The final Thursday Thoughts of the regular season will take a look at the tournament picture in all four divisions as Saturday is the first of our annual Bracketology specials.

 The New Hampshire High School Hoop Show debuts on its new radio home Saturday morning at 9:07am on 99.9 FM & 1370 WFEA out of Manchester.  For those out of the listening area, we’ll still have a "Listen LIVE" link to the show right on our homepage.

 The show will still be available to listen to on demand after the show ends at 11 am.

 Lisbon head coach Sam Natti (of America’s Team & Coaches Summit fame) will announce the Division IV brackets while Inter-Lakes head coach Mike Rathgeber will join us later in the program to announce the Division III bracket.

 Today we will breakdown the teams on the cut line and the games that might impact who gets in & who stays home.

 Friday night we will be out at two games;

 Pete Tarrier & The Great Jon Kesty will be at NHTI when Hopkinton takes on Mascenic Regional.

 Meanwhile Justin McIsaac, Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will be at a packed gym down the road from me in Hampton when undefeated Portsmouth takes on pre-season #2 (and current #4 seed) Winnacunnet.

 

 Thank you for being a registered subscriber and supporter of our NHsportspage team. 

 We will be having a post-season party for you a week after the season ends..about the same time The Fighting McIsaacs will have wandered into the losers’ bracket of the upcoming seacoast tournament.

 On behalf of Jennifer, Jon, Justin, Eliot, Pete & I, we thank you!

 

 Division I

 Playoff set-up: 13 teams make the tournament. The Top 3 seeds will all have first round byes.

 Portsmouth (16-0) at Winnacunet (12-3)

 In the first season of coverage on NHsportspage, before I knew who Pete Tarrier was or that one of my best friends someday would be a guy wrestling at the time under the name ‘Justin Shaype’, I covered a game between two elite Division I teams when Trinity faced Manchester Central at McHugh Gymnasium .

 This was a first year highlighted by me asking Hanover head coach Tim Winslow how they had finished up the previous season (they won the Division II title), asking Jim Mulvey if John Mulvey was his kid and having Trinity head coach Dave Keefe spell the name of his first team all-state point guard Ryan Bourgeois for me (imagine someone covering high school basketball asking Jeff Holmes how to spell Cody Morissette..).

 So there were peaks & dips and hours & hours of writing that maybe 34 people read but that night in McHugh was the night I knew this was what I was going to try to do for the rest of my life.

 Doc Wheeler looked Johnny Cash dressed in all-black (and scared the hell out of me..which is funny now that he’s like a father figure to me), Dave Keefe greeted every Central kid in the introductions like he knew them for years, because he had , and everyone in the gym looked like they were coming from the Puritan Backroom before the game and headed to ‘Billy’'s after.

 Mike Stys & Will Bayliss went shot for shot at Bourgeois and a sophomore who years later would sign with UMass named Jordan Laguerre..as talented as any player I’ve ever covered.

 In the end Trinity won a close game on a night Stys had 32 points.

 I loved the atmosphere and the game itself but it was the familiarity between those players and coaches that struck me. We never had that in the Lakes Region where I played at Gilford for four years and probably faced 11 combined coaches from Winnisquam, Belmont and Franklin.

 This was different…and as the years came & went the website grew and I came to recognize games like this also took place between Groveton & Colebrook, Winnacunnet & Exeter and Portsmouth & Oyster River.

 Friday night is going to be that exact same feel and the atmosphere is going to be unlike any other game this season.

 The kids know each other well…Liam Viviano & Cody Graham, Shon Parham & Freddy Schaake, Zach Waterhouse & Christian Peete..Logan Keene & Joey Glynn.

 The coaches are friends and so are a lot of the parents, possibly sitting on opposite sides of the gym for the first time.

 Anyone who has played against their brother or their sister knows you love them but there is no one you want to beat more. The Warriors are standing in the way of the Clippers 38 game winning streak and Winnacunnet is not about to let Portsmouth cruise in & walk away with the Division I title like they had made reservations for it months ago.

 Portsmouth has owned the summer match-ups but it won’t mean anything Friday night. The Warriors have to mix up their defenses and send Jack & Freddy Schaake right at Glynn & Alex Tavares.

 The Clippers know Viviano lives off contact and so they’ll guard him to keep him away from the middle of the paint.

 Winnacunnet understands that there are two different Portsmouth lineups; one with Tavares, and it’s a very good rebounding unit and one with Mike Sanborn that specifically wants to pick apart that zone from long range.

 This is Winnacunnet’s measuring stick game and the kind of game Portsmouth moved up to Division I to play in.

 It’s a game that reminds me why I started doing this nearly a decade ago.

 

 Pinkerton (6-9) at Bishop Guertin (7-8)

 Here is the Division I tournament breakdown with a week to go before our Division I Bracketology Show;

 Salem and Pinkerton are currently tied for the 13th and final playoff spot with Salem owning the tie-breaker.

 Remember when I wrote a week ago that sophomore Joey Merrill was a year away from his breakout season? Well he doesn’t seem to want to wait as his five 3’s against Bedford and 19 more points against Trinity on Tuesday showed.

 The Astros are trending up having won two of their last three and being a Max Chartier last second shot away from winning at Bedford.

 Salem meanwhile has lost four of their last five and haven’t been competitive in any of them since a loss on February 8th against Merrimack. If you’re picking a horse here go with Pinkerton, who closes with BG, at Concord (still playing hard for Dave Chase) and Exeter.

 Rob McLaughlin’s team ends the season with games at Alvirne (who got a HUGE win over South on Tuesday) and Central (they will be happy to beat you in a Rock fight…:see Merrimack Box Score ) before finishing up the season at home against Dover (who is either hitting shots or they’re not…and they don’t win when they don’t hit shots. They are not good enough defensively).

 I won’t share the private conversations I have with my buddy Matt Regan ( BG head coach) here (only on the radio show where McIsaac & I can imitate him) but let’s just say that when he thinks they have turned the corner, they haven’t and when he thinks they are done..they’re not.

 If they beat Pinkerton Friday night, they’re in.

 

 Division II

 Playoff set-up: 14 teams make the tournament. Top 4 seeds get a bye.

 Windham (5-10) at Hanover (6-9)

 6-10 Merrimack Valley would be the 13th seed and last team in as of today. Meaning both Windham & Hanover can do themselves a lot of good with a win here.

 Right now it would be 1. Lebanon 2. Milford (they’re legit btw..I was impressed Tuesday night..get me a Shane Winnett jersey) and 3. Coe-Brown Academy with Hollis-Brookline and Manchester West fighting for the 4th seed.

 

 Division III

 Playoff set-up: 17 teams make the tournament. Play in game winner between #16 & #17 plays the Top seed.

 Winnisquam (8-9) at Berlin (13-4)

 Berlin might finish 14-4????

 Yeah I was surprised too….

 See what happens when you’re way up north (quick story: I once was in Don Picard’s classroom (terrific former Berlin head coach now at New Hampton) at the high school and when you look out his window it looks exactly like the town that ran John Rambo out into the woods when he was just looking for a bite to eat.

 I’m telling you…

‘Tell them to bring a good supply of body bags..’

 God I loved Colonel Sam Trautman.  

 YouTube clip…………where were we?

 Berlin.

 The 31 point ‘that score cannot be right’ opening night loss to Somersworth didn’t have a hangover effect as Dave Morissette’s team has gone 13-3 since. Berlin has good wins over Inter-Lakes and Somersworth but they’ve also benefited from an easier schedule. The Mountaineers are 8-0 this season in games against Newfound (1-16), Prospect Mountain (2-16), White Mountains (3-14) and Kennett (3-12).

 Kevin Dame’s Winnisquam team could have jumped up to the 15 seed with a win Tuesday night over Franklin at home but Box score: Franklin 48, Winnisquam 42 couldn’t earn the season sweep.

 Jayden Torres & Franklin and Logan Morrison/Thomas Marchese (it doesn’t look like Tommy Marchese is happening..) & Winnisquam likely end up in a tie-breaker that Mike Rathgeber will be responsible to figure out on Saturday morning. Personally I’d vote for a third game at a neutral site.

 Stevens, Belmont, Somersworth (who thumped Campbell last night), and Inter-Lakes are all tied at 14-3 heading into the last night of the regular season.

 The 7/10 game would be Gilford at Berlin…..I’m wondering if I can talk Jen into going to Berlin..?

 

 Division IV

 Playoff-set up: 15 teams get in. Littleton gets the bye as the #1 seed.

 Derryfield (16-1) at Epping (13-3)  (Thursday night)

 There’s a TON at stake in this one as seven teams will shift depending on the outcome.

 If Derryfield wins they are the #2 seed and find themselves in a bracket with #7 Colebrook and #10 Wilton-Lyndeborough. Epping would be the #6 seed and find themselves in Woodsville’s (in this scenario the #3 seed) side of the bracket.

 If Epping wins they are still the 6 seed but it drops Derryfield back to the 4 seed (where they would host Portsmouth Christian) and makes Woodsville the #2 seed and Groveton the #3 seed.

 Littleton’s easy win at Groveton last week and their opening night win at Epping make them the clear favorite to run their winning streak to 44 games and win a second consecutive title…but it’s never as easy as it seems.

 The biggest news and the news we will leave you with today contains spoilers for Saturday’s show so stop reading if you want to be surprised on Saturday morning.

 

 (Spoilers Below)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 AMERICA’S TEAM THE LISBON PANTHERS ARE IN AS THE 15 SEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!