| 24 January 2012
If you’re from Washington, you clearly know about the sizable snowstorm that hit the state this past week. Because of the storm, all but a few WesCo basketball games were canceled. Due to the short week, I decided to forgo my weekly power rankings in favor of a late-midseason roundup for the WesCo 3A and 4A conferences!
To keep it short, I will only be talking about teams that have winning records and are in clear contention for their conference or division. Also, these are in order by conference record, not personal input.
WesCo 3A:
Mountlake Terrace (14-0): Coming into the year, many expected the Hawks to be good, but not this good. 14-0 with just six games left? Pretty impressive. This team, unlike your usual basketball lineup, doesn’t really have a true leading scorer. There are three players averaging 10-plus points per game, and three more averaging just under 10. Terrace has outscored opponents 934-523 this year. If defense wins championships, what does offense and defense win you?
Rest of season strength of schedule: 3/10 The Hawks have only two games against teams with winning records.
Shorecrest (9-5): While the Scots are 9-5, they are 8-2 within the conference, which is where it really matters. Both of Shorecrest’s two conference losses have come against undefeated Mountlake Terrace. Led by the post duo of Kevin Shattuck and Emmanuel Chibuogwu, Jr., the Scots have had a fairly impressive season. The team’s only weakness seems to be opening games. Opponents have outscored Shorecrest 174-181 in the first quarter.
Rest of season: 5/10 Woodway, Shorewood, and Glacier Peak all present challenges to the Scots’ mental toughness.
Shorewood (10-3): The Thunderbirds had been pretty good--not great, but pretty good--through the first half of the year...until the last three games. After beating Meadowdale and Lynnwood by a combined 17 points (two teams with a combined record of 7-23), the T-Birds lost to Shorecrest 62-52. Potential D-1 prospect post Josh Hawkinson scored 21 points, but no one else on the team was able to back him up, as he was the lone double digit scorer on the team.
Rest of season: 8/10 Shorecrest, Terrace, and Glacier Peak? I’ll be surprised if the T-Birds don’t pick up two more losses.
Glacier Peak (11-4): Ah, the Grizzlies. If you asked 100 people in Snohomish county if GP was any good at basketball, 90 of them would say “of course!” But here’s the kicker...none of them would know why. Well, it likely has a lot to do with 6-foot-6-inch post Zach Pederson. Pederson has averaged 20.5 points per game and put up 25 or more points three times so far this year. The Grizzlies are coming off four straight wins of at least 28 points.
Rest of season: 8/10 Did WesCo plan for all the good 3A teams just to play at the end of the year? The Grizzlies have Terrace, Shorewood, and Shorecrest left to beat, all of which will be tough wins but this team is capable.
WesCo 4A:
Snohomish (12-2): The Panthers, led by WesCo scoring leader Luke Hamlin, have had a great season so far. Take out a two-game losing streak to Terrace and Jackson, and you have a top-5 team in the state. I’ve said it multiple times, but Snohomish doesn’t overwhelm teams; they simply play their own game and are very, very good at it. This is one of the most consistent teams I’ve seen in the past few years.
Rest of season: 7/10 A lot of good (not great) teams stand between the Panthers and the Tacoma Dome, but Hamlin and crew should prevail.
Lake Stevens (10-4): Unlike Snohomish, Lake Stevens has been neither consistent nor occasionally dominant. That being said, with two solid leading scorers in Kevin Smith and Devin Stoen, Lake Stevens has the ability to put up points even if one of them gets shut down. I just don’t see the Vikings going far in districts though.
Rest of season: 10/10 The Vikings have only one game remaining against a team with a losing record (Marysville-Pilchuck).
Stanwood (9-5): Cannen Roberson, a 6-foot-5-inch junior wing, has really led the charge for the Spartans. He’s put up at least 20 points in their last three games and is averaging 18.1 for the year. Also, sophomore guard Josh Thayer has been extremely impressive, especially considering his age and height. Just 5 feet 8 inches tall, he has scored at least 10 points in his last four games. Pretty impressive.
Rest of season: 10/10 Stanwood has nearly the same schedule as Lake Stevens. With only Pilchuck to look forward to, this looks like a long two weeks for the Spartans.
Jackson (10-5): Jackson has a very bright future. When your best two players are both sophomores, great things are going to come from your team. Jason Todd and Dan Kingma are those two players. In Jackson’s huge upset against Snohomish, Todd went off for 27 points. Kingma has scored 15 or more points five times this year. (The funny part? Four of those performances came in losses.)
Rest of season: 6/10 Kamiak seems to be an upset magnet, but Woodway and Stevens shouldn’t be hard for Todd and co. to handle.
Edmonds-Woodway (10-5): Edmonds-Woodway is a pretty confusing team. They can absolutely dominate bad-to-average teams but can’t play well at all against a decent team. Perfect examples of this: their games against Jackson and Lake Stevens. Jackson won by 29 points, with the T-Wolves dominating after the first quarter. In the loss against Lake Stevens, the Warriors scored 16 points for the entire second half. This team has a lot of problems to figure out if they intend on making it to the Tacoma Dome.
Rest of season: 8/10 With games against Shorecrest, Snohomish, Jackson, and even Kamiak, this team is likely to pick up at least two more losses.
-Austin McDermott (@honeynut_ichiro)
R.I.P. Joe Paterno. You didn’t deserve to go out like this.
