The Somerset County coaches are going to be faced with a tough decision next Wednesday night at the county tournament seeding meeting.
The problem? Group III Ridge is 2-9 and Group IV Bridgewater-Raritan is 0-10, making seeding those two schools a near impossible task.
It's hard to justify putting a two-win team and a winless team in the Top 8 ahead of smaller public schools with solid records such North Plainfield (6-2) and Bernards (8-3).
That said, a struggling Ridge team was given the 13th seed last season and handled Mount St. Mary rather easily in the first round. So, is it fair to ask the Mount Lions -- or Pingry, Bound Brook or Manville -- to face Ridge or BR in the first round just because they have poor records?
What would you do?
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A place to discuss anything happening on the local basketball courts or minor-league baseball diamonds.
14 comments:
I would put Ridge as the lowest seed and B-R the 2nd lowest, since we're talking about Group 4 vs. Group 3
I feel like Bernards/Ridge get too much credit... they play tiny schools that don't have much talent.
I feel Hillsborough should be number 1, Watchung number 2, Immaculata number 3
The weakest teams (generally from the smaller schools) are most likely going to go out early no matter who you pair them up with. What's wrong with that? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? The teams that are probably tough to seed are teams like Somerville. They could be 10-1 and what does it mean? They don't play anybody good enough to serve as a useful benchmark.
The NCAA considers difficulty of schedule in selecting teams and seeding them, so why shouldn't the Somerset County Tournament committee? Bernards (for example) probably should be seeded lower (or on a par) with teams like Bridgewater and Ridge. The fact is that their schedule doesn't prove that they are any better in that they don't play competitive teams. If the Bernards folks have a problem with that, then start playing a tougher schedule. It's that simple.
BR and Ridge should be ranked somewhere in the middle. BR's recent win over Montgomery should get it around a 9 or 10 while Ridge should be around an 8.
Hillsborough and Watchung Hills are locks for the top two spots, with the third, fourth, and fifth spots open to either Franklin, Immaculata, or Somerville. The game this Saturday between Somerville and Immaculata will be crucial to determine who is seeded higher. I feel like Somerville, if they can beat Immaculata Saturday, should get the third spot. They have a powerful team with Laub as the focal point with a very talented sophomore class. which isn't well known. Their defense is great as well (upon changing who was guarding arguably Somerset county's best player Carr last night, Somerville held her to just three points in the entire second half). Again, I personally feel the winner of Saturday's game should get #3 and the loser #4. As the sixth seed last year, Somerville made a run by eliminating Ridge, Franklin, and only losing to Rutgers Prep by 3 in the county semi-final.
See here is what i see wrong in all these rankings/ratings...
You take someone like Carr, from Bernards, who was county player of the year last yr, cause she averaged 20+ or so points a game ... look at the school's they play against, small, tiny schools. Have them play against the bigger schools, then give them recognition. Take people like Lindsey Melone, Meghan Kopecki, Kelsey Kutch... if they played the type of schools like Bernards plays(the smaller schools), they too would be averaging close to 25 points a game. No one takes that into consideration at all
1- Hillsborough
2- Watchung
3 - Immaculata
4/5 - Somerville/Franklin
then whoever else
watchung hills and the other big schools. bound brook has a girl i was told didn't see a lot of playing time with immaculata last year who became a 15 to 20 point scorer after transfering. there is a big drop off and that should be considered in seeding the county tournament and giving out player awards at the end of the season.
I agree with "ric flair"
There's girls in the all-area, all-county who play crap schools that do great, but when they play with or against the better schools, they flop. Just like the girl he mentioned above. I agree this should be heavily considered in the county seedings and end of the year awards
"Ric" & "Bigguy" Can you clarify your statements. Are you saying that the girl from BB since leaving Lata is playing against less competetive schools for BB and that is the reason for scoring 15 -20 before she fractured her collarbone in a game.
Or should the kids from smaller schools that larger schools have the same as the bigger schools?
Chuck
Chuck, I'm using the BB girl as an example of how much less competitive the level of play is among the smaller schools. It wasn't meant personally and I'm sorry to hear she got hurt. If you go to many of these games you can see very clearly that there's no comparison between playing against Manville, Bound Brook, South Hunterdon and the other small schools on the one hand and Hillsborough, Watchung Hills and the other big area schools on the other. I've never seen Carr play and she might be a decent player, but there's NO WAY she'd have been scoring 1500 points or whatever she has if she was playing Hillsborough's schedule every year (just to pick a school at random). Somerville (another random example) might have a great team, but they haven't played anybody that proves it. I heard that Immaculata played Morris Catholic, Bloomfield Tech and Piscataway (? not sure) in the Stapleton Christmas Tournament. Has Bernards played anybody like that? Manville? North Plainfield? You want to talk about fair? If Immaculata doesn't make it into the state tournament because they have a losing record come selection time, is anybody going to give them special treatment because they lost three games most teams at their level wouldn't even take and played the rest of the season with what amounts to a 3-game handicap? Of course not. C'mon. None of this is perfectly fair. But you need to look at things like this when handing out player awards at the end of the year and seeding tournaments. Let's not pretend it's all the same.
I agree completely with ric flair. Immaculata/Boro/Watchung all play tougher teams within their conference than Bernards. Even their out-of-confrence games are harder. Boro picked up Westfield/North/Voorhees, all of which are good teams. Watchung picked up South Plainfield/North. Immaculata picked up Voorhees. Let Bernards/Manville or any of the smaller schools go up against one of these bigger schools and see what happens. I'd predict a blowout. I'm sure any of the players like Melone, Kutch, Kopecki..if they played a schedule like the smaller schools, they would be averging 25-30 points a game too.. I just feel like the end-of the year awards are looked too much upon who scores the most. Let's for once look at the competition they play, and then rank the players
The Delaware division teams should be seeded ahead of all the Raritan (except for maybe Somerville, which beat Bernards on a hail mary?). Bernards is not good, but does ok with schools of its own size. Carr, however, is without question the top player in the county - would she have 1800 points if she played at one of the big schools? No, but she would still be the best player on any team and would probably have 1400-1500, to go along with hundreds of assists. She has never had any help; Kopecki, Melone, Kutch are all good players who have always had teammates who could help every night. The good teams have solid starters and some depth; the little schools usually can't get the depth and may only have one or two solid players.
Somerville loses to Immaculata. Seedings now should be:
1. Hillsborough
2. Watchung Hills
3. Immaculata
4. Somerville
5. Rutgers Prep
6. Franklin
7. Montgomery
8. North Plainfield
i don't know how you put immaculata ahead of franklin. franklin beat them in their own house and has a winning record while immaculata has a losing record. i'm also not sure how you put immaculata ahead of rutgers prep. prep made it to the finals last year. sorry but beating somerville doesn't mean all that much.
To start, Rutgers Prep is overrated. They didn't exactly have the hardest path to the finals last year, only beating Somerville by 3 in the semis. I don't think it's fair to put Rutgers Prep in the top four, just because they've barely played anyone in the county and there is little indication of how strong they really are. I say, give them the fifth seed, almost identical to the fourth, except they will play a weak team in the first round and travel to the 4th seed the next week. It isn't really a big deal, but to be blunt, I think it would be rash to place them in the top four.
Next, concerning Franklin and Immaculata, Franklin was HOUSED by Watchung Hills earlier in the season, whereas Lata only lost to them by nine. Franklin is a VERY inconsistent team, and even though they beat Lata (by just 2 points), Franklin inconsistencies as well as last year's performance in the SCT, where they lost to Somerville in their first game, don't exactly help them.
Somerville has only lost 2 players from last year and has the chance to again go far this year. They did lose to Lata tonight, but Laub basically could not play the entire 4th quarter (fouled out). This subsequently led to an 11-0 run by Immaculata, putting the game out of reach. Lata holds one of the best players around in Melone and they thrive under pressure. They deserve the third seed just for the brutal schedule they have faced so far.
Thus, I stick with Hboro, Watchung, Lata, Ville, Prep, Franklin; but basically, Prep and Franklin could be switched.
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