By Matthew De George
We’re just over a week – and a busy week at that – into the boys basketball season, and there have been some interesting developments. The first one that stands out is how open and high-scoring play has been. Tuesday’s loaded slate presents the 12th play day of the PIAA winter. Yet already, 2016-17 has seen as many Delco players tally games of 30 points or more as did all of last season. Those six players have accounted for seven 30-point outings (Chichester’s DaQuan Granberry is the repeat), a far cry from last year’s 16. This year’s tally also doesn’t (yet?) involve Nick Alikakos, the Episcopal Academy forward who topped 30 points on five occasions last year.
This prevalence of top scorers is neither good nor bad, per se. Many offenses are built around one marquee scorer, certainly, but whether that’s a long-term drawback isn’t yet clear. It does, however, portend a fair amount of unpredictability game-to-game. And in a traditionally close-to-the-vest league like the Central, the presence of an explosive scorer like Tyler Norwood, Austin Laughlin or Brandon Starr can shift a game quickly.
That brings us to the hierarchy this week, where the order is more-or-less similar, with one sizeable exception. (Records based on games through Monday, Dec. 19)
(click on this link for the full article)