 Back |  Print Story |
  |
|
| By Dave Haley, Posted 01-27-2009 | ||
|
||
1. Trinity 6-0 Trinity sits a top Class L with Manchester Central but unlike their inner city rivals, they have already beaten five teams that can legitimately set their sites on a top 8 seed and a first round home game. This is a team that returns five players who saw playing time in the state championship game last season and a sixth player in Phil Hayden who played for Manchester Central in the semifinals. No team in the state can put together a 12-0 run faster than the Pioneers. They push the ball and they can attack the basket as well as drive and dish to deadly outside shooters. They also are probably the most underrated defensive team in New Hampshire. The Achilles heel with this team is rebounding, bigger and more physical teams can give them problems and they are not as good a rebounding team as they were a year ago with Steve Rice and Alex Letvincheck graduated. At the same time, someone has to cover them on the perimeter and a bigger team won't have the speed to do that, so they are a nightmare to match-up with. Jordan Laguerre is one of the premiere players in the state, if not the premiere player. If David Madol continues to improve and they get the kind of play on both ends that they got from Dylan Clark against Memorial ("He was tremendous on the defensive end", said Mike Fitzpatrick of Clark) to go along with one of the best backcourts in the state in Cormac Fitzpatrick and Hayden, then this is your favorite to win it. They certainly are the number one team today. 2. Pinkerton Academy 5-1 The Astros are put together like a college team. The front line is Zach Mathieu, 6'7 and a legitimate post player. You then have Alex Rees at 6'4, the underappreciated part of the lineup, a guy who plays defense, keeps his head down and does whatever it takes to win. Ben Proulx, a big 6'5 lefty who at times plays like the best player on the floor, certainly the strongest and also looks like he just might snap one of his opponents like a pretzel at any moment. You have a 6'3 shooting guard who will play at the next level in Beau Cassidy, the kind of shooter who looks like you could wake him from a dead sleep, stick a ball in his hands and he would drain it from 23 feet. Finally, the point guard Colby Verge who plays like the great football player he is, low to the ground, straight ahead and fast as lightning. Add to that a 6'8 jump shooter and shot blocker off the bench in Scott King. So there is your squad, any local college team would take a physical lineup like that. So why aren't they the favorites? Because fair or not, the reputation on Pinkerton is they can walk into a gym like Salem and win and then walk into a game against an undermanned Winnacunnet team and be down 18-2. Yes, they were down 18-2, before they know what hit them. Salem and Trinity are very tough teams mentally. They've been through the grind and their kids handle it well. Pinkerton may do the same thing, or they may not. You just can't tell. That's why they are not the favorites. 3. Pembroke Academy 8-0 The gap between the top teams in Class L and Class I have shrunk and Pembroke is the third best team in the state right now. Matt Alosa's team has now been together for a few years and they know the system down pat and there is a great chemistry amongst his players. On any given night a different guy can beat you. Jon Grenier (15.5 ppg) is the teams leading scorer but they also get steady and sometimes spectacular play from Taylor Vasquez (10.4 ppg) and Sheldon Benson (9.7) while Tyler Yeaton provides the muscle down low. Their zone defense is designed to take teams out of their comfort level and Alosa seems to subscribe to the Bill Belichek theory of ‘Find out what an opponent does best and then take that option away from them." Pembroke made a surprising run to the Class I semifinals last year with a team that seemed to be a year away. That confidence and wins over teams like Trinity and Central in the BST summer league have only made this a stronger more competent team. With an easier schedule this year than most of the teams battling for the top spot in Class I, Pembroke may end up the #1 seed come March. 4. Manchester Central 6-0 Doc Wheeler's team is at the top of the Class L standings (what else is new?) but at the same time, no one seems to know how good they are. The fact is Class L has maybe five or six teams that you could look at today and say "They could win it all in March," and Central is certainly one of those six teams. The problem is they haven't played any of the other five yet. Well they will soon. Central gets Trinity Friday night and then in the coming weeks; Pinkerton, Manchester Memorial, Winnacunnet (who will be back to full strength) and Londonderry. No one from Central needs to issue apologies for being 6-0 and there are some good wins here , over Dover and at Bishop Guertin but the fact remains Central has beaten one team with a winning record. We'll know more in the next three weeks. When you have a player like Will Bayliss (18.5 ppg) you are in every game you play. Central will be a fun team to watch compete over the next few games. 5. Pelham 8-1 Pelham is not only beating up on teams, they're beating up on good teams. Double digit wins over Monadnock (by 22 points), Milford (15) and St. Thomas (18) are all quality wins and Todd Kress's team is the pick by many to win it all in Class I. Justin Hojlo leads the state in scoring at 28.1 points per game and plain and simple, he has been on a different level than most of the guys he is playing against. Pelham is getting contributions from Stephen Spirou (15.5 ppg), Mike Lombard (8.0 ppg and work on the glass) and Grant Hebert. Guard Sean Sweeney works with Hojlo, who has committed himself to being a big time defender, to create a very good defensive team on the perimeter. Pelham's only loss came on the road at Portsmouth and Kress talked after the game about the fact that they needed to become a better road team. A Monday night win at Oyster River and a game with Coe-Brown coming up will give them the opportunity to make that step forward. 6. Salem 4-2 Not to beat home the same point I made in my Game of the Week article Friday night but Salem is a team working towards March more so than working towards next week. You see Josh Jones and Mike Kimball instructing and encouraging their teammates as they gain experience as first year rotation players. Several times against Winnacunnet Jones could be seen pointing to a spot on the floor that a teammate should have been at. They're getting better every game and the scary part is they are pretty good right now. Nobody in their right mind is downplaying how dangerous Salem is in Class L, although EJ Perry is smart enough to tell his players they are. The Blue Devils have three good road tests in a row against; Bishop Guertin (3-3 ,well coached and talented enough to hang with anyone), Londonderry (2-3, who should just change their name to ‘a dangerous Londonderry team') and a Merrimack team still trying to re-capture what they showed at the Queen city tourney. 7. Portsmouth 7-2 This is a team you really have to grade on the curve. They have some very good wins over Pelham, Hollis-Brookline, Coe-Brown and at Milford with a team that has been without one, and sometimes without two, of their best three players all year. George Tsougranis finally returned after the Pelham win and Zac Abrams , who was incredible in his season debut in that game, celebrated his return by badly spraining his ankle in practice. Abrams may return soon but not likely before they play Oyster River on Wednesday, and that is a monkey Portsmouth needs to get off their back. John Mulvey has been great all year and is fourth in New Hampshire in scoring at 23.8 ppg. (scoring leaders are under every division standings). The good people of Durham will rightfully howl that their 6-2 team should be ranked ahead of a 6-2 team that they beat by 22 (and we'll be getting to Oyster River shortly) but the fact is Portsmouth has a much better resume and again, they are getting graded on the curve here. 8. Manchester Memorial 3-3 I know, I know, they're 3-3. I can only go by what I see and what I see (and I've seen Memorial play four times) is one of the five best teams in Class L. Look at who Memorial has beaten (Salem and Winnacunnet stand out) and even more impressively, who they have lost to ( Pinkerton in a close one, Londonderry ditto and Trinity),. In a term you will hear Seth Davis say 4,000 times in March, those are quality losses. The schedule is also about to get a lot easier for these guys. I was asked by Eric Emmerling of the Union Leader (love his High School Hoopla columns) yesterday at the game if I thought Laguerre was the player of the year so far in Class L. The answer is, yes he probably is, but you cannot have a conversation about player of the year in Class L without talking about Jason Chevefrils (19.6 ppg and about 10 boards to go with it). 9. Exeter 5-1 What does one loss tell you? Exeter went into Trinity high school Friday night with something to prove and they got run off the floor in the second half. There is no shame in losing at McHugh but a lot of people, including me, were questioning if Exeter was as good as their 5-0 start seemed to lead us to believe. I got a ton of emails last year from the Hudson area after I was told I wasn't showing enough love to an 8-1 Alvirne team. Well Alvrine finished 10-8. Am I suggesting that Exeter is going to finish 10-8? Not all but we will find out very soon how good the Blue Hawks are. Coming up on the schedule; Concord, at Pinkerton, Memorial, at Winnacunnet (big rivalry game) and "A dangerous Londonderry team" as they will now be known. The power rankings will be out every two weeks, let's see where we are then. 10. Manchester West 5-1 Read above and apply here. Sam Carey has done a terrific job in his first year as head coach and this is the legitimate surprise team in Class L. Here is where I become Debbie Downer; but they haven't beaten a team with a winning record yet and in fact they have only beaten one team, Nashua South, that is even .500 raises questions about them. Hey, you can only play who the schedule tells you to so let's not penalize these teams. At the same time we need to see where West stacks up when the schedule gets tougher and the fact is, well it doesn't for a while. Only two of their next eight opponents have winning records today, Central and Dover. The flip side to that coin is they close with this gauntlet; Salem, at Trinity, Memorial and at Pinkerton. Whew... 11. Oyster River 6-2 We apparently have gotten to the point of the power rankings where the theme has become "Lets see how they do against the top teams they will be playing in the near future', and that is where we are with Oyster River. Stuart Mitchell has done a great job in his first season and this is a young team led by veterans like Zack Benuck (13.3 ppg) and Tony Brownell (13.3 ppg and doing all the things that help you win games). Big time match-ups with Pembroke this week as well as a rematch with Portsmouth. Oyster River seems, today at least, to be on the outside looking in at Pembroke, Pelham and Portsmouth. We'll certainly know more after this week. 12. Monadnock 7-2 The champs have won five in a row and 6'6 center Nicco Demasco has been an absolute beast all season long, putting up multiple 20 rebound games. The Huskies lost a close one to Milford (55-53) and were beaten soundly by Pelham (just a bad match-up for them) but have played much better of late. Monadnock doesn't have the scoring ability to shoot themselves back into games and more often, teams will double down on Nicco and Michael Demasco and make them win from the perimeter. There is no team better at preventing second shot opportunities though and their big men have the ability to wear any team down. Ryan Hart continues to play steady at the point and the champs have shown they will put up a good defense of that title come March. 13. "A dangerous Londonderry team" 2-3 How can I put a team with a losing record as the 13th best team in New Hampshire? Allow me to state my case; The Lancers have beaten Manchester Memorial (Friday night), lost to Trinity by two points in Trinity's only non-double digit win of the year and lost at Pinkerton by 2 points well. They have played a brutal schedule which continues with Salem and Winnacunnet next and they may even be out of the top 16 because of that in two weeks. At the same time the schedule will get a lot easier in the second half for this team and they are playing the best teams in the state to a stand still every game. They have gotten great play from David Feinstein (11.5 ppg) and Matt Sanborn (12.2 ppg) and Jim Zorbas is doing as good a coaching job as anyone in the state. There is no one below Londonderry on this list that could beat them right now. 14. Stevens 6-0 Stevens moved down from Class I and made a major first impression with a 55-52 win over Conant to break the longest winning streak in New Hampshire boy's basketball history. Stevens has a talented front line led by 6'5 sophomore Kevin O'Connor and 6'7 Kaleb Tarczewski. The Cardinals have not been challenged since that opening night win but should be tested in the coming weeks with games at Hopkinton and Mascoma. Guard play will be the key for the Cardinals, you can win during the regular season with superior play down low, especially in Class M or Class S, but you are going to have to get good if not great guard play in the tourney to win it. Stevens will need to find that balance as the season goes on. 15. Laconia 6-2 Laconia is a very good team with a lot of red flags. Brady O'Neil and Christian Birt are one of the top scoring tandems in Class I and they are getting all-state performances from Peter Evans and Jordan Hawthorne. At the same time, Laconia is a team that shows their potential in flashes but never seems to consistently play like a top 4 team. Last season the Sachems got on a roll and earned the 8th seed and a home playoff game after blowing out Pembroke to end the regular season. Five days later Pembroke traveled to Laconia and Pembroke threw a curve at the Sachems, sitting back in the paint in a zone that played like an open invitation to beat them from the outside if they could. Laconia took the bait, couldn't hit from the outside and became so frustrated that they got beaten badly on their home floor. Fast forward nine months later and the same two teams meet on the same floor with almost identical personnel and what does Pembroke do? Throw the same strategy at them. Hey why change something that worked the first time? Well it worked the second time too, Laconia lost 54-41, scoring 26 points under their average. Does all of this say more about the brilliance of Matt Alosa's strategy or is it the fact that Laconia, a very talented veteran team, had nine months to adjust and still couldn't do it? Ask yourself that question. 16. Conant 5-1 Conant shook off the season opening loss (and being done with that record streak may be the best thing that ever happened to this team) and has been easily beating Class M foes again ever since. In other words, things seem to be back to normal. With a veteran group that includes Sean Martin and James Peard Conant will benefit from an easier schedule (no Franklin, Prospect Mtn. or Somersworth on the schedule) as they adjust to playing without Kyle Todd. A rematch looms with Stevens at the end of the year and this is still the team to beat within the division. On the outside looking in: Lebanon (6-2), Campbell (6-0), Dover (4-2), Nashua South (3-3), Moultonborough Academy (5-1) and Somersworth (6-1).