Basketball Bye-Bye

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

With the state championship titles decided in mid-week because of the weather, and with the VIA All-Star basketball games being played this past weekend, the high school basketball season of 2017-18 officially came to an end.  Outstanding seniors donned their school’s uniforms for the last time and Lehigh Valley basketball was officially over.  There is no better time to reminisce…  Here are my top ten memories (in no particular order, like my mind) of this past season:

1. The RCN TV team – I have spent almost 50 years with this group and they never cease to amaze me with their work ethic, their dedication and their skills. Imagine over 100 winter productions laying wire, setting up cameras at the top of arenas, preparing the announcers’ booth, working the game and reversing the whole process when the game ends. Now imagine doing that over and over and over again from the last week of August, when football season starts, to the third week of March.  Great job everyone!
2. Congratulations to Justin Paz (Beca), Greg Eck (ES South), Alex Serrano (Liberty), Aiden Ellwood (Northampton), Kion Andrews (Allen), Hope Brown (Beca), Hailey Silfies (Freedom), and Victoria Keenan (Northampton) for going over the 1000-point mark this past season. Paz and Keenan are juniors and will continue to add to their impressive offensive numbers.
3. More kudos – this time to coaches who set some milestones of their own – Jose Medina (Beca Girls), Dave Lutz (Easton Girls), and Dennis Csensits (Central Catholic Boys) all won their 100^th game this season. Joe Stellato (Freedom) deserves special mention for winning his 200^th game.  The four have combined for 520 wins!
4. Lafayette hired a new women’s basketball coach – Kia Damon. She led the Leopards to 11 wins, the most since 2015. Lafayette was led in scoring and rebounding by Natalie Kucowski, who is just a freshman.  Three seniors will graduate, but the future looks much brighter.  Go Leopards!
5. The Lafayette men struggled through a 10-21 year and they do lose their leading scorer, Matt Klinewski, to graduation. BUT they showcased four outstanding freshmen – Alex Petrie, Justin Jaworski, E J Stephens, and Dylan Hastings. With a 6’-9” recruit coming on board, along with two point guards, Fran O’Hanlon seems to be building for a return to the glory days.  They last won the Patriot League championship in 2015.
6. Tom and John (and Mike and Beet) – Don’t tell anybody, but the job is really fun, especially with this group. All the respect and praise I feel for the RCN staff carries over to my color analysts for high school and college basketball, Tom Stoudt and John Leone.  They have such a passion for the game.  And then there are Mike Joseph and John Bowman (Beet).  What a crew – more laughs than you can imagine.  Obviously, the five of us spend a great deal of time together and it is full of conversation, joking, ribbing, and good times.  The winter goes very quickly when you are around these guys!
7. My complete ignorance in not covering more Northampton games this year. Coy Stampone’s team won 18 games and many in dramatic fashion. His match defense baffled opponents, including almost upsetting  Philadelphia powerhouse, St. Joe’s Prep, in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.  Aiden Ellwood is a special player and Cory Weisenberger had a great season.  I regret that you and I didn’t get to see them more often on RCN.
8. Even though the Bethlehem Catholic girls could not repeat their state championship run this year, Jose Medina and his team won 25 games and the  EPC and District XI championships.  They were beaten after two questionable calls by Bonner-Prendergast at the buzzer 40-38 to end their season.  The following Sunday, Jose was portraying Jesus reenacting the Lord’s walk on Palm Sunday.  From being the Becahi coach to portraying Jesus – sounds like a nice promotion for a great role model.
9. The Bethlehem Catholic vs Imhotep Charter game in Reading stands out as the best of the year. Imhotep was the defending state champion, ranked #7 in the nation by USA Today, and considered to be the best team in Pennsylvania.  They won their state games by a 28.7 point average.  But Beca, with their star player, Ryan Young, saddled with foul trouble throughout the game, still took the game down to the final two possessions before losing 65-60.  Imhotep won their state championship game 71-35.
10. Finally, there are plenty of people I want to thank. Basketball preparation is a numbers game – stats are critical. I rely heavily on EPC stat guru, Bob Whirl, for almost every game.  There are no better sources for Liberty and Freedom information than Greg DeStasio and Karl Gilbert.  They not only supply stats but plenty of historical information as well.  Ara Hoderewski (Emmaus), Jeremy Coxe (Nazareth), and Matt Fritz (Parkland) are others that I can always count on.  Brian Ludrof and Steve Kline supplied me with all the game notes for Lafayette basketball.  Thanks to them, too.  And to anyone I may have missed.  I do want to send out a big “thumbs down” to the Dallas head coach, who sent only his roster and supplied nothing else for the Central Catholic game played in Hazleton.  He was the only coach who did not cooperate. We had to find everything on our own and it made me appreciate all the ADs, coaches, and stat people who went out of the way to help during the season.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR ANOTHER GREAT SEASON!

 

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. I know the NCAA basketball bigwigs and the CBS sports people want high ratings for their National Championship basketball game, so that means the West Coast viewers are very important, but a 9:20pm tip-off in the East sure wrecks a good night’s sleep. A post-midnight finish just seems wrong.
2. In case you missed the amazing finishes to the Notre Dame women’s last two games that won them a National Championship, take a look:http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=22996063 (over Mississippi State)  Amazing finishes!!
3. http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=22972765 (over Connecticut)
4. To say that Phillies manager Gabe Kapler is off to a rough start would be a HUGE understatement. He used 13 different pitchers in the 3-game series opener against the Braves; he made 18 pitching changes in the same three games; he used outfielder Pedro Floriman to pitch an inning; and he used a record-setting 21 pitchers in the 3-game series. Add to that he removed Aaron Nola from the season opener in the sixth inning leading 5-0. The Phils ended up losing that game 8-5. Thank goodness the Phils won game two 5-4 in 11 innings (Kapler used 8 pitchers in that one). Up is the only direction the rookie manager can go (Phils fans hope).
5. About a year ago, 60 Minutes did a feature on Shohel Ohtani, the Japanese baseball sensation who was being compared to Babe Ruth because of both his pitching and hitting skills. Fast forward to Oakland where Ohtani is hitting and pitching for the Los Angeles Angels. He was 1-5 on Thursday as the DH and won his first pitching outing on Sunday 7-4. In doing so, he became the first player since 1920 to start a game as a hitter and a pitcher in the first 10 games of the season. Manager Mike Sciosa is not sure how he will use Ohtani as a batter as the year progresses, but he will be in the pitching rotation.
6. Herschel Walker spoke at the VIA All-Star Basketball Banquet this past Wednesday night. In case you don’t know who he is, he set the NCAA freshmen rushing record at Georgia, was a 3-year All-American, and won the Heisman trophy in his junior year. He skipped his senior year to enter professional football and led the NFL in rushing for the Dallas Cowboys. He told great stories throughout the speech, never wavered in his presentation, and was very, very entertaining. And… he only played football in high school to avoid doing the dishes at home; only played college football when a toss of the coin told him NOT to go into the military, which was his dream; and was voted the second greatest college football player behind the legendary Red Grange.