December 3, 2007                               Check Out Previous Blogs

In the first full week of basketball, some rivalries pop up early.

How about Bell City Cubs (5-0) edging Scott County Central Eagles(4-1) 75-72 in title game of Oran Tournament? These powerhouse programs provided, almost to a tee, a perfect rerun of last year's sectional game. Nick Niemczyk, continued right where he was last year, by scoring 32 points for the Cubs. Ya know, it some areas the names change (or generations change) but the program continues to thrive. Why ? Pride of community spurs the kids on to work very hard in off season and excellent, consistent coaching are just a couple of the reasons. Give me a few more programs like this!

Best game of the week was the Championship game of Lockwood Tournament. Jasper had to go 4 overtimes to beat the Lamar Tigers 82-79. Matt McKinney's 3-ball with 6 ticks left in the 4th OT provide the winning cushion.  For these players and coaches, it will be very hard to play a more exciting game ALL year and they've just completed the first week !! Your nominations for game of the week.

So many times teams can hang with a great ball club and suddenly, the strong team makes a quick run and its over. Well, that was the case as the Sikeston Bulldogs were being tied up by Dexter. Bingo..a 8 point run in a blink  and the tide had turned. Sikeston (a final four team last year) won going away 80-49.

Who will be Sikeston's toughest hurdle to jump to return to state?

How about Class 3 school, Whitfield Warriors, hosting a round robin with larger, strong schools, and winning the tournament. The Warriors knocked off DeSmet and Gateway Tech before bowing to Cardinal Ritter Prep. Via a point system, the Warriors won the tie-breaker!

Truman Girls team (4-0)used balanced scoring and strong defense to defeat the host school, Ft Osage Indians(3-1) 47-46. Truman returned only 1 starter this year but, like many other teams, is out to show that it's a new year.

Coach Jimmy Cain of Blue Springs South got the monkey off his back when he defeated Lee Summit North 39-36 in a Suburban Big Seven game. Coach Cain recorded his 1st win at North in his 4 year stint at BSS. Do you know of other streaks broken this week ?

Nothing new here, free throws win close games. How about Roshon Morris hitting nine straight to lead Hazelwood Central Hawks past Vianney 56-45 in championship tilt of Vianney Tourney.  Hear exciting replay on www.prepcasts.com .

The ol' fashion ways still do work. The Nevada Tigers used a stifling zone defense and ball control to shorten the game as they upended Carthage this week 37-33. It is getting tougher and tougher to have kids "buy into" these styles since they continually see the "run & fun" model on TV almost every day. Does that mean that ball control can't be fun ?

Most teams move up the ladder, as a program, incrementally. Such is the case with the Hancock Tigers. Hancock raised the level of their play substantially last year. This year in opening week, they won the South Side Classic as they beat the athletic Metro Panthers 44-39. Things continual to move upward for the Tigers.

"Early Out" games have a special feel. Why not ?  Kids are out of school to watch a game ! Generally, they are happy, relaxed, loud, engaged in the game. This wonderful environment was the setting as the Visitation Vivettes, using a 3 pointer by Ryan Leifield with 33 seconds left, downed the Ursuline Academy Bears 65-61 in MWAA conference action.

Really good players make other players appear to be better by setting them up for open shots. Jr. Justin Clark had 12 assists and 17 points as he was spoon that stirred the Wm Chrisman offensive soup in the easy 96-59 win over Grain Valley. Clarks' dozen assists helped 5 other players score in double figures for the Bears.

Starting a very young team 2 years ago has begun to pay dividends at Lee Summit. The Tigers demonstrated a higher level of skill and athleticism as they whipped Blue Springs South 56-37 earlier this week. Some coaches, when sensing an "off" year, throw young kids on the court and seem to use it as an excuse when they lose many games. To me, that's OK if these kids really are Varsity players as youngsters. If overmatched, I believe that you may impede their progress as players. This is especially true in football when over matched players maybe injured when competing against far larger and stronger players

MISSOURI ATHLETIC CLUB

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