As we do in both basketball and football we hand over our semifinal previews to the people that know the four teams better than anyone; the coaches who have competed against them all year. The following are scouting reports from three Division I coaches we spoke to using blind quotes.

 We will have full coverage of all the Final Four games in Durham in this week.

 Division I

 (4) Spaulding vs. (1) Londonderry

 The Lancers come into the semifinal match-up with Spaulding 20-0 and two wins away from their first boys’ basketball championship in school history. We asked our coaches to break down tonight’s match-up.

 First the top seeded Lancers. “ Man they can score. They shoot the ball so well and they have three guys who can hit from literally 25 feet out. That puts an awful lot of pressure on your defense.” A fellow coach agreed, “ They are extremely versatile.  They can play all sorts of different styles and be successful at each. I also think that big floor in Durham is going to suit what Nate (Stanton) has them doing.”

 What about Londonderry’s offensive weapons? “ Cody (Ball) got my player of the year vote, he’s obviously a great player but the thing that most impressed me was how every guy seems to know their role and their system. With Cody, (Marc) Corey & (Jake) Coleman you can hope to slow down all three but really even if you slowed down one or two of them the other guy will kill you.”

 Another coach talked about Londonderry’s ability to break open close games. “ You can hang with them for a while but eventually that 12-0 run is coming and that is where they get you. That offense is really hard to hold down for 32 minutes. They are a very cohesive team; you can tell they have played for a long time together. For me watching them I thought they were very similar to (Manchester) Central in that they had five guys you had to defend on the perimeter and they can attack you in all that open space they get by spreading you out.”

 What about the Londonderry defense? “They’ll attack you with pressure and they’ll do it in a couple of different ways. You can tell Nate (Stanton) has them looking at the way you’re trying to get down the floor and they know how to attack you based off of what they see. “ A fellow coach talked about the way Londonderry pressures you, “ They’ll pressure man to man , do some run & jump to keep you off balance. They also rotate very well.”

 What about fourth seeded Spaulding? “ They’re really a blue-collar outfit. They work well together and extremely hard as a team. They are patient on offense, they run everything through Darian Berry, who is very good, and defensively they will bump cutters and be physical with you. Londonderry has better basketball players but Spaulding is a well-coached team and they play hard. “

 Our other coaches seemed to agree. “ They are not the most talented team, in fact that would be Pinkerton, but they might be the best team as far as how much they get out of their talent. They have one great player in Berry and his first priority is winning not scoring. There is a great chemistry with that team and Timmy (Cronin) runs tremendous stuff on offense. If you defend them a certain way they have a counter to it.”

 Another coach talked about the great job head coach Tim Cronin has done. “ Tim has done it the old fashioned way. He has built this program up from the youth league levels and with this group in particular he has been involved with them for a long time. I think the key for them is getting out early in this one. They are not great at catching up. Whereas there is no deficit too big for Londonderry I think Spaulding could be in trouble if they fall behind by double digits early.”

 “I think you’ll see Spaulding with a game plan similar to what Merrimack did. Slow the game down and be precise with your offense.”

 “ They have a very good center in Anthony Ciccotelli and I really like Brock Paquette as well. Just a kid who does a lot for them. Chris States has been really solid for them and he has had to be. They are not a very deep team, they have some guys on that bench they thought they would get more out of but they haven’t so Tim has had to rely on that core.”

 Another coach we spoke to talked about how Spaulding with defend Londonderry, “ They play good perimeter defense, which is a must against Londonderry obviously. I think their game plan is to make Londonderry hit 15 to 18 foot shots, plug up the lane and get out early on them at the three point line. Where Londonderry is so good is at beating you at that line and swinging the ball to an open shooter for three.”

 So who wins tonight?

 “ I’d say it is 70/30 Londonderry wins. Spaulding will have to have a great shooting night to take them out.”

 “ I have to go with Londonderry..too many weapons”

 “ I think you have to like Londonderry to go all the way.”

 And finally a fourth prediction and breakdown from our own Justin McIsaac, who didn’t ask to go on the record with his analysis of his alma mater, he demanded it:

 Dave has asked me for a non-biased, #FactsOnly scouting report on my Alma Mater, the Spaulding High Fighting McIs…, er, Red Raiders. Here it is… 

When scouting Spaulding, the first thing you have to watch out for is your own reverence for Tim Cronin. I’m not in the business of calling people saints, but I think it was Nelson Mandela who said:

“If I could be anyone else in the world for just one day, it’d be Tim Cronin, and there’s really not a close second.” 
You might find that praise lofty, but I’m offended that Mandela even CONSIDERED considering someone for second place.

Darian Berry is well known as an all-state caliber player- on the Seacoast that is. Everywhere else in the state he gets less attention than Bill O’Reilly does for Pulitzer consideration. But that’s ok, he’s too busy saving orphaned puppies from fires in his spare time to worry about things like that. 

Chris States is such a tenacious defender, I’m sending him as a chaperone on my daughter’s first date. He could keep a pitbull away from a T-Bone steak. His anticipation is so good, he had completed a pop quiz in English before the teacher had announced it. 

Anthony Ciccotelli is a beast in the low post, but he’s such a nice kid that you can’t get mad at him even as he’s just ripping your teams heart out. The only question is, is he the next Kevin McHale, or was McHale the first Ciccotelli?
Mitch Cyr is just going to tie you up in knots on defense. No, literally. He’s an Eagle Scout… wait, he’s not? WELL HE SHOULD BE. Mitch spends the entire game sharpening his figurative dagger, and when you’re sure he’s just Jason Kidd 1.0, he busts out the Jason Kidd 2.0 Dagger 3 right in your eye, until you slip and fall on your own tears. Sorry bro. 

FEAR THE BEARD HERE COMES BROCK PAQUETTE- sorry he’s late, he was busy hitting 3’s from the driveway at my house into the left side rim at the Rochester Rec, a distance of 1.5 miles according to Google Maps. You don’t just need to guard Brock everywhere on the floor, you need to run a zone against the cheerleaders, because he will 10000% wink at one, and that girl will instantly fall in love and spend the rest of her days writing Taylor Swift songs about the experience. 

 I could go on… about how Cal Connelly is Stacey Augmon 2.0, about how the SHS student section, bloodthirsty for a title after a hockey disappointment, will rattle you until you’re dying your hair black and shopping at Hot Topic… but Dave only has so much space on his servers. And I’m not here to brag about the Alma Mater. I’m just here to present facts. Go Spaulding!
 
 
 (15) Nashua North vs. (3) Pinkerton Academy

 Mighty Pinkerton takes on 15 seed Nashua North in the first semifinal tonight and two of the three coaches we spoke to had a clear cut favorite.

 It’s the not the team you think it is…

 “ I think Pinkerton was the best match-up of the three other teams for North,” said one coach. “ They share the ball very ball, they can really shoot it and they won’t turn it over much against that three quarter court zone Pinkerton likes to play. I absolutely think they can beat Pinkerton.”

 That assessment was echoed by another coach, “ North plays very, very hard. They aren’t going to be afraid of Pinkerton and they won’t turn the ball over. Ronnie Silva does a really nice job with the ball and they play a very similar style to Central in that they run a very specific motion offense and get their shooters the ball in good spots.”

 “ I love the (Brandon) Rodriguez kid. He is all over the place defensively, going after loose balls. He was a big difference maker for them against us.”

 How will North attack Pinkerton? “ That Pinkerton zone press is all or nothing; they are turning you over or you are going get a very good look against it. If you can get through their pressure you will get an open look. If you turn it over you now have 6’3 guards on the wings out in transition and big men trailing the play and that is how they get you. When we played them our kids didn't have the ability to take care of the ball. North does have that ability. They will turn it into a game of instincts because Pinkerton isn’t going to run any plays at all, they are just going to rely on Geo (Baker) to create.”

 “North runs an inside pick & roll for (Nathan) Hale and he attacks off of it every time. That team is fearless, they will come right at Pinkerton.”

 A fellow coach agreed, “ I think North can hang with them on that floor. Pinkerton will pressure them but North likes that tempo and I think they will get good looks. The question is if they get any second shots? Pinkerton has so much size down low that when you miss they are usually getting that rebound.”

 What about Peter Rosinski’s Astros? “ They have three or four players on their bench who would start for me. Baker is so good and his length, he has really long arms and he is about 6’3, could give Silva some trouble. I love what (Matt) Rizzo does for them and (Drew) Green is very underrated as well. They have great guards.”

 A fellow coach agreed, “ They are the most talented team front to back and Geo is so good for them. He really hides a lot of their shortcomings on offense because they really don’t run anything but still get good production. They have great size but they really don’t score much on the low post unless it is putbacks and dump down passes. The kid I love on that team is (Matt) Rizzo, he is outstanding.”

 What about the Pinkerton defense? “ They play a couple of different zones. They execute ok out of it but they get so many turnovers because of their athletes. (Caleb) Godin, (Drew) Green, (Tom) Romick, (David)Faulks…they are just loaded. They rely a lot on their size to get you out of sync but if you can get the ball to the half court you can spread them out and get good shots. We were able to find those holes in their zone and really get good looks. North is a team that can exploit that.”

 “ Another thing to look for is the pace. I don’t think Pinkerton is in great shape and Geo in particular is coming off of an injury. I think North can wear you down with their intensity and that is a credit to Steve (Lane). They play very hard and seem to really enjoy playing for him.”

 So who wins?

 “ I think North beats them. I think they out work them.”

 “ I think Pinkerton is a brutal match-up for them because of their depth and size. They have too much of both.”

 “I think it comes down to the wire but I definitely could see Nashua North winning this game. I think it’s a good match-up for them.”