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Hello 1A fans!

WE would like to congratulate Joe City for winning the team wrestling title in the 1-2A division. Wrestling is an awesome event and it takes quite an athlete to compete. It is not for the weak-minded for sure.

It is now time to discuss the 1A basketball tournament and I will have a lot of I told you so comments today.

Lets get started:

A quick note: In both the boys and girls brackets 3 #1 seeds have made it to the finals along with a #2 seed. That is pretty incredible but shows how good the top teams have been in each regional area.

Boys basketball:

North teams:

Many of you may be thinking, "Where in the heck did those North teams come from?!" Well I have been telling you about Joe City and St. Mikes all year. Many people have been getting on the St. Mike bandwagon in some polls after we started following them but nobody even had 2nd thoughts on the Joe City team we saw early in the season vs Many farms at the Coke Classic Tourney we covered in Chinle. Both of these teams have earned this final 4 all season long. In the regular season they split their games and Joe City won the 3rd game for the championship game at regionals.

Joe City:

It is amazing to me how people could have missed out on the Joe City team though. I mean they dominated the championships in football and Baldwin the RB has been as impressive on the basketball court. Joe City and valley Union met in the quarterfinals and it was a very good battle. WE had VU in the top 3 all season and I believe they were that good of a team. But JC was able to win the game 32-31 and get the semi-final bid. No matter what people think about how good Gilbert Christian is, JC will give them all they can handle. This is a team that played a slow game vs VU and showed they can win. But the big difference is that against GC and their pressing and running style will not impress or hurt JC because they play up North against some of the top pressing and running teams like Many Farms and others. In a sense they have been training for just this type of game. I saw them lose a high scoring game in OT vs a very good Many Farms team when they were healthy and a close battle vs MV in the same tournament. This team is for real and if GC overlooks them they will be thinking, 'What if" after the game.

Duncan:

On our preview talk show I stated that people better not overlook Duncan and they beat a very tough Mogollon team in the first round. That was not a surprise to us as we knew from day 1 they would be a playoff team and were a sleeper pick for us. If not for running into a very talented VL team they would still be playing.

St. David:

Now please do not take this the wrong way but they fell into this 4 seed and it was a very unusual situation at that as the ADs met the last week and switched up some situations concerning the PPTS the South was using and they leapfrogged over 2 teams to get the final spot from the South. It was my feeling the St. Augustine team deserved the spot and I think by what happened to ST. David vs VL that the fact they were beneath 2 teams before the switch proved to be correct. WE are happy they had the opportunity to get the 4th playoff spot but another team deserved it as well.

St. Gregory:

AS all of you know by now Frank, their All-state PG, was out for the state tournament. I knew this the day of the GC game but kept it on the low until playoff time. The team is not the same without him and the other teams were handed a gift as he went down hard vs St. David the night before vs St. David and hurt his hip and pulled a muscle in that same area that would keep him out of the state playoffs. After watching the game vs GC I believe with Frank they were the better team. But of course that is hindsight now isn't it. One thing I will say and I find this to be very evident in films and games I have covered where St. Gregs has played and that is IMO the refs allow teams to really bang on this kid and get away with far to many fouls. The kid can sky and is very athletic and gets up in the air like no other at that level. Because of this he is sometimes in vulnerable positions and he needs protected by the refs. Not as a favor but as a point of fact that it is their job to protect players and not allow other teams to beat up on a kid like I have seen done to Frank. As a senior to be I hope that the refs stop this behavior and make teams accountable. Just because a kid is very talented does not give teams the right to play so physical that it puts a kid at risk! I was very much looking forward to the Frank vs Silversmith from St. Mikes match-up and feel sad we were not able to see it this year.

St. Mikes:

This team is very talented and early on we saw they had the ability to win the North and compete for the title. Many coaches would ask me what I thought about the North and I always stated that St. Mikes was the real deal. Now we will see a great match-up vs Valley Lutheran.

St. Mikes Silversmith:

Let me introduce you to Kurtis Silversmith from St. Mikes. He averages 24.1 points per game, 6.4 assists and is a returning All-state player that many have never heard of before. He is definitely the real deal and VL will need to control him to try and beat this team. The bad thing is that he is not their only player. Add in Sam Hardy who averages 17.9 points a game and Tywray with 10.3 and you have a team that can run or play the slow style game. One thing is for sure that Silversmith will need to carry his team on his shoulders if they want to defeat a very talented VL team.

Valley Lutheran:

This years VL team is very talented. They can get it done in so many ways and they actually played GC quite well after losing by 16 in the end. But when asked the GC coach told me VL is very talented. The only thing that kept them from being #2 was St. Gregs with Frank and a very talented VU team. They are led by Sam Voas who can take over a game by himself and add to it the big man Hraunar Gudmundsson and you have a lethal 1-2 punch. Oh but that is not all they have as Kosberg and Gabrielson can hurt you as well. Are you kind of getting why this team is so dangerous?? The depth of this team is outstanding and on any given night any or all of them can hurt you big time. This team is scary good and St. Mikes will have their hands full to get past them to the championship game. This should be a nice game to watch as there should be many lead changes when it is all said and done.

Gilbert Christian:

If you go to our website you can see the game they played vs St. Gregs. besides the games at the end of the season vs St. Gregs and VL they have not been tested all season. Their plans are to move up to 2A and maybe 3A as they are building some nice sports facilities. They have the speed and size to win it all. With the Coaches son Currior leading the way he poses huge mis-matches for his defenders as they look to isolate him vs man-to-man and use his height to drive and score at will. The guards are very quick led by Polancio who can take over a game by himself as we saw vs St. Gregs. They also have their big man inside at about 6' 7 or so who is only a soph and can play as physical as they come at the 1A level. They like to run and press and the transition that teams must prevent is very fast.

Girls Basketball:

Dark-horse Seligman:

WE have been stating from a while back that Seligman had a chance to win regionals as well contend for a state title. Remember a dark-horse is not a sleeper where not many teams may or may not produce. A dark horse to me is a team that from the beginning has a lot of talent but is basically going unknown and can come in and show teams they are the real deal. Seligman likes to run and we will see if they can stay with Salt River who can run with the best in the state.

St. Mikes vs Ft. Thomas:

This is another game for setting up a committee to decide the brackets. Both of these teams had the talent to be in the semi-finals. It seemed St. Mikes was gonna win but many felt they kind of lets things get away from them late and Ft. Thomas was able to squeak out the victory.

Gila Bend:

The saying goes that it is better to be lucky than good in order to win a state championship. I feel that one of the teams that had a chance to beat GB was St. Mikes because of their depth. But with them now out they will face a team without all the depth but just as dangerous. This game comes down to the speed of GB and the size and power of Ft. Thomas. Ft. Thomas showed at regionals where they almost defeated SR that they were a state contender. They were in our top 3 for most of the year and rightly so. GB must play their game which is run and great defense. GB has had the toughest side of the bracket and if they move on to the finals they could be wore out because of the battle between them and the Fort.

Salt River:

After a 1st round nerves game it seems now the only team that can keep them from the finals is themselves. Seligman must decide to run with them or slow it down. SR is led my Ramirez and Newton. But do not doubt for a second who runs this team as Newton from day 1 is the leader and if you do not contain and shut her down you have no chance. Yes Ramirez can light you up but if you shut Newton down she cannot touch the ball. The key here is who is the X-factor or player who will step it up if one of these girls are not having a good game or being shut down? If it ends up being a GB vs SR match we have seen from previous games that the stars are gonna get the points and somebody from both teams will have to step up to be the difference maker.

Patagonia:

I want to give a big shout to the Lobos. What a turnaround season! Coach led his team from 2-3 wins to almost 20 this season and a state birth. That is awesome and they are my team of the year and I think coach should without a doubt should be in contention for Coach of the Year for 1A.

Ft. Thomas:

With an early loss to SR and a late loss to Duncan many were thinking Ft. Thomas would not be able to reach the semi-final or the finals. However, with their game vs SR the last time they played they showed us all they have the Right Stuff to be state champion. Although their former coach is gone Haws has done a great job getting this team prepared. They are physical and play smart ball. They will give GB all they can handle but if they do not contain the speed of GB it will be over early.

We will be doing our previews for these games tomorrow.