Merry Basketball To All And To All A Good Game
Christmas is coming. I don’t think The Goose Collins is getting fat. Please drop a penny into that homeless man’s hat. If you haven’t got a penny, $20 will do. If you haven’t got $20......hopefully you have $5 so you can go watch some great basketball games around the state. Sorry this wasn’t posted earlier, but I went to a Christmas party that the Saginaw Downtown Lions Club put on for under privileged children. Now that I got to parody a Christmas song, I’m ready to get into some basketball topics.
Mr. Basketball
Ever since the championship game at the Breslin Center, the favorite to win this prestigious award is MSU commit Draymond Green. In that championship game, he shut down last year’s winner Manny Harris of Detroit Redford. The 6’7†Green can play most positions on the court; from posting up to playing the point, Draymond can do it all. I wouldn’t say he’s the best ball handler I’ve seen as his dribbling leaves some to be desired, but in a pinch, he can get the job done. Wasn’t there another tall guy who played for MSU that could run the point? If Draymond has the season everyone is expecting and wins Mr. Basketball, it will be the sixth player to win it and go to MSU since 1999. The one thing that might slow him down is a high ankle sprain he sustained this summer. It might take a toll on him late in the season.
Dominique Buckley of Romulus is another candidate for the award. He has really developed his shooting skills to go along with his knack for making plays defensively. He’s committed to Iowa State.
Frankenmuth’s Brad Redford is one of the top three point shooters in the state. He’s hitting about 43% from behind the three point line and will take those skills to Xavier. One of the things he does very well is run the team. He knows how to set plays up and get his teammates into a position to make baskets.
Coach Cottrell’s Whipping of the Week
Posen 82 Au Gres – Sims 20
This game was so out of hand, no one even wrote about it. Posen is a small school (Class D) up by Alpena. Au Gres – Sims is by Tawas and from the scores I’ve seen, isn’t a great team this season. Heck, they haven’t made it out of districts since 1993. Posen is hoping to return to the Breslin this season after making it to the state semifinals back in 2005. Their top player, Jordan Hincka was a freshman on that team and scored his 1,000 point this week in an 81-41 victory of Fairview.
Defense? Anyone?
The game with the highest point total this past week was Detroit Pershing’s victory over Detroit Communication and Media Arts. Point total? 181! Pershing scored 100 to CMA’s 81. Top scorers were Keith Appling with 33 points for Pershing and Devonire Braswell with 29 for CMA.
The Ecorse Five
Did y’all read David Goricki’s Detroit News article about the Ecorse girl’s basketball team? They have FIVE players total. When one of them foul’s out, the other team goes on the power play (five on four). It’s tough enough to play a basketball game, but when the only person on the bench is your coach, it makes it even more difficult. Why is there a lack of interest in basketball? It was tough to get on the team at my high school, and we weren’t even that great. They will be getting a couple of transfers on the team after they become eligible after the New Year.
Major Upset
Saginaw Arthur Hill lost to Muskegon Heights. Either The Hill was ranked too high, or Muskegon Heights was ranked too low. Maybe the Lumberjacks overlooked them. Either way, they fell 80-78 in overtime. MH’s Marquis Brewer moved to the elbow with a few seconds remaining in overtime and drew three defenders, so he passed to Ed Carter under the basket for the easy game winning layup.
Again, sorry for the shortness of the article, but I’ve been sick as a dog lately.