What a busy two days.
My notebook on the Somerset County Tournament seedings and Top 10 rankings -- both of which are due to my editors at the end of Thursday night -- seem to have been virtually rendered insignificant by what I've tabbed as "Surprise Weekend."
I'm not ready to call it "Upset Weekend" because with all these the teams around the area looking more and more evenly matched, I'm not sure what's an upset and what's not anymore. But I still was surprised to see in the past two days that:
1) North Hunterdon beat Hunterdon Central
2) Hun routed Hunterdon Central
3) Watchung Hills barely slipped past Bridgewater-Raritan
4) Westfield beat Scotch Plains-Fanwood (mild surprise)
5) Pingry beat Ridge
6) Immaculata beat Somerville
I will have an updated version of my Somerset County seeds on my blog by Wednesday afternoon in time for the coaches meeting later that night. Until then, here are the links to what ran in Saturday's paper and my new Top 10 as of all games completed Saturday night.
http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080119/SPORTS03/801190313/1013
http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080119/SPORTS03/801190314/1013
1. Rutgers Prep 13-1
2. Piscataway 10-3
3. Voorhees 9-4
4. North Hunterdon 10-2
5. Hunterdon Central 11-4
6. Watchung Hills 10-2
7. Montgomery 10-3
8. Westfield 8-3
9. Franklin 7-6
10. Scotch Plains-Fanwood 7-5
Reasons for some of the changes:
-- I'm ready to say Rutgers Prep is the best team in the area, and I know at least one opposing coach who agrees with me. RP beat Hun, which beat Hunterdon Central by 29 on Saturday.
-- Voorhees gets the edge among the three Hunterdon County schools, all of whom are 1-1 against each other. This is mere opinion because you could argue these teams in any order.
-- Watchung Hills and Montgomery are both playing great right now, but they fall a few spots for no other reason than because someone has to when Voorhees and North Hunterdon are moving up.
Remember, by the time the next Top 10 runs in next Saturday's paper, this Top 10 could be very different. All rankings subject to change. But enjoy for this now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
For the past few weeks, I haven't been able to figure out why you have Piscataway ranked so high. Compared to the Skyland Conference, the GMC is extremely mediocre. Yes they have a good record, but in my opinion, they couldn't compete with many of the Skyland teams you have ranked below them.
Rutgers Prep is definitely the favorite this year to win the SCT.
I too don't think Piscataway is all that great.
BR, with a 5-9 record or something like that, won't be getting a very good seed, regardless of how tough of a schedule they play. I will be shocked if they are seeded above MSM and Somerville.
Speaking of which, Immaculata's "upset" of Somerville can be 100% attributed to Coach Swan, who just completely blew it for his girls. It should have been their year.
I'd add Franklin's one point loss (39-38) by New Brunswick foul shots with no time left on the clock to your description of a surprise weekend. New Brunswick is ranked in Gannett's Top 20 State teams and the Home News Tribune ranks them #1 in their area top 10. An excellent showing for the Warriors against one of the areas toughest opponents.
In spite of their ranking, Central still has the best talent in the area. Have not seen them play recently so can only guess that the chemistry on that team has deteriorated to the point where they are now in danger of falling out of the top 10 and letting their season slip away from them. They had something special going for a little while. Hopefully, they can get all the internal stuff worked out and get back to playing like their old selves again.
Well Ryan, back to the drawing boards for you after tonight's games.
Franklin beats Watchung
Somerville beats Del Val
North Plainfield beats MSM
And listening to your podcast, I am absolutely shocked you have Somerville at 12. Somerville is now 9-4 after a decisive win over Del Val, which has beaten North Plainfield and MSM! 2 of Somerville's losses are against two excellent teams - Belvidere and Freehold Twp. The other 2 losses shouldn't have happened. Somerville played its worst game ever against MSM and I guarantee will blow them out when they play again in Somerville. The game against Lata SHOULD have been a blowout, but Coach Swan blew it by proving he is one of the weakest coaches around. Putting two 2-10 teams at 9 and 10? Give me a break. Newsflash: you have MSM in the top 8 when they, as you said, beat Bernards twice and Somerville once by a combined 5 points! Bernards is atrocious this year and MSM barely beat them. Think about it - they are extremely overrated. Hopefully the committee will see this tomorrow. Somerville not being in the top 8 in the county would be a travesty.
And to add to the above, Somerville is now in first place in the Raritan Division after beating Del Val. MSM and North Plainfield both have 2 losses in division, Somerville only 1. Putting Raritan Division leading Somerville at 12 because they have played bigger, better schools is ludicrous. Neither North Plainfield or MSM have even tried playing the bigger schools. Immaculata isn't bad - they simply have played a very tough schedule and lost a lot of rather close games.
Montgomery lost to Immaculata...Wow.
I think they should just pick the seeds at random this year.
Should be an interesting county tourney this year. These are some interesting posts. The one from above bashes Coach Swan from Somerville yet praises his team and says that they deserve a decent seed. Sounds like someone who has a personal problem with the coach(daughter's minutes, color of his skin, etc.). Too bad. I follow all of the local teams. I watched Somerville before he got the job and they stunk. So, they bring that coach in, he has success(County Semis two years ago, Group 2 State Final one year ago and after a loss on Saturday he becomes as the post stated "one of the weakest coaches around". Interesting. Anyway, that's just my take. I think he does an outstanding job especially without a standout player like many of the other teams have. The post is correct when they say that MSM is not that great when they have only won some of these games by the hairs on their chinney chin-chin. Good luck to all in the tourney.
The poster above me, I can't believe what I think you are insinuating. Are you seriously saying that people don't like Coach Swan because of the color of his skin?! I am in complete shock over the ridiculousness of this statement.
It's true, Swan did lead Somerville to the county semis two years ago and the Group II final last year, but this year he has just blown too many close games. The ones which come to mind are, obviously, Immaculata, and more recently Voorhees. In both games Ville led by 10 at some point in the game only to blow that lead in the 4th quarter. Without star Caity Laub, he doesn't trust the offense as much and forces them to stall and allow the defense ample time for turnovers and more points while the girls just stand around dribbling. These are games Somerville should have won but Coach Swan tries to micromanage everything and he is also very stubborn. The team's best scorer, Massa, hasn't been playing a lot in the past week because of a petty argument between coach and player. If the girls were allowed to play their game without having to worry about stalling and setting up all these ridiculous plays, they'd be one of the best teams in the county. Now, I'm worried if they will even beat Immaculata this weekend in the counties. They have the talent no doubt, but the question remains if they will blow another lead because of poor late-game coaching.
Well it appears luck is not on Somerville's side:
Half of the varsity team has been stricken with the stomach flu, so the other half getting it can't be far behind. It's not looking good...
Post a Comment