Monday, February 22, 2010

Picking the winners, midweek edition

Started off the playoffs with a solid 17-4 record (81 percent) in boys games and an 18-6 mark (75 percent) in girls games for an overall mark of 35-10 (77.8 percecnt).

Time to pick the winners for Tuesday's and Wednesday's contests.

Boys
Tuesday
Class AAAA
Mt. Lebanon over Shaler, Hempfield over Upper St. Clair
Class AAA
Chartiers Valley over Indiana, Trinity over Center, Laurel Highlands over Highlands, Blackhawk over West Allegheny, Hampton over Mt. Pleasant, Greensburg-Salem over Montour, Hopewell over Belle Vernon, West Mifflin over Thomas Jefferson
Class A
Sewickley Academy over Monaca, Neshannock over St. Joseph, Clairton over Avella, Cornell over Western Beaver, Lincoln Park over Geibel, Bentworth over OLSH, Serra Catholic over Beth-Center, Union over Vincentian Academy
Wednesday
Class AA
North Catholic over Wilkinsburg, Washington over Freeport, South Fayette over Laurel, Beaver Falls over New Brighton, Greensburg Central Catholic over California, Quaker Valley over Rochester, Shady Side Academy over Bishop Canevin, Jeannette over Aliquippa

Girls
Tuesday
Class AAAA
Mt. Lebanon over Woodland Hills, Butler over Penn-Trafford
Class AA
Avonworth over West Shamokin, Bishop Canevin over Beth-Center, Seton-La Salle over Neshannock, Sto-Rox over Washington, Jeannette over Deer Lakes, South Fayette over Apollo-Ridge, Greensburg Central Catholic over Ford City, Beaver over OLSH
Wednesday
Class AAA
Hopewell over Montour, South Park over Blackhawk, Chartiers Valley over Mars, Mt. Pleasant over Kittanning, New Castle over Laurel Highlands, Hampton over Ambridge, Indiana over West Mifflin, Thomas Jefferson over Uniontown
Class A
North Catholic over Avella, Chartiers-Houston over Winchester Thurston, Monessen over Cornell, Fort Cherry over California, Quigley over Western Beaver, Carmichaels over Serra Catholic, Rochester over Mt. Alvernia, Vincentian Academy over Sewickley Academy

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike,
Hope all is well with you and your family.First,I would like to Thank you for the kind words and exposure on my book,It is doing very well. I enjoy the blog very much,and would like to tell you some things I think, I think on your projections of the winners.

1.If West Mifflin can beat T.J.I think this would be one of biggest upsets of the playoffs. I like T.J by 11-13 points or more.

2. I think Bob Kennedy is a good coach and even a better man. He is a good freind of mine but I like O.L.S.H in this one. At 4-6 they play one of the best and strongest schedules in class A. Seton,Sewickley twice,Lincon Park,Quaker Valley ect. Their non section schedule has prepared them for the tournament And for this reason I like O.L.S.H. I hope I am wrong becouse of my friendship and respect for Bobby, but I like O.L.S.H.in this one.

3.One of the most intresting match ups is the Wash Hi - Freeport game. I like Wash HI in a close one, but I have come to know the Freeport program thru A.A.U. basketball. They take there high school team and play as a high school team in some of the stronger A.A.U tournaments and often do very well. They are very disiplined and are very fundementally sound. They have a 12-0 record in conference and that is not by mistake. I think Wash HI is quicker than Freeport and Wash Hi is great on getting 2nd and 3rd shots with their great rebounding, but, if Freeport can control tempo as I have seen them do so many times in A.A.U. games, they have the ability to pull off the upset. I do pick Wash Hi, but I would be shocked if this was not a good and competive game. Freeport is a good team.
Good luck and may the peace of God be with all of you.

Coach Jerry Cypher Chartiers-Houston

Anonymous said...

My hats off to West Mifflin. I think this is still one of the biggest upsets in the playoffs.W.M beat T,J back on 12-12-09 and I did not think they had the fire power to do it again. Great job to the players and coaching staff, a job VERY well done.

Most everybody I talked to felt O.L.S.H. had NO CHANCE at 4-6 to beat Benthworth. I think the world of Bobby Kennedy but I did not think they had the team to beat O.L.S.H. With the schedule O.L.S.H. played, it made the Benthworth game one of the easyer games on O.L.S.H schedule.
Thats why I picked them to win and I did not think it was an upset.

I still,think the Wash Hi, Freeport game can and will be a very good game.Only if Freeport can control tempo as they have in some of the A.A.U. games I have seen,if so this could get intresting.I still think Wash Hi can win, but if they do not, it will not be the major upset some people think.Wash Hi will need to control the rebounds, and not get to over aggressive in their man to man D opening the backdoor cuts that Freeport looks for with their slow tempo backdoor style of play.

Please keep in mind, that I am just having a little fun with the picking of the playoffs teams to keep my intrest in the playoffs. I am no expert, it is all in just having a little fun.

And,as always in closing, may God keep you and your familys safe and at peace.

Jerry Cypher Head Coach Chartiers -Houston

mike_kovak said...

I appreciate the opinions Coach Cypher and would welcome your input on future rounds of the playoffs. I like having a coach's perspective on here.

If any other varsity coaches want to offer analysis, it would be welcomed.

I do agree with you that Freeport will not be an easy game for Wash High but I still like the Prexies. I have them heading to the semifinals (so some people should know what that means).

Anonymous said...

Coach Cypher & Mike,

I don't believe that either of you were at the Bentworth & olsh game, but I would love for you to actually watch the video of the game. It was the most one sided officiated game that I have ever seen. Mr. Orie was allowed to walk, carry, slap, elbow, push off, etc., but if he was breathed on, it was called a foul (as evidenced by his *19* foul shots vs Bentworth's team total of 20). Mr. Rodriguez (olsh's coach) was allowed to stammer up & down the court using constant profanities but Mr. Kennedy was given a technical for asking "where's the foul" while our player was laying on the floor after being tackled driving to the hoop. We had 3 of our starters sitting much of the 2nd & 3rd quarters due to foul trouble while Max Talbot (oh, I mean Orie) was allowed to wreak havoc & do whatever he wanted. I have watched my 2 nephews and my son play for Bentworth over the past 10 years and have seen them "homered" by referees many times (especially in your tournaments, Mr. Cypher, which I can handle). But to see this in a playoff game is an outright disgrace. You are right, Bob is a great man & a great coach who has totally turned the Bentworth program around, but is given very little respect by the WPIAL (7th seed & travelling an hour for a first round game after going undefeated in the section) or the local newspapers (2 articles all year with 2 two-year-old file photos of Bob?- sorry Mike, but you couldn't even get 1 picture of a player?) I am very biased & you guys may send back the words "sour grapes" but I dare you to watch the game & give your "true" opinion(I know Lincoln Park filmed it if you need a copy).

Respectfully,
George Anderson

mike_kovak said...

George,

As for your comments on officiating, our writer who covered the game mentioned to me that the officiating was terrible. I have not seen the game tape.

As for your comments about coverage, I do not work in the photography department so I have absoluetly no control over photos that we have. Our paper wrote three stories on the Bentworth boys this year. There are only a small handful of teams who got more bylines. A very small handful.

Anonymous said...

Mr, Anderson
You are correct, I did not have the oppertunity to come to the game or see the tape, so if you say that the game was called one sided I would take your word for it.
It was also confirmed by the sports person who covered the game for the .O.R.

As I stated in my commenent I wanted Bobby Kennedy and Bentworth to win, but I picked O.L.S.H.with a4-6 record over Benthworth with a 10-0 recored becouse of the tuff schedule O.L.S.H. played.I did not think O.L.S.H. had better coaching or even better players, but they have played tuffer games all season, and there is a big advantage in that come playoff time.
It was not personnel,I was just having fun with it.However,in the end refs or not I picked it right.As far as seeding and respect, the W.P.I.A.L.does not often give the Washington teams
respect. But, by the same token the Washington teams need to get deeper in the tourny more often to get respect.

P.S
I remember all the Anderson boys, and coaching against them. They were always VERY good players and very respectfull young men. Tell them I said hi and I wish them the best the world has to offer.

Peace to you and your family, and God bless. Coach Cypher
























I will get in hot water as a coach for what I am about to say, but I do think that the games are called more to the style of play that is to the benifite Allegheney

Anonymous said...

Coach Cypher, Great picks on the games. I think you beat Mike with his selections. I think there are some coaches that deserve more credit and don't get it. If you speak in that section Williams of Carmichaels has done a nice job.Year after year he has made the playoffs. This is the first year in a long time that he hasn't made it. Joe Hough of Avella has done a nice job taking over that program and bringing it much do respect. Nemic of Beth Center they made the playoffs for the second straight year. That might be a first for that football school. The section by no means deserve any more respect than what it got. (Seedings) Congratulations to all the teams that made the playoffs.Mike those coaches deserve some respect too.

Mike, The officials do the best that they can do. What do you want now instant replay? Laurel game was a great game and your right after seeing the replay it shouldn't of counted. But the score should have never been that close!

The Orie kid from OLSH is a very nice ball player and I'm sure he deserves the respect. As a former player you take what the refs give you.
Don't blame the refs.

Sarcastic Sword said...

It really doesnt matter if you're undefeated in section play when it comes time to seed teams - the level of competition in the section is what matters.....Bentworth had a nice season - I am happy for them..But their section is extremely bad...

I attended the Serra/Beth Ctr playoff game....BC was the worst high school team I ever saw....The skill level was something you would not expect to see from a playoff team - which confirms how weak the Bentworth section is....BC was 8-3 in section play too...This team had trouble getting the ball to half-court with medium pressure on them....And believe me when I tell you that Serra didnt play that well and they won by 40.....Serra had many more turnovers than they normally do......