Before we get to our annual Holiday thoughts column we have a quick radio show announcement.

 Pete Tarrier will be vacationing with his family Saturday morning so the storied radio powerhouse WGIR will be put, for one entire hour, in the hands of myself and Lisbon head coach Sam Natti. This could be an hour of glorious radio (Londonderry head coach Nate Stanton will be our guest) or something along the lines of the Chevy Chase Show (YouTube it..) or the first time you let your 16 year old kid parallel park..either way it should be really good radio…listen live on 96.7 FM on the seacoast, WGIR 610 AM in Manchester or listen all over the state online at http://www.iheart.com/live/WGIR-AM-610-2752/ starting at 8 o’clock Saturday morning.

 Every year the two week Holiday break gives us a pause in the regular season and an opportunity to see teams from two or three different divisions competing under one bracket.

 Experience will tell you that you need to look at holiday tourneys from the proper perspective. Sure the results can be a glimpse of what's to come this season but they also can be affected by coaches playing every guy all the way to the end of the bench and doing more teaching on the sidelines than actual coaching. Sometimes the opening round games feature more effort and enthusiasm than the championship match-up that ends up as the third game in as many days.

 The games don't count in the standings and the bigger picture is to learn and improve for when the games count. Still there is insight to be gleaned from the ‘exhibition' games.

 Today in our first article of 2015 we take a look at what we learned over the past 10 days.

 Few people had a better holiday break than the Bell brothers did…

 Bishop Brady dealt Pembroke Academy a blow the Spartans aren’t going to be able to respond to now that the two city rivals reside in different divisions. Brady has piled up runner-up trophies at an alarming rate the past few years while Pembroke used the Capital City Tournament as their own showcase but it was a different story this time. Pre-season player of the year Jourdain Bell scored 24 points as Brady led wire to wire for a 61-47 semifinal win and in doing so exposed what many see as the Spartans potential fatal flaw: their inability to cover quick guards.

 When it comes to slowing down a tough/strong player like Memorial’s Kabongo Ngalakulondi few teams are better equipped than Matt Alosa’s. The issue though comes when they have to stay in front of a player like Bell, and frankly they couldn’t do it for 32 straight minutes. Jourdain & Joe Bell required so much extra attention that small forward Brendan Johnson (22 points against Pembroke) was getting open looks all game long. Dominic Timbas (20 ppg. for the tourney) has emerged as Pembroke’s go to guy but this program emerged as the best team in Division II a year ago not because Patrick Welch could go for 30 points (he’d been doing that since 9th grade) but because he had become an elite on the ball defender. The Spartans don’t have that asset now and teams are going to exploit it on some nights.

 Also leaving the tournament happy had to be Kevin O’Brien’s Merrimack Valley team as they beat Concord in the semifinals before losing to Brady in the title game 69-56. Valley cut the Brady lead to 13 in the fourth quarter before Joe Bell scored on back to back possessions to put the game out of reach. Merrimack Valley may be 15 points short of Bishop Brady right now but that’s nothing to be too concerned with in early January. Most teams in the division are in the same boat. MV has good size and was able to control the boards against Division I Concord and early on they look like the Top 5 team we picked them to be.

 When it comes to Division I…in the words of the immortal Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they were!!”..

 My pre-season Top 10 in Division I apparently caused a lot of head scratching at the top..Especially off of Exit 4…but four weeks into the season Pinkerton Academy hasn’t done anything to make you question their ability to be around late into March. After a 2-0 start with wins over Nashua South & Salem Peter Rosinski’s team spent the holidays winning their first Commonwealth Classic in 19 years by beating North Andover (MA) 48-39 and Watertown (MA) in the championship 60-50. People want to see if this team is disciplined enough to live up to the hype for three months. So far so good..

 Manchester Central did something much bigger than winning three straight games and another Queen City Tournament over the break; they proved this group has some character. Doc Wheeler lit into his best player at halftime of the highly anticipated opening round showdown with Manchester Memorial. Joey Martin responded with 19 second half points that never felt forced or outside of the flow of the offense. We knew Martin was a winner already but a new group around him never stopped playing hard and wasn’t letting down until the final buzzer. It proved enough to pull off an instant classic.

 Wheeler made it a point all pre-season to talk about the importance of Nate Guillermo, who was a role player on their title team a year ago. It’s fair to speculate if Central is going to be able to rely on point guard Oumaru Kante, who wasn’t there for the Memorial win, all season long. Guillermo can make that concern an afterthought if he can handle the ball and keep Martin out on the wing where he belongs.

 The opening half was the Kabongo Ngalakulondi show and if he is able to stay on the floor Memorial head coach Jack Quirk has enough offense to beat any team in the division. Craig Preston has stepped into a  bigger role and shot lights out for the tournament as Memorial bounced back from a stunner in round one (highlights of which can be seen on our homepage) to gain victories over Exeter and Trinity in the consolation rounds.

 Merrimack head coach Tim Goodridge told me a month ago he thought he might have a pretty good team come March, well he might have a pretty good team now. Austin Franzen is a veteran at this point, you know what you’re getting from the all-state shooting guard. What Goodridge will watch develop is freshman Ian Cummings and his added production will give one of the best coaches in the state a very nice rotation when the games start to really matter. Dover looks like a team Mike Romps (another elite coach and someone you’d love to see coach the Twin State team someday) can mold into a pain to deal with down the road while Matt Lemieux and Trinity are finding an identity after losing four starters from a year ago. Manchester West coach Dan Bryson made sure that every time 6’2 Connor Walsh went inside the three point line he had someone 6’4 or bigger with a hand in his face. It was a smart coaching move and one more Division I coaches with the personnel to execute it will follow after Walsh went for 32 points on opening night against Exeter. West is playing hard for Bryson and that is a team that absolutely expects to be in Durham with the Lebanon and Portsmouth’s of the world in March.

 Before we put a bow on the Queen City Tournament can we again make a plea for some more atmosphere at these games? I’m all for the old school Boston Garden intro’s with one guy, a microphone and an organ playing but there’s no music between quarters or even an announcer after baskets. This has been Pete Tarrier’s crusade for years but I’ve got Justin McIsaac’s contact information ready and standing in the wings ready to help. Kids in our jamboree are half amused/half terrified as he is screaming out their names WWE style in the intro’s but they all love it. Maybe we can all get together and discuss it over chicken fingers at the Backroom this winter…as Rocky said when he ended the Cold War, “If you can change, we can change.”

 Speaking of McIsaac his Spaulding Red Raiders won the Seacoast Holiday tournament with a big second half against Winnacunnet (who right now are too young to put together two straight good halves…Jay McKenna will have that fixed soon enough..). Londonderry lost a double overtime thriller to Pelham 90-87 that we are going to get into very shortly and finished 2-1 in the Massachusetts tournament with wins over Dracut (MA) 89-65 and Lowell (MA) 72-50. The Lancers can score with anyone and when they played with a shot clock down in Massachusetts (I can’t wait until it turns 1985 in New Hampshire) they put up about 80 points a night. There are few teams in the state you’d rather watch for 32 minutes than the Lancers.

 Happy New Year to every Division III basketball team in the state!!!.......PS: You’re all playing for second..

 Now, now…I’m not saying the Division III title can’t be won by more than one team. Conant feels a year away but those kids fight to win every possession and few coaches have a better read on his players than Eric Saucier. It also wouldn’t surprise me to see Campbell head coach John Langlois pull out some zone look Denny Crum threw out there for Louisville in the 1980 Final Four to slow someone down but as we stand today this division is Pelham and everyone else. The Pythons beat Conant and Campbell to open the season (both convincingly) and spent the holidays beating one of the best teams in Division I (the fall league built up some healthy animosity coming into that one) and Chelmsford (MA) before dropping the title game to Westford Academy 53-46. Keith Brown went for 28 points in the win over the Lancers and Ryan Cloutier was right there with him in scoring 26.

 The reality is the gap between teams like Winnisquam, Gilford (Kingswood??), Newport & Mascenic with Matt Regan’s team is actually bigger than even they might realize. Pelham is going toe to toe with top 4 teams in Division I while Berlin is struggling with Groveton (more on the Mountaineers to come..), Mascenic is getting beat by Hanover and Gilford is getting soundly beaten on their home floor by a Kingswood team that didn’t win a game last year and lost to Kennett by 30 two weeks ago.

 The bottom line is there are only one or maybe two teams that could beat Pelham on a neutral floor within the division and those teams could pull that off one out of ten times. That is the reality. The only way Pelham goes down is if they overlook the team they are competing against or come in unprepared. That is very unlikely to happen because this group has never won a title, have worked too hard to win one and Matt Regan scouts as much as anyone out there. His teams are always prepared. Pelham is coming down from a division where Keith Matte knew how to exploit your weakness, Matt Alosa knew which kid to go at defensively and Jim Mulvey had his kids running Pelham’s out of bounds plays before they squared off. It’s another level of preparation few teams have…Pelham isn’t going to allow anyone to sneak up on them & it is hard to see anyone beating them.

 Along that same theme…………

 The gap between the southern Division IV teams and their northern counter parts is bigger than we thought……….

 The fact that Lebanon beat Littleton by over 40 points in the newly expanded Hanover Holiday tournament was surprising enough but the manner in which they did it was troubling for a final four team with title aspirations. The Crusaders, who enter 2015 as the clear cut best team in the north country, looked like they didn’t belong on the same floor as the Division II power. Head coach Trevor Howard is Littleton’s best asset and he had his kids in the right spots on press breakers and when they switched to a rare zone defense in the second quarter.

 What was most troubling is how shocked Littleton looked at the level of intensity Lebanon brought to the floor (Ryan Milliken goes 100 mph on every play). Littleton looked like they wanted to tap out about 10 minutes into the game (I was there) and certain players looked like they didn't want to be there. Howard is smart enough to have seen all of this coming and his hope is his kids will stop hearing how they should be buying a tie for the inevitable banner ceremony and start dialing it up immediately. Injured starter Ethan Ellingwood brings an intensity that this team badly misses and his return might be the kickstart this group needs. Mike Rodriguez is giving this team good minutes and Danny Brammer is a battler just like his older brother Sam was. There are pieces here as evidenced by the fact this is a group that cruised to titles at the middle school & JV level. The reality though is right now Epping, Wilton-Lyndeborough, Derryfield, Portsmouth Christian and Sunapee are better than Littleton. Trevor Howard figured that out months ago and when his kids and the Littleton fans realize it too things can change in a hurry…it’s only January 2ndafter all.

 The feeling is starting to surface that Berlin might be more vulnerable than we first thought at the beginning of the year. First year head coach Dave Morrisette knows what he is doing and is the best person to run a system that has led to a lot of wins over the last decade but people are seeing cracks in the 2015 edition. Groveton took Berlin to the wire in their own gym and felt like they could have knocked Berlin off if a few plays went in a different direction. Colebrook jumped out to a big lead on White Mountains in the same tournament but when all-state point guard Sedrick McKinnon left the game with a head injury the Mohawks offense looked lost and so too was the game.

 Berlin beat White Mountains in the final and fair or unfair their pedigree demands that you compare them to the Pelham, Conant and Campbell’s of the world. Berlin came at Bishop Guertin for 32 minutes in our jamboree and had to come away knowing they were capable of another run to the Final Four. Right now it is about that group tightening up their game and adjusting to leadership at the end of their bench.

 Profile knocked off Lin-Wood and Pittsburg-Canaan to win their holiday tournament while Lisbon is going to the youth movement early, as four key underclassman are the key to Sam Natti turning around the fortunes of that storied program.

 Winnisquam is throwing their hats in the ring and the Keene tournament was dominated by teams you’ve never heard of………….

 The Bears are proving to be a lot more than Christian Serrano and his supporting cast in winning the Lakes Region Holiday Tournament. Torrey Martinez has been terrific early in the season while Tim Harmon and Tucker Normand give Kevin Dame’s team a very strong starting five. Kingswood jumped out to a big 19-8 lead on Gilford in the semifinals and held off the alma mater for a huge upset while Moultonborough (they miss the ability of Tristan Price to stretch opposing defenses) and Belmont (Trevor Hunt is a name you should pay attention to…this group is a year away from being a real factor in Division III) each had their moments. Laconia is struggling early but is going to be one of the more athletic teams in the Lakes Region when Matt Swormstedt (the real leader of that basketball team) returns from a wrist injury.

 Smithfield (RI) beat Mamaroneck (NY) 53-49 to win the Zero Gravity Holiday tournament at Keene State College (the other alma mater). Of more interest to our readers was the return of Sunapee’s all-state guards Matt Tenney & Isaiah Chappell (we need a nickname for these two..) who combined for 48 points in a six point loss to Coe-Brown. Epping’s win over Coe-Brown and Keene finally slaying the dragon by beating Conant also were a highlight of the tourney. What you came away feeling after a week in Keene was Dave Sontag is doing a really good job at Keene. Those kids are playing hard for him and a 43-40 overtime win over Conant is progress. In that game Josh Degrenier shot an uncharacteristic 2 for 14 and the Orioles couldn’t score in overtime. Conant is a team that will be a factor in March but they are a young team and players like JP Record (who wore his late brothers’ sneakers in the tourney..easily the coolest story of the holiday) and Simeon Hodgson need more time to develop. Newport held on for a 58-54 win over Epping in the 5th place game as Andrew Houde went for 30 points and 14 rebounds. Epping is the best team in Division IV today and Newport is what we anticipated, a top 5 team with a punchers chance in March.
 
  Random Holiday tournament observations…..

 It was Nashua South & North finding their way to the Chik-Fil-A tournament final with South winning the title. The two Nashua teams met after getting wins over Alvirne (A good mix of talent and experience) and Goffstown (they are missing their point guard and have to survive until he returns). North has a heady little point guard in Ronnie Silva and a 6’4 forward in Nate Hale who is starting to really come on….South always seems to have a player emerge as a huge scoring threat every year and that player is DJ Frechette in 2015. His 33 points against Goffstown in the semifinals broke open the game in the second quarter and Nate Mazerolle’s teams always get better as the year goes along….Jim Mulvey isn’t worried about wins in exhibition games, he wants his team to face the best teams he can find and that is what they got in back to back losses to Cambridge Rindge & Latin (MA) and East Boston high school. Freshman Cody Graham is starting to step up for the Clippers who are hoping to have the combination of Joey Glynn and Devonn Wilson-Miles for the entire season……Oyster River might not be a contender for the Division II title but Lorne Lucas has had an immediate impact on that team..they’re playing up & down at this point (losing to Timberlane last week) but Lucas’s teams always play hard and they’ll improve……John Langlois knows John Calipari???  You couldn’t tell me a story about Langlois that would surprise me at this point……Lebanon could have beaten Littleton by 60 if Keith Matte hadn’t called off the dogs early…he played 12 players in the first half….Portsmouth Christian has a tendency to lose their heads  on the floor at times..too much talking and silly turnovers..but Lewis ‘Big Smooth’ Atkins knows he has a potential Final Four team and he is working to get this team disciplined for March, a nine point win over Division II Kennett was the biggest under the radar win of the holidays…..Rich Otis is coaching his butt off for Franklin……it’s weird seeing Trinity without Dave Keefe, it will take a few more weeks to get used to…also weird not seeing Doc Wheeler be able to stand while he is coaching (he is on the mend from knee surgery), I’m sure the officials are happy to see him sitting though….Hanover has been beaten by Lebanon twice in 10 days and now has to play them again on January 8th, that isn’t fun for either team………..Lebanon’s KJ Matte is even better than you think, he’s the real deal, Sam Natti was raving about him in Hanover…..Sean Young (who went three full minutes without taking a breath in our radio interview last week) is going for Jim Mulvey’s ‘games scouted in a single season record’ and might get there by mid-February….Jamie Hayes will have Newmarket playing well by March…..
 
 Back to the regular season next week…Happy New Year to all of our readers!!