{"id":77951,"date":"2016-02-15T17:41:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T17:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=77951"},"modified":"2023-02-17T23:23:47","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T23:23:47","slug":"sportstalk-shop-district-xi-basketball-playoff-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-district-xi-basketball-playoff-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  District XI Basketball Playoff Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UUxxDL1l-bI\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Last week, we discussed a number of teams in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference or Colonial League post-season races\u2014nearly all of them will look to be major players in the District XI tournament, which starts this week.\u00a0 Today here at \u201cThe Shop,\u201d we take a look at a few more teams that begin their district championship quests over the next few days.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>\u201cGive Me Liberty\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nDon\u2019t let a first-round loss in the EPC playoffs fool you.\u00a0 Chad Landis always seems to find a way to get his team playing deep into the district playoffs\u2014and usually well enough to get at least one of the top-3 district seeds, which would give the Hurricanes a trip to states.<\/p>\n<p>Liberty lost to a very talented Allen team last week.\u00a0 On paper, however, I think Liberty could play with almost anyone in their bracket.\u00a0 They have a tremendous talent on the inside in Cam Hoffman and exciting guard play with added depth now that Chance Neilly has returned and gotten some game action under his belt. They\u2019ll open up the tournament by facing Nazareth on Wednesday (live, RCN4 at 7pm).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2UMLP4biavI\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jxMI3dKG32U\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>\u201c\u2026or Fly Like An Eagle\u201d<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nNazareth Head Coach Joe Arndt has to be on a short list of underrated basketball coaches in the region.\u00a0 Following his great run in the post-season last year (more on that later), he has done a great job grooming young talents Jahan Dotson and Kevin Wagner to become one of the strongest 1-2 underclassmen punches among EPC teams.\u00a0 Nick Youngkin has added scoring punch from different spots on the floor and probably deserves more attention that he\u2019s received this season.\u00a0 The key will be containing the likes of Hoffman, Andrew Hudak and Caleb Martinez on the inside and for Nazareth to get its share of rebounds.\u00a0 More inside scoring could go along way for Blue Eagles\u2014the loser of this ball game sees their season come to an end.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gutZZVszwa8\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>The 3A Race Should be Fun To Watch<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nCentral Catholic has an incredibly talented team, filled with underclassmen and amazing potential.\u00a0 But when you have a younger group of players, there\u2019s always an element&#8211;however slight\u2014of ambiguity in reading how they will play together in the post-season.\u00a0 They lost to a very solid Pocono Mountain West team in the first round of the league playoffs and, unlike previous years, I don\u2019t think the Vikings are your \u2018stone-cold locks\u2019 to win the district title.\u00a0 Salisbury, Notre Dame and Saucon Valley are all good, well-balanced teams who can play with Central Catholic.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NO1ow4QqhSY\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bethlehem Catholic also showed a tremendous amount of poise in hanging with the area\u2019s best team, Parkland, in their EPC first-round match-up and have scored some impressive wins during the regular season.\u00a0 Ray Barbosa has done a great job in his first year with the Golden Hawks and I don\u2019t think a lengthy run in districts should be seen as a shocker.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7NVj3Ietg7I\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Also, waiting \u201cin the wings\u201d is a Pottsville team that just completed a perfect 22-0 regular season.\u00a0 The Tide will face the winner of Tuesday\u2019s match-up between Saucon Valley\/Lehighton (live, RCN4 at 7pm).\u00a0 There will be very few \u201ceasy\u201d games in the District XI 3A Classification this time around, and I doubt very many people could clearly predict just how this bracket will shake out this winter.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>This Year\u2019s Cinderella?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nLast year it was Nazareth\u2019s boys team that surprised people with a lengthy and exciting run through the District XI tournament\u2014winning a few more games than many expected.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QebvxK1A5Qw\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Who will be this year\u2019s dark horse squad to last the longest? Stroudsburg is always an underrated team that seems to find a way to advance deep in the playoffs\u2014despite the fact local experts rarely predict a successful post-season run for the Mountaineers.\u00a0 If they can get by Freedom on Wednesday, they have as good a shot against Pocono Mountain West, then would face the winner of the Bangor vs. Solehi\/Whitehall matchup, so another post-season run by the Mounties certainly looks like it has potential.<\/p>\n<p>Also, there\u2019s a number of talented girls basketball individuals and teams to keep an eye on that don\u2019t get the hype they deserve.\u00a0 Easton is coming off an impressive performance in its EPC Championship victory and are led by standout stars like Gabby Bloshuk, Leanna Deegan, Olivia George and Shelby Stocker.<\/p>\n<p>However, this might be one of the most competitive District XI girls playoff fields we\u2019ve seen in some time.\u00a0 Parkland features Emily Piston, Rachel Medlar, Nadine Ewald and Sarah Stagaard.\u00a0 Among the other top EPC talents include Nazareth&#8217;s Tessa Brugler, Northampton&#8217;s Aja Blount and Victoria Keenan.\u00a0 Colonial League players to watch include Southern Lehigh&#8217;s Amanda Mobley, Olivia Snyder and Ellie Cassel (all underclassmen, by the way), Palisades\u2019 Karlee Krchnavi, Northwestern&#8217;s Erika Thomas and Bangor&#8217;s Marissa Fernandez-Tierney.\u00a0 We talked about a number of these teams and players in last week\u2019s \u201cSportsTalk\u201d podcast (listen here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk\/\">rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t forget, we\u2019ll be discussing many more teams, previewing match-ups and making District XI playoff predictions on Thursday\u2019s \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show, live from 7-8pm on RCN-TV with the show\u2019s podcast available on Friday.\u00a0 Guests include RCN Basketball Analyst Tom Stoudt along with Toomey Anderson and Andre Williams from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lvbasketballrankings.com\/\">LVBasketballRankings.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Email your high schools opinions and questions to <a href=\"mailto:rcnsportstalk@rcn.com\">rcnsportstalk@rcn.com<\/a> and our panel will read and respond to your comments live on the air!<\/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>Last week, we discussed a number of teams in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference or Colonial League post-season races\u2014nearly all of them will look to be major players in the District XI tournament, which starts this week.\u00a0 Today here at \u201cThe Shop,\u201d we take a look at a few more teams that begin their district championship&#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":[44,51,88,162,314,362,382,385,401,432,618,473,480],"class_list":["post-77951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-basketball","tag-bethlehem-catholic","tag-central-catholic","tag-district-xi-basketball","tag-liberty","tag-nazareth","tag-northampton","tag-notre-dame","tag-parkland","tag-pocono-mountain-west","tag-pottsville","tag-salisbury","tag-saucon-valley"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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