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| By Dave Haley, Posted 02-25-2009 | ||
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1. Trinity 14-1 Previous Rank: 1 Dave Keefe's team has been on cruise control of late as they draw closer to wrapping up the top seed in the Class L tourney. Two big tests remain with Nashua South Friday night and Pinkerton on March 3rd. Both games will be at home and both will be against teams they may see in the quarterfinal and semifinal round. Right now it's hard to argue against Jordan Laguerre as player of year in Class L. Laguerre is one of those players so talented that you could tend to take his contributions for granted. He's been steady in every game and done a nice job on both the defensive end and setting up teammates on offense. Trinity has gotten strong play of late from center Richard Madol, an underrated defender. 2. Manchester Central 12-3 Previous rank: 2 This is the team that is going to fight you to the buzzer every night. All of their losses (Nashua South, Manchester Memorial and Winnacunnet) have been hard fought/grind it out affairs and if someone is knocking these guys out of the tourney its going to take 32 minutes of basketball. Nice win at Manchester West Tuesday night and it was the start of a tough closing stretch. Doc Wheeler's team has its final three games against (at) Exeter (battling for a top 8 seed), at Nashua North (all of the sudden this is a dark horse team with Kyle Pederzani back from a knee injury) and at Salem (no comment necessary). Seamus O'Neil has been hurt and that makes the front line rotation thin but center John Wickey has played very well and Brett Parentau is capable of helping out on the boards. Sam Carey at West and Mike Fitzpatrick at Memorial will deservedly get most of the votes for coach of the year but Wheeler has done a heck of a job with this team. 3. Pelham 17-1 Previous Rank: 3 The team to beat in Class I and a team more than capable of being amongst the best in Class L. Justin Hojlo has been the most dominating player in the state and he has gotten major contributions from sophomore forward Stephen Spirou (16.1 ppg). Give head coach Todd Kress a lot of credit, this was a team that could score with anyone last year but when they got to Durham to they couldn't stop Hanover and they got run over in the quarterfinals. This team from day one made a commitment to defense and when you have two guys who combine for 45 points a night that allows you to focus on the other end of the court. No team protects their home court the way Pelham does, they are the team to beat. 4. Salem 12-3 Previous rank: 4 Boy that was a big win for Salem Tuesday night. A 78-62 win at Nashua South was their first big time win of the year and it couldn't come at a better time. If you are Salem, after an up and down (for them) season, you want that home court advantage for two games. You want someone to have to come into your house to take the title away because EJ Perry knows if this team gets back to the familiar scenery at UNH, all bets are off and it's a two game tournament. A season ending game with Central looms but Salem needed a confidence building win and they got that Tuesday night. 5. Pembroke Academy 16-1 Previous rank: 7 It's hard to get a read on this team because they just keep winning and their schedule has them playing only four games against teams that would finish in the top 10 if the season ended today. The Spartans get a nice season ending game against a Laconia team Friday night that is playing very well right now. Jon Grenier (14.5 ppg) and Sheldon Benson (10.8 ppg) lead this Pembroke team but the key player is often Taylor Vasquez (12.1 ppg), who can score in bunches when he is on and has the kind of long range ability to spread defenses out and open space for Grenier and Tyler Yeaton down low. 6. Pinkerton Academy 12-3 Previous rank: 5 Ok we've been a little hard on these guys so let's heap some praise on them. Pinkerton has some very nice wins on the resume (Salem, Manchester Memorial and Manchester West) and that loss last week to Bishop Guertin is starting to look like a "good loss" (copyright Jay Bilas). Zach Mathieu has really picked up his play of late and Colby Verge has taken on more of a scoring role as teams focus their attention on Beau Cassidy. Tough closing stretch with Nashua South and then a BIG ONE at Trinity that could be a finals preview. Pinkerton can wrap up a top 4 seed and two home playoff games with another win and a Nashua South loss (they own the tie-breaker over Memorial). 7. Bishop Guertin 9-6 Previous rank: unranked I'm just as surprised as you are. I got an email from a reader this morning saying "For what its worth my sleeper pick is BG." Good pick but no one is sleeping on these guys, they have too much going for them. Jamie Zajac has started a campaign to force his way into the first team all-state conversation and this is a team with two legit scorers in Scott St. Lawrence and Sean McClung. Head coach Jim Migneault has been through all this before and you are not sneaking anything by him come tourney time. Big games with Winnacunnet (on the road) and Manchester West (home game) as well as a dangerous Goffstown team remain as Bishop Guertin fights for a top 8 seed. 8. Manchester Memorial 10-5 Previous rank: 6 It's not their fault its mine. Really. Memorial was one of the first victims of the first ever NHsportspage jinx. I wrote in Thursday thoughts that Memorial was the most consistent team in the state and then they went out and threw basketballs all over the gym against Spaulding in their worst performance of the season. This would be on the same night that I watched Monadnock push Milford all over the gym after declaring Milford the better team. Favorable schedule to end the year, the guy who might be the difference maker on this team in a big game is Jordan Reyes. He's a good player and a streaky shooter, when he is on this team is at a different level. His shooting opens up a lot more space for Jason Chevrefils and Jeff Sowa. 9. Oyster River 15-2 Previous rank: 9 Oyster River has wrapped up home court through the quarterfinals and have won nine games in a row. Could we see Portsmouth/Oyster River III in the second round? Too early to tell but this is a consistent basketball team that never seems to ‘wow' anyone but also never seems to beat themselves. A lot of that has to do with their guard play. Zack Benuck and Tony Brownell are the best backcourt in Class I and they have the experience to both apply pressure and navigate through it. 10. Nashua South 10-5 Previous Rank: 8 Nashua South's closing stretch of games jumped out at us in December and here we are. They are 0-1 after losing to Salem Tuesday night and it gets no easier with games at Trinity Friday night followed by Manchester Memorial and at Pinkerton Academy. The way Bishop Guertin, Winnacunnet and Exeter are playing, home court in round one is very much in jeopardy (can you imagine a BG/South playoff game atmosphere?). Jake Nelson and Dan Feehan have led South all season and will need to come up big in the final weeks of the regular season. 11. Monadnock 13-4 Previous rank: 12 You can pick up a lot when you see a team in person and one thing you notice about he defending champs is..well they play like the defending champs. There is an air of confidence with this team and nothing seems to rattle them or get them too excited. Ryan Hart is never going to make your all-warm-up's team (doesn't Dicky V have one of those?), because he doesn't look like the kind of guy who is going to impress you when the ball is tipped but he does. He's steady, he doesn't turn it over he's been there/done that. That is invaluable at tourney time. I think this team gives Laconia a ton of problems if they face off in the 4/5 game in the tourney. 12. Manchester West 9-6 Previous rank: 15 This team just is not as strong as it was with Richard Valentin but they are still getting it done with an all-state season from Besfort Syla and players like Jared Swiggard, Dylan Manz and Andrew Klimm. A closing stretch of games that looked fairly easy a few weeks ago is suddenly a tough stretch. Nashua North, Spaulding and Bishop Guertin are all teams capable of knocking off good teams and West would like to host a playoff game in Sam Carey's first season as head coach. 13. Laconia 14-3 Previous rank: unranked A month ago the Sachems lost at home to arch-rival Plymouth and with it, hit a low point. Christian Birt briefly left the team and the ship seemed to be taking on water. Birt though returned and since then, this has been a different basketball team. A better basketball team. Laconia has won eight games in a row including impressive wins over Portsmouth, Coe-Brown and two over Kennett. Big one Friday night at Pembroke, who has given the Sachems fits in their last two meetings. 14. Stevens 16-0 Previous rank: 13 The only undefeated team in the state. Stevens has a HUGE game with Conant Friday night and has, in the last three weeks, survived a game where they trailed by 5 with under two minutes to play against Hopkinton and a double overtime win at home over Franklin (who proved they are a true title contender in the loss). These games will help Stevens immeasurably down the road. When a team cruises through a regular season without really being tested, it leaves them a weaker team because they are going to be tested at some point in the playoffs. When the pressure and the bright lights are on Stevens they will know how to handle the end of game situations and they'll have the confidence that comes from winning those close games against Hopkinton and Franklin. 15. Winnacunnet 9-6 Previous rank: 11 Winners of six of seven games and the squad that officially joins Bishop Guertin as the team no one wants to play in the first round right now. Jay Mckenna's team is getting contributions from players like Nate Vincent and Jared Gillis in turning their season around. With two home games remaining and a road game at 3-11 Keene, the Warriors seem to have the inside track to a top 8 finish. 16. Conant 15-1 Previous rank: 14 Think they are looking forward to Friday night? Four starters returned this season from last years undefeated champs but the loss of Kyle Todd was a big one. Can they win it again? Absolutely but this is a different team that really only features two scorers; Sean Martin and James Peard. Conant needs to win with their defense, they are not the kind of team that can get in a shoot out on a regular basis because of Peard and Martin are not scoring they're in trouble. Brandon Kear and Kemph Kim play their roles very well, but they are not scorers. Should be a great one Friday night. On the outside lurking: Portsmouth, Campbell, Milford, Moultonborough Academy, Prospect Mountain, Newmarket and Exeter.