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Watson's departure made Johnstown a better team in my opinion. Instead of one player dominating, the ball can be spread out and give players like Haselrig, Madison, and Brandon their chances to take over. I Think they are playing like more of a team now. If they played Mccort now, the would win by 20 rather than 2.

Also destroying Westmont the way they did was somewhat a fluke in my opinion. They shot 18/20 from three....incredible numbers. Luck was on their side.

The Johnstown players may have also been fired up because their teammate leaving. They were playing with fire and intensity from Watson's loss that may not still be there in a few games.

I'm interested to see them play now, I thought they would be lost without him.

everyone sucks

The "glory days" for this area are long gone. There is no chance for a War Memorial type tournament ever again here. The area had the best HS hoops tournament in the USA in the War Memorial Invitational but when the "Everyone Gets a Trophy" menatlity took hold in the area in the early 90's and every piss ant school started holding their own torunaments during the time of the War Memorial Invitational -- so their kids could get their own trophys, the whole thing fell apart. It was the best and the "Johnstown Mentality" killed it. Now every small school gets their trophy in the 50 local holiday tournaments.

Paul Litwalk, John Swogger, Joe Flori, iconic type coaches don't exist anymore. They couldn't in todays "everyone gets a trophy" world because they were highly competitive, motivated, hard nosed, no nonsense people who got the most out of thoer kids by holding them responsible, making them accountable and challenging them to the Nth degree. In todays world they call this child abuse -- it's not good to put any pressure on a kid to improve. it might make them feel bad about themselves and heavens knows we don't want any of that. They would not survive in todays world where EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY.

The key to having any chance to be competitive in the area TODAY is twofold. First, it's about having a structured highly competitive summer program including a significant amount of highly competitive AAU competition. I'm not talking about mommy and daddy's local AAU ball. I'm talking about taking the kids out of the area -- way out of the area to the big city to see some real competition. Get their asses kicked some. See who wants to play and who doesn't. Then go from there. You can spot kids who play competitive AAU ball from a mile away. They are the kids that stand out -- Gallaher, most of the JHS team, Mccort frosh, etc... This AAU was NOT NEEDED back when things were competitive around here but TODAY it's the only chance a kid has to really improve and develop his skills.

Second, once the HS season starts IT'S ALL ABOUT THE NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE because most of the time that's where you are going to get your competitive games. A coach can control who he plays non conference. If he's on top of things he will know who is going to have a team this year and next and if he and his AD are on top of things they can get competitive games. It's best to play these NC games away from home if possible with winning being the goal but not the drop dead end all. You gotta get the kids some time against the best comp in HS season or they will eventually play down to the level of their conference competition which will likely contain a high percentage of teams that do very little during the off season to challenge their kids. Maybe they can't because the kids and parents don't want to do it and are happy with a "recreational program". You see this is where it all ends up when you allow so many tiny schools to exist.

JHS is for sure at a disadvantage playing in a A -AA conference but they have 6-8 NC games they can schedule. And their coach is highly competitive. Coupled with their summer AAU regimen, I think they have a shot this and next year. Good luck Trojans.

psycho wrote:The "glory days" for this area are long gone. There is no chance for a War Memorial type tournament ever again here. The area had the best HS hoops tournament in the USA in the War Memorial Invitational but when the "Everyone Gets a Trophy" menatlity took hold in the area in the early 90's and every piss ant school started holding their own torunaments during the time of the War Memorial Invitational -- so their kids could get their own trophys, the whole thing fell apart. It was the best and the "Johnstown Mentality" killed it. Now every small school gets their trophy in the 50 local holiday tournaments.

Psycho, Please define "glory days". If one NBAer and a few college players constitutes the glory days, then I guess we've always paled in comparison to other larger metro areas, huh? I'll have to take your word on the best HS hoops tourney in the USA. After all, we have the best baseball tournament, too.

And while you are at it, please list the 50 holiday tournaments. Considering we only have 33 schools in the area, I'd like to know which tournaments we have been missing all of these years.

I really think it is time we CONSOLIDATE all of the old folks homes around here. That way we won't have to get behind all of the buses and transport vans taking care of the elderly while we are hurriedly trying to get going to piss ant tournaments. It really is annoying, plus it would give you a lot more time to sit behind the computer because you wouldn't have to worry about the commute. Oh, and while we're CONSOLIDATING nursing homes, let's decrease MEDICARE and Social Security payments because after all they really are a drain on the taxpayer. Just think of the trophies we could buy with that....

you must not know the lore of the War Memorial tournament. It is rather impressive.

Watching Rasheed Wallace explode for 30+ points against Johnstown was one of the highlights that I remember at that tournament.

It was an outstanding tournament.

Westmont worse team in the LHAC.....

Thats funny because they beat richland tonight and the are 3-1 in League Play!

Come on psycho,you really love to crap on the area don't you.Do you ever really read the papers?We had the number one runner in the USA last year at altoona in the 400.Central cambria cross country teams win how many state titles.Tussey mountain and southern fulton did well in the playoffs last year in basketball.You have had quite a few local final four football teams over the past few seasons locally.How about volleyball there is another success story,quite a few local teams have won state titles there.Holidaysburg won the state golf title a few years back.This area is also considered a hot bed for wrestling.If I left anyone out I'm sorry.Sorry psycho the are does alright considering its size.Kinda shoots a hole in your theory!

With regards to psycho's last post: I find most of it to agree with, and I realize that says alot.