Class AAAA
Top seeds: 1. Mt. Lebanon (21-1), 2. North Allegheny (17-4), 3. Pittsburgh Central Catholic (16-4), 4. Plum (18-4)
Local teams: 10. Peters Township (12-9), 15. Canon-McMillan (9-11)
2009 champion: Peters Township
The skinny: Highly regarded Mt. Lebanon is the heavy favorite to win its first WPIAL championship since 2006. The Blue Devils lost to Peters Township in last year's championship. ... Teams from Section 4 have won five of the past six titles. ... Butler is coached by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Matt Clement. ... Gateway, the sixth seed, will not have 6-9 sophomore forward Barrnett Harris, who quit the team.
Local players to watch: Craig Wolcott (Peters Township), Kionte Davis (Canon-McMillan)
Sleeper: Peters Township
Prediction: Mt. Lebanon over Pittsburgh Central Catholic
Class AAA
Top seeds: 1. Chartiers Valley (21-1), 2. Hampton (18-2), 3. Hopewell (16-6), 4. Laurel Highlands (20-1)
Local teams: 8. Trinity (14-4)
2009 champion: Hampton
The skinny: Chartiers Valley is the prohibitive favorite after beating Hampton, 87-68, on Saturday. The Colts' last WPIAL Class AAA title came in 1998 (they won two in Quad-A the past decade). ... CV senior T.J. McConnell became the 25th player in WPIAL history to top 2,000 career points last week. ... With six losses, Hopewell is a curious selection as the No. 3 seed over one-loss Laurel Highlands. The Vikings have some head-scratching losses but they did beat North Allegheny in late January.
Local players to watch: Josh Valentic (Trinity)
Sleeper: West Mifflin
Prediction: Chartiers Valley over Hampton
Class AA
Top seeds: 1. North Catholic (19-2), 2. Greensburg Central Catholic (17-3), 3. Shady Side Academy (16-3), 4. South Fayette (17-4).
Local teams: 4. South Fayette, 8. Washington (17-4), 13. Monessen (16-4), 15. California (15-6), 21. Burgettstown (11-9)
2009 champion: North Catholic
The skinny: Somehow Beaver Falls (13-8) and Aliquippa (14-7) were seeded ahead of Washington. Both played strong non-section schedules but both have some bad losses. Considering the bottom three teams in Section 6 combined to win 10 games, the traditionally strong league does not appear as strong as usual. ... Despite a fight breaking out between fans at the last Washington-Monessen game, the Prexies and Greyhounds are on the same side of the bracket. They cannot meet until the semifinals. ... Section 1 champion Freeport was seeded ninth and must play a preliminary round game. Freeport has won 13 straight.
Local players to watch: Mike Lamberti, Pat Zedreck (South Fayette), Marquis Brown, Troy Wilson (Washington), Jaisen Irwin, Jalen Madison (Monessen), John Tyler (California), Tyler Pavan (Burgettstown)
Sleeper: Washington
Prediction: South Fayette over Shady Side Academy
Class A
Top seeds: 1. Sewickley Academy (18-2), 2. Lincoln Park (15-6), 3. Serra Catholic (18-2), 4. Clairton (10-3).
Local teams: 7. Bentworth (13-4), 13. Avella (9-10), 14. Beth-Center (8-12),
2009 champion: Sewickley Academy
The skinny: Mapletown plays West Greene today at 1 p.m. If the Maples win, they clinch fourth place in Section 2 and will play Monaca in a preliminary game on Saturday. The winner gets top seed Sewickley Academy, which is led by Davidson recruit Tom Droney. ... No WPIAL basketball team played fewer games than the 13 played by Clairton. .... Sewickley Academy hasn't lost to a WPIAL opponent. Among the wins are Aliquippa, Serra Catholic, Clairton and South Fayette.
Local players to watch: John Barker, Clay Roman (Bentworth), Joe Yamber (Avella), Lucas Diethorn (Beth-Center)
Sleeper: Bentworth
Prediction: Serra Catholic over Clairton
13 comments:
watch out for cm with hagan back i have them making it pretty far if they play together and play hard they can go very far. go macs
Canon-McMillan is intriguing with Hagan back. The Big Macs are as healthy as they've been this year but North Allegheny is a very difficult draw in the first round.
Monessen will make some noise even tho just like every year the wpial gives monessen the hardest road
looking forward to watching Trinity play in the wpials. They should do pretty well as long as they play as a team. Also, look for Josh Valentic to do big things for the Hillers. Go Trinity!
oh cry me a river monessen...already starting to make excuses so when you guys lose you have something to blame it on. Forget the fact your team had a meltdown (as they do in almost every sport every year in one way or another)...or forget the fact that the stepoli's defected to GCC...its the WPIAL's fault huh? Thats all your program is...no matter the sport...is one big excuse.
Wolcott drops 25, Horensky 20...PT edges Butler
The Post Gazette has North Catholic #1 and Washington #2, but they play each other in the bracket in the second round? Mike how is that?
The O-R also has NC #1 and Wash High #2 so those are the rankings I'll refer to.
Think of it as the NCAA Tournament. Poll rankings don't always mean a team is guaranteed a great seed. Think of the occasions when Pitt was a top 10 team and would get a 3 or 4 seed in the tournament.
I do think the WPIAL completely overlooked what Washington did. The guess here is they looked at the South Fayette score and did not consider that Washington played several freshmen in that game and played without Troy Wilson.
I do think the Prexies have a legitimate grip about their seed. However, to win the WPIAL, chances are you're going to have to beat North Catholic at some point. Why not catch NC early?
Anon at 2-19 9:58am,
sounds like someone either dislikes and/or is jealous of all of the athletes Monessen has in most years for such a small school. How many basketball championships has your school won since 1988??
anon at 1229...
5 championships since 88 and 1 state title thank you very much. I didnt make that statement blindly. I am very familiar with your program in football and basketball, the in-fighting on the court/field...in the locker rooms...in practices...behind the scenes...the kids quitting on your coaches...you have the most undisciplined program in the WPIAL...even more than my school and thats saying something.
What happened to Canon Mac? Did their kids quit in the 2nd half to lose by that many? Bell is a good coach but its like they didnt show up....
Chad Hagan showed up everyone else choked
Anon at 340,
I hear ya about all the crap that goes on. Can't disagree with that although the incident with Wash had nothing to do with players -only a few "fans"..just didn't fully agree with the excuses part..the football program has been brought down because of non-sense but until this season, the basketball program has mostly stayed away from it..its a shame that 2 individuals had to ruin hoops this yr and bring it down like the football program.
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