Thoughts, observations and ramblings from the February Fever/March Madness tournament trail …

Is Harrisburg the best Class 2A basketball team to come down the pike … ever?

Certainly, I have been around long enough to know that wagers and maybe even a fight or two have started over questions like that. So, without making folks from Pinckneyville, Massac County and Muphysboro upset let me just answer the question this way:

Harrisburg has the potential to go down as one of the greatest teams ever from Southern Illinois and clearly that question will be answered in the next two weeks. Before I get any farther out on my wobbly limb today let’s take a little closer look at the Bulldogs.

I have had the opportunity to do play-by-play six times in games that Harrisburg played this season, plus I saw them play Alton Marquette in the Saluki Shootout back in December so I am very familiar with their personnel. And the fact that three starters Tyler Smithpeters, Capel Henshaw and Ryne Roper have been playing high school basketball for 10 years (OK, it’s only four years but it seems like 10) gives me some more insight into the talents of this team. I have also interviewed Bulldogs’ coach Randy Smithpeters several times on my Saturday morning show on WQRL so I have followed the remarkable season closely.

Let’s look at Harrisburg from a few different perspectives.

During 20 years as a broadcaster/writer I have interviewed hundreds of coaches and have heard them say countless times that in order to win a particular game they have to ‘take something away from the other team.’ In other words, they have to stop a particular player or even two, they have to control the boards, stop the transition game or they have to ratchet up the defense.

I guess it’s that thought that prompts me to ask the question I did, ‘is Harrisburg the best Class 2A basketball team to come down the pike … ever? You see, taking that approach, I don’t know how opposing teams would prepare a defense for the Bulldogs. First, they have an assortment of offensive weapons in the aforementioned Smithpeters, Henshaw and Roper along with junior Eli Tabor-Scott, who are all long and athletic and have the ability to turn in a 20-30 point performance in any game. And it certainly doesn’t hurt anything to have 6-feet-6-inch, 250-pound Dakota Upchurch in the paint. I don’t see how a team could focus on one or even two players and shut down the offense – in short, they have a bunch of ways to score.

Second, the Bulldogs are a great passing team and very unselfish – a great combination if you wear purple and white but a very bad combination if you don’t.

Third, Harrisburg is very deep off the bench with the likes of Bahari Amaya, ‘Snowy’ Bjornsson, Justin Younger, Caleb Bartok and others. Broadcasting more than 100 games this year I can say without reservation that some of the reserves on the Harrisburg team could be a star on other Class 2A teams in our area. Also, the Bulldogs are very well-coached. Coach Smithpeters certainly knew the talent and expectations coming into this year and has moved this team along at a nice steady pace while beefing up the competition.

And with all that said, I’ve saved the most important point for last.

While the shooting, passing and depth is mostly looked at on the offensive side of the ball, Harrisburg really gets after teams on the defensive end. Through 30 games this season Harrisburg has not given up more than 59 points to an opposing team and only eight teams have scored more than 49. So, while the Bulldogs might suffer through a ‘clunker’ – and with the offense they have I want to stress that ‘might’ is a key word – the defense will not. As the old saying goes, ‘offense wins games but defense wins championships.’

In the end, the answer to the question about where this particular Harrisburg team will end up in the rich history of the greatest-ever Southern Illinois teams will continue to be played out this week at the West Frankfort Class 2A Sectional where the Bulldogs will be a heavy favorite.

I have watched enough Class 2A basketball at Peoria to know that this team has all the tools – offense, depth, defense, coaching and a little swagger – to bring home the big trophy from Carver Arena.

So, I guess in the end it will be the Harrisburg Bulldogs during the next two weeks who will eventually answer the question I posed. It should be fun and interesting to watch it play out.

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From the ‘On the Road Again’ department …

For more years than I can remember I have had the privilege of broadcasting the eight games from the IHSA state tournament in Peoria on WQRL. Prior to the advent of the four-class system we did Class A games and now we do the Class 1A and Class 2A games on the first weekend. It’s a great treat, even for an old guy like me, and if the Good Lord is willing I will be there again this year.

Since we broadcast Benton sports on WQRL we always start our ‘Road to Peoria’ following the Rangers as far as they advance. The past two years Benton made it to the first game of the sectional. This year, knowing the Harrisburg Bulldogs were looming in the Eldorado Regional, we put together a contingency plan for the week of the sectional.

Since WEBQ is one of our sister stations and broadcasts Harrisburg games we knew they (and others) would be at the West Frankfort Class 2A Sectional, so we started exploring the idea of broadcasting the Hardin County Class 1A Sectional. When I started plotting the teams that could possibly be at Hardin County, I knew it was something I wanted to do it we could put it together.

So, with some work and considerable help from various locations including WQRL and the good folks at Hardin County High School particularly athletic director Tammy Conn, I’m pleased to announce we will be at Hardin County this week for what I believe is one of (if not the best) Class 1A sectionals in the state. With the likes of Goreville, Meridian and Gallatin County who have been state ranked this year along with Steeleville, who emerged from the Waltonville Regional, I would challenge you to point to a sectional that is any tougher than this one will be. We open with Goreville-Meridian on Tuesday night followed by Gallatin County-Steeleville on Wednesday and the championship on Friday.

My only concern right now is finding my way to Hardin County High School. I have never been there before but with GPS in hand and a variety of instructions from folks who live in that neck of the woods I’m certain that won’t be an issue. Please tune in if you get the chance, it should be a great three nights of basketball.

Send me a text at 525-4744 or email at jmuir@frontier.com if you hear our broadcasts from Hardin County.

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Congrats to the Nashville Hornettes on winning the Class 2A state championship last night at Redbird Arean in Normal. The win end a few ‘close-but-no-cigar’ runs for Coach Wayne Harre in grabbing the coveted state championship.

Harre’s teams have been noted for the past 13 years for defense and toughness, proving that shutting the opposition down really does win games and now a state championship. During the amazing ‘girl’s basketball factory’ that Harre has built at Nashville his team’s have posted an incredible 128-2 record in the tough Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference. Think about that and let that sink in for a moment. In 13 years that means 65 of those games were at Nashville but 65 were also on the road – where it is never easy to play. Just incredible, any way you add it up.

During the past few weeks Harre’s name has been mentioned repeatedly as a possible candidate for the SIU women’s basketball program – a program that is three or four rungs on the ladder below rock bottom. Again, SIU needs to run, not walk, to Harre and offer him the job, period.

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Free throw shooting … or perhaps better stated … a lack of free throw shooting has been my pet peeve again during this basketball season. Coaches tell me that players shoot free throws every single day at practice but the percentages are, simply stated, atrocious.

I have watched box scores all year long where teams will lose by three or four points and shoot 11-24 (or some other gawd-awful percentage). And sometimes the stakes are much higher when free throws are missed.

I called the championship game of the Waltonville Regional on Saturday night when Christopher, who has not been in a regional title game for 21 years, matched up against Steeleville. It was a thrilling, hard-fought game that Steeleville eventually won 57-51 in overtime.

Again, looking at the box score, free throws are the sole reason the game even went to overtime and Christopher didn’t win in regulation. After going 9-11 from the free throw line in the first half the Bearcats shot a dismal 7-21 the rest of the game.

I don’t understand it, coaches don’t understand it, but free throw shooting continues to become a lost art at the high school level. Losing a game in mid December because of a poor night at the free throw line is one thing, but losing a chance to hang a regional banner and plaque and advance to the sectional tournament stings a lot more.

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Be sure to take the time to enjoy the magic and excitement of post season basketball, it’s a special time of the year and for some communities, coaches and especially players it could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thanks for taking the time to read this and God Bless you!