Huck's Corner, Basketball 2014-15

Huck's Corner
Basketball 2014-15

Ed "Huck" Palmer is a headliner among our trusty statmen/observers. He is not to be confused with Tom "Puck" McKenna. (Huck is normal. Puck is not even close). He will make reports on games he sees. You may contact him at TEDDYCAT10@aol.com. Twitter . . . @HuckPalmer.

7:45 p.m. . . .
Breakdown of Huck vs. Joe Lunardi
Exact picks --   Huck 32 . . . Joe 42
Missed by 1 -- Huck 29 . . . Joe 19
Missed by 2 -- Huck 4   . . . Joe 5
Missed by 3 -- Huck 1   . . . Joe 0
Missed completely -- Huck 2 . . . Joe 2
Huck missed on UCLA (11th) and Mississippi (play-in 11th)
Joe missed on UCLA (11th) and Indiana (10th)

FEB. 13
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Carroll 47, Conwell-Egan 34
Midway through the second quarter C-E star jr. PG Stevie Jordan got his one true look of the game and splashed in a long left-wing trey. This gave the Eagles an 18-11 lead and they were really feeling good about themselves. And for good reason, too. They had the favored Patriots on their heels and without any semblance of cohesiveness. I have to admit, but at this point I thought that a game-long threat of an upset was possible. However, C-E would not score again for the rest of the half. Meanwhile, Carroll was able to cut it to 18-15 at the break. The final play of the second quarter was a scoop shot by Carroll�s talented sr. 6�6� SF Derrick Jones (UNLV) amongst some congestion in the lane. Sensing it was off, maybe even planned, the pogo-sticking Jones chased the rebound off the glass and slammed it home with two hands. Very impressive! This ended a shaky half by both teams, as they combined for 17 turnovers (10 by Carroll) and only 11 made field goals between them. Anyway, a different Carroll team started the second half, as they came out swinging with both hands. Right off the bat, jr. 6�3� WG Ryan Daly drilled a three (Assist from jr. PG Josh Sharkey) to the tie the game. The next time down Sharkey found soph. WG Dave Beatty for another triple to give them a lead they would not relinquish. Care to guess how Carroll�s third possession ended? Yep, another Daly right-wing trey off a feed from Sharkey. Interestingly, C-E�s two possessions in between this sequence saw a player get into the lane with an opportunity to score, but Jones� presence forced a travel each time. The Eagles would never recover. All total, Carroll�s run after trailing (18-11) totaled 24-to-4, which gave them a commanding 35-22 lead late in the third quarter. The Patriots would outscore C-E, 22-9, in a convincing third stanza. Eight of their field goals (8-for-12 from the field in 3rd QT) came courtesy of an assist, as Sharkey shook-off a shaky first half to drop five of his six dimes in the frame. Daly hit a trio of treys in the quarter for nine of his 13 points (4-for-11 FGs, 3-of-9 on 3�s) in the game. The closest C-E would get in the fourth quarter was only 37-28, as they just really struggled to generate any offense. A big reason for this was the ultra-close defending that sr. Samir Taylor (early) and Sharkey (later) provided on Jordan throughout the game. Carroll over-guarded him and forced someone else to bring the ball up. And when he did get it they ran two guys at him to force him to give it up. He just never got into the flow and it really stunted anything C-E could do on the offensive end. I thought that Jordan may have just accepted that they were denying him a bit too easily. Maybe, it would have been appropriate for him to show more of a selfish side for a stint just to see if he could change the nature of the game. But this never happened and Jordan committed three quick fouls in the fourth quarter to foul out with 2:33 left. He finished with just 7 points (2-for-7 from field) and a two assists. Another reason C-E struggled was the presence of the athletic Jones in the lane. He only swatted three, but I�d venture to say he influenced at least a half dozen other shots and a few other drives that led to turnovers. It was evident that he was on the minds of C-E�s players. Jones finished with 21 points (6-for-8 FGs & 9-of-14 FT�s) and 10 rebounds. Sharkey also added 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Beatty (4 rebounds) scored all 8 of his points in the second half. Carroll scored all of their fourth quarter points from the line (10-for-14). Interestingly, in the second and fourth quarters, Carroll went just a combined 1-for-8 from the field. Not often a team wins a playoff game by 13 points when this happens. For C-E, jr. WG Lapri McCray-Pace led with 10 points (6-for-6 FTs) and 4 rebounds. Sr. F Jordan Burney had some positive moments off the bench with 8 points and a pair of assists. the teams only combined for five offensive rebounds (C-E had two). Before the game started Carroll Head Coach Paul Romanczuk was honored with a ball recognizing his 200th career win. Congrats, Paul. Prior and after the game I had the pleasure of talking with former West Catholic player Eric Brennan, who is now an assistant at Philly U. Great to see that Eric is still involved in the game. He was always one of my favorite Burrs and it was easy to see he�d be doing good things as an adult while at West. Best of luck, E (Or, "Bambi" if you want to use the nickname that Teddy S. gave him as a freshman football player: ha ha)

2015 NCAA Field: (Projected)
Teams Ranked 1 thru 68					*Conference Winners
	#1 Seeds		#2 Seeds		#3 Seeds		#4 Seeds
1	Kentucky*	5	Arizona*	9	Iowa St.*	13	Oklahoma
2	Villanova*	6	Virginia	10	Notre Dame*	14	No. Iowa*
3	Wisconsin*	7	Kansas	11	Baylor	15	North Carolina
4	Duke	8	Gonzaga*	12	Maryland	16	Arkansas
	#5 Seeds		#6 Seeds		#7 Seeds		#8 Seeds
17	Louisville	21	Providence	25	Georgetown	29	St. John�s
18	SMU*	22	Wichita St.	26	VCU*	30	Xavier
19	West Virginia	23	Butler	27	San Diego St.	31	Iowa
20	Mich. St.	24	Utah	28	Oregon	32	Davidson
	#9 Seeds		#10 Seeds		#11 Seeds		#12 Seeds
33	NC State	37	Texas	41	Georgia	47	Wyoming*
34	Ohio St.	38	LSU	42	Temple	48	Buffalo*
35	Dayton	39	Purdue	43	Indiana	49	Valpo*
36	Cincinnati	40	Okla St.	44	Colo. St.	50	SF. Austin*
				45	BYU
				46	Boise St.
	#13 Seeds		#14 Seeds		#15 Seeds		#16 Seeds
51	Wofford*	55	UAB*	59	Belmont*	63	Costal Carolina*
52	Harvard*	56	Northeastern*	60	N. Mexico St.*	64	Manhattan*
53	Georgia St.*	57	No. Dak. St.*	61	Lafayette*	65	Texas Southern*
54	UC Irvine*	58	East. Wash.*	62	Albany*	66	North Florida*
						67	Robert Morris*
						68	Hampton*
	Next Last 4 In:		Last 4 IN:		First 4 Out:		Next 4 Out
	Purdue		Indiana		Mississippi		Old Dominion
	Okla St.		Colo St.		Miami-Fla		Murray St.
	Georgia		BYU		UCLA		Iona
	Temple		Boise St.		Tulsa		Texas A&M
	Play-in games:
#16 Hampton vs #16 Texas Southern
#16 Robert Morris vs. #16 North Florida
#11 Boise St. vs #11 BYU
#11 Colo. St. vs #11 Indiana