1. Pinewood
2. Porter Gaud
3. Heathwood Hall
4. Cardinal Newman
5. Laurence Manning
6. Wilson Hall
7. Augusta Christian
8. Hilton Head Christian
9. Hammond
10. Hilton Head Prep

They have won 3 in a row and return the best player in the state so you have to make Pinewood #1, but I truly believe that this is the year that Porter Gaud ends that ridiculous 15 game winning streak that Pinewood has.

I think Porter Gaud and Pinewood play in the championship game for the 7th time in the last 8 years. I am making the prediction right now that Porter Gaud upsets Pinewood in the state championship game.

I think Heathwood is clearly the favorite to win region 1 with the returning Whalen Brothers and the young Littlejohn. Coach Whalen is going to be a force in that region for years to come.

Cardinal Newman was young last year and will be improved enough to finish second in that region.

Region 2 is a tossup between Laurence Manning and Wilson Hall. Wilson Hall loses their best player in Chad Brading but always finds a way to replace players in Coach Talley's system.

Hilton Head Christian and Hilton Head Prep should battle each other for the last playoff spot from region 3 and a possible at-large playoff spot.

I agree with the majority of this, only team I think is out of place here is Cardinal Newman. Unless they have picked up some talent I'm unaware of, I don't think they should be at #4. Those are just my thoughts.

There should be a separate state tournament for 3A. Go ahead and let PW and PG play in the final game on that night but allow 2 other teams to fight for a consolation prize!!

somebody from columbia told me that littlejon is getting looked at by top D one schools and the whalen brothers are getting looked at for college football. is littlejon that good and the whalen brothers?

quote:

Originally posted by Scout44:
somebody from columbia told me that littlejon is getting looked at by top D one schools and the whalen brothers are getting looked at for college football. is littlejon that good and the whalen brothers?

Littlejohn is very good. I don't know about top division 1 schools. There are lots of guys in his class that are getting mail from many different schools. It is possible he got a survey letter from Clemson and somebody is considering that attention from top division 1 schools.

I do think he will be very good by the time he is done. Last year as a freshman, he was up and down. More of an athlete than a basketball player, but he is tremendously gifted athletically.

As far as the Whalen Bros, I would have no doubt that they could both play football at any of the smaller schools. I don't think they are division 1 players, but they are very very good.

I know that entering HS, Littlejohn was the 4th(?) rated player in the state in his class. Not really sure where people rank middle schoolers, but that was the rumor that I heard when he was coming up.

He is going to be a VERY special player before its all said and done.

1-3 I agree totally.

4-CN. CN had a good team last year that came within a few baskets of upsetting PG in the tournament. However, they lost 3 of their top 6 players from that team to graduation. They do have a really solid 1-2 combo in their PG and their huge center. A large group of seniors could pick them up, but I dunno if they should be hoping for this high of a finish as the region title they won last year, I agree with Eagleman on this one.

5. Don't know much about LMA, but I know that they had a very small team last year.

6. WH- Brading was an INSANELY special player. Could flat out get it done. Bottom line. Coach Talley has a great system in place and will always find ways to replace.

7. ACS will be way down this year in my opinion. They had a very senior heavy team last year both in numbers (9) and production. They had a pretty decent JV team that will bring some up, but except for St. Joe's, I think they may finish last in this division.

8, 10-HH teams. I don't get to watch much of them, but I think that HHP is usually better than HHCA.

Hammond will find a way to win games. No way they finish 9th in the state.

Other teams not listed: I think that BL is the best team not on this list. Losing coach Earhart (sp?) may hurt, but they had a really strong JV team last few years and with Dieter returning, they could make a run in the Columbia region behind HH with everyone else down.

OP, NW, REL, St J... Don't know too much about these...

Ben Lippen has a very soft schedule from what I've heard. Playing the likes of Richard Winn, Wardlaw, etc. So don't be surprised to see them win a good number of games this year, but i think that means they don't do much in state tourney. And i think the columbia region is a little down this year overall. I def think HH is a big step ahead of everyone else. Look for BL to possibly challenge for 2nd in the region just because of Deter.

I believe Wilson Hall will be as good if not better than last year.The return a bunch of seniors that contributed last year and Josh Glenn will be a nice addition from Sumter High.I don't think you will see one player carry the scoring load as Chad did last year.Should be balanced scoring and rebounding.The only question will be who gets the tough baskets at crunch time?Somebody will need to step up.

Good. This is the kind of information I was hoping for.

I know that Cardinal Newman had some losses, but they also had a ton of young kids that played a ton of minutes. Maybe as many as some of the seniors in some instances.

Cyclonefan should be able to help me out here.

I just think that in that region, they will battle for second place.

Ben Lippen is a good choice. The Dieter kid is a special player and with an early non-conference schedule and a down year for some teams in their own region, they could put up big win totals. They are coming to Hilton Head Prep in the middle of December so I will get to see them pretty early.

Is the Brandt kid at Augusta Christian still there? I thought he was an underclassman last year.

I am going to have to see Hammond play before I move them up. They were extremely one dimensional at times letting Dan Bailey do everything for them.

As far as the two Hilton Head teams, I think Christian Academy is the better of the two to start the season. They have almost all of their best players back (Ethan Gort, Corey McDonald, Joey Davis) They are going to need some pointguard play, but if they can find suitable ball handling to get the ball inside to Gort and McDonald, they should finish third in the region.

Hilton Head Prep lost the oldest DiGenova boy who was their best ball handler and Michael Herrman who was their best inside presence. They are going to be very small, but should be extremely quick.

The problem with both of those teams is that just about all of their best basketball players play football and will be in the SCISA playoffs which will take away valuable prep time.

alright, so lets do an update:

1. Pinewood
2. Porter Gaud
3. Heathwood Hall
4. Ben Lippen
5. Wilson Hall
6. Laurence Manning
7. Hilton Head Christian
8. Cardinal Newman
9. Hammond
10. Hilton Head Prep

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ksufreak:
Is the Brandt kid at Augusta Christian still there? I thought he was an underclassman last year.



He is a senior this year. He and Smalley (also a senior) are their two primary scorers that return.

quote:

Originally posted by Lionfan:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by ksufreak:
Is the Brandt kid at Augusta Christian still there? I thought he was an underclassman last year.



He is a senior this year. He and Smalley (also a senior) are their two primary scorers that return.

Thanks for the info. Do they have any notable newcomers (from JV or transfers) that will help them out? Does Banks play basketball?

quote:

Originally posted by ksufreak:
Good. This is the kind of information I was hoping for.

I know that Cardinal Newman had some losses, but they also had a ton of young kids that played a ton of minutes. Maybe as many as some of the seniors in some instances.

Cyclonefan should be able to help me out here.

I just think that in that region, they will battle for second place.

CN will be ok, I agree that they might not be the best in that region, but will still compete. Zach Hrovat is one of the best point guards in SCISA and his scoring will continue to step up from last year. They also have brought up a lot of sophomores and will be good in next year or two, but not sure if they can have an immediate impact to help this year. C Jake Motto is the big guy mentioned earlier and he should dominate Region I in the paint. I think the only other player near his size is the kid at ACS (not sure of his name) that played JV last year. I did hear that HH got a new big man but haven't seen him yet.

quote:

Originally posted by ksufreak:

quote:

Originally posted by Lionfan:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by ksufreak:
Is the Brandt kid at Augusta Christian still there? I thought he was an underclassman last year.



He is a senior this year. He and Smalley (also a senior) are their two primary scorers that return.

Thanks for the info. Do they have any notable newcomers (from JV or transfers) that will help them out? Does Banks play basketball?

They have some guys moving up from JV who will help, but no big scorers that I know of. No transfers that I know of. In Brandt and Smalley they will have some good scoring options - both are really solid players - but they don't have a lot of height, however - and this has hurt them in the past few years. Losing Tyler Bourdo and Fred Austin (both graduated) will really hurt. They will always play very hard, however, and can run the floor well.

Banks played JV as a freshman, I believe, but now he moves on to baseball workouts after football is over.