re: BR CSAL BB Rankings

First off, Soda great questions, and let me personally thank you for your interest in 8th grade CSAL Basektball.

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1. Catholic's 8th graders have gotten off to a rough start at 1-4 when your preseason rankings had them improved over last years disasterous season. What factors, in your opinion, have led to this poor start? Bad matchups? Poor coaching?

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The 8th grade baby bears have had a much rougher start than I suspected. One factor is that they have been missing at least one starter for 3 of their 5 games. Their starting center (6'3") has missed 2 of those. Secondly, because of a lack of chemistry the bears seem to always start off slow and pick up steam through the rest of the season. They are only together for 3 weeks as a team, compared to the rest of the teams who are together for 3 years. They need a dramatic turnaround to make the elite 8. They had a streak of making it 3 years in a row, but this could be 2 years in a row to not make it.

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2. There are teams in the CSAL known for their intense man to man defense. In your opinion, what teams are playing the fiercest man to man defense this year? What teams have the ability to lock down an offensive set and create simply by extending their man to man D?

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Another great question. Sacred Heart has really impressed me with their discipline defense in man to man. They are very good at help side D. I have to say though, I can never say anyone plays better man to man D than St. George. This is not their most talented team by any means, and they are winning with defense. I have had the pleasure of viewing an SGS practice when they install their man to man defense, and it is very intense. Coach Palermo and company stick to their man to man d and play with a relentless attitude. If there was a coach of the year award, Coach Palermo would probably be the leader at this point.

Sacred Heart can play some good "d" but they don't have a bench and they get wore out late in games. They have been switching up to zone a lot more to rest up some players. Main problem is they can't score enough points.

With St. George losing their best player I am curious to see how they rebound and carry on the rest of the season. Do you know how they did against St. Jude last night?

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If you disagree with my standings by all means print your own. I am sure you might need to revise them since you had Catholic so high and Sacred Heart so low but please do as you please.

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boom goes the dynamite

Calling yourself an expert does not make you one. As someone who was a player and has been around BB for nearly 40 years, I have seen my share of games. My posts are not meant to be taken as an expert but as those of an informed fan of CSAL who has seen the teams in the league and can review to it. These are strictly my opinion and open for debate. Since it looked like u had not seen a game and was only speaking to history I decided to update the standings. You are more than welcome to go to the CYO site get the schedule and see some games to help with your updated review. I look forward to reading your updated standings to see where we differ.

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STM 8th grade should be 3. I heard that one of the better St.George 8th graders got in a bad wreck or something.

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How can STM (all of the 8th graders are 15 years or older) be number 3, when they have not beaten OLOM in three years. Ryan, you need to be more objective. Where ever you put STM, you need to put OLOM above them.

Just the facts, go cry to your AD. Or more, send him on more scouting trips to see the other teams to figure out how to beat OLOM.

BT, who are Squeaky and Sparky?

and does Derek still coach there?

Not too good of one. They will get Sacred Hearts top 2 most likely if I can't push them over to Coach Pixley or St. Michaels. Most of the top basketball players will play elsewhere thank god.

Bear, see you have put out a updated standings. They look good and hard to argue with. My reason for the STM rank over SGS is I watched them play last night and STM controled the game. SGS, with the loss of Mikitinas, played with a lot of heart on Tuesday night but could not muster enough on Wednesday. St. Jude looks like a guard dominated team that likes to shoot the 3 and on Monday night was hot but on Tuesday night was cold. SGS shut down OLOM inside game and OLOM had nothing to offset the double down defense. Let the debate begin.

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this shite if comical

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I know I cant stop &