this year's Mt. Lebo girls.