We are back with the Thursday Thoughts, where we take a look at all four divisions and rank the Top 10 teams in each.

 Instead of previewing the biggest games from all four divisions, we will give you our weekly power rankings and a check on where we are in each Division.

 We will be out covering four games tonight and tomorrow:

 Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will be at the David Smith Dome tonight when the Bow Falcons take on Jen’s Coe-Brown Bears.

 Tomorrow night I will be in Belmont when Jackson Ruelke and the Red Raiders take on Phil Nichols and the Winnisquam Bears.

 Pete Tarrier & Colin O’Neil will bring you all the play by play and highlights of a terrific Division II match-up when Hollis-Brookline travels to Pelham.

 Finally, Lance Legere & Jen will be in Manchester for a Division IV girls showdown when Newmarket faces off with Derryfield.

 

 Our column today and all of our Lakes Region coverage is brought to you by Kevin Shaw of Roche Realty, the top selling agent in the Lakes Region!

 Watch Jen's Golden Globe winning commercial above featuring teams from all over the Lakes Region!

 

 Division I

 Division I Standings, Gold Level Coaches & Top 20 Scoring Leaders

 Power Rankings

1. Exeter- Jeff Holmes’ Blue Hawks stay on top after a quiet week. A pair of big match-ups with Portsmouth are two weeks away. Few teams in the state space the floor as well as Exeter, who run very good offense.
2. Goffstown- The Grizzlies are the best team in the Manchester bubble and what we hoped we would one day see from Aiden O’Connell has arrived. The all-state shooting guard has gone for 23 points or more in three of his last four games.
3. Bishop Guertin- Seven players are averaging between 6 and 11 points per game for John Fisher’s team. That speaks to an unselfish group and the flow of the offense but when it gets to crunch time Dylan Santosuosso & Nate Kane need to have the ball going through them.
4. Winnacunnet- A pair of good wins over Portsmouth bumps Jay McKenna’s team from five to four. Brett Marelli scored a season-high 20 points in the Friday night win.
5. Windham- Match-ups with BG and Alvirne will tell us more about the Jaguars who swept Timberlane and split with Nashua South. We plan to cover the Tuesday night game against Alvirne. Jack St. Hilaire averaged 16 ppg. in the two games against South.
6. Portsmouth- The Clippers just need more reps, how would you like to open against Winnacunnet when they had already played three games?
7. Pinkerton- Leaving the idle Astros right here, we are looking forward to covering Dave Chase’s team when they get back on the floor.
8. Nashua North-They snuck in a very good 70-56 win over South on Sunday afternoon as Curtis Harris-Lopez (I hear he plays football) poured in 27 points.
9. Trinity-The two games next week with Memorial should be fun games, both teams are going to be good for the next few years. Mark Nyomah has been very good at forward for Keith Bike’s team.
10.  Alvirne- The Broncos jump into the Top 10 after a terrific win over Nashua North on Friday night. Four seniors have been leading the way for Marty Edwards’ team; Liam O’Neil, Charlie Thomas, Jake Hibbard and Nick Jacques.

Biggest games of the weekend: Bedford at Goffstown, Londonderry at Nashua North (2), Winnacunnet at Manchester Memorial

Where we are at today: Merrimack has to have a second scorer emerge behind Jack Tarleton (17.7 ppg)………Salem is in disarray right now and that’s tough to watch, Rob McLaughlin is a terrific coach and Ryan Pacy has given them a huge lift……Londonderry is getting better by the week, as Nate Stanton coached teams tend to do. Brian Gould, Kevin Rourke, Will Reyes and Mike Rosatano have been good, two freshman, Tyler Miles & Tyler Brown, are contributing and Jackson Cox has been one of the best guards in the state, he’s been good playing off the ball.

 

Division II

Division II Standings, Gold Level Coaches and Top 20 Scoring Leaders

       Power Rankings

1. Pelham- The Fighting Jake’s stay at #1 but they are doing it with a lot of close calls. Mike Larson’s team has won their three Division II games by seven points combined. We will get our first look at them tomorrow night against the Cavaliers.
2. Lebanon- All we have established about Kieth Matte’s Raiders is that they are better than Mascoma (they are 3-0 against them) but let’s give them some credit. Mascoma is a good Division III team and that’s their Super Bowl, the chance to beat their bigger neighbors. Winning three straight against them isn’t easy. The plan is for us to cover Lebanon twice next week; at Keene and at Kearsarge.
3. Bow- We get our first look at Tim Lee’s team tonight at Coe-Brown. I don’t think the Falcons have an idea of what level they are at yet.
4. Con Val-The Cougars didn’t get approved to start practicing until January 14th and can’t practice on weekends so it’s going to take them some time to look right.
5. Hollis-Brookline- The power rankings were created for situations like the Cavaliers. Yes they lost to Milford (really?) and Bishop Guertin (expected) but what you may not know is that the Cavaliers had to split up their team into two 8-player groups; one played Milford and the other played BG. So they stay right here at five.
6. Manchester West-Yes I’m keeping a 0-4 team at #6, they have played a brutal schedule and have been very competitive. Interested to see how they do against Sanborn next week.
7. Sanborn- Get used to seeing them in the Top 10 because they won’t be leaving. They have a great test coming up against Manchester West and then should handle their business against Campbell and Derryfield.
8. Pembroke Academy- Preston Wallis, Shondell Hadley and Mike Pitman, 5th in scoring in Division II, have been very good for Rich Otis’s team.
9. Oyster River- A close loss to Division I Spaulding doesn’t knock them out. Ben Mattioni (currently 4th in Division II scoring) is doing more than just shooting well, he’s averaging 6 rebounds and 3 assists a game as well.
10. Hanover-They face Kearsarge on Saturday in a game that should tell you a lot about both teams.

Biggest games of the weekend: Kearsarge at Hanover and Hollis-Brookline at Pelham

Where we are at today: Kingswood finally opened their season and we will be covering them for the first time Monday night in Gilford………its been a tough 2-5 start for Merrimack Valley but all-state guard Griffin Wheeler has been very good for Tim Mucher’s team.

 

Division III

Division III Standings, Gold Level Coaches and Top 20 Scoring Leaders

      Power Rankings

1. Kearsarge- Now the schedule kicks into gear. They’ll face Merrimack Valley, Lebanon, Hanover and Hopkinton in the next seven days.
2. Winnisquam- Back to back tests coming up against Belmont, we’ll be there tomorrow night. Their weak schedule could hurt them in March. They play six games against Newfound and Division IV teams while Gilford plays their next six against Division II tournament teams.
3. Gilford-The season starts now for Rick Acquilano’s team. Six straight against Division II teams should tell them exactly where they are at as a team.
4. Monadnock- The Huskies stumbled out of the gate but righted themselves last Friday night against Conant.
5. Belmont- Now that Nate Sottak is back we will see how the pieces fit. Winnisquam will offer a very tough test.
6. Hopkinton- Another team that will benefit from a tougher Division II schedule. Next three are all on the road against John Stark, Coe-Brown and Kearsarge.
7. Conant- Colson Seppala, currently 10th in Division III scoring, has stepped up into a scoring role while Manny Hodgson & Malique Motuzas are starting to come on. They play very hard and they are so well coached that no one will want to see them come March, especially at the Pratt.
8. Raymond- They’ve hit the pause button after a 70-32 win over Somersworth.
9. Mascoma- The scoring totals won’t show it but sophomore Zach Thompson is a terrific guard for the Royals. Fills the stats sheet and handles pressure well.
10.  White Mountains- I’m on the record with this but it bears repeating; Mike Curtis is a really good coach. He’s putting the pieces together here and they picked up a good win at Woodsville on Tuesday night when they struggled to hit shots. Tyler Hicks is very smart, has size and is a very good athlete. He’s someone who can match-up with a Jalen Reese or Jackson Ruelke. Avery Hazelton wasn’t a factor in most JV games last year and now is putting up double-doubles in his sleep. He’s worked very hard and has been coached up by Curtis and his staff. Brody LaBounty and Brayden White are both good guards but they will need to knockdown three’s when good teams test them. All that being said,  there’s no doubt the Spartans are better than we expected.

     Biggest games of the weekend: Winnisquam at Belmont, Belmont at Winnisquam

     Where we are at today: Brandon Kear still has not lost a game as a head coach at Mascenic Regional, they get their first test next week against his alma mater Conant…….I was looking forward to Campbell/Raymond….Somersworth is allowing 83 ppg

 

 Division IV

 Division IV Standings, Gold Level Coaches & Top 20 Scoring leaders

 Power Rankings

 1. Newmarket- The Mules are 2-1 against not only Division III teams but perennial Division III tournament teams. What the first 3 games has told us is this team is better offensively than we thought in the pre-season. Owen Tower & Amar Phoubaykham have led the way offensively while Owen Hayes & Jack Noon have been very good defensively.

 1a. Littleton- Trevor Howard’s team was shut down at the end of last week. That’s tough to deal with as it breaks a pretty good rhythm they had going. The Crusaders aren’t going to get challenged by anyone outside of White Mountains and Woodsville. Those are the games where Howard will learn who he can lean on when they inevitably face Newmarket.

 3. Woodsville-  The Engineers are better than I thought. I watched the entire White Mountains game (Woodsville jumped out to a big lead early but the Spartans outscored them 24-7 in the fourth) and came away with a few observation to share

 1). Jamie Walker is still a really good coach. They space the floor very well and they are, for the most part, sharing the basketball.

 2) Elijah Flocke is their best player.

 3) Woodsville is going to score, on anyone. The question is; if they are in a close game late against the two teams above them on this list, can they get stops? They couldn’t against White Mountains but a lot of that was Avery Hazelton (25 boards) killing them on the glass. The Engineers had no answer for him.

 4. Sunapee-  You can’t and I won’t hold the fact that they can’t beat Hopkinton or Hanover against them. In Division IV they are solidly in the Top 4 and the upcoming games against Fall Mountain and Concord Christian should help them towards playing their best in March. Sean Moynihan, Harper Flint and Nick Pollari have been playing well for Tim Putchler.

 5.  Holy Family- I’m interested to see how they do against Portsmouth Christian next week. Because you can’t go to most games, every team in the league is asking questions about the new kids on the block.

 6.  Portsmouth Christian- Maxx Spinelli has emerged as a scorer but the strength of this team remains their depth in the starting five. The PCA/Holy Family Holy War next week will be scores to keep an eye on.

 7/8/9. Pittsfield/Epping/Franklin: You can’t separate the three so let’s put them together here. Of the three Franklin has the most upside, Pittsfield has been the most consistent and I trust Epping the most in a playoff game.

10 (tie). Colebrook- They are playing hard for Ryan Call. The Dowse brothers (Kaiden & Kolten) still turn it over a lot but they are going to be all-state guards for the next two/three seasons. They’ve stepped up as scorers and played well. Now if this team could just rebound better…

10. (tie). Groveton- Oh boy….The Eagles played against both White Mountains (I was there) and Lin-Wood (I watched) with the intensity of an afternoon nap. They look like the Celtics in Denver on a Thursday night in February playing their 4th game in 5 nights. I had never seen Mark Collins that frustrated with one of his team’s lack of effort in all my time covering him. It’s not the coach, we know that…it’s the players. They have to decide to compete or they are going to be done early in March.

 

Biggest games of the weekend:  Groveton at Colebrook, Holy Family at Mount Royal

 

Where we are at today:  Nice bounce back week for Lin-Wood, with wins over Lisbon and at Groveton. The win at Groveton was thought to be their first in that gym in 25 years (do we have a Lin-Wood historian out there?). They share the ball but when the game is close, they need to feed Cam Clermont the ball. In an early season win over Lisbon I counted 3 field goal attempts in the second half…the ball needs to go through him late. Your role players take shots here & there early,,,but not late.