SCA

[ChaoticFanatic]

My predictions based off what I know now…


1. Willow Springs
2. Liberty
3/4. Thayer/Mountain Grove
5-8. Everyone else

Thoughts? Nudge nudge, Tad

 

[TadQueasy]

Definitely is another year where the top 4 teams are far ahead of the bottom 4. But right now I have no idea how I think the top 4 will finish. I think you could give me any result with those top 4 and I would not really be surprised.

Thayer should be the clear favorite. But losing the SCA player the year to Link and another starter to West Plains means they are going to fall off some. But they still have the Bowers girl and she is really good. They have an incoming freshman that is really solid and if I recall their JV the last couple years has been really solid. So they may not fall off as much as some might expect.

Mtn Grove has the most athletic girl in the conference in Stenzel. They graduated a couple really good players. But they have athletic fast girls who can step in and keep playing the style Mallow likes to play. And I think they have an advantage of having the best/most experienced coach in the conference. If they can force teams to play to their pace and control the game they will be hard to handle on most nights for teams.

Willow has perhaps the best player in the conference and bring back several other contributors. They definitely impressed last year. They should benefit from the continuity of bringing so much back.

Liberty graduated a good one in Wells and a couple other good role players. They bring back 2 really solid players. The Chowning girl will be a handful for teams to deal with. She is quick and strong and can get to the basket pretty much any time she likes.

So it is going to be an interesting year to see how those 4 shake out. Gun to my head at making a preseason prediction I would say:

1. Thayer. They are top dog until someone can knock them off
2. Willow
3. Grove
4. Liberty

Of the rest of the teams I would expect Ava to be the best of the rest. I do not think they had a senior on team last year and made improvements as the year went on.

 

[ChaoticFanatic]

Definitely is another year where the top 4 teams are far ahead of the bottom 4. But right now I have no idea how I think the top 4 will finish. I think you could give me any result with those top 4 and I would not really be surprised.

Thayer should be the clear favorite. But losing the SCA player the year to Link and another starter to West Plains means they are going to fall off some. But they still have the Bowers girl and she is really good. They have an incoming freshman that is really solid and if I recall their JV the last couple years has been really solid. So they may not fall off as much as some might expect.

Mtn Grove has the most athletic girl in the conference in Stenzel. They graduated a couple really good players. But they have athletic fast girls who can step in and keep playing the style Mallow likes to play. And I think they have an advantage of having the best/most experienced coach in the conference. If they can force teams to play to their pace and control the game they will be hard to handle on most nights for teams.

Willow has perhaps the best player in the conference and bring back several other contributors. They definitely impressed last year. They should benefit from the continuity of bringing so much back.

Liberty graduated a good one in Wells and a couple other good role players. They bring back 2 really solid players. The Chowning girl will be a handful for teams to deal with. She is quick and strong and can get to the basket pretty much any time she likes.

So it is going to be an interesting year to see how those 4 shake out. Gun to my head at making a preseason prediction I would say:

1. Thayer. They are top dog until someone can knock them off
2. Willow
3. Grove
4. Liberty

Of the rest of the teams I would expect Ava to be the best of the rest. I do not think they had a senior on team last year and made improvements as the year went on.

Willow will have some obstacles to overcome with Atwell graduating and Jackson not playing this year,
But their 6th man was a 6 foot post player and the senior that I’m guessing will fill the other starting roll is athletic as crap and physical.

They’ll be starting 1 senior, 3 juniors and a soph with 2 six footers in the post and probably the best player in the SCA for this year.


Grove will definitely be athletic. They just have A LOT of athletes, I wouldn’t be shocked if Stenzel didn’t play this year to be honest. Their athleticism will keep them in games that a less athletic team would be getting blown out in.

Liberty is kind of a mystery to me. I guess it depends on how much the PG gets to the FT line. Seems like all she did last year against Willow was drive the lane and throw up ball and yell and fall down and go to the line. If she’s relying on that for 40% of her points like she did last year and that’s supposed to be the way they win games, I just don’t see it.

Thayer is even more of a mystery. Best player transferring to link, another starter to WP, and I’ve heard rumblings about another player that was supposed to be one of the better ones may not be playing this year(not confirmed, just rumors) so idk what to think.

 

[TadQueasy]

If Stenzel does not play then that completely changes the outlook for Grove and would bump them down to 4 for sure I think.

Liberty and Thayer are definitely mysteries at the moment. Chowning will be a little easier to contain because they do not have Wells on the floor to draw so much attention. If she figured out how to hit an outside shot consistently then they will be even more dangerous. If Bowers is still playing and I think she is, then Thayer will be really solid. I think you could make a case that she was their best player last year even tho the post girl got all the attention.

I can definitely see why you have Willow at the top right now. They seem to have the most consistent pieces returning and they will have the height advantage on just about every team they play.

 

[ChaoticFanatic]

After what I’ve seen so far this season, here are my updated predictions.

1. Mountain Grove
2. Thayer(probably)
3. Willow Springs
4. Liberty
5. Ava
6-8. Houston, Salem, Cabool in no particular order.

Unless it’s postponed, Willow and Liberty play tomorrow so we’ll find out about that for sure.

I was running back and forth between the Blue & Gold and the Grove Tournament over the holidays and I was very impressed with Grove. Mallow has got that press going very well for them and using their athleticism and being aggressive and forcing turnovers and making other teams make mistakes.

I still have not seen Thayer this year, but from what I’ve seen from Willow, I just can’t put them above Thayer until proven otherwise.
Willow has all the talent, athleticism and physical tools at their disposal and the best PG and possibly or probably the best pure ball player in the conference in Jones, but what they lack is consistent effort. They’re still young in the sense that it’s 4 juniors and 1 senior starting and the first 2-3 off the bench are juniors and a soph. But they just haven’t shown that killer mentality that you need to win a conference or district title yet.
Maybe that will change with the conference slate firing up now. We shall see. They’re 9-3 but honestly they should be 11-1. Got outplayed by two lesser teams in Twin Rivers in the Van Buren tournament championship and Mammoth Spring in the Battle for the Border championship.
Bunker beat them like a drum in the MG tournament though.
And Grove barely beat Bunker the next day.

Liberty is going to be a mystery, I’ve been told that Chowning broke her hand? If so, any chance they had at finishing top 3 in the conference is(probably) gone.

Hit me with your assessment thus far, Tad

 

[TadQueasy]

This has been the least I have paid attention to basketball around the area in a long time so not sure how much help I am going to be.

I still say it is Thayers to win. Thayer and Grove play tomorrow night as well as Liberty and Willow.

Now another tidbit to add to the mystery of these top 4 teams. Liberty knocked off Grove by 2 pts this past Thursday in their first SCA games. This time last week I would say Thayer and Grove are a tier ahead of Liberty and Willow. But now I have no idea. Tomorrow night should help clear up the muddy waters.

 

[ChaoticFanatic]

This has been the least I have paid attention to basketball around the area in a long time so not sure how much help I am going to be.

I still say it is Thayers to win. Thayer and Grove play tomorrow night as well as Liberty and Willow.

Now another tidbit to add to the mystery of these top 4 teams. Liberty knocked off Grove by 2 pts this past Thursday in their first SCA games. This time last week I would say Thayer and Grove are a tier ahead of Liberty and Willow. But now I have no idea. Tomorrow night should help clear up the muddy waters.

Wow. I believe the houston/Willow game got postponed this past week so I figured everyone else in the area would too. Didn’t hear about that. Is Chowning playing or no?

It’ll be interesting to see how Grove bounces back. After seeing Grove in that tournament, I’m pretty shocked they lost to liberty.

Knowing that, then it definitely is Thayers to lose.

 

[TadQueasy]

Wow. I believe the houston/Willow game got postponed this past week so I figured everyone else in the area would too. Didn’t hear about that. Is Chowning playing or no?

It’ll be interesting to see how Grove bounces back. After seeing Grove in that tournament, I’m pretty shocked they lost to liberty.

Knowing that, then it definitely is Thayers to lose.

I believe Chowning missed a couple games, but is back now. She led them in scoring against Grove. I did not watch the game, but I was told that Liberty played fairly well and Grove could not throw it in the ocean. And it was at Grove. Basketball is a funny game sometimes.