View from the cheap seats

A weekly perspective on sports

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review

I always enjoy watching the high school varsity boys and girls basketball state tournament games on NewsChannel 9 each year.

Among the boys state tournament games this past weekend, the game I thoroughly loved watching the most was Manitowoc Roncalli’s WIAA Division 4 state championship win against Milwaukee Academy of Science.

Everyone figured No. 1 ranked Milwaukee Academy of Science would easily win the state title, but Roncalli had a masterful defensive gameplan against the Novas.

Roncalli implemented a man zone defense against Milwaukee Academy of Science. This defense makes it appear like the Jets were playing zone, but defenders quickly converged on the offensive player with the ball each time he drove into the lane.

Milwaukee Academy of Science’s strength was having its players drive the ball to the hoop to score points close to the hoop. Roncalli’s man zone defense prevented Milwaukee Academy of Science players from driving into the lane for easy buckets, thus forcing the Novas into shooting outside shots which was their team’s weakness this season.

The Novas also love to play a fast paced style of quickly running up and down the basketball court. The Jets slowed the game down and took their time whenver they were in their halfcourt offense. Roncalli was patient in passing the ball around until it got a reasonable shot to take.

Milwaukee Academy of Science endured a long scoring drought to start the second half against Roncalli. The Jets pulled off a 55-45 upset victory against the Novas, who averaged 78 points per game this season.

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I certainly would’ve rather been watching in person an Athens against Hurley WIAA Division 5 state tournament semifinal on Friday morning, but the Bluejays lost a close sectional championship to the Northstars. Oh well, Athens definitely put up a tough fight against Hurley.

Instead of being at the Kohl Center, I watched the Hurley against Bangor Division 5 state tournament semfinal game on Channel 9.

I learned that Hurley senior Tony Cummings is the grandson of former Milwaukee Bucks player Terry Cummings.

Tony Cummings is going to play football at Division 2 Northern Michigan.

The other interesting thing I learned from watching the Hurley against Bangor game was the Northstars had two 1,000-point career scorers in senior Matt DiGiorgio and junior Eli Talsma.

I played basketball against Auburndale native Mike Huser, who announces Wisconsin boys basketball state tournament games on television.