T & F's All State Teams, POY and COY

All State: This was a different year. No team was head and shoulders above the rest. There was a 5 way tie for 2nd place. Anybody could beat anybody. I made room for an extra slot on my first team because this is the way it was in Class L in the 2009/2010 season. As an FYI, I used games watched, stats and what a player meant to their team in context to where they finished as criteria for selecting my AS teams. I have to admit that sportsmanship and being there or not being there when your team counted on you was a factor also. I also don't do the 2 guards, 2 forwards and center routine either. I just put the players that performed the best on the All State Teams. Just like the "official" awards I based my awards on the regular season.

1st Team:
Alex LaRosa
David Madol
Alex Burt
Dimitri Floras
Jesse Gould
Zach Mathieu
Sean Mcclung

2nd Team:
John Wickey
Scott St. Lawrence
Connor Green
Cormac Fitzpatrick
Ben Proulx

3rd Team:
Richard Valentin
Zach Stevens
Keenan Al Darraji
Eric Watson
Morgan Faustino

Honorable Mention: Travis Maser, Alex Patrikis, Caleb Donnelly, Joe Gallant, Mike Colby, Joe O’Hearn, Louie Vigars, Gabe LaCount, Alex Pratt, Ryan Dunn and Matt Couture.


Coach of the Year:

3rd Place: Tim Goodridge – Merrimack. There were a lot of skeptics at the start of the year that were waiting for Merrimack to implode. They didn’t. For the better part of the season they were the best team in Class L. There was a nice blending of old and new with Merrimack. They did a total reversal in their record from last season to this one. It’s a shame they had the Watson health issue at the end of the season.

2nd Place: Jay McKenna – Winny: I had this team 10th in my pre-season top 10. There were some nice workable parts, but the specters of “you know who #1” and “you know who #2” hung over this team at the start of the season. Only one of the “you know who’s” worked out, but in the end they had the top record in Class L. They became a very disciplined and organized team lead by Gould and Dunn. Everybody buys into Coach McKenna’s system. Coach McKenna was #2 on my COY to West’s Sam Carey last season and he finishes #2 on my COY list again this year. He might very well win the “official” COY.

Coach of the Year: Peter Rosinski – Pinkerton: One year ago Pinkerton suffered a melt down prelim playoff loss to Alvrine. There was a lot of talk about “you know what”, that happened after the night of the playoff loss to Alvrine. Sure, they had the Big 2 of Proulx and Mathieu returning, but not a lot was expected from the Astros after graduating Verge, Cassidy, Rees and losing King to preps. I had Pinkerton as 9th in my Top 10 pre-season. Mathieu stepped it up big time offensively this season. Proulx was Proulx. Patrikis emerged as one of the best sophomores in the state. Their backcourt improved as the year went along. Last year’s Pinkerton team had more talent than this year’s Pinkerton team. This year’s Pinkerton team is better than last year’s Pinkerton team. Coach Rosinski deserves a lot of credit for this. He is my COY for 2010 in Class L.

Player of the Year:

Madol and Burt had the inside track earlier in the season with break out performances. Dimitri Floras had one of the greatest freshman years in the history of NH high school basketball. Jesse Gould defended the other team’s best player on most nights and was Winny’s leading scorer on most nights. Alex LaRosa had a slow start to the season like his Blue Devils, but also like his team, went on a nice run to close out the 2nd half of the season. Zack Mathieu gave a lot of blocks and rebounds early, but turned on the offense in the second half and surpassed Proulx as the go to guy for the Astros. McClung was very consistent offensively all season. He gets criticized for being one dimensional with being “just” an offensive player. One of the rules in basketball is that the team that has accumulated the greater number of points is the winning team. McClung helped his team observe Rule 5 Section 3 as good as anyone in the state.

2010 POY: Zach Mathieu of Pinkerton. Mathieu has always brought the blocks and rebounds nightly to the game table. This year he improved his offense to the point where he surpassed Proulx in becoming the go to guy for the Astros in the 2nd half of the season. He became better at squaring his body up on shots in the paint and had a better touch as the ball reacted more gently on the rim with his shots this year. Not bad for some one who would rather be catching curve balls and throwing out base stealers on the baseball diamond. I know that David Madol will probably win the "official" POY, but he seemed to start the year off with a bang, had steady games though the year, but ended the season quietly. Mathieu got stronger as the year went along and surged along with his Astro teammates to finish near the top of Class L. He is the best defender in Class L. He is one of the top rebounders in Class L and finished as one of the top scorers in Class L. Hmmmm, let me see, one of the top scorers and rebounders to go along with being the best defensive player. Sounds like a Player of the Year to me.

OK T & F...who is your POY? Mathieu or Proulx...at 1st you say Mathieu, but later on you say Proulx. I'm pretty sure you just mis-typed and really meant Proulx.

Either way, the post was very well thought out and I enjoyed reading your comments! That said, I still disagree with you and think that Milford/Pembroke quarterfinal from last year was played on the same night as the Class L preliims!

Now you've got me screwing up too! I meant to say I'm pretty sure you meant Mathieu.

I just corrected it, Pete. I meant to say Mathieux. I need to hire a proof reader.... wait a second, I have a child in college and another on the way. Forget about sending me applications to be hired as T & F's proof reader.

My wallet is one lonely cavity of monetary nothingness.

Mr. Tarrier:

Here is the copy and paste from my thread in the old NH Aceboard Forum on the Class L Prelim playoff night:

Topic: Prelim games March 11th & Little Green Greeks.

On my desk right now I am looking at the program I saved from Pembroke's thrilling 56 - 53 quarterfinal playoff win over Milford that is dated Friday March 6th, 2009. Remember, last year Class I started a week earlier than Class L. The Class I Championship was one week earlier than the Class L Championship. This season both classes started at roughly the same time so they could do the Class I and L Championship games on the same day.

Sometimes, it's worth it to save paper junk, much to the constant dismay from your wife, if only to settle a HS basketball blogging disagreement.

My bad T&F, I stand corrected! I knew they played the same night as Class L because I was stuck in studio that night hosting "Friday Night Lights" and I was mad that I couldn't go to the Milford/Pembroke game. My screw up was that the Class L games that night were the regular season finales! Mea Culpa!

I agree with T+F on 1st taem.
The one player on 2nd team I feel is not worthy is Cormac Fitzpatrick.
The player I would move up into 2nd or third team would be either Ryan Dunn or Louie Vigars from Exeter.
Both of these players had a more complete game than Fitzpatrick, as I saw him taken out numerous times on offense/defense switch.
But, he is still one of the best shooters in the stae, that I won't deny.

You have some good points NH Hoop Guy. The way I saw it was Cormac Fitz had a tough time early adapting to his new team and coach. Yes, adapting to the coach. Even though he was playing for his father it was still a new coach after being in the Keefe system for 3 years. He had a new school, new mates and new coach; therefore a rough start. It's a double edged sword being coached by a dad. He picked it up after the 1/3 point of the season and expanded his game. He took what the defense gave him. On some nights he drove to the basket with authority, drew fouls and scored over half, if not 3/4 of his points on some nights from the line. He shot very well in the last 1/3 of the season in leading a dangerous Memorial team to the 8th seed including big victories over BG and Merrimack where he had solid games in each contest.

Of all the honorable mention players Vigars, Dunn and Gallant were the closest to being on my 3rd team. Vigars played solid the whole year for Exeter and was big for the Blue Hawks with double digit games down the stretch. Gallant was a solid force all year long for Salem. He's a tough kid that is a "Chevy of Memorial" in the making. He does need to improve his FT shooting if he wants to make big strides next year. He could easily be a 16 to 20 point/game scorer next year because he will get fouled many times making post moves in the paint. Ryan Dunn is one interesting player. I know all the intangibles he brings to the Winny table. Last Saturday he had a big buzzer beater lay in at the end of the 3rd period that killed Memorial. He also had a big rebound at a crucial point for Winny. He gets after it on defense and helps run the show for the #1 ranked team in the state. He averaged a shade under 10 points/game. I know when you put all of Dunn's intangibles together with his points he's worth more than under 10 points/game to Jay McKenna and I get that. The one player I could switch with Dunn would be Al Darraji of Dover. He was the one I debated between 3rd team and honorable mention. He had some off games, but he came up big with 15 to 25 point games when Dover needed some one to take the scoring pressure off Burt. You could argue I put 2 Dover players on the 3rd team making 3 players from the Green Wave on my 1st to 3rd teams while Winny has 1 player on my 1st to 3rd teams and they finished #1 in Class L for the regular season. This is what makes it fun discussing the teams and players for All State teams.

Does anyone have the girls list for all-state team, POY and COY??

The girl's awards might be listed this week or weekend in the Union Leader.

With the Granite state games Sunday, shouldn't the list of players for all state be released maybe Tuesday-Thursday?

The all-state teams have been determined, and all coaches who had a player nominated for any team knows so, to be able to inform the player to be at NHTI this weekend for the Granite Games (either to play as a senior or be in the photo if underclassman)...however, the lists are not released until the Sunday Morning Papers. That's the protocal the NHBCO goes by.

Are the players in the game only 1st/2nd team and 3rd team seniors?

yes...the players in the granite games are the 12 seniors in each class who received the highest point totals in the coaches all-state voting. any underclassman that was voted to a respective team gets to be in a photo involving all the all-state selections...by class