State Thoughts

Well state has come and gone and just going to give a few of my thoughts of each division and the state games. Probably any one that looks at this already knows who won the games so won't really dwell on who won or lost but, just give my thoughts. This year had some great talent but, there really wasn't a lot of good games. Most of the games ended up being 15 point games or more.

Division Five
Young Coggs Prep may of won state but, I'm not completely sure that they were the best team at state and may of very well of been the fourth best team. YCP had a pair of talented seniors in 5'9 DeAngelo Crawford and 6'1 Tiwon Jones but, overall the team was some what middle of the road. The difference was YCP turned up the pressure and the other teams just couldn't handle it and they played much faster then there used to which resulted to turnovers and easy buckets for YCP. I was excited to see Washburn and 6'3 senior Cody Tomlinson play but, they never seemed to get into a rhythm and Tomlinson just seemed very uncomfortable on the court.  For Hillsboro 6'4 junior Max Stockwell was just a rock steady force throughout both games and nearly single handily kept his team in the game against YCP. Green Bay NEW Lutheran's biggest problem in their game was that their leading scorer 6'3 senior Noah Gosse was in foul trouble and could never get himself going.

Division Four
This division was all about Whitefish Bay Dominican and 6'10 senior Diamond Stone dominating. Eau Claire Regis was probably the second best team but, I think they were just a little too hyped up and tried to do more then they could and did a little too much one on one with their top two scorers 6'6 senior Billy Wampler and 6'2 junior Logan Rohrscheib. Both got their points but, you need more then that against Dominican and this allowed Dominican to get out of the fast break on long rebounds. Mineral Point was probably playing way over their head and did much better then most people thought against Dominican. Mineral Point moved the ball extremely well and shot the three pretty well and kept the game close until Stone and company used their height to take over.

Division Three
The speed of Brown Deer was just too much. Brown Deer had just enough height on the inside against Prescott and against Xavier I thought they could of run them over but, Xavier is a very strong scrappy team that wouldn't go away. Brown Deer had a huge speed advantage and Xavier had the strength advantage and did their work on the glass. Xavier only got to the title game after East Troy kind of choked the semi final game away as they couldn't drop the free throws and Xavier just hung around, hung around and finally took the lead late.

Division Two
Thought this division was going to be the Ellenson show and it was until Ellenson suffered a hand injury in the semi final game. Even with a one handed Ellenson Rice Lake was able to take down Greendale. West De Pere nearly took down Mount Horeb behind the strong play of 6'8 senior Cody Schwartz. Schwartz was able to knock down big three after big three. Mount Horeb had the better team overall and they were able to win with a team effort. In the final without Ellenson Rice Lake didn't have much of a chance but, they played with all their heart led by 6'0 senior Ben Widdes as they hit three after three and kept the game close. In the end though Rice Lake just couldn't hit enough threes to take down Mount Horeb who fast breaked their way to victory.

Division One
Stevens Point and Germantown were destined to be on a collision course. West Allis Central and Madison East were just speed bumps in the way and there really isn't much to talk about with those two. Stevens Point has the top juniors 6'2 Trev Anderson and 6'6 Sam Hauser along with 6'6 freshmen Joey Hauser and that's all they really needed. In the title game Sam Hauser hit the gas early dropping the 16 first quarter points and Point rode him in the first half and then Anderson in the second half. Germantown's 6'0 junior Juwan McCloud did what he could but, Germantown just didn't have the athletes to compete with Anderson and the Hauser's.

Next few days I'll be doing my final team rankings, my all state tournament team, and then the early favorites for next year.