Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2022-23 - Weeks 3 & 4

 Time to clean up the some end-of-year holiday excitement, as everything goes into full swing for January 2023. 

Local Rec League:  Uniforms distributed, and by the time this posts, a playoff structure will be submitted to start 1/28/2023.  For such a small group of volunteers either everyone has an agenda... or wants to avoid any sort of agenda when something is needed.

Maja: Maja's Freshmen team had one last opponent to close out the year, focusing on holiday practices rather than holiday tournaments.  Probably better in the end, but as I'll mention later, it would have been a fun mixture of running the table and playing new quality teams, no matter where they could have gone. 

Last year, Wyoming Valley West Freshmen was one of the three teams they split their regular season home/away games with.  Those eight graders from last year are currently wrecking havoc on the JV and Varsity levels.  The new batch of 7th/8th graders have wrecked havoc on the junior high league at the tech school, and playing up to 9th, they're still a dangerous opponent.  

Maja got to start, and after a sputtering opening, the A team got up to a 16 point lead in lightning speed.  Once the B and C teams came in, the lead quickly shrank to 5, as the starters were subbed in for the end of the half and effortlessly boosted it up to 12. 

In the end, they won by 16 or 17 against the team whose arguably the 3rd or 4th best team in the 10-team conference.  Running with the big dogs all game, Maja's points and rebounds dropped (let's not even start with the missed assists from missed lay-ups.), but she had her season high in steals and blocks.   The she has two away games this week until the first game-of-the-year against the only other threat to first place.

Of course, we couldn't have 10 days of holidays and practice without drama.  Maja came out of the final practice of the year with the big announcement that three of the four actual Freshmen on the tream turned in their jerseys and quit.  Granted all four Freshmen who didn't make at least JV had only played 8th grade the year before... and needed to be bailed out by the 7th grader in league tournament, but all three wanted to focus on track in the spring.  At least one of them medaled during the varsity Cross-Country season, but the other two did not want to be part of a successful program (especially as they were both slower than Maja last year). 

To trump that, at small holiday soiree for the 8th graders hosted by one of the parents, I discovered that not only did those three quit, but two Varsity STARTERS, who felt slighted in overall playing time versus the new Freshmen guards, who were averaging double digit points and  only generating a quarter of the turnovers.  

Millie:  Her Wolfpack crew ended the season with a home win against North Lebanon.   It's AAU vs school, reality, but most importantly, the girls get to play between AAU seasons, and one last time before school leagues start up.... in TEN months.

Her school team is nowhere as good as her Wolfpack crew... or are they?  The school team started strong and won convincingly over a local Catholic school feeder program, then ended their league season play for the year against... the Wolfpack, sans Millie. 

To say your local 6th grade team fought to the wire 26-23 against a team with four AAU caliber player should be a badge of courage.  To be more upset that they should have won that game might be what the girls needed, because their year wasn't quite over.  

Millie's coach had signed them up for the Back Mountain Holiday tournament over the break.   The team finally found their groove in the Back Mountain March tournament,  and with the Wolfpack technically not a "School or Township (Rec) team), the competition was similar in March, without the epic finals game. 

No matter the opponent, Millie will end up on the ground, fighting for a ball.

Pool play wasn't close, Millie's team outscoring the opposition 93-21.  If the Wolfpack wasn't available, the next best option would be the Dallas 6th graders.

Their nickname might officially be the Mountaineers (or the horribly sounding Lady Mounts), but to me they are the Bad Pennies, a team Millie's crew has always beat, but can never put away.  Average margin of victory has been five points.  

First quarter:  An ugly 7-5 lead.

Second quarter: Dallas got into foul trouble, and some key foul shots boosted things to 15-7 at the half.

Third quarter:  Dallas shut down Mountain Top's offense, literally allowing zero points.  Their problem?  They only scored two,  15-9 at the end of three.  

Fourth quarter:  The shooting returned, and Millie spent the last three minutes, single-handedly breaking their full court press, and finding open girls around the basket.    Final 23-9, but if easy shots were made, it could have been far worse.

With that, the 6th graders won their 2nd straight Back Mountain event... and an invitation to Pennsylvania Elementary State Basketball Championship, March 17-19 in State College (where Penn State is for you out-of-staters).  

We haven't made the decision to go quite yet, but the only monkeywrench in State College that weekend is some concert by some guy named Bruce Springsteen.  Probably won't complicate things at all. 

7th-8th Grade Girls:   The Junior High teams ended the season with three total loses and some of their own unnecessary drama.  

Both teams (which are essentially the same team, plus three extra girls in 8th grade).  Lost to the local Catholic powerhouse 27-17 (7th) and 47-17 (8th).  I'll point out the 7th graders last year beat that same team by thirty...but all those players are exclusively playing Freshmen ball now. 

For the last weekend, it was just the 7th graders against Nanticoke.  A 34-24 loss was a dignified loss, but a few girls, it was oddly personal.  In the waning days of the school year, it was reported that some of the girls sent TikToks, Snapchats, or whatever social media they used, to Nanticoke players, involving a lot of gesturing, gesticulation, and profanities.  Maja and Millie got most of the story, and it appears that no one is quite off the team yet, but it oddly came out the five girls in the videos are benchwarmers.  Specifically, three late-game entries who had asked me after that game how to earn more playing team.  I can assure you, flipping off the other team, was not one of my suggestions.

On to new, exciting, and sometimes streamlined b-ball opportunities in 2023!