Mid Season Thoughts

- Fresh off the MCTV video broadcast of the Redistricting meeting. The Supt of the MSD just proposed sending the 1300 West students to Memorial and Central starting with the 2014/2015 school year. This would mean Memorial's enrollment would increase to 2700 while Central's would increase to 3000. I can't say what this would do for a lot of their sport's teams, but one thing is certain: Memorial and Central would be perennial Final Four teams in basketball.


- Still on this subject... If you think there's a lot of transfers in Manchester with the 4 teams, I would submit to you there would be even more transfers with 3 teams.


- While still not an overwhelming POY candidate, I think Mabor Gabriel is having a quietly solid year. He has had solid, not spectacular, performances in most of Trinity's games. Given right now, that arguably, the Pioneers have the most balanced team in D1, Gabriel just has to have 12 to 15 points, 6 to 10 rebounds and 2 to 3 blocks for this team to produce weekly Ws. Take away the expectations of Gabriel having 20 pt, 15 rebound and 5 block shots nights.


- Central has rode out the storm of not having Isaiah Joseph for the season. There are still some chinks in their armor. Makris hasn't developed like I thought he would, to this point of the season. Dickson has hit a wall as of late. Their depth is still in question. They are still a Final Four team.


- If forced to make a POY pick at the midway point my top 4 candidates, in no particular order would be: Dominic Paradis, Jack Preston, Jeff Lunn and Eric Gendron.


- If forced to make a POY pick at this stage, GNG would choose, in no particular order: Jeff Lunn, Jeff Lunn, Jeff Lunn and Jeff Lunn.


- Speaking of GNG..... He missed a shout out from Dave and Pete 2 weeks ago while he was folding laundry. He missed a shout out from Dave and Pete last Saturday when he was putting away dishes. EVERYBODY in HS basketball knows you wait until 9:01 am to do Saturday chores. Dave and Pete come first. GNG must have been confused. Maybe, he thought Marc Thaler was coming on with a hockey report.


- After a slow start Tyler Livingston is starting to heat up for the Broncos. He has been putting Alvirne on his scoring back lately, but the Broncos have to pick up the pace on their 5 - 4 record.


- In all honesty Bedford at 4 - 5 and tied for 10th is just about where I thought they would be at this point of the season.


- One of my people is adamant that Pinkerton runs out of physical gas in just about every 4th quarter. They do seem to be in a lot of games or winning in the 3rd quarter and do seem to get out scored by a bit in the 4th quarter. Case in point is the Central game where they were up by 10 in the 3rd and wound up losing by 18.


- I still check out the Lancer scores and somehow pray the basketball Gods will send good fortune their way.


- The battle for the Top 4 slots on the girl's side in D1 is definitely turning out to be more interesting than one would've thought before the season started.


- I'm making the call and saying Exeter is going to be a nightmare prelim matchup for some unlucky high seed. They will be the team NOBODY wants to play.


- Merrimack quietly had an impressive 1st half.


- Check out Spaulding's first 3 games: Timby, Keene and Lond. Check out their last 4 games: Mack, BG, South and Memorial.


- I felt bad for Timberlane last season and the season before. I really feel bad for them this season. Winless and being outscored by 26 points/game.


- Call me crazy, but I still think Salem might make a little noise before the season is over.


- I know the lack of upsets has been bantered about on the Forum. It is true. You could probably count the upsets so far this season on one hand and most of them would be mild. The only stronger than mild upset so far this season was Dover over Memorial, Technically speaking.


- I don't mind if there's no upsets the rest of the way. I don't mind if 1 - 8 play in the quarters and 1 - 4 play in the semis. After Cinderella pulls a prelim or quarter upset the slipper usually falls off quickly in the next game with losing solidly by 8 to 15 points.


- Nice to hear the golden silence out of Keene so far this season. Maybe the Mother hens are letting the rooster operate on his own accord this season.


- So, I'm walking down my cellar stairs a couple of days ago and I start hearing a voice emanating from my cell phone. The voice was saying, "Hello. Anybody there? Hello, Hello, Hello" It was the scenario we all encounter: the dreaded mistake phone call. I take the phone out of my pocket and who appears on the screen:


GNG

Salem. Nope not with you.

Keene has the potential to be a GNG. {thorn in your side}

For the record- Halfway POY in no particular order for me. Lunn, Paradis, Pelletier, Gendron, Akot, both Prestons, and Livingston.{who has played great since a certain radio show kind of sorta called him out}

Gotta go. It's 420 am. I have to call T@F and get his thoughts about tonight's game.


By the way. Good job on your thoughts.

By the way part 2. It wouldn't surprise me if the powers that be do away with West. It would change the landscape of sports in NH dramatically. Manchester schools would become a MAJOR force in all sports.

Gotta throw Tong and Pelletier into POY talk.

I was certain of 2 things when I woke up this morning:


1) The amount of half n half & sugar I would put in my first cup of coffee.

2) Tulliver throwing Tong into the mix for POY.

I did not give thought to Pelletier for POY at the mid point because:

1) He had a slow start due to sickness.

2) Central's 1st half schedule has been as soft as a Camp Kumbaya toasting marshmallow.

3) Defenses have been concentrating on him (Without the inside presence of Joseph) and making other players beat them like Hansen.



This is not to say he can't win POY. Central has games left with Memorial, Spaulding, Winny, South, Trinity and Bedford. Central along with Pelletier will be tested severely in the 2nd half. He just didn't have a POY 1st half. If you really study Central's first half, even though they are undefeated, you can't put Pelletier into the upper tier talk for POY talk just yet.

There is still a loooong way to go before we can make any determinations about player of the year. Troy Pelletier is just now shaking off the football rust and he's beginnig to look like the player everyone expected him to be. He has always been a strong second half player and a clutch player as well. I agree Exeter is a team that could pull a surprise upset in the tournament. Central will find out what they are made of as they work their way through a much tougher second half schedule starting with Memorial on Friday night. Tonights Trinity/BG game is a big one from a seedings standpoint. If Trinity wins they will have a solid foot in the door for the number one seed as they have played the tough part of their schedule and come out unblemished. If BG wins it will make for an interesting couple months to see how it all shakes out. I think Central and Trinity have to be the favorites at this point because of the way they play defense. Spaulding and South would round out the top four. Memorial and BG are right there as well but I think they will be a notch below the big four at tournament time.

T&F -"I still check out the Lancer scores and somehow pray the basketball Gods will send good fortune their way"

Unless that good fortune comes in the form of a miraculous torn meniscus healing I'm afraid your prayers will be useless but appreciated.