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Professor's Proverbs -- February 22, 2016
The District 10 basketball playoffs concluded the quarterfinal round over the weekend and we now embark on the semifinals Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The quarterfinals provided a lot of quality games but few surprises. Professor Briggs thought that his Upset Special II was going to come to fruition as the Grove City boys had Strong Vincent on the ropes for much of the night Friday night in Erie before falling, 54-41.
In AA boys, as I predicted prior to the start of the tournament, the winner of the Fairview-Lakeview game (Fairview) would reach the District 10 semifinals as Fairview knocked off Cambridge Springs.
Overall, I am 38-4 picking the district playoffs to this point. That being said, picking the favorite in each game would have given you a very similar, if not the same record.
I will not be at the D-10 semifinals this week as my beloved Grove City Wolverines are hosting Presidents' Athletic Conference Championship Tournament quarterfinal games Tuesday night (men) and Wednesday night (women). More on that later.
On to the District 10 semifinals!
CLASS A BOYS
1-Kennedy Catholic vs. 5-Rocky Grove, 2-Farrell vs. 3-Erie First -- Both semifinals are at Slippery Rock University, starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday night. Kennedy has already defeated one league foe in the playoffs (Vision Quest); the Golden Eagles will have to down Region 1-A member Rocky Grove in the semifinals and potentially Farrell in the title game. Some may think that league champion Kennedy may end up having a tougher road to the title game than runner-up Farrell. But as Kurtis Blow sang, those are the breaks sometimes.
Neither Farrell or Kennedy Catholic can necessarily afford to look past the semifinal round in anticipation of Kennedy-Farrell III Friday night. All four of these teams earned impressive wins in the quarterfinals. Professor Briggs thinks that the three teams who come out of the district into the state tournament are all capable of doing damage, especially the two Mercer County teams (real revelation there, huh?)
Predictions: (1) Kennedy over (5) Rocky Grove, (2) Farrell over (3) Erie First Christian
CLASS AA BOYS
1-Northwestern vs. 5-Greenville, 7-Fairview vs. 3-West Middlesex -- Both semifinals are at Professor Briggs' favorite playoff venue, Meadville High School, Tuesday night at 6 p.m. In the Class AA semifinals, we have two Erie County-Mercer County matchups. Northwestern-Greenville is the classic clash of styles, featuring the baseline-to-baseline Wildcats against the half-court, disciplined Greenville squad in the nightcap. If the winning team has under 53, that favors Greenville; a higher-scoring game is to Northwestern's benefit.
Game One features a pair of teams that have been walking the tightrope in the playoffs. West Middlesex has defeated Fairview in the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, including the 2014 and 2015 title games. No doubt that someone will mention the word "revenge" for Fairview, which Professor Briggs thinks is nonsense. Fairview has new players and a new coach in Pat Flaherty (although one media outlet still thinks Keith Nies is in charge). It's a new season, new team composition. If Fairview spends any time thinking about Revenge instead of defending Josh Porterfield or Ryan Dogan or Nick Cannone, it will be costly.
Predictions: (5) Greenville over (1) Northwestern, (3) West Middlesex over (7) Fairview.
CLASS AAA BOYS
1-Meadville vs. 4-Cathedral Prep, 2-Strong Vincent vs. 3-Girard -- Both semifinals are at Edinboro University's McComb Field House, beginning at Professor Briggs' preferred doubleheader start time of 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Strong Vincent will face Girard in the lidlifter and have to beat the Yellow Jackets without standout David Morris, who picked up two technical fouls against Grove City and earned the distinction of the first player ever ejected in a game I was calling on radio. Girard already owns a win over Strong Vincent this year.
Predictions: (4) Cathedral Prep over (1) Meadville, (3) Girard over (2) Strong Vincent.
CLASS A GIRLS
1-Kennedy Catholic vs. 5-Farrell, 2-Cochranton vs. 3-Commodore Perry -- Both semifinals are at Sharon High School, starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday. These are two very intriguing matchups and I wouldn't be surprised by any of the four combinations of teams that end up in the championship game Saturday. Game One is Cochranton vs. Commodore Perry. I got to see Cochranton back in December and felt that the Cardinals were a team that could contend for the Class A title this year. Commodore Perry survived an upset bid by Reynolds, a team that the Panthers defeated twice in the regular season.
Kennedy is in the same situation now that Commodore Perry faced Saturday -- having to defeat a league opponent for the third time. The Meadville boys and West Middlesex boys both barely accomplished that Friday night in the quarterfinals. It's not easy, especially when the opponent is Farrell, which has played well over the last month of the season. At some point, a team is not going to go 3 for 3 against a quality opponent during a season. Wednesday's game will be Kennedy's first in nearly two weeks. If it takes too long for the Golden Eagles to shake off the rust, it could be a real problem. Look for this one to come down to the wire.
Predictions: (1) Kennedy Catholic over (5) Farrell, (3) Commodore Perry over (2) Cochranton.
CLASS AA GIRLS
1-Harbor Creek vs. 4-Mercer at Fairview, 6 p.m. Wednesday; 2-West Middlesex vs. 3-Cambridge Springs at Meadville, 6 p.m. Wednesday. Much like Class A, it would not surprise me to see any combination of winners in Saturday's district title game. Harbor Creek won the title last year while Mercer is in the semifinals for the third time in four years. Expect this one to be the classic tempo battle again -- the lower the score, the better for Mercer.
Cambridge Springs and West Middlesex are a combined 43-4 this season. West Middlesex already owns a win over the Blue Devils this year. Regular season rematches seem to be holding to form in the playoffs so far. I expect that to continue.
Predictions: (1) Harbor Creek over (4) Mercer, (2) West Middlesex over (3) Cambridge Springs.
CLASS AAA GIRLS
1-Villa Maria vs. 5-Girard at Fairview, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 2-Hickory vs. 3-Mercyhurst Prep at Meadville, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The AAA semifinals will be the back end of the doubleheaders Wednesday night after the 'AA' semifinals. Villa Maria is ranked 14th in USA TODAY's national poll; USA TODAY's computer poll does not list Villa in the top 25. Still, we all know that Villa Maria churns out Division I college players at the rate Paul Kersey mowed down people in the "Death Wish" series. Girard knows Villa as well as anyone and head coach Larry Seneta will have a great game plan prepared. But ...
The other Class AAA semifinal has a lot more intrigue as Mercyhurst and Hickory square off. Grove City hung with Mercyhurst for quite a while in the quarterfinals before the Lakers pulled away in the second half. Hickory has more offensive firepower than Grove City, which certainly is a necessity against Mercyhurst Prep. Is it enough firepower though? A very good team will have it season come to an end around 9 p.m. Wednesday night.
Predictions: (1) Villa Maria over (5) Girard, (3) Mercyhurst Prep over (2) Hickory.
> I had the opportunity to visit the newly-constructed Prep-Villa Events Center on 12th Street in Erie when Grove City and Strong Vincent met in the D-10 quarterfinals Friday night. What an immaculate facility! They certainly did not cut corners or do anything half-baked with it. It seats about 1,600 and there's plenty of room on the catwalk around the court. They did a great job of not making it "too big." I would expect to see a lot of D-10 volleyball and basketball playoffs held in this facility in the future. Parking is OK, it's easy to find the facility itself as it's right off of 12th Street (Route 5/290) -- the last exit on Interstate 79.
Here are links to a few photos I took: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3
> The Presidents' Athletic Conference basketball tournament will begin Monday night with first-round games on both the men's and women's sides. The genders use different formats, which I think is a good idea in that it gives each tournament its own unique qualities. On the men's side, all 10 teams participate, with No. 7 hosting No. 10 and No. 9 visiting the eighth seed in first round games. The tournament re-seeds after each round so that the highest seed is facing the lowest seed. Professor Briggs would prefer a "hard" bracket like the NCAA Tournament has. But my input has not and probably will not be solicited.
Last year's tournament featured no upsets at all, which is really out of character for the tournament. Perhaps the wildest tournament came nine years ago, when neither of the top seeds made the championship game. Fourth-seeded Grove City defeated No. 3 W&J to win the title that year.
The women's tournament takes the top eight of 10 teams. But instead of having four quarterfinals (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, et al), a tiered format is used. The top two teams advance to the semifinals while Nos. 3 and 4 advance to the quarterfinals. In the first round, No. 5 hosts No. 8 while No. 6 hosts No. 7. The 5-8 winner visits No. 4 while the 6-7 winner meets No. 3 in the quarterfinals. The 4-5/8 winner then plays the top seed in one semifinal while No. 2 will play 3-6/7 in the other semifinal.
Upsets have been somewhat of a rarity in the women's tournament. The fifth seed has beaten No. 4 in each of the last two years but those games were pretty much tossups. The last somewhat notable upset came in 2010 when No. 6 Chatham won at No. 3 Grove City, 63-54. Two years prior, Grove City's women pulled the 6-over-3 upset on Bethany. Since the women's tournament resumed permanently in 2000, there has not been what most would consider a stunning upset.
> Send all suggestions, thoughts, questions or comments to: ryanbriggs@zoominternet.net. Tweet @professorbriggs
