St. Edward v. St. Ignatius (bet the under)

Quotes for the Day: "There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Would you tell me, please which way I ought to go from here?
That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the Cat.
I don't much care where, said Alice.
Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the Cat." -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Link of the Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5a4p3x091A


The first of two annual St. Ignatius v. St. Edward basketball contests tips tomorrow night at 7:30 in Cleveland. Although this game is somewhat old hat for many alumni and high school hoops fans, this year's games offer somewhat unique aspects that hopefully will make both games entertaining.
St. Edward is a little down after having the the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the school's history the previous two seasons. They have managed to reload the ship and have played some really good basketball up until this point. They play very hard and are very well coached. They have shown a character this season that is very easy to watch, and easy to enthusiastically get behind. They will have their hands full tomorrow night, as they have yet to prove to be able to win any game of consequence on the road. And it doesn't get much harder than trying to win at St. Ignatius. It is a very hard to place to win.
Sean O'Toole, a mentor and friend, has taken the reigns of his dream job at his alma mater. As we will hopefully soon see Eric Mangini do with the Browns organization, Coach O'Toole has revamped the attitude and identity of St. Ignatius. His direction is predicated on hard work, toughness, knowing your role, and representing yourself with class. I think as the season continues, St. Ignatius will keep improving.

Keys for St. Ignatius:
-Hope that the refs let it be physical
-Make FTs
-Make 3s
-Limit second shots
-Win the guard match-ups
-Feed off the home crowd

Keys for St. Edward
-Get off to a good start
-Play through the home court calls
-Rebound hard on both ends
-Win the guard match-ups
-Get back to basket post points from Bigs
-Make FTs at the end of the game

As you all probably know, Dan Fox isn't going to play in the game. He is St. Ignatius' best player. He is a solid player who is plenty capable both inside and out. I believe he could have potentially given St. Edward some problems if he had gotten off to a good start. He always plays well against St. Edward.
With him out, I think St. Edward is going to be able to win the game rather handily. I think even with him in the lineup, St. Eds is better. They play very good defense, and have some great offensive guards in Del Love and Miles Hamilton. Price and Stainbrook are hard match-ups for St. Ignatius as well.
Make no mistake, this is going to be a very good ball game, especially if you like a tough hard nosed grind fest (which I kinda do). Pat Hinkel, St. Ignatius' second best player is going to be heard from, one way or the other. He is a big game guy, who can impact the game in a lot of ways. His intangibles are what make him great.

Prediction: St. Edward 58 St Ignatius 44

For all those interested, I got invited to go to happy hour tomorrow on west 6th with some of my colleagues at FTN Midwest Securities. I was very excited to get the invitation, seeing as that I wake up every day at 6am and work til 6pm. This will be my first happy hour ever, at my first real job ever. It will be awkward, but the new experience will also be pretty interesting. Definite potential blog material. The peers that I work with that my age seem like good guys and girls. It will be interesting to see what kinda drinking levels some of these people are on. Obviously they probably will have their work cut out for them trying to stay with me.
Afterwards, I am going to get something to eat with Rudy Kirbus, St. Ignatius' all time leading scorer, and future St. Ignatius basketball coach and athletic director. If any of you need duckets, don't ask Rudy, because 1. he probably would not help you and 2. he never needs a ticket at St. Ignatius.

JCIII