Hats Off To The Pride

[HSWIZARD73]

Huge congrats to Salesian on being able to battle it out thru the last week of the season. I follow maxpreps on Facebook and a guy made a comment about yeah our schools in Texas are legit cause unlike the privates we don’t recruit.

My response was the best team in Northern California is playing right now for the state title in our highest division and they have a kid going to Hawaii and another looking at D2 or D3. What amazing recruiting they’re doing.

Maybe Salesian should fire the recruiter.

Anyways my affiliation with Salesian is simple. My sons future school although I ain’t happy they recruited their own alum and took my sons principal. Makes sense, he won a state title there.

On that note hope they continue to build. They have a fantastic coach. Talk about a guy who gets every bit of the potential out of every athlete. Someone said Mellis is a good coach, what makes Salesian good is the athleticism. Sorry it starts with Mellis. And if my son was a basketball player which he is not, I would rather see him learning to play the game as it could be the difference between big conference D1 and small. Lot to learn to take to the next level versus rolling the balls out.

Congrats to Harvard Westlake. I am sure they walked away knowing it was a battle. Lowest scoring game for Harvard this season. That’s great coaching and kids giving their all.

 

[larry legend33]

@HSWIZARD73 , one of the most memorable finals I've been too over the last 30+ years. Salesian did everything we thought they needed to do in order to have a chance to win this one.

- Keep the game in the 40's-50's. It was in mid 40's until the last 2 min. Nobody thought that was possible.
- Contain Perry. They held him 17 below his playoff average and it wasn't until the later part of 4th that he got going.
-Make it a grind. The "pride" just gets after you. I mean nothing easy all night..
-Pride made it very hard on the #4 who is arguably the most talented kid out there. I spoke to Illinois coach who was there watching him and the kid can really do a lot. He had a rough night but you could see the talent oozing.

The 2 key plays in my mind that really hurt Salesian was the 5 second call on out of bounds play and a turnover on an out of bounds both in 2nd half and both under HW basket. Both cases the pride had huge momentum and HW just stole it.

I thought the refs missed a couple and 1 for the pride also on layups where Salesian kid got smashed at end. Overall it was a tough game to officiate and those guys didn't decide the outcome. Very familiar faces as I'm pretty sure they are either NCS/SJS crew.

It was fun seeing such a high energy game. HW has a heck of a team and in the end Trent Perry was the key. He made a tough 17ft jumper with a kid all over him to take the lead and it was over after that. Also, #2 Robert Hinson who I think is headed to Harvard was a problem in 1st. He doesn't shoot 80% from the field and Pride have lead. That kid is a player. Big Shot Bob kid a great 4th option on this team. Can you imagine that ?

Fun season..... BTW, Mitty WTH? Please show up in these games. Its getting emberrassing.

 

[vukovich]

Huge congrats to Salesian on being able to battle it out thru the last week of the season. I follow maxpreps on Facebook and a guy made a comment about yeah our schools in Texas are legit cause unlike the privates we don’t recruit.

My response was the best team in Northern California is playing right now for the state title in our highest division and they have a kid going to Hawaii and another looking at D2 or D3. What amazing recruiting they’re doing.

Maybe Salesian should fire the recruiter.

Anyways my affiliation with Salesian is simple. My sons future school although I ain’t happy they recruited their own alum and took my sons principal. Makes sense, he won a state title there.

On that note hope they continue to build. They have a fantastic coach. Talk about a guy who gets every bit of the potential out of every athlete. Someone said Mellis is a good coach, what makes Salesian good is the athleticism. Sorry it starts with Mellis. And if my son was a basketball player which he is not, I would rather see him learning to play the game as it could be the difference between big conference D1 and small. Lot to learn to take to the next level versus rolling the balls out.

Congrats to Harvard Westlake. I am sure they walked away knowing it was a battle. Lowest scoring game for Harvard this season. That’s great coaching and kids giving their all.

What a great season for Salesian. They lose to the d1 state champion by 2 and take HW to the last minute. Very well coached, unselfish team that plays the right way. It’s refreshing to see!

 

[larry legend33]

What a great season for Salesian. They lose to the d1 state champion by 2 and take HW to the last minute. Very well coached, unselfish team that plays the right way. It’s refreshing to see!

Couldn't agree more @vukovich. I think i heard the craziest stat which I love. They didn't have a player average >than 10ppg. I'm not suprised. It was really fun meeting salesian fans and old ballers. What a great program and fan base.

 

[nickdakoolkat04]

This was a great high level game. I agree that those two turnovers on inbounds plays really hurt. Normally they end up with a great look on inbounds plays but Harvard played them tough. Also they missed a few layups in the 4th. Not that they were wide open, but they needed to finish those. Both teams just played hard discipline defense, it wasn’t a typical Salesian game though in that their press didn’t phase HW much so it was all just half court man defense. I wish it was a best of 7 for the title so we could see these guys battle more, it was fun!

 

[larry legend33]

This was a great high level game. I agree that those two turnovers on inbounds plays really hurt. Normally they end up with a great look on inbounds plays but Harvard played them tough. Also they missed a few layups in the 4th. Not that they were wide open, but they needed to finish those. Both teams just played hard discipline defense, it wasn’t a typical Salesian game though in that their press didn’t phase HW much so it was all just half court man defense. I wish it was a best of 7 for the title so we could see these guys battle more, it was fun!

Agreed. The gap between the 2 teams is very small. If you were to tell me in a best of 3 HW wins 2 and Salesian wins 1 or vice versa I couldn't argue that. I didn't feel at any time that HW was that much superior. Great year for hoops in Norcal especially in the bay area. Salesian put themselves in a position to win.
Well, its a wrap. Thanks @kiddman32 for all you do.

 

[kiddman32]

All I do? All I do is go to games.

Anyway... That was one of the best games I've ever seen, just amazing!

Both teams played terrific TEAM ball, and moved on defense like I've seen very few do.

 

[ankleassassin]

All I do? All I do is go to games.

Anyway... That was one of the best games I've ever seen, just amazing!

Both teams played terrific TEAM ball, and moved on defense like I've seen very few do.

You really need to make a go Fund me or give us your venmo