We can look ahead to Feb. 17; is USCC a possibility?

The players and coaches at Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Kennedy can’t afford to look ahead to their much anticipated meeting at Kennedy on Feb. 17, but we can. That’s why we’re high school basketball fans.

There are numerous big games to be played in the MVC in the two-plus weeks before that showdown – Linn-Mar at Iowa City High Tuesday night comes to mind – but the buzz around the Metro is already centering on the 17th.

Through Friday night’s games, Kennedy is 14-0 (10-0 MVC Mississippi) and Linn-Mar is 14-1 (10-0 MVC Valley). Both teams have clinched No. 1 seeds in their respective substate tournaments and both own three-game leads in their respective MVC divisions with six games to play. Kennedy is ranked second in the state, Linn-Mar third.

Here are the games each have remaining before that magical date three days after Valentine’s Day. The opponents records are through Friday.

Linn-Mar (14-1): at Iowa City High (11-4); vs. C.R. Prairie (2-12); vs. C.R. Jefferson (8-6); vs. Iowa City West (7-8).

C.R. Kennedy (14-0): at Cedar Falls (7-5); vs. C.R. Xavier (3-10); vs. West Delaware (5-10); vs. Waterloo West (7-5); at C.R. Washington (11-4).

The predicition here is Linn-Mar comes in 18-1 and Kennedy 19-0 (no pressure at all, fellas). Officials should look into booking the U.S. Cellular Center, like they did under similar circumstances involving the same two schools 25 years ago in 1984.

Let’s look ahead. It’s why we love this time of year.

Late boys’ scores you won’t find in today’s paper

Earlier and earlier deadlines at The Gazette are making it more difficult to get a full score list in Saturday morning’s paper. Here a are few I tracked down at about 1 a.m. Saturday that won’t be in the paper you read this morning:

 

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY:

Cedar Falls 51, Waterloo West 41

Dubuque Hempstead 66, Dubuque Senior 59

Dubuque Wahlert 69, Waterloo East 65

 

OTHER AREA:

Andrew 60, Bellevue 54

Cascade 50, Starmont 39

Charles City 68, Waukon 46

Crestwood 70, Waverly-Shell Rock 60

HLV 82, Tri-County 32

Mount Vernon 50, Anamosa 48

Norwalk 75, South Tama 46

Oelwein 63, New Hampton 51

Postville 57, North Fayette 44

Sigourney 61, Iowa Valley 41

West Central 54, MFL MarMac 35

Wilton 54, West Liberty 44

Washington 71, Keokuk 56

Waterloo Walnut Ridge 80, North Tama 69

 

STILL MISSING:

Camanche at Olin

Central City at North Linn

West Branch at Tipton

 

Any assistance that can be provided on those three missing scores would be appreciated.

 

Landon Cassill talks on KGYM

 

Cedar Rapids native and last year’s NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie of the year Landon Cassill was a telephone guest on the “Gym Class” program on KGYM-AM radio Wednesday afternnoon. He is still employed by powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports. Here are a few quotes: 

On being the ‘08 Nationwide Series rookie of the year:

“It’s pretty cool and it’s a neat deal. Im’ just happy to be where I’m at. It’s cool, you know, and it’s been a long journey and it’s been a lot of fun, and I look forward to continuing.”

What he’s been up to:

“We’ve been all over the country, trying to get our cars ready for Daytona, and I think they (Hendrick) got some good things lined up for the Cup guys in Daytona. I’ve been able to play a big role.”

Cassill said he is going to run a super late model during Speedweeks, which begins in Florida mid-February. There is no guarantee of Nationwide ride.

“The economy … everybody’s taking a hit because of what’s happened recently. And right now, in auto racing, it seems like the music stopped and everyone’s  kind of chasing for a chair. Everybody’s keeping their doors open and trying to stay in buisiness, and right nowI’m still with Hendrick Motorsports and trying to do as much testing as I can with them.”

On whether or not he’ll have a Nationwide ride this season:

“It’s pretty up in the air right now.”

Future Hawkeye May impressive

Linn-Mar knocked off Dubuque Wahlert, 66-61, Tuesday night at Wahlert, with future D-I basketball players Zach Bohannon and Nate Hutcheson combining for 43 points and 19 rebounds for the Lions. It was a terrific game that wasn’t decided until the Lions put together a 14-6 f0urth quarter run, spurred by dead-eye free throw shooting from sophomore Matt Bohannon down the stretch.

There was another D-I signee on the floor in this game. That would be Wahlert’s 6-4 senior guard Eric May, who has signed on with Todd Lickliter and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Physically, May resembles Matt Gatens, with tree trunk calves and thighs and a muscular build. He doesn’t seem quite as polished as Gatens was during his senior season at Iowa City High last year, but the kid can play. He was also a two-time all-state quarterback for the Golden Eagles, and was a first-team all-stater in basketball last season.

May finished with 26 points and eight rebounds Tuesday night, while shooting just 7 of 21 from the floor (3 of 10 from 3-point range). He entered the game as a 50 percent field goal shooter (35 percent from distance), so he was a bit off against the Lions. He tried to force some things at times, but the Golden Eagles – last year’s 3A state champion – were in the fight of their lives.

It’s easy from this position to say May will see considerable playing time at Iowa next season. Again, he’s a standout athlete in the Gatens mold, and that’s a good place to start.

Nice digs at the classic Wahlert gym

Through the years I’ve heard a lot about how difficult it is for opposing basketball teams to show up at Dubuque Wahlert and leave with a victory. There was an old joke about the Wahlert booster club inducting the game officials into their Hall of Fame at halftime of games. Stories of the antics of the student body seated behind one of the baskets are legendary.

This is my first visit to Wahlert – I’m at Tuesday’s game between Linn-Mar and the Golden Eagles – and at first glance, I’m impressed. This place screams Iowa high school basketball.

Bleachers rise high nearly to the ceiling on one side of the gym. Four to six rows of bleachers sit behind each basket, with the Golden Eagle students filling one end. More bleachers sit high on a stage behind the team benches (chairs) and scorers’ table.

The guys from Cedar Rapids radio station KGYM, Scott Unash and Phil Dunn, are seated at a table at one end of the stage. The one-man broadcasting team for KDTH radio out of Dubuque is perched high up in a booth on the far side. He’ll soon be joined by a reporter from the Telegraph-Herald.

I’m at the scorers’ table, enjoying perfect working conditions. I’ve got an electical outlet to plug in my dead-battery laptop and a strong enough cell signal to make it work with reasonable speed. A great game awaits between ‘08 4A state third-place Linn-Mar and ‘08 3A state champion Wahlert. Three players who have committed to D-I programs – Linn-Mar’s Zach Bohannon (Air Force) and Nate Hutcheson (Western Michigan) and Wahlert’s Eric May (Iowa) – will be in the starting lineups. The venerable old gym is expected to be filled to near capacity by the time the varsity game starts.

I’m ready to go. It’s really a pretty nice place to be on a cold late January night.

Planting postseason seeds

Postseason seedings are supposed to be determined on how teams fare during games five through 15 on their schedules (11 games). There are also cutoff dates, however, and those dates were last Saturday for classes 1A and 2A. The cutoff date for 3A and 4A is this Saturday.

Due to December postponements, very few of the teams in the two smaller classes had played 15 games by last Saturday. Seedings in those classes are determined by a team’s winning percentage in games played after their fourth of the season. It’s a mess and something the IHSAA is going to have to figure out when they determine the pairings. I only wish my good friends at the IHSAA the best. Class 2A South Winneshiek had played only eight total games through Saturday, which means their seeding will be determined by how they fared in four games instead of 11. No one said life is fair.

Class 3A seeds are also deternined by overall records in games five through 15, with a Jan. 31 cutoff. In 4A, the seeding is also determined by wins and losses in games five through 15, but a points system is used. 4A schools get four points for a win over a 4A team, three for a win over a3A and so on down the line.

 Let’s take a look at the area substate standings  in 4A through Saturday’s games:

4A Substate 4: Heading into Monday night’s game against Dubuque Hempstead, Linn-Mar had a two-point lead over Cedar Rapids Washington with two more seedings games left to play before Saturday’s cutoff. If Linn-Mar beat Hempstead Monday, beats Wahlert Tuesday and can get past Xavier Friday, the Lions will receive the No. 1 seed. Washington would earn the No. 2 seed (still a first-round bye) with wins over Dubuque Senior Tuesday and Iowa City High Friday. The Warriors, of course, could still be seeded No. 1 if the Lions slip this week.

4A Substate 3: Unbeaten Cedar Rapids Kennedy is 8-0 in its 11 seeding games to date and seems assured of the No. 1 seed with comfortable leads over Marshalltown and Waterloo East. The Cougars could clinch the top-seed with a win at East Tuesday night.

4A Substate 6: City High is also sitting pretty with a sizable lead over second-place Burlington. The Little Hawks host Cedar Rapids Prairie and are at Washington for their final two seedings games.

If everything follows form, Linn-Mar, Kennedy and City High will receive No. 1 seeds, which means a first-round bye and home court in the substate semifinals. Of course,  No. 2 seeds receive the same considerations.

It’s time to cut down to a two or three class system. Too many schools (32 in the four classes) make it to state. A team should have to win more than two postseason games to make it to Des Moines, which is the case for the top-two seeds in each of the eight 4A substates.

Live chat and new Super 10

Please join K.J. Pilcher, Jeff Linder and me for a live chat dealing with any questions you may have regarding high school basketball (boys’ and girls’) and wrestling at noon on Monday. It can be a lively affair if we get everyone to participate. You can get on the chat by going to www.iowaprepsports.com. Just sign in and join in.

One topic of discussion might be the latest boys’ basketball Super 10. I’ve really been wrestling with the top-3 all year, and I’d love your input.

Here’s the latest Super 10 with records and last week’s ranking:

SUPER 10:

 

1.       Linn-Mar                                              11-1       1

2.       C.R. Kennedy                                     12-0       3

3.       Solon                                                    14-0       2

4.       Union Community                           14-1       8

5.       North Cedar                                       14-0       7

6.       C.R. Washington                                9-4        6

7.       Marion                                                 11-3       10

8.       Iowa City High                                   10-3       4

9.       Keota                                                    13-0       9

10.   Benton Community                        11-3       5

 

Class 4A – 1. Linn-Mar (11-1), 2. C.R. Kennedy (12-0), 3. C.R. Washington (9-4), 4. Iowa City High (10-3), 5. C.R. Jefferson (7-5).

Class 3A – 1. Union Community (14-1), 2. Marion (11-3), 3. Benton Community (11-3), 4. Mount Vernon (9-4), 5. Western Dubuque (9-6).

Class 2A – 1. Solon (14-0), 2. North Cedar (14-0), 3. Dyersville Beckman (10-4), 4. Cascade (11-4), 5. South Winneshiek (6-2).

Class 1A – 1. Keota (13-0), East Buchanan (13-0), 3. Iowa Mennonite (12-1), 4. HLV (10-2), 5. West Central (8-3).

 

Prep basketball a priority, but racing is almost here.

The Iowa boys’ basketball season is rapidly reaching its conclusion, and that will continue to be the dominating feature of this blog. That, and the start of Spring Training, are the author’s main interests right now. But the auto racing season is rapidly approaching and can’t be ignored.

Local auto racing won’t take precedence until late March or early April, but Daytona Speedweeks is almost upon us. There are many local stories to be followed, including whether or not Landon Cassill will have a NASCAR Nationwide Series ride this season. As of this writing, due to lack of sponsorship with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports, that is not a certainty. From what I’ve found online, Cassill is still under contract at Hendrick Motorsports and will be earning his keep this season, but in what capacity hasn’t been determined. Whatever it is, he’ll do a helluva job.

Here is a link to the upcoming Speedweeks schedule, less than two weeks away:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_nascar/2009/01/speedweeks-2009-schedule.html

Kennedy is gaining believers

Including this one. I just watched Cedar Rapids Kennedy put the hammer down on Iowa City High, 56-34, to move to 12-0 overall and 8-0 in the Mississippi Division of the Mississippi ValleyConference. The Cougars are ranked second in Class 4A (behind unbeaten Ames and just ahead of once-beaten Linn-Mar) and that was 4A No. 4 City High (10-3) they beat Saturday night.

The Cougars do nothing flashy. They simply play hard-nosed defense (they even used a little zone Saturday) and do just enough offfensively to get by. Their 12 opponents this season are averaging just under 41 points a game and only one – Iowa City West – has topped 50 points against them.

Kennedy is led by seniors Jake Hughes, Alex Coleman, Jake Hefferenen and big-bodied Grant Schnobrich (6-3, 280). They are the glue. Junior Max Martino is a terrific defender and offensive threat. After that, it’s mostly sophomores Kyle Lamaak and Austin Christensen who are counted on to provide scoring and defense.

The Cougars limited the Little Hawks to just 12 field goals on 46 attempts. City High’s 6-7 all-state center Malcolm Moore came into Saturday’s game averaging 23 points and finished with three on 1-of-6 shooting from the floor. A.J. Derby entered averaging 15 and finished with 10 on 3-of-17 shooting. Derby kept lauching and they all kept clanging off the rim.

Offensively, Kennedy got 14 points from Hughes, 12 from Lamaak, 10 from Coleman, eight from Heffernen and six from Martino. The Cougars hit 19 of 44 from the field a perfect 14 of 14 from the free throw line. It’s a well-balanced and tenacious top-seven rotation.

Tuesday’s Gazette will feature the latest Area Super 10 as well as the latest AP polls. I’m thinking seriously of putting Kennedy No. 1 in both. The paper will also feature a story on the Cougars, overdue as the season passes the halfway point.

D-I athletes galore at Wash/Linn-Mar

An earlier post noted the number of Linn-Mar students who turned out early for Friday’s boys’ basketball game between Cedar Rapids Washington and Linn-Mar. By the time the game started, there were probably 1,000 students of all ages from both schools in the overall crowd of 2,000, and they were all fantastic.

My favorite chant of the night came from the Washington students, stealing the same chant Xavier students used Saturday when the Saints jumped to a 2-0 lead against Linn-Mar. Washington started out 7-0 against the Warriors Friday. The students from Washington (and Xavier before them) began the “scoreboard, scoreboard) chant which is usually reserved for the moment when a player from the team ahead on the scoreboard launches an air-ball and the “air-ball” chant begins. The students from Wash and Xavier were simply pointing out their teams have seldom held leads over Linn-Mar in recent years, and it needed to be recognized. Good work.

Anyway, by my unofficial count, at any given time tonight there could have been as many as seven D-I athletes on the floor, four confirmed. Washington’s Keenan Davis will play football at Iowa and Chad Christensen baseball at Nebraska. Sophomore Josh Oglesby is already getting D-I looks in basketball  and it’s not out of the question senior Wyatt Suess will wind up with a D-I football scholarship before all is said and done.

On the Linn-Mar side, Zach Bohannon (Air Force) and Nate Hutcheson(Western Michigan) have already accepted basketball scholarships. Freshman Marcus Paige already has a couple of offers and sophomores Matt Bohannon and Shane Benton are getting a lot of playing time for the 11-1 Lions and only look to get better over the next two years. Another sophomore, Josh Montague, isn’t on the varsity but has looked very good the two times I’ve seem him play in sophomore games. He’s 6-5, and it’s easy to envision him a Linn-Mar starting lineup with Paige, Matt Bohannon, Benton and junior Will Roth (6-6) next season.

The Linn-Mar sophomore team improved to 11-0 Friday night. Don’t look for much letup from the Lions in coming years.