WPIAL~Titan's Thoughts from Hershey...
-
WPIAL~Titan
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 3837
- Joined: September 5th, 2003, 6:15 pm
- Location: Titan Town, PA
WPIAL~Titan's Thoughts from Hershey...
Good summary as usual, CHOPS, I looked for you, but couldn't find you...I was in my traditional WPIAL comped seats--Half court, opposite the benches, 5 rows up.
Just a few of my observations:
*I caught the Saturday evening session live (AAA girls and AAAA boys) as I usually do. I saw the other games on TV.
*One of the officials for the AAA girls game is one of my neighbors here in Shaler! Way to go Dolly!!!! HR, Dolly is the mother of the slick SS from our PIAA defending champ softball team, better known as "Olive Oyl."
*Great talking to HeadRoadie and Coach. They are two knoweldgeable guys who enjoy PA hs hoops as much as I do, and those District 5 folks are a nice bunch. The D5 chairman even offered me a few of their seats, however, I was already sitting with my wife and children.
*I have to respectfully DISAGREE with CHOPS on one thing: As good as Steel-High was, they would lose handily to both Lower Merion AND Chester, probably by 25 to Chester and by 10-15 to LM. AAAA basketball is just at an entirely different level than A, AA, or AAA. Yeah, Steel-High looked extra quick and played like the Boston Celtics against the likes of Jtown, but with all due respect, there's no way Crawford and Hawthore looks 1/2 as quick against much better competition like Chester.
*I attended the AAAA boys' gymnastics/track meet and a basketball game broke out!!! What an array of athletic plays by BOTH teams...Blocked shots, windmill jams, tap dunks, ankle breaking cross-overs, in your face defense---unbelievable...That game featured things that we former and current D-5/6ers wouldn't see here in any hoop games in our lifetimes. Despite the athleticism think about this: Chester LOST 6 GAMES this season, most to teams from NYC and LA. Imagine how good athletic the players much be in places like NYC and LA and Chicago.
*Comparative score of the day:
Shaler Area 72 All Hallows HS (NYC) 66 (Shaler led by 12 late before All Hallows hit a few late buckets to make it close)
Chester beat All Hallows in a tourney consy game in OT by 7 (81-74) after trailing All Hallows virtually the whole game.
*Lower Merion had a very solid team (hung with ChesHi and trailed by only 2 at halftime!), but the athleticism of Chester wore them down in the 2nd half as I figured it would.
*There are few coaches anywhere in PA as solid as Lower Merion's coach Greg Downer!!! he had a great game plan, and almost pulled it off despite having 1/10th the talent of Chester. How about this stat: Lower Merion was the #12 seed in the District 1 AAAA tourney
*I had a chance to talk with the WPIAL associate chair about the stupidity and unfairness of the "Follow the Winner" System for determining PIAA playoffs bids from the WPIAL. He told me about the huge job it is to plan the WPIAL hoops playoffs, but when I talked about how District 1 and 3, who run big tourneys as well, can play consy rounds for 3rd, 5th, and 7th place. He seemed to listen...translated: Follow-the-winner will continue.
*Lance Jeter from BFalls is a very good playter who carried BFalls through a magical season and got the only boys' title for the west." A solid off-season and some exposure at camps and AAU should net Jeter a scholarship to a small or mid-major D1.
*That said, as good as Jeter is, he'd be the 6th or 7th man and wouldn't even start for Chester High!!!!!!!! Hence, the difference between AA and AAAA.
*Who else is sick and tired of watching private schools with 4-5 D1 studs (or studettes) clean up? Did anyone really think that Mercyhurst prep girls team was going to lose in AAA after winning AAAA last year with 4 of 5 starters returning??? Joke City...Make all privates play AAAA and then we will see how good Kennedy Christian, York Cath, Delone Cath, etc. are.
Another year of hoops complete. See you next year!
WT
Just a few of my observations:
*I caught the Saturday evening session live (AAA girls and AAAA boys) as I usually do. I saw the other games on TV.
*One of the officials for the AAA girls game is one of my neighbors here in Shaler! Way to go Dolly!!!! HR, Dolly is the mother of the slick SS from our PIAA defending champ softball team, better known as "Olive Oyl."
*Great talking to HeadRoadie and Coach. They are two knoweldgeable guys who enjoy PA hs hoops as much as I do, and those District 5 folks are a nice bunch. The D5 chairman even offered me a few of their seats, however, I was already sitting with my wife and children.
*I have to respectfully DISAGREE with CHOPS on one thing: As good as Steel-High was, they would lose handily to both Lower Merion AND Chester, probably by 25 to Chester and by 10-15 to LM. AAAA basketball is just at an entirely different level than A, AA, or AAA. Yeah, Steel-High looked extra quick and played like the Boston Celtics against the likes of Jtown, but with all due respect, there's no way Crawford and Hawthore looks 1/2 as quick against much better competition like Chester.
*I attended the AAAA boys' gymnastics/track meet and a basketball game broke out!!! What an array of athletic plays by BOTH teams...Blocked shots, windmill jams, tap dunks, ankle breaking cross-overs, in your face defense---unbelievable...That game featured things that we former and current D-5/6ers wouldn't see here in any hoop games in our lifetimes. Despite the athleticism think about this: Chester LOST 6 GAMES this season, most to teams from NYC and LA. Imagine how good athletic the players much be in places like NYC and LA and Chicago.
*Comparative score of the day:
Shaler Area 72 All Hallows HS (NYC) 66 (Shaler led by 12 late before All Hallows hit a few late buckets to make it close)
Chester beat All Hallows in a tourney consy game in OT by 7 (81-74) after trailing All Hallows virtually the whole game.
*Lower Merion had a very solid team (hung with ChesHi and trailed by only 2 at halftime!), but the athleticism of Chester wore them down in the 2nd half as I figured it would.
*There are few coaches anywhere in PA as solid as Lower Merion's coach Greg Downer!!! he had a great game plan, and almost pulled it off despite having 1/10th the talent of Chester. How about this stat: Lower Merion was the #12 seed in the District 1 AAAA tourney
*I had a chance to talk with the WPIAL associate chair about the stupidity and unfairness of the "Follow the Winner" System for determining PIAA playoffs bids from the WPIAL. He told me about the huge job it is to plan the WPIAL hoops playoffs, but when I talked about how District 1 and 3, who run big tourneys as well, can play consy rounds for 3rd, 5th, and 7th place. He seemed to listen...translated: Follow-the-winner will continue.
*Lance Jeter from BFalls is a very good playter who carried BFalls through a magical season and got the only boys' title for the west." A solid off-season and some exposure at camps and AAU should net Jeter a scholarship to a small or mid-major D1.
*That said, as good as Jeter is, he'd be the 6th or 7th man and wouldn't even start for Chester High!!!!!!!! Hence, the difference between AA and AAAA.
*Who else is sick and tired of watching private schools with 4-5 D1 studs (or studettes) clean up? Did anyone really think that Mercyhurst prep girls team was going to lose in AAA after winning AAAA last year with 4 of 5 starters returning??? Joke City...Make all privates play AAAA and then we will see how good Kennedy Christian, York Cath, Delone Cath, etc. are.
Another year of hoops complete. See you next year!
WT
Re: WPIAL~Titan's Thoughts from Hershey...
beaver falls did it's part for all of humanity by beating york catholic,believe me they (fans) were not happy to lose to a poor public school. this game also featured a couple sweet dunks from beaver falls, that really pumped up the faithful in orange and black.
Re: WPIAL~Titan's Thoughts from Hershey...
I liked the hershey atmosphere this year... I personally think that if johnstown would have kept the pace that they were playing at and the defense that they had in the first quarter they could have kept the game close for a late run @ the W, but they didnt discipline themselves enough to keep up the defense and down on the turnovers... They played hard, but not the way they needed to, to win... but with putback dunks from 5'11 opposing players its hard to keep the confidence level up id imagine...
*I THINK that Steel High could have beaten lower marion... they didnt impress me against chester to even be aggressive enough to stop the duo from Steel High... I think there was great defensive man to man guard play on hawthorn which only allowed 11 points from him... the team defense from johnstown is what hurt in the end...
*I THINK that Steel High could have beaten lower marion... they didnt impress me against chester to even be aggressive enough to stop the duo from Steel High... I think there was great defensive man to man guard play on hawthorn which only allowed 11 points from him... the team defense from johnstown is what hurt in the end...
Re: WPIAL~Titan's Thoughts from Hershey...
I think it was Steel's zone defense that kept johnstown in the game early. That is why they(JT) were able to keep tempo. Once Steel went to a man, Johnstown could not match with their athletes and experience. I thought Hoffman played a terrible game. I also heard he did not play very well against Erie. He didn't seem to play big in a big game. Maybe he was better in person, but on TV, I wasn't impressed.