Before we get to our Holiday Thoughts column I wanted to repeat the announcement we made on Saturday’s radio show that we will be putting together a team of seniors to play a game against Leo Papile’s BABC program on March 30th.

 We will name the 10 to 11-man team this winter, the head coach, his assistants as well as where the game will be played. We are really excited about what we hope is an annual game for some of the best players in New Hampshire.

 Also, our regular schedule will kick back into gear next week (with all the games being played Wednesday there’s no way I’m writing a Thursday Thoughts column at midnight so that column will be back next week). Our weekly schedule will look like this:

 Mondays: The Weekly Top 10 from Justin McIsaac and the Players Locker Room Performance Re-Cap

 Tuesdays: The Player of the Week poll and The Statewide Power Rankings

 Wednesdays:  The Dave Haley/Justin McIsaac podcast where we breakdown the games from Tuesday night and give you our 3 teams up & 3 teams down also two to three game highlights and team interviews

 Thursdays: The Thursday Thoughts (Year 11)

 Fridays: Staff Picks

 Saturdays:  Two to three-game highlights and team interviews plus The New Hampshire High School Hoop Show with Pete Tarrier & I.

 That’s a ton of content and we’re excited to get that schedule rolling next week. Speaking of schedules…

 Here is our schedule of games we’re covering this week…it’s all Division I this week with Division II & III getting a lot of coverage next week:

 Wednesday:   Concord at Alvirne (Pete Tarrier & Austin Grass)

                      Exeter at Portsmouth (Nichole Marrero, Dave Haley and the power duo of Cody Graham & Cody Morissette)

 Friday:           Merrimack at Nashua North (Pete Tarrier & Nichole Marrero)

                        Manchester Central at Spaulding (Justin McIsaac & Jennifer Chick-Ruth)

                        Portsmouth at Dover (Austin Grass & Dave Haley)

 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 an insight to be gleaned from the ‘exhibition' games.

 Today in our last article of 2018 we take a look at what we learned over the past 10 days.

 

 Littleton & Newmarket would like to remind you that there is a very large gap in Division IV between them and everybody else………..

 The two best teams in Division IV made quite a statement over the holiday break.

 Jamie Hayes’ Newmarket Mules beat Division II Kennett (2-1 and #7 in the pre-season) while Trevor Howard’s Littleton Crusaders beat not only Division III Mascoma but undefeated Hanover of Division II, on their home floor.

 All-state junior forward Danny Kubkowski scored his 1,000th career point as Littleton saw Jason Brammer score 26 points while shooting guard Parker Briggs didn’t play due to illness.

 What those results confirm is the gap between the top two teams and everyone else is about 15 to 20 points. Kennett gave Pembroke Academy all they could handle in their lone loss of the season and both Hanover & Mascoma own resume-friendly wins early in the season. Both Newmarket & Littleton could compete in Division III and that’s something no other team in their division can claim.

 Epping would have a punchers chance up at Plymouth State against either team, and a punchers chance was all Groveton needed in 2017, but after that, it’s about teams just trying to keep it close. Derryfield doesn’t have the one through five balance they had a year ago, Sunapee hasn’t beaten a plus .500 team yet and I need to see more of Pittsfield before you talk me into the champs (by the way Jay Darrah is doing a terrific job with that team).

 Newmarket has two 6’3 perimeter players in Simon Cote & Jared Woodman to cause match-up nightmares for opponents and Littleton, while not as deep as they have been in years past, have a terrific starting five and a coach who hasn’t missed the final four since before his two kids were born.

 Isaiah Rose still has not suited up for Newmarket since the pre-season and there hasn’t been a timetable set for his return. Without Rose, I’d say Newmarket/Littleton is a toss-up game on a neutral floor. If Rose returns Newmarket is 8 points better than they are without him, at least. We have three months to debate that match-up but as of today, it’s those two and everyone else.

 Littleton has a very tough test on Wednesday night when they host White Mountains (we’ll be covering the second match-up in Whitefield as a girls/boys doubleheader on January 22nd) and those two games may determine who the one seed is in the Division.

 Littleton is going to be a big favorite in games against Woodsville, Derryfield & Groveton so if they are losing in the regular season it's most likely to Mike Curtis’ team at White Mountains.

 The Spartans won the Groveton Holiday Tournament, finally beating Berlin after falling to them twice in one-possession games during the season. Jack Curtis was the tournament MVP while Zeke Pribbernow recorded double-doubles in both games.

 Berlin has been better than expected early on because Seth Balderrama is stating a very strong case for player of the year and they can close out close games behind the veteran trio of Balderrama, Michael Moore, and Sinciere Davis.

 

 If you were leading the argument that the seacoast didn’t have the best teams in Division I………….this wasn’t a great week for you…

 Exeter won the Queen City Championship by blowing out Manchester Central 94-65 while Winnacunnet beat Division II favorite Oyster River in the semifinals and Spaulding 39-36 in the finals of the Oyster River Holiday Tournament.

 Kevin Henry had 29 points in the win over Central and sophomore Josh Morissette was named the tournament MVP. Exeter breezed by Lebanon in the semifinals, at one point leading 47-9 in the 3rd quarter…and won a very good opening game over Salem 59-56, which kept with our belief that sometimes the championship game is played on Day 1.

 Salem continues to look very much like the real deal after opening the season 2-0. Rob McLaughlin’s Blue Devils jump passing lanes as aggressively as any team in the state, Zack Caraballo & Trevor Deminico play very well together in the backcourt and in Kyle Poulin & Ben Laycock they can both rebound with anybody and protect the rim.

 Exeter just comes at you in waves and when Jeff Holmes has four different players on the floor he wouldn’t mind taking the shot his sets become that much more difficult to defend.

 Morissette has been terrific early on (he’s a better passer than he was a year ago), Henry never stops moving & seems to be in the middle of everything at both ends of the floor and Ryan Grijalva is just a natural scorer. When things breakdown he’s more than capable of getting you a bucket.

 The Little Green are playing very hard for first-year head coach Sudi Lett and they’ve gotten off to a 2-0 start with a lot of new faces. We’ll get our first look at them and Exeter on Wednesday night.

 Winnacunnet won in Durham (no not that part of Durham...) and have shown a lot of resiliency early on. The win at Merrimack before the Holidays often resembled something you might see take place inside an octagon and they had to battle back late to beat Spaulding in the tourney championship.

 Jay Mckenna’s team is going to see a lot of zone as team’s are going to make the all 6’3 or bigger starting five beat them from the outside but with Ben Allen running the show they’ve been very patient offensively and will become more effective as the weeks go on.

 Dover lost in the semifinals to Spaulding and then to Oyster River in the 3rd place game. Right now they have a lot of players who were role players a year ago being asked to do much more and that will take some time. Kingsley Breen is back and has been effective while Ty Vitko is seeing every junk defense created early on.

 Matt Fennessy’s team will be just fine. The pieces are there and this group learned a year ago that how you are playing in March means everything compared what you look like in early-January.

 

 Concord is finally the best team in Concord………..but it’s still pretty close..

 Dave Chase’s team held off Noah Cummings and pre-season #2 Pembroke Academy 62-58 in overtime to win the Capital Area Holiday Tournament at NHTI. Cummings (Noah's player profile page) had 30 points in the loss but Concord got balanced scoring from Ivan Yen (16), Tyler Bruns (14) and Max Van Fleet (12) to win the title.

 We’ll get our first look at the Tide Wednesday night at Alvirne but early on they’ve gotten offensive contributions from a number of players (Scotty Lampron might be a sniper) and Chase feels like this is the year Concord gets back in the conversation.

 Both John Stark & Kearsarge are going to earn resume-building wins during the season, the question is whether they can score enough to get to 11 or 12 wins? Merrimack Valley is going to be in the mix again, Tim Mucher has done a very good job building that program back up and Kyle Dube (Kyle's player profile page) is one of the early breakout players of the 2018-19 season.

 We’re going to cover the Spartans next Tuesday when they travel to Oyster River for a rematch of the best game of last season when they dropped an overtime heartbreaker to Lorne Lucas’s team at UNH.

 

 It was a good week in Keene for Conant and I’m starting to see a gap between the Orioles, Campbell and the rest of the pack………….

 Eric Saucier’s team earned very good wins over Coe-Brown and Keene over the holidays as Jake Drew & Peyton Springfield continued to lead the way.

 The 69-53 win over Keene was really impressive. The Blackbirds have the look of a Division I tournament team and knocked off Londonderry in their season opener (Pittsfield has played 6 games so far, Keene has played once).

 The issue for Saucier’s team is their depth, any key injury would make them vulnerable. What isn’t at issue is their defense and lack of a go-to guy. Conant is defending at a high level, they usually do under Saucier who is one of the best coaches in the state, and Peyton Springfield can score when you need points late in close games.

 Monadnock was beaten 70-51 by Keene and then fell to Coe-Brown 50-36. I’m still a believer in Jim Hill’s team but right now they look like they are waiting for someone to make a play. That was Joe Minson a year ago and a reminder that this is still a very young team led offensively by two sophomores in Jake Kidney & Quinn Grover.

 Con Val got a pair of easy wins over Mount Royal & Fall Mountain before falling to Murdock (MA) 75-65 while Mascenic Regional played the big boys and came away with a pair of losses to Wells (ME) and Smithfield (RI). We’re going to know more about both teams in the coming weeks.

 

 Saturday night I watched Josh Morissette beat Justin McIsaac in Pop-a-Shot left handed and other random Holiday Thoughts…………..

 66-51……….by the way McIsaac & I are already putting together our Seacoast Teams for the big tournament in March (played at the Connie Bean Center in Portsmouth) so coaches & players start putting your teams together…we’d love to have 12 teams after having 8 last year………..Gilford won their Holiday Tournament with wins over Belmont (in the semifinals) and Kingswood (in the final) and did it minus all-state center Greg Madore who is still out with a foot injury. Korey Weston (Korey and Spaulding’s Shane Hudson have to be related,,,I’d like an investigation into this, although I’m not willing to pay for it) took home MVP honors and Adrian Siravo is starting to develop into a real problem for other teams. The 6’3 forward is built like a linebacker and when he goes hard to the basket players usually are bouncing off of him. Beating a good Belmont team minus Madore was a win that should give the alma mater a lot of confidence going forward………No I’m not suicidal over Notre Dame, although very disappointed,, when Julian Love (our first-team all-American CB) went out Clemson hit his back-up for a 55 yard touchdown two plays later….the gap between Clemson & Alabama is real but it didn’t look JV vs. Varsity the way the Alabama game did in 2012……at least that’s what I’m telling myself……Bishop Guertin picked up a good win south of the border over Methuen while Londonderry & Pelham each battled against Massachusetts schools… Londonderry is very young but with 6’4 Ethan May finally eligible to play they’re going to get better quickly under Nate Stanton……..America’s Team the Lisbon Panthers beat Gorham 52-30 to win the Gorham holiday tournament in a result reported by the BBC, Fox News, CNN & Reuters.. “ Gorham has been a surprising team but Sam Natti’s Panthers cruised to two easy victories. Cam Burt looks really good for a freshman and we’re yet to see a big (man) match-up with Jacob Deem up North,” reported Lance ‘Caged Heat’ Legere from downtown Gorham………..We are looking forward to covering Nashua North on Friday against Merrimack. Steve Lane’s team has some very good underclassman, Brendan Choate & Curtis Harris are two to watch, and when they get their pressure defense down they could be a scary lower seed come March……….Merrimack has good size, Jared Dyer is a beast in the middle, but they’re lacking a scorer right now. With Ian Cummings graduated they’re going to have to score by committee until someone emerges,, either that or win a lot of 44-42 games…………too early to pass judgment on Nashua South. Nate Mazerolle’s team has been hit with a major injury bug dating all the way back to the first week of practice……Souhegan has a very tough stretch coming up with games against John Stark, Milford, Hollis-Brookline, Coe-Brown, Lebanon & Pembroke. Peter Pierce thought it would take his young team some time to come together,, and Matt McCool & Jeff Boehm have been very good early on…but that schedule will be a killer if they can’t get out of it at least 2-4.

 

 

 I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year…2018 was a record-breaking for us and we are way ahead of that pace already this year…enjoy our 3-minute promotional video produced by ‘The Franchise’ Jennifer Chick-Ruth.

 

  NHsportspage Promo Video

 

 See you in 2019!