Northern topped Grimsley earlier this year with a 70-65 win at the Greensboro Day School. That was back even before Thanksgiving Weekend if my memory is correct and lot has changed since then….
But what about Saturday night at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events for the Pizza Hut Invitational Championship?????
Grimsley may be missing point guard Burrell Brown, who left the Northeast Guilford game in the 4th quarter with a leg injury….Will Brown be available or can Grimsley run that point guard by committee offense and still survive as they did against NEG????? Jake Mulvey will need to step up as he did this evening with help from Krechaun Williams and Carter Gourley….
Grimsley will need to get some good looks inside to Rashad Sweeney and Lee Sweeney will have to use his quickness to give the Whirlies some spark throughout the game….
Who will play defense on Jon Frye? He is averaging 23 points a game so far in the tournament….Dylan Berry will be looking to get his three-point shot going as he did early against Greensboro Day. Patrick Chandler and Jalen Ross will have to keep the NG point guard spot active and they don’t have to score a bunch, but they need to give their teammates a chance to see the ball and receive the ball in position for good shots
The two guys off the bench, DC Arendas and Daniel Downing have been a big boost for the Nighthawks the first two nights of this tournament and they must continue to contribute in order for Northern to claim the title……
NG’s Jon McBeth can be prepared for a long night’s work with him set to face the Whirlies’ Rashad Sweeney others like David Reader on the inside……
McBeth is also big, but he has a quick first step and if he can get to the basket and it gets crowded, he will head to the foul line…..
Did Northern play their very best game tonight when they upset Greensboro Day School in the semifinals(#4 over #1) or are they ready to take it to the next level?????
Who do you take in the Championship Game?????
Right now, it looks like a toss-up………
grimsley by 2. gourley and williams have been the best tandem in the tourney so far
northern 54 grimsley 55
northern 58 grimsley 51
note northern over gds pick yesterday on this board.
northern beat gds without scroggins, mcbeth had a bad game, and berry was awful! was a little disappointed when i saw frye’s foot speed, but he is a fine hs player and definitely the “go to guy” for northern. northern may well win a 2nd state championship this year.
What other state will they be playing in this year, they haven’t won one yet.
The championship game was yesterday with Northern & GDS. GDS played the worst game of their season. They missed a lot of open 3s and their big men were playing small and not aggressive which is not a trade of a normal GDS team. Neither the GDS players or coaches showed up yesterday. However, Northern did not play their best yesterday either. Their passes were not very sharp and they went through several periods of below standard play themselves.
All of that being said – the Northeast vs Grimsley game was terrible. That game looked little a bunch of 8-9 yr old rec ball players on the floor. Northeast should have blownout Grimsley at the half or soon afterwards but they started playing bad in the 2nd Q.
The girls have produced more excitement during this tournament than the majority of the boys teams. Other than Northern, GDS and Dudley, I have not seen another Greensboro city boys team worth paying a dime to see play. Obviously Greensboro does not have enough boys playing high level D1 AAU club basketball because it is showing on the floor. The Northern boys will win because the Grimsley players play lazy and they appear a step slow.
Wow sir you are a hater. Just face it the two best teams in this tournament are playing in the championship. Grimsley sholud have beat Dudley earlier this year without one of their key players fouled out and a fourth quarter collapse. Northern is better than Gds, they played their c game and still won. Im sorry that your team lost, but move on.
Northern-63
Grimsley-60
NORTHERN BOYS WILL WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT. THESE BOYS WORK HARD, PLAY HARD, AND HAVE THE HEART OF CHAMPIONS. GO NIGHTHAWKS!
You have got to be kidding me about Grimsley being a top team and even on Dudley’s level!!! Even good teams will have a bad day periodically and Dudley does play down to their competitions level a couple of games each year. The Grimsley team that played yesterday was one of the worst playing teams that I have seen in years. Coach Hunter at Northeast and their players simply rolled over and quit yesterday. Northeast is not a good team but they would beat Grimsley 7 out of 10 games. The tournament was seeded wrong from the beginning. GDS should have been #1 and Northern #2 or #3 coming into day one. Northern will beat Grimsley like a drum (15+ point win).
I am not a GDS, Dudley or Northern supporter, fan, or do I have any kids or relatives that attend either. All I want is to see some good basketball played with high level skill and a commitment to the game. This tournament has not produced either. There are a few teams locally that can produce either the athletes (ie ORMA and Dudley) or the team play (ie Northern and GDS). Fortunately, these few schools bring in other teams from outside of Guilford Co that we can see periodically. This area clearly only has a handful of “good teams” and even less high D1 players. We have enough kids with the necessary size but not the requried D1 speed and skill set. Mr Frye at Northern is one of the few with the necessary skill set but he does not have the speed.
Note to parents with young kids – train your kids (boys and girls) early (say no later than age 7) to play the game correctly. Get them involved with a good local AAU club team with coaches and trainers that coach the basics first. If you cannot afford AAU, then purchase a video and train them yourself. Put the Phoenix(NCBA), Galaxy, Warriors, CP3, HP Stars, WS Steelers, Team Bond or Gaters basketball phone #s in your speed dail today. Do not allow your kids to be apart of future comments about “poor playing kids or teams”.
Final Boys Score Today:
Northern 58
Grimsley 42
Final Girls Score Today:
Page 52
Smith 44
I still think that Dudley and ORMA are the best teams in the area. ORMA and Dudlye 1 and 2 no particular order Northern then GDS then from there it goes down hill. I think that this years GDS team is given way too much credit. They have great coaching and they play together as a team, and that’s the only reason they are as good as they are. They are a middle of the pack team. I think Northern and Dudley could both possibly wins states this year. And ORMA has to play some very good teams this they have the toughest strength of schedule by far. But as some one posted above the talent has dropped of in this area and I think it is because of the Private School takeover. All of the great players are goin to GDS ORMA Westchester High Point Christian etc…. but Guilford County has two teams who be amongst the elite in the state. (Dudley ORMA) and two that could beat you on any given night(GDS, NG) and an example of that was the ORMA and GDS game, if they played today it would be a different game. And the rest of the area is subpar.
Funny how differently we all see things. I see Northern and GDS as the best two. Then I would put Dudley and ORMA in that order. And do not forget about Westchester. They are talented and have lost only once to a nice Wesleyan team. Grimsley is the big surprise.
Northern is talented and give big matchup problems. GDS is far and away the best prepared. Dudley is talented as is ORMA. But neither can match the preparation of the first two. Westchester is like a talented wild child and Grimsley is focused. It is all fun to see.
I agree with all of these comments but i also believe corbett and grimsley deserve some credit. Every year they get no love but they continue to win and although you may not like there style (because sometimes it is ugly) it gets the job done. Gourley and Williams are nice players who although are not the best in the area but still good players. I feel like this sgould be a close game and im glad someone besides gds is in the finals. theres no need to bash local high school kids there all out there giving there best not everyones a d1 player
Couldn’t agree more. All of these young men deserve credit and our su[pport. It is fun watching them.
Westchester??? Come on now HP Central shut down their “D1” prospect and so did Weslyan. Just because you can jump out of the gym does not make you a high D1 player. It’s your over all game. DEFENSE..too. I disagree about the players at the public schools comment. There are some diamonds in the rough. They may not make the highlight shows, have clips on you tube or make the message boards, but they are out there. Some of these diamonds are carrying their teams but may not be winning a ton of games. I believe we have SOME great coaches in the area, I just think some of these “diamonds” may be with a coach with a bit less experience at this level.
I guess we are forgetting that Westchester beat HP Central. There guys were tough and gave WCDS all they could handle but who won the game? The difference was the effort from CJ Plummer, Cole Morgenstern and Josh Burton. They wanted the game more and outhustled HP Central when the game was on the line. The game was a great game to watch and was a credit to all the players. Centrals top two guys are really good.
Building character:
I listened to the game last night only because I found out about it from one of the parents of Northerns coach Ryan Freeman. I was fortunate in that I grew up with them, graduated from HS with them and played basketball with Ryan’s father in HS. Both of his parents are wonderful people. His father won a state title while coaching HS in Connecticut and is still coaching and is highly respected there now.
Although I will be listening to this from Colorado I will of Course hope that Northern wins. But, it is the kids that are playing for Ryan that are the winners here. His parents inspired fine moral Character in to their son who is now passing along those traits to those young men that he is coaching.
Yes I will be rooting for Northern but more than that I will celebrating the coach of that team, his parents and the fine young man that they nurtured who is passing on his moral fiber to a team who went through difficult times in the past year. So to Denis and Diane up in Connecticut and to Ryan who I have never met I wish all of you the best tonight. In my mind all of you have already succeeded and all of you have already won.
Is that a “paid for by …” pronouncement or announcement? I am sure freddy Johnson and most other coaches could have someone come on here and tell everyone in Guilford county, and of course Colorado ( maybe even Idaho) how lucky we are to have such a wonderful human being with such great bloodlines in our midst. After that post, I will be pulling for Grimsley in a big way.
Had just congraulated the Whirlies and Coach Corbett on a job well done,and then I read these people and their comments. Shame, shame on you,but the “chickens came home and roosted” this tourney. For all the supposed to be experts,it fell in the Whirlies lap. Excuses for GDS losing and not being in the finals,ranking of area teams,all this stuff is a joke. If you would really want a competitive tournament,do it like the scholastic showcase that comes later this month,then we’ll see who really is good and who’s the pretender. Personally . . I don’t think the people that make up this tournament really want it to be anymore than it already is.
grimsley won the little 4…..end of discussion