Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Mercyhurst has picked up Alexander Parks, a guard from Cincinnati.

He may be playing right away as Michael Bradley's replacement.

Nobody seems to have heard anything so far on where Bradley and Ajayi are going. I'd assume both find mid-major homes.

[Ship69]

Mercyhurst has picked up Alexander Parks, a guard from Cincinnati.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Well, that was the predicted (1) high school guard. I assume we see transfers the rest of the way.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Eric Branch, SG from Muhlenberg High, has committed to IUP.

Looks like Joe beat out East Stroudsburg and Slippery Rock (among others).

[hawks16]

I mean in the sense that winning the Philadelphia Catholic League title is a bigger deal (to those teams) than winning a state title. The attendance and enthusiasm speaks for itself.

[IUPNation]

Didn’t know where to post this but last nights Philadelphia Catholic League Title Game at a packed Palestra came down to the final last second basket to send it into OT. Video in the link…

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelph...dgzb36us7d2u2t

I mean this was probably the biggest crowd at a high school basketball game this year in Pennsylvania.

[IUPNation]

I think the only thing that might move the needle on how state playoffs are played (and who is "punished" by the transfer rule and who isn't) will come down to attendance. PIAA championship football attendance stinks and the title games are now played in a high school stadium in Mechanicsburg. The basketball championships are also not greatly attended in the lower divisions, for natural reasons. Now when you get up to Class 6A and its two Philadelphia Catholic League teams playing for a title neither really cares about, the attendance also stinks. Reading bailed out the PIAA this year since their fans travel anywhere. Same with New Castle last year in 5A. Those fans go anywhere.

Maybe a reprieve after this year as the Hershey contract is up and the PIAA could be going back to State College for title games.

What do you mean about the PCL schools not caring. The Catholic League title game was played at a packed Palestra.

[hawks16]

I think the only thing that might move the needle on how state playoffs are played (and who is "punished" by the transfer rule and who isn't) will come down to attendance. PIAA championship football attendance stinks and the title games are now played in a high school stadium in Mechanicsburg. The basketball championships are also not greatly attended in the lower divisions, for natural reasons. Now when you get up to Class 6A and its two Philadelphia Catholic League teams playing for a title neither really cares about, the attendance also stinks. Reading bailed out the PIAA this year since their fans travel anywhere. Same with New Castle last year in 5A. Those fans go anywhere.

Maybe a reprieve after this year as the Hershey contract is up and the PIAA could be going back to State College for title games.

[EyeoftheHawk]

It's all so freaked up now it's hard to keep track. I don't know what's next for Aliquippa football. They are a Class A school by enrollment (and a small one at that). They just went 14-1 in Class 4A and lost in the PIAA final. The WPIAL may move them to the the PSAC next.

The public/private debate in high school sports gets tiresome but it is real problem.

In girls basketball last week I had to laugh when little Homer-Center (near Indiana) drew Kennedy Catholic in the PIAA Tournament. It would be hard to find two programs more different. One is home-grown. One recruits better than most D1 programs.

The boys coach at little Union High School went on a tirade several weeks back about his team losing to a private school full of ringers. His outburst actually got a lot of air time on Yinzer sports radio stations. He wasn't wrong.

I personally think 6 classes has ruined the WPIAL ... not sure the effect out in your parts.

The Kennedy Catholic team is coached by Justin Magestro, father of UPJ’s guard Drew Magestro. I watched the game and got great amusement by how the elder Magestro acted like his team had really done something. No offense to the girls who are just out there playing basketball, but to talk about how hard the girls worked and how they earned it, yada, yada, yada, was laughable. They had a big girl that would average 10-12 points in the PSAC and they just dumped it in to her. I have never coached a high school basketball game in my life and feel confident I could have coached that team to a state championship. Homer Center, a true small school with 100% local talent versus a collection of all-stars. Sorry Mr. Magestro…not impressed.

The Heritage Conference is one of the best in the state for girls basketball (two teams in the state finals this year). Imagine if they put together an all-star team and played in AA classification. That’s essentially what’s happening. It’s going to be up to PA’s sorry excuse for a legislature to step up and deal with it because the PIAA isn’t going to. What’s most likely is we’ll still be having this same discussion next year, and the year after that, and so on. The fix really doesn’t seem that difficult.

[Ship69]

West Virginia has already done this. Privates play up a class or two in the state for this reason. The tiny publics (and in WV there are a gazillion of those) are now winning Single A regularly instead of the Privates that have the same enrollment but a much larger metro area to pull from. Seems to be working o.k.

It might work. They definitely need to do something in Pa. A lot of it depends on the type of area you're talking about. A few years ago I read about a Chicago Catholic school that had access to about 198.000 students in its recruiting footprint. Needless to say, they do pretty well in football even though they play in the highest classification.

[Scrub]

Well, you're either playing by the same rules or you aren't. Best solution if you're not going to have separate playoffs might be to put schools up a class if they're recruiting outside of their geographical areas. In other words, if McDevitt wants to get a player out of Mechanicsburg, you need to consider Mechanicsburg's enrollment as well as Harrisburg's when assigning them a class. They already do this with public schools such as North Penn/Mansfield who combine to field a football program.

West Virginia has already done this. Privates play up a class or two in the state for this reason. The tiny publics (and in WV there are a gazillion of those) are now winning Single A regularly instead of the Privates that have the same enrollment but a much larger metro area to pull from. Seems to be working o.k.

[IUPNation]

Well, you're either playing by the same rules or you aren't. Best solution if you're not going to have separate playoffs might be to put schools up a class if they're recruiting outside of their geographical areas. In other words, if McDevitt wants to get a player out of Mechanicsburg, you need to consider Mechanicsburg's enrollment as well as Harrisburg's when assigning them a class. They already do this with public schools such as North Penn/Mansfield who combine to field a football program.

That’s what I suggested. I see no issue where a small well funded catholic school gets put at the same level as a large high enrollment public school. It’s actually a level playing field.

[Ship69]

Private/Catholic schools should have a different process to be classified than Public schools. There are Catholic schools that are punching bags as well so you can’t lump them as all the same in recruiting players x If a small Catholic high school is recruiting and beating bigger public schools they should be classified based on recent performance and not enrollment. So maybe McDevitt in Harrisburg is put in 5 or 6A.

Well, you're either playing by the same rules or you aren't. Best solution if you're not going to have separate playoffs might be to put schools up a class if they're recruiting outside of their geographical areas. In other words, if McDevitt wants to get a player out of Mechanicsburg, you need to consider Mechanicsburg's enrollment as well as Harrisburg's when assigning them a class. They already do this with public schools such as North Penn/Mansfield who combine to field a football program.

[IUPNation]

Another good reason to have separate championship playoffs for public and private schools, although it's usually worse on the football side.

My local high school, which plays Class 5A in most sports, gets pushed up to 6A in basketball because of all the tiny Christian and other private schools that play basketball. That meant we got Reading in the second game of our district playoffs this year. Fun.

Private/Catholic schools should have a different process to be classified than Public schools. There are Catholic schools that are punching bags as well so you can’t lump them as all the same in recruiting players x If a small Catholic high school is recruiting and beating bigger public schools they should be classified based on recent performance and not enrollment. So maybe McDevitt in Harrisburg is put in 5 or 6A.

[hawks16]

The boys coach at little Union High School went on a tirade several weeks back about his team losing to a private school full of ringers. His outburst actually got a lot of air time on Yinzer sports radio stations. He wasn't wrong.

I personally think 6 classes has ruined the WPIAL ... not sure the effect out in your parts.

I work in New Castle. Mark Stanley, to be fair, said the same things when they beat the same charter school the year prior in the district playoffs. And the Union girls team won the state title in Class 1A over a private school, Lourdes Regional. There are a couple players over here I think could make a splash in the PSAC. Oddly, not a ton of D2 players seem to come out of this part of the WPIAL.