gallia Academy basketball 2017-2018
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 6:25 pm
Things are really looking up in land of Blue devils. Think it will be a exciting season this year. Let me start with my 3 biggest negatives when it comes to the program at this time.
1. The fan base really needs to learn how to become a factor in a game. It was nice to see the stands as full as they were last year in the gym but the student section and all the fans need to understand what they can do to influence a game.
2. The acoustics of the Gym. My guess it has to do with the auxiliary gym being behind the home stands. It may have to do with the band room being behind the visitors side and that sound dampening wall of band room. Lowering the net behind the bleachers between the auxiliary gym and main gym was a great improvement. But there is still something mot write. 25 fans in visitors side sound like 200 fans. and 600 fans on home side sound like 100.
3. Would be the schedule. you have 14 league games. And 2 games against fairland, south point and portsmouth i think is solid every year but that gives you 8 non league games. this year that is Athens, Meigs, jackson, river valley, point pleasant, washington, River valley and point pleasant. This is a upgrade over last few years and i am ok with playing all the local teams. But think we have to do better then a second game with river valley and point pleasant. last year they were very under prepared for the tournament with schedule they played.
On the court the Blue devils were 15-7 last year. Best season in quite some time. The only real contributor they lost off that team is miles cornwell. His energy and leadership will be missed.
Now from here on out let me preference this by saying i know nothing about the summer or who exactly will be on this team.
Should have 3 seniors. Peck, wiseman should be starters and coach Harrisons son.
Peck has gotten much better of last 2 years at 6' 5" and a body meant to bang under neath he is a force. He had several games of 20 plus points. Problem is he occasionally wants to play defense with his arms and not his legs and picks up a lot of cheap fouls. He is a offensive force but can be a defensive liability. When this team presses peck is great on the point of that press but he can only press for short periods of time. Peck even as good as he is will probably have his minutes cut this year as there is depth at the 4 position.
Wiseman is sort of a difficult player to figure out. I think his greatest strength is as a defender. On offense he is not a great ball handler against the press. Which is sort of odd considering he is probably this teams most dangerous dribble drive guy.
Harrison is a pretty good defender and a streak shooter when he is in game he is a real hustler on the court.
Juniors will be Mcellend, Call, Thomas, Carter, as returners off last year varsity squad. There will be other juniors make this team but i will discuss them later.
Mccellend is the on the court QB. Think for this team to be as good as they can be he needs to shoot a little less and distribute a little more. Not that he is a bad shooter quite the opposite but when he starts chucking it the offense get stagnate. he would be a plus on defensive side.
Call is maybe best defender on this team outside of wiseman and he is very long, and good shooter and can get ball to the hoop.
Thomas is a plug in piece he is virtually wiseman or call you just plug him and and you lose nothing.
Carter played varsity maybe last 8 games of season. He is a good defender great on boards as another 6' 5" player he will be pecks backup but they really play different games carter is very athletic and doesn't need to be set up on offense. Blue devils will be better on defense when he is on floor.
As a sophomore we have loveday who i am sure now is a true 7 footer. Over the summer he received his first college offer and it was from Purdue. I understand a lot of other schools interested in this young man. He has put on some much needed weight. He makes up for a lot of defensive flaws from other players with his height. Biggest problem he has is blue devils play a lot of team with no bigs and he ends up having to guard a 6 foot kid that tries to pull him out. This leaves the Blue devils playing a lot of zone and they are not a great zone team. So for that reason i see this team pressing a lot and if they press as much as they should this may limit pecks playing time.
There are several other kids that will be juniors that are good basketball players that will round out this roster. i am just not sure which one's will make it. My guess would be the other Carter will play. He is a great ball handler and has the ability to just kill teams when he is shooting the 3 well. Davis, and Sipple i Think would make the team both these kids are just solid hard nosed basketball players and hustlers the kind of kid that will get on floor and get dirty for you. There may be another sophomore make the team as Blouir is a player but i see him getting a ton of JV time and only dressing varsity certain games. I am sure i have forgotten some kids. This team is really deep and should be fun to watch.
What i dont understand is how this team has enough possessions and opportunities for this team. I think the biggest mistake that may be made here is trying to get everyone to much playing time and that stop the team from getting in flow. But when i look up and down at this team. i cant imagine Peck averaging less then 12 a game Cant imagine loveday not averaging 12 a game. cant imagine wiseman less then 10 a game. cant imagine call or Mcellend not getting 9 points a game. Cant imagine thomas not averaging like 8 a game. and Carter should get 6 or 8 a game. That is like 70 points a game. i am just not sure how it is going to work out and will be curious to see how this team handles a team that will want to slow them down.
As far as Defense goes maybe this team switches from the 2-3 zone of last year into a more aggressive 1-3-1 match up zone. Think it will be really interesting and i know fairland is really good. But i see no reason why this team shouldn't be very competitive in all 22 games and might even get fairland when they come to Gallia late in the season.
Maybe we will even get Pfloyd out to give us a look.
1. The fan base really needs to learn how to become a factor in a game. It was nice to see the stands as full as they were last year in the gym but the student section and all the fans need to understand what they can do to influence a game.
2. The acoustics of the Gym. My guess it has to do with the auxiliary gym being behind the home stands. It may have to do with the band room being behind the visitors side and that sound dampening wall of band room. Lowering the net behind the bleachers between the auxiliary gym and main gym was a great improvement. But there is still something mot write. 25 fans in visitors side sound like 200 fans. and 600 fans on home side sound like 100.
3. Would be the schedule. you have 14 league games. And 2 games against fairland, south point and portsmouth i think is solid every year but that gives you 8 non league games. this year that is Athens, Meigs, jackson, river valley, point pleasant, washington, River valley and point pleasant. This is a upgrade over last few years and i am ok with playing all the local teams. But think we have to do better then a second game with river valley and point pleasant. last year they were very under prepared for the tournament with schedule they played.
On the court the Blue devils were 15-7 last year. Best season in quite some time. The only real contributor they lost off that team is miles cornwell. His energy and leadership will be missed.
Now from here on out let me preference this by saying i know nothing about the summer or who exactly will be on this team.
Should have 3 seniors. Peck, wiseman should be starters and coach Harrisons son.
Peck has gotten much better of last 2 years at 6' 5" and a body meant to bang under neath he is a force. He had several games of 20 plus points. Problem is he occasionally wants to play defense with his arms and not his legs and picks up a lot of cheap fouls. He is a offensive force but can be a defensive liability. When this team presses peck is great on the point of that press but he can only press for short periods of time. Peck even as good as he is will probably have his minutes cut this year as there is depth at the 4 position.
Wiseman is sort of a difficult player to figure out. I think his greatest strength is as a defender. On offense he is not a great ball handler against the press. Which is sort of odd considering he is probably this teams most dangerous dribble drive guy.
Harrison is a pretty good defender and a streak shooter when he is in game he is a real hustler on the court.
Juniors will be Mcellend, Call, Thomas, Carter, as returners off last year varsity squad. There will be other juniors make this team but i will discuss them later.
Mccellend is the on the court QB. Think for this team to be as good as they can be he needs to shoot a little less and distribute a little more. Not that he is a bad shooter quite the opposite but when he starts chucking it the offense get stagnate. he would be a plus on defensive side.
Call is maybe best defender on this team outside of wiseman and he is very long, and good shooter and can get ball to the hoop.
Thomas is a plug in piece he is virtually wiseman or call you just plug him and and you lose nothing.
Carter played varsity maybe last 8 games of season. He is a good defender great on boards as another 6' 5" player he will be pecks backup but they really play different games carter is very athletic and doesn't need to be set up on offense. Blue devils will be better on defense when he is on floor.
As a sophomore we have loveday who i am sure now is a true 7 footer. Over the summer he received his first college offer and it was from Purdue. I understand a lot of other schools interested in this young man. He has put on some much needed weight. He makes up for a lot of defensive flaws from other players with his height. Biggest problem he has is blue devils play a lot of team with no bigs and he ends up having to guard a 6 foot kid that tries to pull him out. This leaves the Blue devils playing a lot of zone and they are not a great zone team. So for that reason i see this team pressing a lot and if they press as much as they should this may limit pecks playing time.
There are several other kids that will be juniors that are good basketball players that will round out this roster. i am just not sure which one's will make it. My guess would be the other Carter will play. He is a great ball handler and has the ability to just kill teams when he is shooting the 3 well. Davis, and Sipple i Think would make the team both these kids are just solid hard nosed basketball players and hustlers the kind of kid that will get on floor and get dirty for you. There may be another sophomore make the team as Blouir is a player but i see him getting a ton of JV time and only dressing varsity certain games. I am sure i have forgotten some kids. This team is really deep and should be fun to watch.
What i dont understand is how this team has enough possessions and opportunities for this team. I think the biggest mistake that may be made here is trying to get everyone to much playing time and that stop the team from getting in flow. But when i look up and down at this team. i cant imagine Peck averaging less then 12 a game Cant imagine loveday not averaging 12 a game. cant imagine wiseman less then 10 a game. cant imagine call or Mcellend not getting 9 points a game. Cant imagine thomas not averaging like 8 a game. and Carter should get 6 or 8 a game. That is like 70 points a game. i am just not sure how it is going to work out and will be curious to see how this team handles a team that will want to slow them down.
As far as Defense goes maybe this team switches from the 2-3 zone of last year into a more aggressive 1-3-1 match up zone. Think it will be really interesting and i know fairland is really good. But i see no reason why this team shouldn't be very competitive in all 22 games and might even get fairland when they come to Gallia late in the season.
Maybe we will even get Pfloyd out to give us a look.