Dec. 14th- Mtn Brook 52, Ramsay 48

On paper, Mountain Brook looks like one of the best teams in the city. They have great guards, good post play, senior leadership, star power, a strong defense, an unusual system, a deep bench, a winning coach, what more do you need really? And Ramsay, well… on paper, they are a mediocre team. They have a good senior guard in Jamel Waters, but not much else to distinguish them. They have a severe lack of post-presence, no apparent identity, nothing to point to. But on November 17th, Ramsay beat Mountain Brook on their home floor. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Then Ramsay kept winning. I was skeptical, but I had no choice except to treat Ramsay like a top team until they proved otherwise. Of course, I was interested to see what made this year’s Ramsay team different from last year’s.

Ramsay's Waters works against Spartan defenders

Dec. 6th- Fairfield 69, McAdory 59

There were a wealth of great games to choose from Tuesday night. Hewitt-Trussville vs Mountain Brook and Spain Park vs Thompson both looked intriguing, but I wanted to see some new teams. Of course that meant I missed Spain Park’s double overtime win. I considered heading to Moody to see Woodlawn for the first time this year. I decided against, thinking it would be a blowout. Boy was I wrong. Moody pulled off a two point victory. Ultimately, I decided to make my way to Fairfield. I had not seen either Fairfield or McAdory play in a couple years. I end up doing most of my basketball watching either in the city or over the mountain, but I enjoy venturing into communities I don’t often visit. Seeing quality basketball is a bonus sometimes.

12/7/11- Magic City Rankings

This early in the year it is especially difficult to put together a meaningful ranking. I have seen so little basketball at this point. When judging a team I haven’t yet seen play, I have to rely on how they performed against teams I have seen. But this early there are precious few scores to look at. To make matters worse, early scores are not always trustworthy. Some teams start slower than others, especially those who have football players that join the team late. With all that said, early rankings are fun and help give the games a context.

As with last year, I have divided the metro area into four regions. These regions are somewhat arbitrary, and essentially just give me more things to rank. The ‘City’ includes all schools in the Birmingham City system. ‘South’ includes the suburbs south of the city in the Over the Mountain area and into Shelby County. ‘North/East’ includes the communities surrounding Trussville and Gardendale. The ‘West’ includes the communities near Pleasant Grove and Bessemer. I plan to make a new rankings post every two weeks. I am going to try to do them on Wednesdays this season.

Magic City

1) Wenonah 8-1 right now basketball in Birmingham is the Dragons and then everybody else, their one loss is out-of-state, they beat my number 2 team by 20 points on the road

Rebel Classic 2011

I love holiday tournaments as a fan. They provide a ton of basketball right when I have time to watch it. I have a harder time with holiday tournaments as a blogger. They provide a ton of games to write about right when I have plenty of fun things to fill my time. I went to several games at the Rebel Classic over the Thanksgiving holiday, but have yet to find time to write about one of them, much less all of them. I plan to cover the whole tournament here in one post.

For me, the Rebel Classic has long signaled the advent of basketball season. My first Rebel Classic was my sophomore season. Our football team was still in the playoffs, so I got to dress with the varsity. I haven’t missed a Classic since.

Things to Watch 2011-2012

With the 2011-2012 basketball season just underway, it is a good opportunity to look at what we might expect to see this year. One of the toughest things about being a high school basketball fan is trying to keep track of all the changes from one year to the next. It can be tough keeping up with which kids graduated, which teams have talent moving up from JV, and which coaches changed jobs. No one really reports on the high school off-season. Perhaps that is also part of the appeal. There is always some level of continuity in a program. The coach usually stays the same. The community stays the same. It is fascinating to watch the talent ebb and flow, watch new players fit into the old systems, the community reflected in the stands and on the court. So making predictions for a fresh season is an exceptionally difficult task, but is nonetheless entertaining.

Nov. 17th- Hoover 27, Spain Park 25

This match-up between rivals appeared more enticing than many other early season games. Beyond the interest in the rivalry, I was intrigued to see what kind of talent Spain Park and Hoover have this year. Both schools have a wealth of athletes to select from. Their successes on the football field are evidence of that, but neither have shown much success on the hardwood. However, last year both schools had surprisingly good basketball teams, and I was anxious to see if they could keep that momentum this year. The performance I witnessed from the two teams was… uninspiring. Both teams have decent talent and good depth, but frankly, the game was ugly.

Nov. 15th- Mountain Brook 69, Hewitt-Trussville 58

Mountain Brook High School was a great place to start the 2011-2012 basketball season. This was the season opener for both teams, each returning strong talent and leadership at the guard position. For the host Spartans, expectations are sky high this season. It is Mario Stramaglia’s senior year. Last year Coach Bucky McMillan’s highly ranked squad was knocked out in the first game of the area tournament. This year a trip to the BJCC is the goal. Around Stramaglia’s leadership and athleticism, the Spartans have depth and a system that injects even the slightest role player with confidence. With the football team still competing in the playoffs, their full talent was not on display on Tuesday night, but the group they had was impressive enough.

I noticed a familiar but unusual name on the roster they handed me at the entrance. I thought I must be recognizing the name Sigurdarson from last year. It would have made sense. But when the P.A. announcer called Matti Sigurdarson out while introducing the starting lineups, I knew immediately where I recognized him from. The resemblance, too, was unmistakable. He must be related to the star shooting guard Jakob Sigurdarson for Birmingham-Southern College from when I was there just four years ago. Jakob played alongside Coach McMillan at BSC. The Sigurdarson’s are from Iceland. Matti, the senior transfer for Mountain Brook, I can only assume is Jakob’s little brother.