{"id":77698,"date":"2015-12-08T14:11:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T14:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=77698"},"modified":"2023-04-14T18:46:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T18:46:29","slug":"sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With scholastic basketball season upon us, I asked three of the most astute basketball minds in the RCN Sports Department, Gary Laubach, Tom Stoudt and John Leone, to join me in giving our thoughts on this winter\u2019s District XI high school basketball season in the RCN-TV viewing area.<\/p>\n<p>Check out our responses to some of the most intriguing storylines of the 2015-16 campaign:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a01. \u00a0Who\u2019s your top EPC team (after Parkland)?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Gary Laubach:<\/strong>\u00a0 Central and\/or Emmaus<br \/>\n<strong>Tom Stoudt:<\/strong>\u00a0 Emmaus<br \/>\n<strong>JL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Emmaus<br \/>\n<strong>ME:<\/strong>\u00a0 Allen.\u00a0 I was very impressed with them in summer league play, although they didn\u2019t win as many games as some thought.\u00a0 Still remember them challenging Parkland late last winter, and if they can put together performances like that on a nightly basis\u2026?<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. \u00a0Who\u2019s your pre-season Colonial League favorite?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>TS:<\/strong>\u00a0 Bangor<br \/>\n<strong>JL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Saucon Valley<br \/>\n<strong>ME:<\/strong> \u00a0Solehi.\u00a0\u00a0 Head Coach Ben Tannous has a great basketball mind and did a great job molding last year\u2019s team into contenders.\u00a0 I see no reason why they don\u2019t continue to improve and contend for a league title<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. \u00a0Top Three HS basketball players to watch this winter?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>GL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Sam Iorio (Parkland), David Kachelries (Emmaus), Zay Jennings (CCHS) , Aidan Ellwood (transferred from Northampton to Central Catholic)<br \/>\n<strong>TS:<\/strong>\u00a0 David Kachelries (Emmaus), Sam Iorio (Parkland),\u00a0 Taleek Williams (Allen)<br \/>\n<strong>JL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Sam Iorio (Parkland),\u00a0 Matt Kachelries (Emmaus),\u00a0 Michael Martino (Bangor<br \/>\n<strong>ME:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 DeVante Cross (Parkland), Talek Williams (Allen), Amir Griffin (Liberty).\u00a0 Cross and Williams are two of the most dynamic scoring threats in the area, and Griffin might just be the region\u2019s best defensive player and is really fun to watch<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. \u00a0Off the radar player to keep eye on?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>GL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Jahan Dotson (Nazareth), Chance Neilley (Liberty), Talek Williams (Allen)<br \/>\n<strong>TS:<\/strong>\u00a0 Tashon Roberts (Dieruff)<br \/>\n<strong>JL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Mitch Daniel (Notre Dame)<br \/>\n<strong>ME:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 Mitch Daniel.\u00a0 He\u2019s getting a late start due to his team\u2019s success on the football field, but he\u2019s always struck me as a player with great ability.\u00a0 The confidence he (and some of his teammates) built during the fall sports season will carry over for him and the Crusaders during the winter sports campaign<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. \u00a0A surprise team to keep an eye on this year?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>GL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Liberty<br \/>\n<strong>TS:<\/strong>\u00a0 Bethlehem Catholic<br \/>\n<strong>JL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Saucon or Bangor<br \/>\n<strong>ME:<\/strong> Catty.\u00a0 They suffered a disappointing season a year ago, and once again didn\u2019t get several of their players due to the football team\u2019s Turkey Day game, but Eric Snyder has worked his magic before.\u00a0 If a few players step up to join Kevin Bond and Shaquon Mason as scoring options, the Rough Riders could find themselves back in the district playoff picture.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be too long before we start talking about <strong>Pen Argyl<\/strong> basketball again.\u00a0 With Kyle Hutnik embarking on his third year in charge of the program, I believe we\u2019ll start to see some improvements from the Knights\u2014despite the fact that it will be a very competitive season once again in the Colonial League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. \u00a0One \u201cmust-see\u201d game this winter?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>GL:<\/strong> Parkland\/Imhotep \u00a0(January 24<sup>th<\/sup>)<br \/>\n<strong>TS:<\/strong>\u00a0 Parkland\/Emmaus (Jan. 5<sup>th<\/sup>)<br \/>\n<strong>JL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Freedom\/Easton (Dec. 8<sup>th<\/sup>) <em>*LIVE on RCN-TV!<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>ME:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Emmaus\/Nazareth (December 18<sup>th<\/sup>).\u00a0 Some of the best, most talented guards in the area will be squaring off against each other.\u00a0\u00a0 Two teams I really like and feel they could play with Parkland, so I am curious who\u2019ll win out in this early season showdown.<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019ll be most accurate with these preseason predictions? \u00a0Which teams, players and games do you think we should keep an eye on?\u00a0 Email us your thoughts to <a href=\"mailto:rcnsportstalk@rcn.com\">rcnsportstalk@rcn.com<\/a> and find out as the season unfolds on RCN-TV.\u00a0 Be sure to check out our broadcast schedule (LINK) for each week\u2019s best games and bookmark it on your browser so you can access it for changes throughout the season!<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll also jump deep into the high school hoops conversation in much more detail starting with the January editions of \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d (seen live, Thursdays, 7-8 pm on RCN-TV) and our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk\/\">podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 With scholastic basketball season upon us, I asked three of the most astute basketball minds in the RCN Sports Department, Gary Laubach, Tom Stoudt and John Leone, to join me in giving our thoughts on this winter\u2019s District XI high school basketball season in the RCN-TV viewing area. Check out our&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 With scholastic basketball season upon us, I asked three of the most astute basketball minds in the RCN Sports Department, Gary Laubach, Tom Stoudt and John Leone, to join me in giving our thoughts on this winter\u2019s District XI high school basketball season in the RCN-TV viewing area. Check out our...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-08T14:11:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-14T18:46:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"headline\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-08T14:11:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-14T18:46:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":682,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Sports\",\"The SportsTalk Shop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/\",\"name\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-08T14:11:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-14T18:46:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\",\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Michael\"},\"description\":\"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\\\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/author\\\/rcntvchris\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 - ATVN","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 - ATVN","og_description":"HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 With scholastic basketball season upon us, I asked three of the most astute basketball minds in the RCN Sports Department, Gary Laubach, Tom Stoudt and John Leone, to join me in giving our thoughts on this winter\u2019s District XI high school basketball season in the RCN-TV viewing area. Check out our...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/","og_site_name":"ATVN","article_published_time":"2015-12-08T14:11:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-14T18:46:29+00:00","author":"Chris Michael","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Michael","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris Michael","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a"},"headline":"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16","datePublished":"2015-12-08T14:11:54+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-14T18:46:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/"},"wordCount":682,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Featured","Sports","The SportsTalk Shop"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/","name":"The SportsTalk Shop: HS Basketball Preview: 2015-16 - ATVN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-12-08T14:11:54+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-14T18:46:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-hs-basketball-preview-2015-16\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/","name":"ATVN","description":"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a","name":"Chris Michael","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","url":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","contentUrl":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","caption":"Chris Michael"},"description":"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/author\/rcntvchris\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77702,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77698\/revisions\/77702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}