AAAA CWOSSA: Senior Preview

No games today in AA, AAA, or AAAA.  So, we've got some time to put this together for your enjoyment.  Good luck to all participating teams!

Pool A

Forest Heights - WCSSAA #1

St. Mary's - D8 #1

JF Ross - D10 #2

Yikes.  This is one heck of a pool, with the 3 teams that finished 1-2-3 in my final CWOSSA power ranking all doing battle here.

I'm sure the most disappointed team with regards to today's postponement is the JF Ross Royals.  The schedule was to give them games at 10am and 2pm, both during the school day.  Though I still think they could pick up a win here, they likely won't have as vocal a crowd out tomorrow (they can prove me wrong, though!).

Many fifth-year Royals --- including Shamlo Saeed, Jack Cornett and Evan Karl --- will be seeking their third straight trip to OFSAA.  Ross' advantage may be their past CWOSSA experiences, as no Forest Heights or St. Mary's player has played in senior CWOSSA before.

Ross' other edge is their bench depth.  At a tournament like this, with "back-to-back" games, that will be huge.  Owen Moynihan, Drew Padovan, Nick Maule and Wil de Groot are the bench performers that can surely make a big impact in this tournament.

Forest Heights, with the strongest backcourt in CWOSSA --- Javon Masters, Juwan Miller and Adrian Russell --- has been seen as a favourite to emerge with the title.  Masters and Miller are, obviously, the main offensive threats while all three can create havoc on the defensive end.  The emergence of forward Dylan George, who is super-effective from about 16-feet in, has caused some Trojan opponents fits when they go to help out on the guards.

St. Mary's is making their first trip to CWOSSA since 2009, where they made the CWOSSA semifinals before falling to Guelph Centennial.  The Eagles are, arguably, the most athletic team (1 through 5) in the tournament with 6'6" F Adam Voll, guards Alex Thompson and Isaac Lance, and combo guards Henry Bankazo and Telloy Simon.  Role players Chris Cloutier, Tyler Hergott and Zak Hannah are capable of making you pay if you let them on the offensive end.

Pool Predictions

This is actually a pool where I can see all of the teams going 1-1.  Each team brings a unique attribute to this tournament, and it will be very interesting to see how things play out right now.  Whatever teams advance out of this pool should be favourites to win their semifinal games and advance to OFSAA (that doesn't necessarily mean that will happen, but they would be favoured...).

Of course, I'm not the type to sit on the fence, so I'll go with how I had ranked these teams in my rankings:

Forest Heights 2-0

St. Mary's 1-1

JF Ross 0-2

....I wouldn't be surprised, though, to see any of those teams win 2 games or lose 2 games.  That's how competitive this pool appears to be.

Pool B

Centre Wellington - D10 #1

St. John's - D5 #1

SJAM - WCSSAA #2

Hands up if you thought these three teams would comprise AAAA CWOSSA's "Pool B".  Anyone?

Didn't think so.  That said, these three squads all have a few dangerous pieces and shouldn't be overlooked in the cross-over games.

On paper, I'd say that SJAM and Centre Wellington would be the "favourites" in this pool.  The Falcons have played lots of games before on the JF Ross floor, and have lot of 5th year leadership including all-star guard Reid Goindi.  However, their other starters, Gavin McNamara, Tim Francis, et al, bring a wealth of experience themselves and provide a balanced scoring attack wherein any one of those three could lead their squad on any given day.

The Higlanders and Eagles both bring a wealth of CWOSSA experience.  SJAM's 5th year guard Ben Reyhani, for instance, has been a regular at the CWOSSA championships and I'm sure would love nothing better than to end his career with an OFSAA berth.  As a team, though, SJAM will have to play much better than they did on Wednesday night if they hope to make that goal a reality.  Theshawn Barry and Connor Bradley will be called on to play more of a scoring role if SJAM is to advance.

St. John's was a late-shot away from advancing to the CWOSSA semifinals last year, after JF Ross nipped them in the final seconds.  Guard Tyler Van Leeuwen keys their attack and, like SJAM, most of these players have significant CWOSSA experience (Van Leeuwen has advanced in all 4 years of his junior and senior career).  

Pool Predictions

Again, it could come down to the late game to see who moves on, and certainly all teams could end up tied.  I'll go with the following:

CWDHS 2-0

SJAM 1-1

St. John's 0-2

Semifinals and Finals

Semis

Forest Heights over SJAM

St. Mary's over CWDHS

Championship

Forest Heights over St. Mary's - by single digits in a great game.