EBAL Grades & Awards at halfway Point

[NorCalScout]

This has been a very interesting year with Dublin & Dougherty Valley joining the league and some thought this league might be to much for both squads and how wrong could they be. Dublin has been the most impressive team in this league, we all knew or thought De La Salle was going to be good but I myself had no idea Dublin was going to be right there with them and I can't wait for the showdown in the finals. San Ramon might be my surprise team of this league, they had a down year last year and I didn't see much hope for a rebound but they just fight, battle and have stayed together so much that they are in 2nd place in a tough northern division. Amador and Foothill are two teams I just can't figure out, Amador should be the 2nd or 3rd best team in the EBAL but they are underachieving to say the least and Foothill isn't far behind them. Dougherty Valley is another team that I have been impressed with, after disappointing losses to Monte Vista & San Ramon and a very close loss to De La Salle, they have found there rhythm and have been very tough defensively. Monte Vista is mess right now and I don't see things changing anytime soon. Injuries, poor play and missing someone who can consistently knock down an outside shot has been there recipe for disaster. Cal high was struggling but has since found themselves scoring when the outside shots are dropping but defensively, they are one of the worst in the league. Granada is talented but poorly coached and Livermore is well coached with very little talent and this is why they are at the bottom.

Awards: Keep in mind, this is thru the halfway point, not predicting the final outcome.

MVP: Falls & Manansala, both have been vital to there teams successes. Falls is hands down the best player offensively in this league and Manansala is solid offensively and a lock down defender in my eyes.

Coach of the Year: San Ramon Boteen & Dublin: Costello I do give a ton of credit to Argenal at De La Salle but with his team returning and talent, I give the nod to the other two.

Defensive Player of the Year: Udenyi & Manansala. Udenyi on the interior and Manansala all over the floor. Both are having great years but since Manansala plays almost the entire game, he has to be mentioned.

Freshmen of the Year: Beasley, he hasn't played a league game but I was lucky enough to see him play before he got hurt and he is going to be something special.

Best 6th Man: San Ramon, by far they are the best. Home games is crazy and this group travels on the road better then anyone team in the bay area. Dublin & Dougherty Valley have great home 6th Man but when they are on the road, they are a no show but when San Ramon goes on the road, they outnumber even the home teams 6th Man.

Gym: Dublin, hands down end of discussion.

I am looking forward to a thrilling finish in this league. Does Dougherty Valley have enough to take over 2nd in the North from San Ramon? Will Amador hold on to 2nd in the South? Do we get to see a rematch of Dublin & De La Salle in the league finals and if so, where will this game be held at? Does best record host or a neutral site?

De La Salle A+ Very well coached and well balanced at both ends.
Dublin A Same as above but just a little behind them defensively.
San Ramon A- Impressive, Boteen is doing a fantastic job with very little talent.
Dougherty Valley B+ Hansen has his team buying in and locking things down defensively.
Amador B Talented but zero floor leaders and to much one on one and shooting the 3 ball.
Foothill B- They are just good enough to almost beat anyone or lose to anyone.
Monte Vista C Lack of guard play and consistent outside shooter is hurting this team.
Cal C- They are exciting to watch if you don't like defense.
Granada D+ They rely to much on two players and no one knows there role.
Livermore D Team plays hard and the coach coaches even harder but very little to work with.

 

[observer22]

"Do we get to see a rematch of Dublin & De La Salle in the league finals and if so, where will this game be held at? Does best record host or a neutral site?"


Mitch Stephens of the Chronicle wrote, and I have heard separately that the EBAL finals are slated for Dublin HS. As you stated, the best gym hands down end of discussion. May not be fair to DLS if they meet in the finals, but they got the first and only regular season meeting at their gym and Beasley was out.

 

[NorCalScout]

"Do we get to see a rematch of Dublin & De La Salle in the league finals and if so, where will this game be held at? Does best record host or a neutral site?"


Mitch Stephens of the Chronicle wrote, and I have heard separately that the EBAL finals are slated for Dublin HS. As you stated, the best gym hands down end of discussion. May not be fair to DLS if they meet in the finals, but they got the first and only regular season meeting at their gym and Beasley was out.

Thanks Oberver22, I can always count on you for accurate information. Not fair unless the league is rotating this and they just so happened to pull Dublin's name out of the hat.

 

[NateTheGreatToo]

Agree with most of NorCalScout’s post.


DLS & Dublin are clearly the top teams…by far. AV, DV, SRV, MV, & Foothill are a distant 3-7. Granada & Cal are 8/9 and Livermore rounds it out.


MVP has to be Falls. He’s the best player on the floor. Manasala is good but not in his league. Now, Tim does have a lot more weapons at his disposal. However, if the league has to give the MVP to the top team, that means DLS would get it. Who then? Orr, O’dea, or Udenyi? The fact that you can mention 3 players from DLS tells you they are better. Dublin gets Beasley back and now you have Tim, Beasley, Houston, Jackson, Nielsen, and 3 really good bench guys.


Defensive player – yet to see a “Great” defensive player in the league. Orr does a solid job. Udenyi just roams the paint. In the game I saw Manasala play, he was guarding the other team’s 3rd best player.

Frosh Player – yes, Beasley is good, saw him vs Concord but he hasn’t played in EBAL. No Frosh of the Year


SRV / Botteen has been very impressive. They are the surprise of the year. Obviously, MV is the opposite of that. Also expected Amador, with their core group coming back to be much better. They have size, can shoot it, and Williams is special. DV has also been solid for what they put on the floor. They compete hard every night.



As for predictions:

North

DLS finishes strong 13-0 and play for the League Championship

DV – starting to play well, look for them to continue that and go 8-5 in league

MV – wow! Never saw this coming but with injuries comes lack of scoring. 7-6

SRV – watch out for Granada this week. Senior led, look for them to finish 6-7

Cal – seem to be back on track but lack the talent and finish 3-10


South

Dublin – cruises to the finish line going 12-1

AV – injuries / sickness and a benching caused them 3 losses in a row to the North. They will rebound and finish 7-6 (lose to DLS & Dublin)

Foothill – very inconsistent (blow out MV and then lay an egg vs DLS). 6-7

Granada – starting to think about Spring break: They will get SRV and Livermore to finish 4-10

Livermore – already thinking about the next season: 0-13

 

[dr_mike]

how many playoff qualifiers do you see out of the EBAL? granada and cal are 9-12 with games vs dublin (ghs) or DLS (cal), so they'd have to win their other 4 to qualify (unlikely). monte vista and SRV are 10-11, with likely losses to DLS on tap....they have to go 3-1 in their others. foothill, amador and dougherty are 11-10, so 2-2 is good enough. seems like 2 or 3 (beside DLS and Dublin) will sneak in with 13-13, maybe a 14-12 out of that last grouping?

 

[observer22]

EBAL Frosh: SRV has a 6'5" frosh on varsity Pat Deely, who doesn't start, but looks solid and hit a key 3 pointer late to help beat Cal 53-52 in their first meeting. He may not be frosh of the year either, but definitely one to watch in the coming years.

I know Dublin has another frosh guard on varsity in Jaden Saunders, and Cal also has a frosh in 6'6" Jalen Pierce, but they don't get a lot of playing time either. I'm not sure of there are any more out there, but those are all names we will see for the next few seasons in addition to Beasley.

 

[Gettothepaint]

MVP does not have to come from league champion.
DLS plays well as a team. However, no one player on that team is even close to the league MVP.
It would be a real shame if it did not go to Falls.
He is the only legitimate D1 player in the league.

 

[observer22]

how many playoff qualifiers do you see out of the EBAL? granada and cal are 9-12 with games vs dublin (ghs) or DLS (cal), so they'd have to win their other 4 to qualify (unlikely). monte vista and SRV are 10-11, with likely losses to DLS on tap....they have to go 3-1 in their others. foothill, amador and dougherty are 11-10, so 2-2 is good enough. seems like 2 or 3 (beside DLS and Dublin) will sneak in with 13-13, maybe a 14-12 out of that last grouping?

Based on Nate's predictions above, 6 EBAL teams would qualify for the NCS playoffs, by either being at or above .500 in league play or overall. 7 have reasonably good chances if they can avoid injuries, while Cal, Granada and Livermore will be on the outside.

DLS and Dublin are locks and would still qualify even if they lost the rest of their games.

DV, Foothill and AV need to win just 2 more of the final 5 games to qualify. All 3 would finish at 13-13 overall with DV 7-6 in league, AV 6-7 and Foothill 5-8.

MV must win at least 3 of their final 5 to finish 13-13 overall, and would be 7-6 in league if they take 4 of 5 as Nate forecasts.

SRV can also qualify by winning just 2 of their last 5 to finish 7-6 in EBAL play. If they lose to Granada tomorrow night, they would have to win 2 of 4 vs. Cal, DLS, DV & MV. They beat Cal, DV and MV the first time around, so they would still have a decent chance. Nate has DLS, DV and MV beating them in addition to Granada, which would keep them out.

Cal and Granada would have to win 4 out of 5, both of which are next to impossible.

Livermore is D2, so in theory they could sneak in by just going .500 against D2 opponents. But if they lose out as expected they would be 4-22 overall and even if they were to somehow finish at .500 vs. D2 foes it would be a farce for them to advance with that woeful record.

 

[NateTheGreatToo]

MVP does not have to come from league champion.
DLS plays well as a team. However, no one player on that team is even close to the league MVP.
It would be a real shame if it did not go to Falls.
He is the only legitimate D1 player in the league.

Gettothepaint, I couldn't agree more! But if you remember two years ago Stef Mitu was the clear cut MVP of the EBAL, but had to share the MVP Title with Ratinho from DLS due to these two teams tying for the EBAL Championship - (Even after MV Beat DLS 2x that year). Falls might get screwed based on league voting! It's a shame.

 

[bones40]

Great post scout I wanted to add one thing this league may very well boast
the claim as the deepest and best in terms of quality of coaches from top
tom to bottom jones,botteen,costello,hansen, sax,and now argenal are some
damn good coaches to play for.While the league may be a bit down this year
the quality of coaches is pretty damn high in the EBAL.

 

[NorCalScout]

Bones, you are correct, the league is loaded with quality coaches and depends on how you look at coaching to determine who has the advantage.

Boteen & Hansen, both lack talented players, no kid on either team will play at the next level with the exception of maybe JC ball, and still that's pretty hard to do around here. Hansen has done more with less then just about anyone I know over the past decade or so and still his teams compete for a NCS spot just about every year. Boteen might have the 6th or 7th most talented team in this league yet he will finish in the top 3 or 4, that says a lot about him and his staff and is developing nice young players

Jones & Costello, both are two of my favorite coaches around and both coach kids the right way. Both over the years have been blessed with great talent, no doubt about that but as must coaches will tell you, the more talent you have, the harder coaching, molding and having them all buy into the team concepts, well that's where these two, especially Costello excel in.

Sax, I like him as a coach and a person and has had a very up and down year but has been sending his players a message, you will do it our way or you won't be part of this team. He demands a lot but in return, a proven track record of winning and competing every year and at a very high level. Things will get better in Don country, really soon I might add.

Rankings based on this year only.

Boteen
Costello
Hansen
Argenal- 1st year is hard to grade, should be higher!
Sax
Jones
Khoo
Petersdorf
Wallis
Gomes

 

[dr_mike]

Based on Nate's predictions above, 6 EBAL teams would qualify for the NCS playoffs, by either being at or above .500 in league play or overall. 7 have reasonably good chances if they can avoid injuries, while Cal, Granada and Livermore will be on the outside.

.......

i guess the number who actually get in might not be the same as the number who qualify. i was looking at MaxPreps and there are currently 10 teams with 13+ wins, 3 more at 12, then a logjam (including the EBAL teams) with 11. seems like a good chance that more than 16 teams will have 13+ wins, so some qualifiers will be on the outside looking in. in the 'old' days when my kids were playing (early/mid 2000's), qualifying required winning records (14-12).....i'm starting to miss those days!

 

[observer22]

Good point Dr. It looks like 5 teams in the BVAL are locks (all but Pitt), plus Logan, Mt. Eden, San Leandro, CVC, Berkeley, College Park, El Cerrito and Arroyo will all also qualify in D1 this year.

That is 13, and if 7 EBAL teams qualify, it means 4 teams who qualify will be left out to get the field down to 16. How all these teams finish the last 5 games down the stretch will determine their playoff destinies.

 

[dr_mike]

if i were on the committee and i was going to leave out 2-4 to get down to 16, i'd leave out 4-6 and get down to 14 so the top two seeds get a bye. but they'll probably stick with 16 so they don't have two le$$ games.

 

[bones40]

The time has come for NCS to do what CCS has done and do a open division for playoffs.
That way it would be a lot clearer who should be selected for norcal open and still
keep intact the losers of ncs open division brackets goes back into the alloted division for norcal
playoffs giving us a better chance to compete for a state title in each division.

 

[togos]

EBAL has top 2 teams in DUBLIN and DELA and everyone else can beat each other on any night.

 

[observer22]

EBAL Games tonight 1-31:

DLS at MV - DLS by 10. Sparty on a roll. MV should be getting some of their players back in the lineup soon.

Dublin at Foothill - Dublin by 17. Too much offense from the Gaels.

DV at Cal - DV by 13. Grizz stays close early, but Cats pull away in 2nd half.

AV at Livermore - AV by 21. Everyone gets to play.

SRV at Granada - For some reason MaxPreps has this game listed as being played at 3:00 AM on 2-1 rather than 7:00 tonight. I'm guessing it is going to be played tonight, and it should be the game of the night. The Mats will be hungry for a win and playing at home, while SRV needs a couple of more wins to qualify for the playoffs.
I see SRV winning by 4.

 

[NorCalScout]

EBAL Games tonight 1-31:

DLS at MV - DLS by 10. Sparty on a roll. MV should be getting some of their players back in the lineup soon.

Dublin at Foothill - Dublin by 17. Too much offense from the Gaels.

DV at Cal - DV by 13. Grizz stays close early, but Cats pull away in 2nd half.

AV at Livermore - AV by 21. Everyone gets to play.

SRV at Granada - For some reason MaxPreps has this game listed as being played at 3:00 AM on 2-1 rather than 7:00 tonight. I'm guessing it is going to be played tonight, and it should be the game of the night. The Mats will be hungry for a win and playing at home, while SRV needs a couple of more wins to qualify for the playoffs.
I see SRV winning by 4.

Observer:

DLS wins on OT or super close game in regulation.
Dublin by 22, get back on track again.
DV by less then 10, big rivalry.
AV in a blowout if everyone is healthy.
San Ramon by 12

 

[concrete17]

DLS-MV @ the half. 23-15 Spartans

After 3rd qtr. 30-23 DLS

Mustangs fighting back, with 5 minutes left in this game, MV pulls within 3. 32-29 De La

Just under 120 seconds remaining, Spartans squeeze lead to 36-29.

Game over 42-33 Spartans. Time to put Mr Ed to bed of course, of course.

 

[observer22]

Foothill beat Dublin 58-48 per MaxPreps. Can that be right? Dublin was up 34-21 at half and stopped scoring.

Dublin 19 15 7 7 48
Foothill 13 8 15 22 58

 

[observer22]

AV beat Livermore 68-54.

Cal stuns DV 69-67 on a put back at the buzzer.

No score yet for SRV-Granada. Maybe it will be played at 3:00 AM as listed on MaxPreps?

 

[dr_mike]

AV beat Livermore 68-54.

Cal stuns DV 69-67 on a put back at the buzzer.

No score yet for SRV-Granada. Maybe it will be played at 3:00 AM as listed on MaxPreps?

Granada beat SRV in OT, something like 52-46. very sloppy game. last few minutes of regulation the teams traded turnovers, 5-second inbound violations, shot clock violations......Granada pulled away in OT, when SRV couldn't score.

 

[concrete17]

No score yet for SRV-Granada. Maybe it will be played at 3:00 AM as listed on MaxPreps?

That was intended for all the Prep basketball fans in the U.K. who follow the EBAL teams.

 

[observer22]

Foothill may have just punched their NCS ticket with that huge upset over Dublin last night. With games vs Cal, Granada, AV and Livermore still remaining they should not have any trouble qualifying, and no team on the bubble will have a bigger win than beating Dublin.

AV, even with their win last night vs Livermore still has a tough road, especially if their injury issues remain. They face a Granada team that just upset SRV, Dublin, DLS, and then their rival Foothill who just knocked off Dublin.

DV & SRV didn't do themselves any favors losing in barn burners last night. Both need 2 more wins to qualify and both still face DLS and MV. DV still faces Dublin too, while SRV faces Cal who they only beat by 1 the first time around. The DV-SRV game at SRV next Tuesday could determine which team gets the NCS bid and who stays home.

 

[observer22]

Current EBAL Standings

North
DLS 9-0
SRV 5-4
DV 5-4
Cal 4-5
MV 3-6

South
Dublin 7-2
AV 5-4
Foothill 4-5
Granada 3-6
Livermore 0-9

 

[HoopAnalyst23]

With EBAL season finished, how would you determine the results

MVP, Coach the Year, Defensive Player of the year, 1st team, 2nd team, best freshman, best 6th man, best gym, etc?

 

[ncs_hewson]

With the game boxscores being hard to find these days, it is really tough to do enough homework to accurately name first and second team without going to a slew of different games and matchups. Falls is the best player that I have seen this year. An All Dublin-DLS first team wouldn't be that far off.