By Scott Stump – Senior Editor
Just some quick stuff on the upcoming Shore Conference Tournaments on both sides before my full previews/predictions come out. I’ll have Shore Reports up tomorrow for boys and girls with all of the usual stuff and I am working on a much bigger thing for the SCT for both sides that will come out on Wednesday or maybe earlier if I can get it done in time. I also will have pick ’em contests up for the boys and girls sides and am working on a prize (other than trash-talking rights and the envy of your peers) for the winner.
I’ll tell you one other thing. This schedule is tough. I really wish they would split the boys and girls into different days so that we could give everyone their due without having to choose because we can’t get to everything. Meanwhile, the wrestling state team tournament is also going on during Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, so it’s all hands on deck all over the place. We’ll do our very best, and if there’s any students, fans or coaches (other than the ones who regularly help us already) out there interested in providing information from your team’s SCT games so that everyone can get some coverage, e-mail me at [email protected]. Even if it’s just photos or a quick recap, our goal is to give everyone their due during this fun time of the season.
GIRLS
I didn’t sit in this meeting because I was in the boys SCT seeding meeting thinking there might be more intrigue than there turned out to be, but I am still mystified as to the 5-6-7 seeding. The committee might look like geniuses if it all stands up, but I am still wondering how St. Rose got the No. 5 seed without any wins over any other Top 10 teams, although they did have two good nonconference wins. Meanwhile, Raritan, which beat the Rumson team that just recently knocked off the Purple Roses, is behind Howell, which it beat head-to-head, and St. Rose. That doesn’t seem to make sense to me – Raritan should be No. 5. I can maybe see the Howell seed ahead of Raritan because the Rebels are the only team to defeat No. 2 Colts Neck this season, but I don’t see the logic behind St. Rose at No. 5 other than on sheer opinion.
I had a feeling Red Bank Catholic’s upset loss to Neptune would help Neptune more than it hurt RBC, and that turned out to be the case as the defending champions stayed at No. 4, which is where they were projected before the loss to the Scarlet Fliers, who jumped up to No. 9 thanks to that win.
BOYS
This meeting went surprisingly smoothly given all the parity in the Shore this season. After all the talk about the battle for the No. 2 seed after Monsignor Donovan’s double-overtime loss to Central, the Griffins got seeded No. 2 and it wasn’t even close. I agree with that decision, as that is where I would have kept them despite the loss to Central.
The way the meetings work is that each divisional representative talks about the teams from his division that qualified – what their best wins are, what their good/bad losses are, etc. Then everybody writes down how they would seed the tournament from 1 to 20 (in this season’s case) and those seedings are averaged out and written on a board. Delegates can then challenge certain seeds if they think a team is being lowballed, and then a vote is taken on whether or not to make a change. The only challenge that was brought up was Rumson-FH jumping Freehold for the 14th seed on the basis of a head-to-head win over the Colonials, but the vote was split and it did not change. Had it changed, the Bulldogs would have been playing Red Bank Catholic for the third time this season when they met in Wednesday’s SCT preliminary round. Instead, they will face Keyport.
The only teams I thought maybe got a little slighted were Keyport at No. 18 and Central at No. 14. The Golden Eagles have two wins over No. 2 Monsignor Donovan, but their losses to non-SCT qualifiers like Lakewood (twice), Barnegat and Manchester came back to haunt them. St. Rose and Keyport split, but the Purple Roses got the No. 11 seed, mainly I would think on the strength of a win over Central because they didn’t have any other major wins.
Still, I thought the committee did a good job on this and these are just minor quibbles than anyone could argue about for eons. If you don’t like your seed, just win and prove everyone wrong.
As far as potential juicy match-ups and a bunch of other stuff, that will all be in the prediction/preview section, and I’ll have more and more as we advance through the tournament.
E-mail: [email protected]
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