tapsbrowning

Looks like Heritage Hills backed out. Too bad.

Orleans was already in 63. It is North Daviess that is new this year - returning might be a better word. This will be a great sectional the next few years as BR, Loogootee, ND, and Orleans all have talent in the pipeline.

I guess I should have said for basketball, but that seemed kind of obvious. I was very impressed by the turn out from Blackhawk Christian - way more than any other 1A private school in the past.

Loogootee is open.

Nah. The morning session was above average. The evening session was way down because CMA has no fans, neither Ben Davis or Carmel has huge fanbases either, despite their size, and there was no IU or Purdue recruit playing to draw in casual fans.

I am very familiar with Blackhawk and not familiar at all with LCC. LCC is sort of due to be back in the finals. Blackhawk has a great team, but I got spooked a bit by the way they coached in the game with BR. Still have to pick Blackhawk, but no shock to me if it goes the other way. I think Barr-Reeve is a better team than Bloomfield. The Cardinals have played their best ball at the end of the season and are certainly capable but I will be very surprised if BR doesn't win. I like Andrean over Frankton based on tougher schedule. I like Linton (full strength) over Doah because of more experienced players, although Linton has some underclassmen too. Culver over Marian for sure. Probably Attucks over Creek. Creek is pretty young and didn't play well against Jeffersonville which has similar physicality to Attucks. Carmel over Penn is as much of a lock as a semi state game can be. Center Grove and BD is a toss up. I'll take Center Grove.

How is Hale? If he is 100% then Linton has a shot. If not, it would be tough.

I suspect Barr-Reeve alone will bring more people than Ben Davis and Center Grove.

Move in is a pretty kind expression.

BR is a lot of things, but one thing they sure aren't is lucky on the draw. I personally don't like the bye especially when you will then be playing the two best teams in the field back to back. If they do win then they drew the worst possible combination in the regional. Huge advantage for the Borden winner to play both the first game and the West Washington winner which will be by far the weakest team.

I see where the North Daviess 8th grade got revenge on Linton in the conference championship by blowing them out 46 - 24. Surprising to see that much turn around.

Orleans blew out West Washington, I know Bradley is a good coach, but man when I saw them early in the year I wasn't sure they would win one game.

That's for sure, especially 63. This BR team is especially tough to figure. I mean they are 19 - 2 against a pretty good schedule for a 1A school, but they just never seem to be able to click on all cylinders. Maybe they will get on a run around tournament time and also maybe they will lay a complete egg and go out early. Who knows?

Probably the only team that has improved is Orleans. They have a very good coach so I expected them to improve over the course of the season, but I was still shocked when they beat Loogootee. In my opinion none of the teams are good enough to beat BR if BR plays average (for them) or better. BR tends to get in foul trouble but are deep enough that isn't a killer. Shooting has been a problem for BR. They have had a couple of games where they didn't make a single jump shot - but still won those games. I apologize for this rambling answer. A simple answer is that any of the teams except Washington Catholic could beat BR, but it would be a huge huge upset for Shoals, Rivet, or Orleans to do so and a very big upset if Loogootee beat them.

If BR plays close to their ceiling they will win this sectional. But the same was true last year when they trailed at halftime of all three games and could have lost to Orleans and should have lost to Loogootee. I actually think the chance of an upset is a little less with coach Thompson because he approaches slow down teams in a different (better) way than coach Hughes did. BR is not invincible however because the are susceptible to foul trouble and also to going ice cold on jump shots.