National Christian Boys Home School Top 15 Rankings March 27th

Rank Team Rankings

#1 HCYA North 1157
#2 Oklahoma City Storm 1767
#3 Indianapolis Wildcats* 3169
#4 S.W. MO Eagles 3355
#5 St. Johns Warriors, MI 3673
#6 Dallas HSAA 4485
#7 WCHSA Royal Eagles, WI 5144
#8 Nashville Central 5532
#9 Derby Invasion, KS 5566
10 North Atlanta Flight 5906
11 Rockford FIRE, IL 5945
12 Huntington Eagles, IN 6238
13 Hudsonville Hornets 6434
14 Eastside Golden Eagles 6861
15 MHEA Eagles, Memphis 7565

WILDCATS WIN 4A TITLE 76-75 in 2 OT Now 41-4

Two good basketball teams seeking atonement for first night miscues have righted their ships and made there way to what should be a very competitive title game.

The Nashville Warriors (25-11) have beaten:

Eastside Golden Eagles 70-49

Cincinnati Landmark 71-43

Crestwood Calvary 47-40

The Indianapolis Wildcats (40-4) have defeated:

Derby Invasion 48-42

Knoxville Ambassadors 51-40

San Marcos Panthers 62-45

Both teams play solid defense, use good ball movement and balance inside game with their outside shooting. Two teams finishing the year in the top ten rankings both disappointed for where they are playing I am sure, but are set to give us a hard fought 4A title game. It should be worth watching.

The Indianapolis Wildcats quietly reaching 40 wins with yesterdays victory - 40 wins is itself a significant accomplishment regardless of tournament issues.

They play on Court #20 and after yesterday that seems to be the place to be.

More court #20 magic today. The Nashville Warriors and the Indianapolis Wildcats played a very competitive hard fought game today with the Wildcats winning 76-75 in 2 overtimes.

This was a close game all the way. Early in the fourth Nashville took the lead, but the Wildcats overcame the deficit to tie the game and push it into overtime. The overtimes were equally competitive with scores going back and forth.

In the end the wildcats used a free throw to close it out with 3.5 seconds left and a Memphis turnover killed their chances in the last second. Congratulations to both teams for a fantastic game and finish, it was truly exciting.


For me it was my seventh overtime period on that court in two days. That is some kind of competitive basketball.

B18 4A Final Set - Nashville Warriors vs Indianapolis Wildcats

Two good basketball teams seeking atonement for first night miscues have righted their ships and made there way to what should be a very competitive title game.

The Nashville Warriors (25-11) have beaten:
Eastside Golden Eagles 70-49
Cincinnati Landmark 71-43
Crestwood Calvary 47-40

The Indianapolis Wildcats (40-4) have defeated:
Derby Invasion 48-42
Knoxville Ambassadors 51-40
San Marcos Panthers 62-45

Both teams play solid defense, use good ball movement and balance inside game with their outside shooting. Two teams finishing the year in the top ten rankings both disappointed for where they are playing I am sure, but are set to give us a hard fought 4A title game. It should be worth watching.

The Indianapolis Wildcats quietly reaching 40 wins with yesterdays victory - 40 wins is itself a significant accomplishment regardless of tournament issues.

They play on Court #20 and after yesterday that seems to be the place to be.

Wildcats Win 4A Final Four Game

Tonight the Wildcats played more like the Wildcats we have come to enjoy. They played excellent defense, moved the ball effectively and beat the San Marcos Panthers 62-45.

They play in the Championship game Saturday Afternoon at 2:45 CDT at Evangel University.

We will be playing the Nashville Central Warriors. Their record is 25-11 and were ranked #8 in the final home schooling ranking we have. They also were a #1 seed who lost first night so this is an excellent matchup, possibly best home school team match we have had, only St Johns might have been better. Good test.

We have 40 wins now and that is great, but let's get the 4A national title.

Wildcats Outlast Knoxville Ambassadors 51-40

While not one of the Wildcats stellar wins, getting a win when our offense was in a funk is a credit to the good defensive effort of the Wildcats. Knoxville was a very physical team which usually gives us a problem. We rebounded well, started off good then basically didn't run our offense for 6/8 minutes for some unknown reason, even to Coach. We righted the ship in the 4th quarter and held the lead. At this point we will take the win and move to the final four for Div 4A. The other scores were:

Nashville Warriors 71 Cincinnati Landmark 43
Crestwood Calvary 53 Austin Royals 50 OT
San Marcos Panthers 63 Pulaski County 49

Nashville and Crestwood meet at 4:00 PM
San Marcos and Indianapolis meet at 5:10 PM

both times are CDT

Win or Lose we play at 2:45 PM on Saturday

Revised 4A Schedule

Wildcats will now play Knoxville Ambassadors not Cincinnati Landmark as previously scheduled.

All-American Games TV info

The games are bring taped as they go and will be telecast sometime later this week. They will let us know so everyone can see. This is really good show.

DUNK CONTEST

If the finals are on TV tonight - I'll let you know. Tony Mitchell - Alabama signee - OUTSTANDING!

Indianapolis All American Game - Indy 17 USA 14

I will call our team Indy other team Usa
Indy ball
travis misses3
USA reb the layup 2-0 USA
delance drive for 2 2-2
joshiah reb
joshiah for 2 4-2 Indy
nate reb
nate miss
usa layup 4-4
joel for 2 6-4 Indy
3 for usa 7-6 USA
joel for 2 8-7 Indy
foul on delance usa ball
usa three 10 - 8 USA
delance miss
josiah reb
nate for 2 and one 11-10 Indy
travis reb turn over USA ball
travis block
usa for 2 12-11 USA
fouls USA
delance for2 13-12 Indy
travis block with foul 2 for USA 14-13 USA
delance misses 3
joel reb
travis misses 3
usa miss nate reb
delance miss
josiah reb
delance 2 15-14 Indy
delance steal
usa reb travis steal 2 17-14 Indy
travis blocks last shot

Indy wins quarter 17-14

State Flag Ceremony

Seniors from teams in each state march in behind their state flags great time

Shay Geo Joel S and Adrian walked with our team flag

342 teams not sure how many states but a bunch

National Report #2 3rd Team All-American Game

Travis Burkett and Delance Minney will be participating in this game.

Josiah Murray is also on the team from the Golden Eagles

Joel Hart is also playing also it looks like, also Nate Elsey of the Northwest Warriors

Interesting Jeremy and Will Tolbert from Northwest are the coaches of all our guys.

FOR Info game delayed due to knee injury to a Memphis FCA player our guys have not played as yet - looks like Jeremy and Will are going to let Joel-Delance-Nate-Travis and Josiah play at the same time - All Indianapolis Team - outstanding

National's Showcase Report #1

First item of the evening was the girl's All-American Game

Grace Mitchell played in the game for the Indianapolis Trailblazers. That is quite an honor. Congratulations to Grace and the Mitchell family.

Great venue here at the Missouri State Bears home arena. Very good attendance.

In the Girls 3 Point shot, Catherine Weaver from Huntington Eagles will be in the finals.

Revised 4A Seedings Just Posted

Landmark Eagles (8) vs Nashville Warriors (1)
Court #7 8:05 PM

Crestwood Cavalry (4) vs Austin Royals(5)
Court #7 9:25 PM



Pulaski County(6) vs San Marcos Panthers (3)
Court #8 8:05 PM

Indianapolis Wildcats (2) vs Knoxville Ambassadors (7)
Court #8 9:25 PM

Wednesday's National Showcase

The National Basketball Showcase Schedule

Presented by Incredible Pizza

Wednesday March 18th at the Hammonds Student Center, MSU

10:00 Tryouts for three point shooting and slam dunk contest

2:00 1st, 2nd 3rd Team All-American Meeting and Pictures

6:00 3rd Team All-American Girl’s Game
6:30 1st Round 3 point
6:45 3rd Team All-American Boy’s Game
7:15 Flag Presentation/Welcome
7:50 NCEBC All-American Boy’s Game
8:20 1st round Slam Dunk
8:45 Award Presentation Honorable Mention, All Region Teams
8:55 1st/2nd All-American Girl’s Game
9:25 1st/2nd All-American Boy’s Game
9:55 Dunk and 3 point shooting finals

There is a good chance this will be televised at this on Springfield Web TV at this link:http://www.springfieldwebtv.com/
I will pass along any information as I receive it.

Joel Hart - Honorable Mention All-American

I just found this post on the updated NCHBC website listing those honored with honorable mention All-American honors. In the list is our own Joel Hart. Congratulations to Joel as well as Adrian, Delance and Travis on their selections to All-American teams.

This is the first year Wildcats have been recognized in the national picture. Great job to the board, coaches and players. Until I came this year I had no idea of what to expect. Great choice to be involved and let's continue to do so in the future - great experience.

4A Opponents Now Known - Schedule To Follow

The teams in the 4A brackets include:

Indianapolis Wildcats (was #1) 38-4 mp#3103
Pulaski County Flames (was #2) 30-13 mp#10608
Landmark Eagles (was #4) 14-17 mp#10608
San Marcos Panthers (was #3) 37-14 mp#9638
Austin Royals (was #3) 27-14 mp#9564
Crestwood Calvary (was #2) 16-14 mp#9127
Knoxville Ambassadors (was #4) 20-13 mp#11454
Nashville Warriors ( was #1) 24-11 mp#5520

when seeded

1 will play 8 at court 7 8:05 Thursday
4 will play 5 at court 7 9:25 Thursday
6 will play 3 at court 8 8:05 Thursday
2 will play 7 at court 8 9:25 Thursday

I will post seeds as soon as possible

Things To Like About Tonights Victory

1. the effort - our cats are alive and well and on the prowl
2. the victory - excellent win at gut check time
3. character step up - when run started we held our composure and executed
4. score won't really show how well we played - it was much better than final score
5. memorable plays
* Ash saving ball to Adrian from baseline with immediate pass to Dustin
for lay in - fantastic
* Delance sprinting down the court with three Derby players like a track
meet 100 yard dash, winning and forcing Derby turnover - He was movin!
* Travis nailing three after three demoralizing the Derby faithful with
every one of them - He was smokin
* Adrians play in the paint against the 6'7 and 6'8 Derby guys - limiting
them to one shot most times
* Total team hustle - it's more than shown above, a collective effort
when it was most needed - Great job
* Last but not least Riley 1-0 as a starter - keep it up!!!

It sure is better to have some fun - let's win 4A because we earn it. Basketball is basketball and we are now in an 8 team tournament - everyone is 0-0 again. Three in a row - we can do - GIT R DONE CATS!

Inopportune Time For a Bad game

Now that the Wildcats laid an egg first game out, what does this mean for the balance of the tournament. The goal of most ( not all) is to participate in the Division One competition. Division One has all the top teams from around the country. In simple terms it means we will not get an opportunity to play the Oklahoma Storm or the HCYA Warriors who have been right above them in the standings and would have meant a lot to the team to play them.

The purpose of the seeding round is to break the thirty two D-1 teams into four brackets of eight. They do this by a simple elimination process. Win first game you will be in 6A or 5A depending on the results tomorrow – winners to 6A losers to 5A. In our case, we lost so the winner on the second day games goes to 4A and the loser to 3A. Our road won’t be easy since Lakeshore beat the Derby Invasion who will be our opponent tomorrow evening at 8:05 pm.

In tonight’s seeding games only five favorites lost to a lower seed: obviously the Wildcats, Derby who lost 63-54 to Lakeshore, Pulaski County (AR) lost to CHAP Warriors 56-52, Crestwood Calvary to OKC Knights 48-33 and Nashville Warriors who lost to Tulsa Noah 59-52. All results can be found at this link: http://www.homeschoolbasketball.com/Websites/homeschoolbasketball/Files/Content/532127/b18%20d1.pdf

We will still play one game each day Thursday, Friday and Saturday regardless of winning or losing tomorrow evening. If we are in the 4A bracket and finish #1 we basically would be considered the seventeenth best in the country, if #1 in 3A then considered the twenty- fifth best team. I have no doubt we are better but that opportunity is past. We have a chance to show we are a team with character, not a team of characters and put this game behind us.

Many times during the season if we weren’t in sync, it didn’t show because the teams didn’t have the talent to take advantage of the opportunity. These are the top teams from around the country-give Memphis credit, they hit us on a day we would like to forget but everyone will be gunning for us no matter which brackets we find ourselves in. Derby beat the Word of Life team from Tennessee by two points. It will not be an easy game, we had better be ready.

Let’s take care of business!! – GO WILDCATS!

WILDCATWEB CAM IS WORKING

Tonight I Will try to web cam and blog - site is
http://wildcatswebcam.blogspot.com/

Wildcats Honored With Three All-Americans

Adrian Hood was just named first team All-American
Delance Minney and Travis Burkett were named to the third team

Cincinnati All Region

Adrian Hood

Regional Coach of the Year Jeremy Bialek

Springfield Web TV Broadcasts

It appears that some games will be broadcast on Springfield Web TV. Here is a link to their website: http://www.springfieldwebtv.com/. If you click on the NCHBC logo on the right top corner, you will see a short video clip about the tournament. As soon as I have teams and game times for this venue I will let you know.

While we are on the subject of web broadcasts, thanks to my son Shane's help we are going to run an experiment tomorrow using a camcorder as a web cam (Tennessee cam was quirky, but still a good incentive to do something similar). I am not promising any results yet, but pray it works. If it works ok I will so note on the blog - the blog for video cam is http://wildcatswebcam.blogspot.com/ even if it does not work quite right, I may use it since the posts would be real time to everyone at the same time, no refreshing like the regular blog we used last time.

My desire is to give you the best coverage possible while being a total basketball junkie for a week, I hope you enjoy the blog and overlook the errors that will periodically pop up. I am hoping at the NCHBC blogging meeting tomorrow they will give us wireless access which will help the process tremendously.

Wildcats vs Memphis FCA Pregame Report

Memphis FCA has a record of 15-18 with no common opponents. It should be noted that they lost to Derby Invasion (in our bracket)by two points early in the year. The Wildcats have averaged 74.2 poinst while FCA has averaged 60.1 points per game.

FCA is lead by 6'4" Jr Ben Meis who is averaging 15.6 points per game and 6'1" Sr Ross Baily who averages 11.3 points per game. Four other players average between 5 to 8 points per game.

In the last month, FCA finished fifth in the Shreveport NCHBC Regional, losing their first game, then winning the next two. They are 4-2 in the past month. Their opponents are averaging 57 points per game. It would appear that FCA likes to get up and down the floor which should provide a very favorable match up for the Wildcats.

Game time will be at 8:15 (Central Daylight Time)at Baptist Bible College. I will provide updates as we go through tomorrow's activities (providing my cell phone works as a modem ok).

Wildcats Earn Respect

When the seeding brackets came out, I thought it was difficult to see where they ranked the Wildcats in the scheme of things. I decided to take matters into my own hands and devise a system that would give me some indication of how they seeded us. I decided to use the information available on Max Preps at the time. I made the assumption that most first seeds should win their first games. That led me to check on the strength of the second and third seeded teams added together. The lower the total of the two seeds would then seem to be tougher match ups. It actually was very interesting. In the final ranking HYCA was #1, Okla Storm #2, Southwest Mo #3 and Wildcats #4. Using the data from the date I ran the checks here are the results.\:
#1 seed HYCA 20,978
#1 seed OKLA Storm 23,057
#1 seed MHEA Eagles 15,875
#1 seed WCHSA (Wi) 16,676
#1 seed N. Atlanta Flight 18,732
#1 seed Indianapolis Wildcats 19.899
#1 seed SWMO Eagles 12,428
#1 seed Nashville Warriors 11,676

Thus with real seed rankings, the Wildcats ended up with the # 3 rated most favorable schedule for the tournament while SWMO ranked ahead of us actually received the 7th most difficult schedule. That explains how HYCA open the tourney and the next highlighted teams are Okla Storm followed by the Wildcats. This demonstrates that the Wildcats have truly earned the respect of the tournament committee. Quite an honor considering it is our first visit. Let's do nothing to prove them wrong and everything to prove them right. GO WILDCATS!!!

PERSPECTIVE

As the season winds down I would like to encourage all of the Wildcats coaches, players and fans to keep where we are in perspective. Our record is 37-3 – WOW!

It is easy to focus on the right hand side of the ledger and the pain associated with one of the three. As we head into nationals, I would like exhort all of us to focus on the left hand side of the ledger – thirty seven wins is rarified air in high school circles. We have a chance to hit the forty win column in the next few days. A search for high school teams with forty wins will find little or no results, even in the college ranks it is rare.

I would like to commend the entire Wildcat nation for their sacrifice and dedication to be in such a spot. Let’s go after the forty and enjoy the ride, not many have that opportunity. The title is our goal, but in perspective forty would be historic and no matter how we slice it the Lord has blessed us with an incredible year. GO WILDCATS!!!!!!

NCHBC Monday's Schedule

National's Schedule (comments by Tim from NCHBC)

Monday March 16th (Opening Day)

2:15 pm All-American Award Ceremony

We will be handing out 1st 2nd and 3rd Team All-American Awards

3:00 pm Girl's Tip-off /Ceremony at Baptist Bible College (Gym)

The Mayor of Springfield and virtually the entire Springfield news
media will be there as Tabar Spani leads the 2009 Omaha Regional
Champion Kansas City Metro Mavs against the San Antonio FEAST
Patriots. Tabar was just selected as a McDonald’s All-American, she
is the first HomeSchool player to ever receive this honor which is
awarded to the top 24 high school seniors each year.

4:30 pm Boy's Tip-off at Baptist Bible College (Gym)

John Caleb Sanders last year’s Maravich award winner will lead HCYA
Warriors; the two time defending National Champions against the
Cincinnati Landmark Eagles. In a very unusual twist this is a first
round match-up of last year’s National Championship game. Landmark
graduated all of their contributors and looked to have a rebuilding
year, but Coach Tom Head led the team to a 7th place Cincinnati
Regional finish and set up this compelling match up.

5:50 Game features the 2008 National Champions and 2009 OKC Regional
Champion THEASA Riders feature 2008 1st team All-American Anna Parish
as well as one of the top freshman High School players in the country.
Be ready to see some jaw dropping moves by Moriah Jefferson. As THESA
draws the Manhattan CHIEF in their first round match-up.

7:00 Game features the 2009 OKC Regional Champion when the Oklahoma City Storm takes on California’s Christian Heritage Academy. The Storm has spent the entire year in the top three of the MaxPreps rankings and returns four All-American from the 2008 3rd place finisher.

8:15 Game features the Cincinnati Regional Champions when INDIANAPOLIS WILDCATS make their first appearance at Nationals. Indy has been in the top 4 of the MaxPreps all season. All-American Adrian Hood will lead the Wildcats against sharp shooter Ben Mies and the Memphis FCA
Nighthawks.

9:30 Game features NCEBC #1 Seed Central Park Christian School from
Birmingham, Alabama. If you want to see some top level basketball,don’t miss this game. They have it all: They have size (if you consider 7 guys from 6 8’ to 7 foot big). Athleticism – last time I coached against them five years ago they had 14 dunks but I think that is overrated because Marco Killingworth had 8 of them. This year they feature 6’6 swingman and Alabama Signee Tony Mitchell and 6’10 wing/post Will Neighbour who has signed with the University of Arkansas/Little Rock. This year they are relatively young.

Widcats First Round Opponent Named

Wildcats will play Memphis FCA (15-18) at Baptist Bible College at 8:15 pm. Monday March 16th

The winner will play the winner of the Derby (Ks) Invasion (24-4) and Lakeshore (Wi) Thunder (15-10) matchup.

Winners play on Tuesday at 8:05 pm at the Hillcrest High School Gym.

Losers play on Tuesday at 9:25 pm at Central High School Gym.

Pregame comments will be posted later in the week. 

For full schedule of seeding games, go to this link: 

http://www.homeschoolbasketball.com/Websites/homeschoolbasketball/Files/Content/521761/Boys%2018%20D1.pdf

Wildcats Blog Posting Changes

WILDCAT NATION

I ran into issues with Google for having too many blog posts for the day.  They put a 24 hour captcha window that I had to use for each post in the finals.  I will do things a little differently at the national tournament.  I plan to have a blog for each game ie.  Wildcats vs St Johns 318 would be the Wildcat game on March 18th with the St John's Michigan team.  By making each game a new blog, I will avoid the captcha issue.  I will have the links to the correct game on both the National Title Run blog and the Wildcats Game Log Blog.   It should help the process go smoother.  Thanks for tuning in hope you enjoy the blogs.

http://wildcatsvsstjohns318.blogspot.com (sample only)

Updated Seeding List

Here is the latest seeding info 

Boy's 18U Seeding

Varsity Boys D-1 Almost Final Seeding:

In alphabetical order:

#1 Seeds:

HCYA Warriors

Indianapolis Wildcats

MHEA Eagles

Nashville Warriors

N. Atlanta Flight

OKC Storm

Omaha Champions

SWMO Eagles

#2 Seeds:

Crestwood Calvary

HSAA Blue Angels

Hudsonville Hornets

Huntington Eagles

Omaha Runner-Up

Pulaski County Flames

Rockford FIRE

St. Johns Warriors

#3 Seeds:

Austin Royals

CHSA Wolverines

OKC Knights

Omaha #3

Tulsa NOAH

San Marcos Panthers

OPEN
OPEN

#4 Seeds:

Christian Heritage, CA

Eastside Golden Eagles

Faulkner County

Knoxville Ambassadors

Lakeshore Thunder

Landmark Eagles

Memphis FCA

NW Indy Warriors

Omaha #4

Omaha #5 or Dallas Thunder

 

Updated National Rankings

Current National Rankings

#1 HCYA Warriors, Houston       1137

#2 Oklahoma City Storm            2441                

#3 Indianapolis Wildcats            3029

#4 S.W. MO Eagles                   3584

#5 St. Johns Warriors, MI           4318

#6 Dallas HSAA                                    4463

#7 WCHSA Royal Eagles, WI     5101

#8 Nashville Central                   5148

#9 North Atlanta Flight               5870

#10 Rockford FIRE, IL               6081

#11 CHSA Wolverines, Houston 7073

#12 Huntington Eagles, IN          7167

#13 MHEA Eagles, Memphis      7419

#14 Derby Invasion, KS             7721

#15 Southwest Louisiana           8587

#16 Austin Royals                     8974

 

 

Game Log Blog

I plan on blogging for the national tournament.  I do not know the format at time but will probably try out some things at Ft Wayne so I know what questions to ask.  I will try to have some game logs on the blog if you check back Friday and Saturday.  This blog is located at http://wildcatsgamelog.blogspot.com/

Bill

Widcats Title Chase

Welcome to my blog which will follow the progress of the Wildcats through the NCHBC tournament in Springfield Missouri.  I know many of the younger Wildcat players and many fans will not be able to attend.  I will post pre-tournament information as well as updates to games.  My hope is that you will find it informative as we take on the rest of the home school basketball world.

First things first obviously – make it to our first final four and win the Indiana State Championship, then go to Tennessee for some competitive games. 

The tournament brackets will be available on March 12^th.  After they are posted, I will have further information concerning teams in our brackets etc.  My current understanding of the tournament set up will follow:

8 teams will be seeded #1, 8 - #2, 8 - #3, and 8 - #4

There will be 8 pods with 1 playing 4, 2 playing 3 then winners playing for the right to move into the 6A championship bracket for games on Thursday-Saturday.  After Monday and Tuesday games the remaining eight winners will then play an 8 team bracket to the Championship.

Obviously the higher we are ranked after the pod games, the better it is for the Wildcats.

Here is the current seeding information:

 Boy's 18U Seeding

Alphabetical Order:

Boys 18 Preliminary Seeding

#1 Seeds:
HCYA Warriors
Indianapolis Wildcats
MHEA Eagles
N. Atlanta
OKC Storm
Omaha Champions
Open
Open

#2 Seeds:
Crestwood Calvary
HSAA Blue Angels
Nashville Warriors
Omaha Runner-Up
St. Johns Warriors
SWMO Eagles
Open
Open

#3 Seeds:
Hudsonville Hornets
Huntington Eagles
OKC Knights
Omaha #3
Omaha #4
Pulaski County Flames
Rockford FIRE
Tulsa NOAH

#4 Seeds:
Eastside Golden Eagles
Knoxville Ambassadors
Omaha #5
Open
Open
Open
Memphis FCA

Receiving Consideration for D-1:
Austin Royals
CHSA Wolverines
Memphis FCA
Lakeshore Thunder
Landmark Eagles
San Marcos Panthers
NW Indy Warriors
Open
Open