Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Newer 2012 Rankings

I have posted more updated 2012 rankings at inbasketballsource.com. You will need to create a free account to see them. The ranking will be updated regularly there especially when we see new 2012 prospects and 2013 kids we have yet to see.

Merrillville at Munster

Merrillville and Munster entered Saturday night’s meeting with two losses each. Munster’s coaching staff is filled with Merrillville alumi. Coach Mike Hackett coached under Merrillville’s Jim East for many years and Munster’s JV coach Jake Argenta was on a semi-state team at Merrillville. So, there is a lot of familiarity on the coaching staffs.

The first quarter featured both teams playing zone defense and both offenses shooting over the top of the zones effectively. Jeremiah Jones, 6′3″ junior guard, hit 3 three pointers in the quarter while Munster hit three of their own. Merrillville had a 16-15 lead going to the second quarter.

Munster switched their defenses in the second quarter. They played man to man for the first portion and then went back to their 2-1-2. The man to man defense helped slow down Jones. Offensively, Munster rode 6′4″ junior Brian Stolarz. Stolarz had 16 points in the first half on 6-7 shooting. He hit a couple of 3’s and was really good finding gaps in the Merrillville zone which he exploited to get to the rim. Munster took a 29-28 lead into the locker room.

Read the rest of the report at Merrillville at Munster

Chesterton vs Valpo

Valparaiso is having a great year with only a close loss to Carmel on their record. Chesterton has been up and down especially because Mitch McGary has been fighting injuries all season. In the first match-up, Valparaiso jumped on Chesterton opening up a huge lead in the first quarter and they never looked back. That was without McGary in the line-up for Chesterton.

This game was very different. Chesterton played with a lot of energy especially early behind the play of senior guard Remy Lewis. Lewis hit a couple of three’s and had a couple of assists in the first quarter. McGary looked like he was going to get off to a fast start. He converted a basket inside and on the next defensive possession McGary got into the passing lane for a breakaway, but he was never able to control the ball and they missed an opportunity. Valparaiso led 17-13 with Jerrick Suiter doing a lot for the Vikings. Suiter is a competitor to sum it up. He had the duty of guarding the much bigger McGary in the post (with a lot of help obviously). Suiter really attacks rebounds with great intensity.

The second quarter was controlled by Chesterton. Senior point guard Freddy Price was able to break down the Viking defense one on one to get to the rim. Valpo struggled to convert many shots although that was partly because Chesterton was playing pretty good defense. Valparaiso still held a 24-23 lead at halftime though.

Read more at Chesterton vs Valpo