61 days until BBALL season begins!!!!

[bulldog nation2014]

Anybody else excited about this? Should be a great year for basketball, especially on the women's side. Will Bishop lose its title this year for the first time in 9 years? Will a traditional be able to overcome the strength of the non traditional"s? What will the playoffs be like without the POD system this year?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Dave2kMA]

Boys will be interesting too. People are downplaying the fact that Prep is replacing 5 players who accepted basketball scholarships to colleges at various levels because they're Prep.

Regardless of what people think of them, replacing that type of talent is impossible. They have a lot of questions to answer, though there's no obvious heir apparent(s) like their are on the girls side.

This post was edited on 9/1 8:56 PM by Dave2kMA

 

[bulldog nation2014]

Dave, I couldn't agree more. I just think with the amount of talent Prep has to pull from they will once again reload. Like Bishop on the girl's side, they have to be the favorite until somebody can beat them in the playoffs. When you win back to back state championships, especially 9 in Bishops case they are the team to beat in the playoffs.

I do agree this year on both sides it is more wide open then in years past, you can actually look at a couple of traditionals and say they actually have a shot at winning it all. Its exciting and should bring a lot of excitement statewide especially with all of the arguments in regards to traditional vs non etc.

Additionally I don't think the playoffs without the pods is going to level the playing fields as we had hoped. Because the stronger teams are going to play strong comp to prepare for state. So if those strong games turn out losses for those teams you can have those teams playing other strong teams in the 2nd rd, additionally you have some teams dumping strong teams so they can get the wins to get the higher seeds and host. Realistically in the 2nd rd you could see a Albemarle Bishop matchup or Prep vs Hayesville 2nd rd or something like that. Just shows there is not a perfect system. Atleast with the PODS it eliminated some of the long travel. Would be fun to see the top teams from the midwest square off with the top teams from the West though.

 

[Dave2kMA]

Disagree on the pods not having an impact.

Yes, there will still be occasional early round games like the Mount Airy-Albemarle tilt last year, but if nothing else, the teams from the midwest will no longer be the only ones punished with that. Someone like Cherokee or Hayesville will inevitably end up with one of those nightmare draws.

In addition, a really strong team like an Atkins or Mount Airy (from last year) who finishes third or fourth (respectively) in a very difficult league will have a better shot at reaching the regionals because they'll get a chance to play some of those teams from the west that are much weaker, rather than inevitably having to go back to war against the teams that finished above them in said league.

And to build on that, there will be no foregone conclusions about who makes it to the regional like there have been in past years (particularly in the west). Last year, before the playoffs even started, you knew that Cherokee and Hayesville were going to meet in Greensboro because the other 14 teams in that bracket ranged in talent from mediocre to outright bad. As an example, last year when the preliminary brackets came out, Bishop was slated to be in the west, which would have facilitated a Bishop-Hayesville 3rd round game at Bishop that would have almost definitely ended Hayesville's season before Greensboro and dramatically altered the way the regional matchups shook out (Bishop vs. Cherokee and Prep vs. ????).

Death to the pods!

 

[bulldog nation2014]

That brings up an interesting question. If Bishop was slated to be in the west how did the midwest get blessed with their presence? LOL. If you think about it that really affected the outcome of the midwest. You would think that if they were in the west that would move Prep and MA I believe. Foregoing that matchup in the 2nd rd between MA and Albemarle and the 3rd matchup between MA and Prep. That part of the bracket alone was brutal after you got past the first rd.

 

[Dave2kMA]

It was an oversight by the committee, I think. But, the fact remains that, without pods, that type of thing is much more likely to happen and the murderers row that has existed in the mid-west will be softened a little bit and open up the possibilities for other teams to reach the regional, which benefits everyone, excluding the middle of the road teams from the weaker areas.

This post was edited on 9/2 7:41 PM by Dave2kMA

 

[bulldog nation2014]

That's true. However, when I went through this past seasons bracket and did a matchup without the pods other than the middle seeds the matchups pretty much were the same.