Early Season Thoughts

I haven't been posting much lately but, there really hasn't been much to talk about. I haven't been able to get to any games the past week and the Badgers haven't been playing. I was planning on heading down to Milwaukee to catch the Terry Porter Classic but, with the bad weather my plans were cancelled. Since I haven't posted lately, I have decided to just do a post of some of the early season highlights of the high school basketball season and some of my early season thoughts.

Some dynasties continue to dominate, while others are beginning to decline.
It appears that this might finally be the year that Seymour will not be at state for division two as they begin the year off dropping there first two games. In past years Seymour is typically a shoe in to be at state and is usually the favorite in division two. With the lose of their starting five from last year it appears that things will be different this year. Seymour started off with loses to Depere and Denmark. Being only two games into the year you can't write off Seymour but, it isn't a good sign for the perennial D2 powers.

Oshkosh West may also be a team that may not be as good as previous thought or previous seasons. West lost their first game to a very young Milwaukee Bay View team who went on to lose to Madison Lafollette the following game. This either means that West will not be as good as thought or Madison Lafollette is a much better team then thought. I'm am going with that as of right now Oshkosh West is not as good as expected due to their lack of experience in their back court, which was exposed against the pressure of Bay View. Don't be surprised though to see the Wildcats back at state because while their back court grows in experience they should be carried by their very good front court.

Milwaukee Vincent and Lacrosse Aquinas appear to have not lost a step from last years state runner up teams in each of their divisions, despite losing four starters from a year ago. Aquinas had a very impressive victory over Madison West in their opener and Vincent starts the season out ranked #1 in division one and opened the season with a win.

Many people around the state thought that Madison Memorial would struggle early on this season with a very young back court but, that appears to be the exact opposite. Memorial has started the season out with two very impressive victories. In their opener the Spartans dominates the up and coming Marquis Mason led Madison East team 71-38. In their second game of the year Memorial was able to beat the Big Eight favorite Janesville Craig by about 10 points. This was Craigs second loss of the season and leaves Memorial as the favorite to win the Big Eight. I expect to once again since the Spartans making a run to state.

Just because you have the #1 player in the state doesn't mean your the best team in the state.
This is very evident in the case of Milwaukee Pius who has the number one player in the state in Korie Lucious but, still managed to lose their opening game of the year. In many peoples eyes Pius is the favorite to win state but, if Lucious cannot get the front court help he needs Pius will once again have an early exit in the playoffs.

Losing a star player can turn your team from a title contender into just another average team.
This is the case for Racine St Catherines who lost star point guard Patrick Souter in the preseason. Prior to the season St. Cats was the odds on favorite to defend their title in division three. Now St. Cats will be happy to win conference and just make it out of their regional. St. Catherines has started the season out 1-2 losing to the young Bay View team and losing to a so so Milwaukee South team.

Well those are some of my thoughts on the week and a half old season. Hopefully the following week I will have more to discuss and be able to catch some games.