Marshall Mathers

My favorite time of the year is back! It is time for some WRC basketball Pre-Season Rankings. I was not very accurate last year, but let's see try it out anyway. 1 or 2 could go either way.. This might be the most fun year of WRC basketball in awhile, because there is no CLEAR favorite to win. I think it could swing a bunch of different ways. 1. Seeger --> They return a 4x All-Conference player in Snedeker. (Who is probably a top 3 player in the conference) I look for him to have another great year, and provide leadership. If I am not mistaken, they also didn't graduate any starters, or even guys that got a lot of minutes. They went 8-13 last year, but lost to some good teams in close battles. I think they will get over the hump this year and be the team to beat. 2. FC --> They are also returning all of their key pieces. I think they lost a little more than Seeger, but may have more individual talent. They have the tallest Center in the conference, and a top 5 player in Harmon. Gayler could also have a good year as well. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is where it gets really interesting.. SV, NV, PH, RP, could fall in any place.. but my predictions 3. SV --> They have a top 10 player in Wallace, and a respectable, probably top 10 player in Bush returning this year. I see them pressuring, and spreading the floor out for drive and kicks. They have some guys surrounding those 2 that can really shoot. I don't know how their post play is, but I don't believe they have any standouts. Let's see if their new coach plays all 14 kids each game, or if he sticks with a core group. 4. PH --> They graduated 2 very good athletes, and lost maybe the best player in the conference in Johnson to a transfer. I believe they will be really young, but not lacking in the skill department. I look for the Sophomore Harper to lead the team this year, but can't count out their Freshman in Schelsky. I haven't got the chance to see him play, but I have heard he is the real deal. I'll be interested to see how he fares at the varsity level. Could be an interesting year for PH. They will lack a lot of size, but make up for it with athleticism. 5. NV --> They graduated I believe 3 starters. One was all conference, and the other 2 were role players. They return a few guys that are multiple year starters, and some that got a lot of minutes last year. They return an all-conference honorable mention in White, and I think he could fare to be a top 5 player in the conference with the reigns this year. Outside of that I think they will be the biggest team overall in the conference. 6. RP --> They return arguably the best player in the conference in Hazzard. They have a respectable big man in Hines, and a good defender in Mullins. Outside of that I think they will be pretty weak. They are going to need Hazzard to score 20+ every night for them to win games. If he can do it they have the capability of competing for a higher spot. 7. Attica --> Their new coach got them playing hard last year, nearly upsetting a good Faith Christian team at the end of the year. I just think their lack of overall talent will hurt them. They lose their big that got them a decent amount of points, but I am not sure who they are returning. I do believe that they can compete early, just don't think they have the firepower to last.

NV --> NV's pass defense has been better I believe, but will it be enough? They're going to need all the help they can get defensively, but I don't believe TP can stop them either. FC --> FC got a blessing last week playing Attica.. I think they will be ultra prepared to face PT. CC --> I think I have to take CC here. I am very impressed with their QBs arm.. and I don't think the Panther defense will be able to hold them. On the 5 too.. WOW

Is there a reason they don't seem to excel with schools their size? SOS is obviously a factor, but I don't think it makes or breaks a teams tourney run by itself. They don't have a high turnover rate with head coaches in any of their varsity sports. What are the factors at play?

Let's get the mounties in the conference too. The more the merrier

Covington over Attica - 36-12. Not a lot to say here FC over NV - 39-36. I think this will be a high scoring game. If the HOF Coach dials up the right pass plays FC could be in for some big plays. NVs offense is better, but their defense has yet to prove much. SV over Seeger - Close early, SV goes undefeated in conference play. 35-22. RP over PH - Not alot to be said here. RP wins the Parke county trophy. 46-12.

Imagine Earl’s stats if he played more than 2 quarters a game. I’d agree with you on best player. Could he have made Turkey Run conference contenders? NV was certainly not NV without him

I remember watching that Lutheran team beat a pretty good Eastern Hancock team, and seeing how massive their line was. It truly was a size vs speed game between Lutheran and NV in 2014. Did Crabtree make most WRC teams move to a spread offense?

I'm not sure if I should laugh at this or not to be honest. Ill take the 2007 Rox over any of those teams.

I do remember watching a time when NV, FC, Rockville, and Attica were all ranked top 10 in 1A. I believe it was 2014, the year NV won state. I'm not sure if we will ever see football like that again in the WRC. I don't think it's youth programs faltering, I think it's just athletes coming and going. Those teams had some of the best athletes to ever come through the WRC.

Is RP really on the rise or is the WRC just not good right now? RP has only played 2 opponents that are over 500, and got beat decisively by one, and by a few scores with the other. Not trying to be a hater, just stating the facts. Kudos to them for having some success though.. and I saw that they are destroying teams in junior high. 70PTS is crazy.

Pretty uneventful week I would say. Best game is SV vs FC. NV @ PH - NV has JV out starting of the 4th quarter. 48-6. RP @ Attica - Hazzard has 4200 rushing yards, and 31 touchdowns after it's all said and done. 41124-6. Seeger @ CT - Seeger and FC just had a BATTLE last week. I wish I could have attended. Seeger is still top 3 in the conference and win this game 40-14. SV @ FC - Could be a battle early, but with the beatdown SV just put down on RP, I'd say things may be clicking. 35-13.

I'm very curious on the IHSAA's plans on the reffing shortage? Is there really even a fix? I feel like at this point they may have to make it more lucrative for the officials. I think the pay is pretty reasonable, but not enough to deal with the amount of heckling they receive on a nightly basis. What are your thoughts on this? I'd hate to lose Friday night football because of a reffing shortage.

Attica @ NV - I stand corrected on my Falcon over RP prediction last week. It seems the Falcons aren't as dominate as I thought initially. Still better than Attica by whatever the running clock allows them. Covington @ PH - Ill take the Trojans. It will be close early, but I think Covington can score the ball better. 34-13. FC @ Seeger - Seeger seems to be playing good football right now. They have some athletes. I think FC is too inconsistent, but if they come to play, it could be a battle. 34-22. RP @ SV - With how even the SV/NV game was after the 1st, I will say this could be a battle. Although match-ups are way different, I still think you can compare teams a little. Since this is being played at the visor field, Ill take SV 34-28.

SV - CT --> 48-20. CT will score a few times. They have some athletes, but SV proved last week they are the top dogs. FC - Attica --> 41-0. NV - RP --> 42-20. Seems everyone is picking RP over NV this week. After watching RP a couple times this year, it looks to be a 1 man show. NV/SV are very even. Hard to come back from letting up 28 in a quarter, but it seemed even after. PH - Seeger --> 41-6. Seeger is a top 3 team in the conference. PH is a bottom 2 team. Depends on the size of the tenderloins

Mid-season review. Was I accurate? 1. I had PH. (6-7) (0-2) Well their season has been so riddles with misfortunes. At one point I think they were missing 3 starters. They are starting a freshmen, although a good freshmen, he is still a freshmen. Johnson hasn't played more than 5 games, and he hasn't seemed to have gotten his rhythm back. They have struggled to score, but I believe the rest of the season they should be at or close to full strength. I think they will beat NV tonight, but move to third in the conference. 2. I had Covington. (9-4) (3-0) Obviously with the double digit win over PH it propels them to 1st. I watched the Covington/PH game in person and it was cool to watch. I was very impressed with the way they ran their defense. Having Karrfalt, whom may be the best on ball defender in the conference, and a 6-6 Waddell at the rim, they are tough to score on. They have a few guys that can put the ball in the bucket too. They are clearly the favorites now. 3. I had SV. (7-8) (2-0) SV did beat PH, so they have to move up one spot. They are pretty deep as I previously said, and are led by a good senior class. They have a great spread of being able to shoot the 3, but also spread the floor out and drive. I think Covington beats them by 10+ though. 4. I had FC. (8-6)(1-2) I was wrong here. Im putting them to 6th in the conference. They have struggled to score the ball consistently, and just lost to Seeger last week. Despite their 8-6 record, I just think they play too inconsistently. They do have some size, which propels them above a couple other teams in the conference. 5. I had Seeger here.(5-7) (1-0) I am going to keep Seeger here. They have a great Sophomore class led by a 2 time all conference junior. I have not seen them play much, but these guys are going to continue to get better. 6. I had NV here, and I am moving them to 4th. (5-8) (1-0). They look to have improved tremendously from the previous 2 years. They are averaging 48PPG, and have lost 4 games either in OT or by 3. They seem to be very close in turning the corner. I noticed a lack of games from Tryon and Naylor. 7. I had RP here, and I am keeping them here. (5-8) (1-2) They are 1 player away from being very good. Hazzard has carried them to some pretty close games, but they just lack that extra scorer. Hines isn't bad up top in their option plays, but when they get rid of it no one else can score it well. 8. I had Attica here, and I am keeping them here. (0-9) (0-4) These guys play hard early, but seem to lose it when pressure picks up later on. They just don't have any real scoring, but their defense seems to be pretty good when they are set. New rankings: 1. Covington (7-0) 2. SV (6-1) 3. PH (5-2) 4. NV (4-3) 5. Seeger (3-4) 6. FC (2-5) 7. RP (1-6) 8. Attica (0-7)

I agree some of the surrounding schools could definitely be much different. It seems many are flocking to PH.

I watched/listened to the BOW tourney last weekend. Here are my thoughts.. and does it change my pre-season rankings? Parke Heritage - Won banks without Christian, who is the best player in the conference. I stand with my prediction that they are the team to beat in the WRC. The freshmen Harper is going to be a force to be reckoned with. I was super impressed by how he played against South Vermillion. He single handedly kept them in that game, and stopped all of SV's momentum. Noble was a very good leader, and took over a lot when it counted. South Vermillion - They gave PH a pretty good run for their money early. They seem to be very deep with subs, I feel like 10+ kids touched the floor for them in some capacity in both games. They look to have a pretty solid underclass, and Uselman/Garzolini are as advertised, and do the majority of their scoring. I'm interested to see how the Bush kid develops, and how the team progresses this year. Riverton Parke - I didn't have them beating NV, but it was a thrill to watch. Hazzard finally started to score the basketball some, and ended up with 20+ against NV. They struggle to score the ball outside of Hines/Hazzard, and most of their offense just runs through those 2. Mullins looks to get most of his scoring off his defense. I don't see them winning more than 5-6 games this year, but 3-1 is a great start. North Vermillion - I feel like NV is still better than RP. They have been without a healthy Naylor, whom I expect will help offensively/defensively for the Falcons. I'm still not sold on them being able to consitsently score the ball, but they have put up 40+ in each game, which is an obvious improvement. They had a costly TF and missed free throws with 2s left to send it into OT. They did not look very competitive against South Vermillion. I think when Naylor gets back they are still in the middle of the pack in conference.

Parke Heritage won't run into someone close to Linton in the WRC. Especially not someone with D1 talent. Their length alone will make it difficult for any team to score. Johnson isn't very big, so I imagine he was uncomfortable most of the night getting shots off. He won't have that issue again unless teams specifically try to take him away. It looked like PH just settled for way too many 3s. As athletic as they are I feel they should settle for an inside out game, and then look to spot up. I felt when the Freshmen came in they were getting singled out defensively, which is to be expected. Noble has definitely improved his outside game from a couple years ago, but I expect most teams to make him prove it.

Are you thinking of John Harrell?

Pre-Season Top 10 players in the conference this year in my opinion. (In no order) Christian Johnson PH Nas McNeal PH Noble Johnson PH Derron Hazzard RP Owen Snedeker SP Landon Naylor NV Mason Larkin FC Anthony Garzolini SV Savion Waddell CT Alan Karffalt CT

Let's have some discussions this year on some WRC basketball. I'll start us off with some rankings. 1. Parke Heritage - Obviously the favorites. They are returning 3 starters from their state-runner up team from last year. They have the best basketball player in the conference in Christian Johnson, and one of the most athletic defenders in the conference in Noble Johnson. They also got a move in from the Terre Haute area that looks to be a good addition. I think they may lack a true big man this year like they had in Davis last year. They will definitely miss his rebounding, points, hustle. With that being said I don't see any team in the WRC stopping them when they space the floor. They will have too many guards/weapons. They also added a couple freshmen that I bet get some minutes for shooting ability. Look for lots of open 3s off of drive & kicks, and another dominant year. 2. Covington - They return at least 6 varsity players, 4 of which I believe started last year. Waddell should be cleared to play, and I look for him to be the dominant big man in the conference. Karrfalt/Waddell will probably take the majority of the shots, but they will have some guys on the floor around them that can also contribute if they aren't hitting shots. They have a new coach this year, so I am curious to see how he fits these pieces together, but I don't see them falling off at all as long as they don't play that 3-2 zone again. Now is where the guessing happens. So many teams lost the majority of their starters from the previous year, so Ill do my best. 3. South Vermillion - They return 3 starters from last year I believe. Garzolini, Uselman, Hawkins. Garzolini will probably be their best player, being 6-5 in the WRC doesn't hurt. Uselman can shoot and may end up being their #1 scorer, but takes a lot of questionable shots. Hawkins is a true guard, but can also score it if needed. I believe they have a couple younger guys that may see some minutes as well. I expect them to be in a ton of close games, and with their senior leadership/experience they should be able to pull through most. I think 4-6 could be a toss up. 4. Fountain Central - They return 2 starters I believe/best scorers, and a couple varsity players. They graduated a ton of seniors last year that took a majority of the minutes. They should have some seniors this year that have played some, but are more of role players. The big kid is probably 6-6/6-7, but from what I saw last year he looked to want to shoot 3s more than go inside. If he develops his inside game he will be very hard to stop, as he's only a Junior. The sophomore guard definitely has some skill as well. 5. Seeger - They return a top 5 player in the conference in Snedeker. I'm not sure who else they have, but I do know their freshmen class last year was very good. I think they are probably around the same as they were last year as far as record is concerned. They will have to develop some of the younger guys, but there is definitely a bright future. I saw they got a win against Faith Christian last night, although I think they are rebuilding. 6. North Vermillion - I think they are a little better this year. They have been the lowest scoring team in the conference the last couple of years. From my understanding they didn't graduate anyone, so they are returning with a lot of varsity experience. Naylor is a senior this year, and I look for him to have a big year. I got to watch the sophomore White play some last year in sectionals, and he seems like he can contribute some to the Falcons success as well. I just see them losing most of their games due to the lack of scoring capabilities. I do think they will be very competitive with most teams, but will slip away around the 3rd or 4th quarters due to low scoring output. It's hard to win a varsity game scoring 35PPG. 7. Riverton Parke - They graduated 2 of their 3 all conference players which accounted for 30PPG, so they are going to have to look elsewhere to score. They return Hazzard who I think is another top 5 player in the WRC. They have a couple other juniors outside of Hazzard that will probably be their second and third looks. They are going to lack a valuable big man, and I think they are going to struggle to score the ball as well. 8. Attica - I'm not sure who Attica returns this year. I've heard rumors their guard #2 isn't playing this year. They are coming off of a 2-17 record last year, and I look for them to struggle again this year.

Wolves over Ramblers - 60-6 SP over Falcons - 42-14 Trojans over Stangs - 48-14 RP over Clovers - 38 - 12 Speedway over Seeger - 42-21 LCC over Cats. - 52-16

South Newton vs Attica - South Newton 38-6 NV vs FC - Ill take NV in this one. Defense has shown it was a little better than early in the season. We know they can score, but FC's highest scoring game outside of Attica is 26 against RP and Frontier. NV hung 46 on RP. Ill go 41-12 NV RP vs PH - There will be an early running clock. Ill go 49-16 PH SV vs Seeger - Seeger is all over the place, beating the Trojan by 20, scoring 50, but only beating FC by 7 scoring 22. IllI guess it depends what Seeger shows up. Ill take the SV QB here. 36-21 Covington vs Tri County - Trojans by whatever they want. Look for 89 passes attempted and 742 yards from the Trojans. 89-6

Woody, you're simply sleeping on Overpass Pizza in Covington. Please dont tell me you are saying Rockville Pizza Hut is #2? I misread the post. It says Pizza King. I was getting fired up for now reason

I heard it was something on the team that went unreported? I don't know much more than that. Is the Herb coaching this Friday night? Agreed on the D-Line. I just think PH has so many athletes in the open field it will be tough for NV secondary to cover. PH line isn't great so it could very well be a good game. MUST WIN STATE TO FEEL HAPPY