Missouri Boy's and Girl's Class Five Basketball Sectionals - March 9th, 2021

 I posted the class four Missouri Boy's and Girl's sectional and playoff predictions last night and set up this class five blog post along with the class six blog post before retiring.  As I was closing down these posts, I noticed that people were starting to look at the class four post AND the new posts.  I had not even Tweeted this weblink and people were already reading my predictions!  So I wrote on both posts "No Fair Peeking!   I have not even written this up yet and you are in my draft blog."

When I post a rating, I usually have some sort of theme to go with the numbers.  I used Earl Austin Jr's PrepHoops article about class four to link my picks.  Earl and I agreed on the class four predictions but not on all the class five or six picks.   But I don't want to go there.  I was trying to think of another theme when I came across a Facebook post by Larry Hughes 17U elite coach, Eric Bain, with a photo of the 16U team.

The LHBA team, pictured below, went through series of roster changes between 8th grade and their senior year and many of those players are still in the playoff hunt.

I fully expected to find Vianney in the sectional vs. Borgia.  With LHBA point guard Ethan Lattimore having a breakout season and shooting guard Luke Schuyler, I thought Vianney would beat the upstart Lutheran South squad, with two former LHBA subs, point guard/shooting guard Jonathan Prange and power forward, Jack Lawson.  Both had brief stints with the LHBA team, and have blossomed into great players.

But the Lancers came up with a furious fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Griffins and will face a solid Borgia team tonight.  While others are picking Lutheran South, I think Borgia will top them.  I know my chiropractor will like that pick, as his son played on a state championship team back in 2009.  Don't want his cracking my back while he is angry.  LOL

Borgia will run into a very good North County team that I expect will end up in the final game with Cardinal Ritter or De Smet.

Finally, for one summer, Mario Fleming, star guard for Cardinal Ritter, joined the LHBA team but the chemistry didn't work.  Mario is, and was back then, a high-performance scorer from anywhere on the court.  Trouble was, he liked to freelance and Coach Bain was looking for someone to run the complex pass and cut offense.  Mario moved on the Team Ramey and the Cardinal Ritter teams (often one and the same) and has had a fantastic high school career.  

I picked Ritter to win it all again, in no small part, due to Fleming's high octane offensive skills.  The only thing keeping Ritter from that title, is the De Smet Spartans, the second-best team in the tournament.  De Smet is great this year, but they might have been even better with Thomas Redmond, another LHBA guy (third from left in the photo), who opted out of his senior basketball season to concentrate on soccer, his main sport.  So while I picked Ritter, the Spartans could be taking home their first-class five trophy. after years of frustration, losing to either CBC or Chaminade in class six districts.

On the girl's side, Cardinal Ritter has an outside chance to join the boy's in state basketball history.  Only Scott County Central's boys and girls have ever won a state championship in the same year and they did it FIVE TIMES in the 80s and 90s.  However, Whitfield stands in the Ritter girl's path to history and I expect Whitfield to win their first-ever title. 

I have rambled enough.  I will finish my LHBA story in the class six predictions.  

Enjoy the class five boys and girls tournaments.