I said yesterday that I had a feeling that Peyton Manning was going to make a mistake which would cost his team the game, and while there was a bunch of stuff leading up to it, the straw that broke the camel's back was his interception to Tracy Porter who brought it back 74 yards to the endzone to give the Saints the 31-17 lead which ultimately was the final score. The bottom line is this: The Colts were just outplayed today and as I've said all along I thought the Saints were the better team. Drew Brees hardly needed to do anything today as he basically won the game on short passes to wide open guys and the defense stepped up big time, which was something a lot of analysts and fans didn't think they were going to. But a lot of the time, when it's two teams with defenses that aren't considered great, the worse of the two comes to play. I also said in my prior blog that they were lucky to get past Minnesota and I think the players knew that they were extremely fortunate and I knew they were going to play much better today. There was a couple huge calls that turned the course of the game. The first was obviously the onside kick, a great call, coming out of the halftime which was nearly 30 minutes long and definitely took the Colts by surprise. The second call was Sean Payton's decision to challenge Lance Moore's 2 pt conversion as a catch which I thought was definitely incomplete. Turned out that he saw something a lot of viewers probably didn't and Lance Moore caught it and was in the endzone before losing the ball. The beginning of the end for the Colts was the drop by Pierre Garcon in the second quarter on the third down. That totally changed the course of the game and I'm sure he's wishing he could have that one back right now. Today was an example of truly great coaching by Sean Payton and a great defensive gameplan set up by Gregg Williams. Williams did his job with focusing in on Manning and trying to come up with different schemes to frustrate Manning and Payton played gutsy. The 4th down call on the goal line. The onside kick. He played fearless and a lot of his players I'm sure respected the way he was playcalling in a game for all the marbles. Congratulations also to Drew Brees on winning the MVP. He really is a class act and New Orleans should be thankful they have a player like him and all he does for the city. Thanks to him, he has brought New Orleans on a long road after Hurrican Katrina a few years ago and I think has really inspired the city thanks to his personality and toughness. Another area which I'm not sure the Saints expected to get as much as they did was in the kicking game. Garrett Hartley went a perfect 3 for 3 on fg's, all of which were longer than 40. I thought he'd be the chink in their armor but he came up big today and as it turned out, they didn't need him in a big spot, which wound up being a great situation for everyone involved because I'd hate to see another Scott Norwood, especially with a kicker as young as Hartley whose career could've forever been notorious for missing a last second kick. Overall, I thought it was a great game and I'm proud of what New Orleans accomplished this season. They're my second favorite team behind Miami and I've never had any of my favorite teams win a title, so getting to experience a win for them was great and made me proud to be a football fan because you could tell how much this team meant to the city of New Orleans and how much the fans embraced this team. While the Giants-Pats and Cardinals-Steelers games were better, I didn't feel quite as good as what I saw i the closing minutes tonight of the telecast and the admiration between a professional football team and their fans is a rarity nowadays. It's been a long road to get to this point, but these players were able to get a Super Bowl win for themselves, for the city and as Brees pointed out, maybe the country. And I think he was right to say that. A lot of America was rooting for New Orleans today because they were the underdog and they were a perfect example of how even though places in America can face tough times, they can overcome those wounds through time and come out stronger than they were before. Well done, New Orleans.
State Tournament Thoughts
I currently scorekeep at my old high school, St. Joe's in Metuchen whenever I can and try to keep up to date on local talent throughout the state and the county. While I have been busier this year than in past year's, I'm still reasonably involved and am always intrigued by trying to figure out tournament bracket's and the like as I made mention in one of my earlier blogs. We are in Non-Public South A, which is historically one of the stronger state brackets. There's been a lot of good players to have played in ths bracket over the years. Some of the more recent names from St. Joe's alone are Andrew Bynum, Sean Baptiste now at Fairleigh Dickinson, and Jay Williams. St. Augustine has had Pops-Mensah Bonsu play recently, a standout at George Washington. CBA has had a number of great players go through the program, most notably recently Dan Werner at Florida. Holy Spirit of Absecon has had a number of players as well go off to play college ball at division I schools. Currently their biggest name playing in colelge is Dennis Horner at NC State. To put in perspective how good of a bracket this is, my junior year we were the 6th seed with a 16-4 record as of cutoff and Holy Spirit was the 3 seed with an 18-2 record or so. They had about 5 division I players and half their players went onto play in college. Their third string forward is now playing at Wagner. That's how stacked their team was. So there's been plenty of players to come through this bracket which perennially make this one of the toughest in the state. I'm going to put my projected seedings below.
#9 Holy Spirit (10-5) at #8 Paul VI (11-5), winner at #1 Camden Catholic (16-1)
#12 Red Bank Catholic (5-13) at #5 Christian Brothers (17-3), winner at #4 St. Joe's (Metuchen) (17-3)
#10 St. John Vianney (11-9) at #7 St. Augustine (11-5), winner at #2 Monsignor Donovan (13-2)
#11 Notre Dame (8-10) at # 6 Bishop Eustace (14-3), winner at # 3 Bishop Ahr (13-2)
If this holds up, the left side of the bracket is absolutely brutal with a big rivalry in Joe's-CBA in the quartefinals and the winner playing a very talented Camden Catholic team, currently ranked #1 in South Jersey. As a Joe's alum, I cringe at the thought of yet another state game with CBA (after playing and losing to them 3 out of the last 4 years, losing one of them in heartbreaking fashion), but hopefully we'll be able to get over the hump this year. At some point, you have to overcome your rival, but frankly CBA has just been better than us each of those years. I think this may be one of the poorer CBA teams over the last decade so hopefully we can win it this year. Maybe this will be like the year where Will Campbell singlehandedly dominated CBA and led Paul Vi to a win. That was an off-year for them and maybe we'll get a second shot to take them down at our place. Sooner or later, it's going to happen. Manning had to overcome Brady. Federer had to overcome Nadal. I think in a way we're scared to play them cause of all the tough losses we've had recently. Once we hang with them and are able to beat them, I think that mental block will be elimianted and we'll consistently be able to say we have a chance to beat them. They elimianted us this past year in baseball in the qtrs, when you could say we were the top 2 teams in our bracket. Once again, we are in the top 3 of our bracket. I would say CC is the best of us 3, but hopefully we'll be able to knock them out this year. I'll get to my problems about the state seeding in a bit, but first here are my predictions.
My predictions
Paul VI over Holy Spirit by double digits
CBA massacres Red Bank Catholic
St. Augustine prevails but St. John Vianney shows some fight. Augustine by upper single digits.
Eustace by about 20
Camden Catholic by 14 over Paul VI
St Joe's over CBA in a great game. We win by 3.
Augustine over Monsignor Donovan in a great game. Augustine wins by 5.
Bishop Eustace over Bishop Ahr by 12.
St. Joe's over Camden Catholic by 2. I think with the 3 days we have off in between the qtrs and semis we'll be able to regroup off the win vs. CBA and get prepared for the semifinal game against CC knowing the winner has a great shot against the other side's winner. CC underachieved last year and it wouldn't surprise me if they struggled against us again, especially if the game against Paul Vi is close. I think we match up okay against them and have enough ability to come away with the win.
Eustace over Augustine by 3. Great game by these two teams. Both teams strongest suits are their guard play and this game's winner probably has mid 50's.
St. Joe's over Eustace by 8. I just have a feeling if we get past CBA this year, we are very dangerous. I think our team's hungrier than the past couple years. Steve has lost to CBA two of the last three years and frankly, I just don't see him leaving Joe's without a win against them. As long as we come motivated after what will probably be a decent county run, I think the sky's the limit. This may be our last chance for a while to make some noise so hopefully we will.
State Seeding
Okay, I've got two problems when it comes to the state seeding for basketball. First off is that it should go by power points or something rather than strength of schedule. It does not take a brain surgeon to know that a team like CBA is better than one of the teams theyre higher seeded than like Bishop Ahr or Monsignor Donovan. It really screws over some of the good teams in the bracket. Paul VI and Camden Catholic are rivals, should they have to play each other in a first round matchup? I don't think so. Same goes with us and CBA, we're 11th and 12th in the state currently, how can you justify us playing each other in the first round when we're 2 of the best 3 teams in the bracket. With that being said I think it would look like this then.
#1 Camden Catholic
#2 CBA
#3 St. Joe's
#4 Monsignor Donovan
#5 Bishop Eustace
#6 Paul VI
#7 Bishop Ahr
#8 St. John Vianney
#9 St. Augustine
#10 Holy Spirit
#11 Notre Dame
#12 Red Bank Catholic
Obviously the Shore and the Olympic Conferences are two of the tougher ones in the state which is why CBA,MD,BE, and PVI are all in the top 6. In a field such as this one. You definitely protect the higher seeds a bit and theres no ridiculous #11-#12 matchups in the first round. theres a great chance that the 1,2, and 3 at least would survive in this format till the final, and that's how it should be because they are the strongest in the conference. If they lose its their own fault, but at least protect the higher seeds because they have consistently proven to be the best over the course of this season.
My other big gripe about the State tournament this year is that earlier I was looking at GMCHoops.com, definitely worth checking our if you get a chance. Greg really does a nice job of covering Middlesex County ball. I was reading how each section shapes up in the state tournament. This year, the NJSIAA has expanded each section's tournament bracket to include 16 teams. They no longer have to finish over .500. As long as you make the top 16 you're in. Let me read some of these records off. Edison 7-11, Perth Amboy 7-11 are definitely in. Teams on the bubble are Highland Park 5-12, Piscataway Tech 4-13, Woodbridge 5-14, South Plainfield 4-14. Do these teams really deserve state tournament berths. Seriously, why waste the time? I'm sure on some of these occasions there will be a nice underdog story but most of these teams I've seen are horrible. I could be totally off-base here but can't help but think what the hell is kids in being in the state tournament with a 5-14 record is proving? That mediocrity should be rewarded? It's the same thing in bowl games. We always gripe about how many teams are participating in that and how there's two 6-6 teams in the Independence Bowl that no one give s a damn about anyway. I kind of think it's partially do to some of these ridiculous parents who feel the same that everyone should play regardless of if someone is way more talented than someone else. That's not the way life works. These aren't kids. They're young adults...at least the 17 and 18 year olds are and I think they understand that more than the damn parents do most of the time. I like the fact there's more games to go see and try to look at future college talent, but I have to be realistic here too. Give the undefeated team that's usually a 1 or a 2 seed a bye. Reward them. Don't give them a 6-12 team that's a walk in the park. It's not fair to the good teams who have had an undefeated season. More troubling for me is what does this do to a group such as North A or B for the parochial schools where there is a tremendous disparity. One of the schools in North B is Veritas Christian Academy, a school with 36 sophomores-seniors. As some of you may know, that's the same bracket where the perennial powerhouses in St. Anthony's and St. Pat's as well as Paterson Catholic plays. Say they were to get a 16 seed. That's a better game left unplayed seriously. What good will come out of them playing a St. Pat's where the score will be like 200-8. I thought the team Yates in Houston was a bunch of assholes and they are cause they do stupid shit like press up 100 in a game, but this could be even worse and the problem is the state could've avoided it by not putting into action this ridiculous rule where the #1 seeds are playing these lowly sub .500 16 seeds. Some of these games are going to be really ugly. We'll see if they continue doing it after this year. I don't have a problem even with teams a couple .500 playing in it like an Edison at 7-11 or 8-10, but these tech schools who suck anyway should not be playing in the state tournament when they have a record 10 games under .500. Piscataway Tech plays mostly tech schools and theyre still 10 under so imagine what happens when they run into someone that's decent. It's going to get ugly in a hurry and I hope the state changes this in the future after their test run this year. Good luck to all the teams in states and I'll take a look at some of the brackets later on this week.
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