Newark and the upset?
By Steve R. Waterhouse
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 11:30 pm in General, basketball.
Can the Cougars pull it off?
It’s going to be interesting. I will say, when people ask me what’s Newark all about, I don’t have a quick answer for them. But when you see most games this year, you look up at the score and they’re winning … sometimes by 20. The Cougs play fantastic with their backs against the wall.
Chris Jones has stepped up his play to the type of Div. 1-player he is (Fresno State). Farris can hit the monster shots. Bobby McCall has been tremendous off the bench. Rohala Bayanzai with the quickness.
You simply can’t count out Newark.
On a side note, how about this NorCal Div. 1 semifinal. Two OAL teams and two NCS teams. All about the East Bay (this side of the hill) in boys hoops this year!
And if I counted it right, seven NCS teams (two OAL) in this year’s boys NorCal semifinals (out of 20 teams).
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
March 6th, 2008 at 9:20 am
My quick answer as the guy who has seen more than a third of Mack’s games is no. I think right now, Mack is playing as good as they have all year and I don’t see much getting in their way. The only time I saw Newark was at the MLK against Skyline and obviously that was not during their peak. Still, I didn’t see any glimpses of a team that can take Mack. I wouldn’t completely rule it out though. We’ll just see tonight.
As for this side note, yeah big ups to the East Bay hoops. In the Trib area alone, there are six teams still alive (Boys: Mack, Oakland, St. Mary’s, Kennedy; Girls: Berkeley, Castlemont). Every OAL team that made NorCals one at least one game (the Skyline girls won the play-in game, then lost to Berkeley). Sure, there’s some teams in Sac that can play, and you can’t mess with the St. Mary’s-Stockton girls, but the level of play in the East Bay is looking pretty darn good.