From time to time this season we'll be checking in on the NEPSAC and various NH athletes who are contributing to their prep school basketball teams. With 2013 coming to a close, we'll take a look at the standings, and where teams are headed as the new year kicks off next week...
 

First and foremost lets talk a little about the NEPSAC and how it operates for those that don't know.  There are several "Classes" including Class AAA, AA, A, B, C and D.  Teams play within their Class and outside as well, even against teams in other leagues.  We'll be keeping standings and statistics for the 3 Class A conferences.  Programming Note: We're still looking for quite a few teams to send us complete game stats to keep our scoring leaders updated and accurate, so feel free to send them in to stats@nhsportspage.com.  

For now, we're just providing overall standings as we're a bit limited to what's available by our software provider but soon we'll have Class records as well - which is what the NEPSAC does their seedings based on when tourney time comes around in March.

CLASS AAA

Standings
Scoring Leaders

Class AAA includes two NH teams including 2 time National Champion Brewster Academy (NH) in Wolfeboro and New Hampton (NH) just across the lake who are competitive in the league year after year.  This season, Class AAA is loaded with last years NEPSAC Champion and National Champion Northfield Mount Hermon (MA) as well as extremely talented squads in South Kent School (CT) and St. Thomas More (CT).  

Only one of Brewster's early season loses came against a conference foe in St. Thomas More.  Of course STM followed that big win over Brewster up with a loss at South Kent who has only one defeat on the season to...you guessed it…Brewster.  

NMH has had a pretty easy schedule comparably speaking and sits at 9-0 through December.  They'll kick 2014 off when they travel to a pesky Deerfield Academy team then to Brewster and finally hosting Putnam Science in the first 2 weeks of 2014.  We'll learn a lot more about what type of title defense they'll be putting up this season after that stretch of 3 games.

Rounding out Class AAA is New Hampton and Bridgton (ME), both teams who have talent (New Hampton a bit more) though likely not quite enough to compete for the Class AAA title this season with the heavy hitters listed above.  It's still early, so anything can happen, but Brewster and Northfield again look like the two best bets to meet for the championship at Endicott in March.

From the stats that have been reported (minimum 5 games reported) Eric Paschall of STM leads the conference in scoring at 22 ppg.  Devonte Graham has picked up the slack Chris McCollough left when moved on from Brewster at the beginning of the season (he's now playing for IMG Academy in Florida who Brewster already defeated).  Graham has scored almost 20 ppg while also putting healthy stats in the rebounding and assist columns as well.  The Bobcats have been much more than just Graham however as Donovan Mitchell and Isaac Copeland are also averaging double digits no doubt thanks to the improved play of Oklahoma State commit Jared Terrell at the point.

CLASS AA

Standings
Scoring Leaders

Cushing Academy (MA) has started strong at 6-2 behind what is arguably the best backcourt in the country led by Jalen Adams and Nashua, NH native Kaleb Joseph who's committed to play at Syracuse next season.  Cushing is no stranger to winning championships as they took home the trophy after Adams hit a deep running 3 pointer at the buzzer last season to give them the win over St. Andrews.  They'll be a threat to continue their success and make a deep run in March.

Kimball Union (NH) is cream of the Class AA crop so far in 2013 and they'll look to build on that excellent play thanks to center Malik Abu, guard Crew Ainge (yes, son of "that" Ainge) and Duby Maduegbunam who makes contributions all over the court.  

Wilbraham & Monson (MA) has played a brutal schedule so far and their 6-6 record show it.  They've got a nice three-way combo in Curtis Cobb III and Max Hoetzel at the guard positions and Goodluck Okonoboh who may be the most talented big man in New England not named Malik Abu.  Okonoboh's and Abu's respective teams meet on Feb 17th in Wilbraham in what may be a game that helps decide seeding for the Class AA tourney - certainly one to look forward to.

St. Andrews (RI) is another interesting team who, with Bonzie Colson leading the charge, have the experience to make a run at a title.  Last season they were the #8 seed in the Class AA tourney and beat Worcester (on the road) and Tilton before falling to the aforementioned eventual champion Cushing.  This team knows how to win and Colson recently went for 16 points/14 rebounds and 27 points/16 rebounds in back to back nights at the St. Andrews Holiday Classic.  Don't sleep on St. Andrews in 2014.

Tilton School (NH), Holderness School (NH) and Proctor Academy (NH) round out the New Hampshire based teams and all have struggled early to the tune of a .333 winning percentage for each.  We'll be checking out the league a little closer as these teams get into Class AA play in January.

CLASS A

Standings
Scoring Leaders

Early on it looks like Class A is wide open with several solid squads looking to capitalize on early season success.  Choate Rosemary Hall (CT) is 4-0 with wins over Taft, Kent, Proctor and Holderness but haven't seen the PEAs, Salisbury's or Deerfields of the league.  Speaking of the Salisbury School (CT), according to the New England Recruiting Report they recently lost Samuel Dingba for the season to knee and shoulder injuries.  That'll make the journey back to the Class A finals for the third time in 4 years tough for Head Coach Jeff Ruskin, but he's one of the leagues best and consistently finds a way to get the most out of his kids.

The Hotchkiss School (CT) has had a strong start to their season with only a single loss to Trinity-Pawling School who's been tough this season.  Unlike some others, Hotchkiss has played several inter-class games already with wins over Deerfield, Salisbury, St. Paul's School and Phillips Academy.
 
We'd be remised if we didn't talk about New Hampshire's own Phillips Exeter Academy (NH) who won last year's Class A championship on the strength of several seniors including Harry Rafferty, Chris Braley and New Castle, NH's Duncan Robinson (who's averaging 15.5 ppg and over 7 rbg for Wiliams).  Exeter has gone 5-2 with losses coming to only Class AA KUA and Trinity-Pawling.  They're not the team of last year that scored 60-70 points a game but Head Coach Jay Tilton has squad coming together looking forward to another run at the title in a few months.  

St. Paul's (NH) is the last NH based team of the 3 Classes we're following this season and they've come a long way from a team that was a guaranteed win a year or two ago. Head Coach Grant Edwards has a good one in Ethan Schlager and Jackson Gates who are averaging 15 and 14 respectively.

COMING SOON…

We're happy to have Paul Lazdowski back this year who'll be doing team and player video features throughout the year.  We'll also be covering the Frank Monahane Classic that was postponed due to a snow storm a few weeks ago and will now be held in February (details coming as they a released).  We'll be doing some coverage of area NH teams as time permits and will have full coverage of the NEPSAC Championships at Endicott College.

Lastly we're putting together a list of NH Natives and will be reaching out to coaches and the players to get their thoughts on their prep school experience.  Look forward to these articles in the coming months.  Here's a list so far, please shoot me a tweet or email to add a name.  

Tim Preston - Lawrence Academy (Nashua)
Dmitri Floras - MacDuffie School (Merrimack)
Travis Descoteaux - Marianapolis (Manchester)
Devin Springfield - Marianapolis (Jaffery)
Mike Auger - New Hampton (Hopkington)
Mike LeBlank - New Hampton (Dover)
Matt Dean - New Hampton (Gilford)
Ian Sistare - Northfield Mount Hermon (Dublin)
Colin McManus - Northfield Mount Hermon (Bedford)
Chad Knighton - Holderness (Lisbon)
Ian Sistare - Northfield Mount Hermon (Manchester)
Max Kirsch - Phillips Exeter (Atkinson)
Mitchell Kirsch - Phillips Exeter (Atkinson)
JT Thompson - Phillips Exeter (Stratham)