A quick look at small-school state

So day 1 (and most of day two) is in the books at the small-school state basketball tournament. There weren’t any big surprises in Class A.

 It’s also become apparent that the hardest class to pick the all-state team in is going to be Class A. There a lot of good, solid players in the class but there’s no one or two standouts like there are in Class B. Should be an interesting time tomorrow and in the next couple weeks talking to coaches and others and lookins at stats to see who it’s going to be.

I picked Thomas and Stringtown to win heading into the week and as of right now, I stand by those picks. Thomas doesn’t have any big standouts but has a lot of very good players; players like Justen Hunnicutt, Jeremiah John and Zeke Zoschke. They’ve also got one of the best if not the best coach in the class in Jim Petree. From what I saw of Garber yesterday, I can’t see them beating Thomas, though stranger things have happened.

 In Class B, Chattanooga (or Chattanoga as the OSSAA program says) is certainly good. But they haven’t played the schedule that Stringtown has, they don’t have anyone taller than 6-3 to matchup with Stringtown’s 6-9 James Watson and Watson seems to have flipped the switch and turned into the dominant force that we all expected him to be this season. He has a chance tonight and tomorrow to play himself back onto the Super Five team. It will be interesting to see how Stringtown’s game tonight against Calumet goes. I’ve heard nothing but raves about the Chieftains’ Ethan Davis and enjoyed visiting with him earlier this week.

Check out the Oklahoman and NewsOk.com tomorrow morning for a tentative list on where the Class 6A-2A sub-sites will be next week.

Also, check back in on NewsOk tonight for breaking news on Verdigris’ Rotnei Clarke and his chase to the record. I’m here in Skiatook as Clarke stands only 33 points away from Ty Harman’s mark.