Polishing off the crystal ball before heading north
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The next time you spot my tagline, hopefully I’ll be blogging from courtside at the state basketball finals in Sacramento. Based on gas prices over the last year, I’m guessing Arco Arena has been able to perform some pretty serious upgrades since then.
What were we thinking in L.A.? Naming our professional basketball arena after a company that sells office equipment? Yea, there’s a real demand for that around here. We have more empty desks than the DMV on a Friday afternoon.
I already broke down the boys’ games here, but let me try my hand at fortune-telling. My intuition tells me the story lines will go something like this....
The Sacramento Kings inquire about a 10-day contract after Jrue Holiday of Campbell Hall finishes a couple assists shy of a triple double in a 77-52 victory Friday afternoon against Albany St. Mary’s in the Division IV title game.
Inspired by Holiday’s performance, David and Travis Wear of Mater Dei forget they’re 6-foot-10 identical twins and start launching three-pointers against Archbishop Mitty in Friday night’s featured game.
Andy Brown, a 6-8 teammate, feels left out and makes it a three-pointer threesome, when they should really be pounding the ball inside. As a result, the Monarchs end up shooting themselves in the foot and lose, 62-56.
Renaissance Academy came real close to playing Lick-Wilmerding in the Division V final Saturday morning. Now, that would have been a real fun game to blog. I get carpal-tunnel just thinking about it.
Instead, the Wildcats are stuck with Ross Branson, which isn’t a person, but a coastal city named Ross and a school called Branson. Renaissance Academy has a front line that stands 6-10, 6-8 and 6-7, while Branson has a Harvard-bound guard and the experience of playing in this game two previous years. I still like the tall guys, 66-60.
The Lakers schedule works in favor of Santa Margarita in the Division III title game Saturday afternoon. The Lakers again, you say? It’s all about hits, baby! And the fact that the Lakers have a day off on their current trip that day, allowing radio analyst Mychal Thompson to fly in and inspire his sons, Klay and Trayce, against Sacramento High.
Klay, a Washington-State bound guard, scores 26 points and Trayce, a sophomore guard, throws in some well-timed floor burns in a 58-54 victory.
Finally, the Division I final Saturday night. McClymonds will be emotionally charged, and rightfully so, with the impending retirement of its coach, but Dominguez players, and some reporters, live in constant fear of ‘the glare’’ from Coach Russell Otis. The Dons win, 78-72, and even Otis cracks a smile.
That’s probably enough for one blog, I’ll let Martin Henderson polish off his crystal ball and make the girls’ predictions.
-- Dan Arritt