Juwan Staten and Oak Hill face St. Patrick on Friday.
File photo by Randy Sartin
Snow in the Northeast corner of the country and strong winds and rain along the Atlantic Coast have been a disruptive force on the hardwood this month.
Basketball games in at least 22 states – ranging from Ohio to Tennessee to Vermont – and the District of Columbia have been canceled or postponed. Thirteen nationally-ranked teams in this week’s Xcellent 25 have had contests impacted in the last 10 days.
MaxPreps.com Hall of Famer writer Dave Krider couldn’t immediately think of a time when weather produced a wider wrath of mass cancellations during nearly 50 years of covering the high school scene.
“I think it's safe to say it is among the worst,” Krider said.
Snow in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend prevented national No. 2 Northland from making the trek to Saginaw, Mich., to face No. 21 Detroit Country Day (Beverly Hills, Mich.). It was a bitter disappointment as the game was organized by 17-year old high school senior Christian Vaughn-Dawkins as the headliner of the Dorian Dawkins Show Your Heart Memorial Classic.
The event was a tribute to the late Dorian Dawkins, who passed tragically at the age of 14 last June.
“It’s very disappointing. We want to play the best and hopefully we have demonstrated that,” Northland head coach Satch Sullinger said. “It was an overnight trip and we go to the city championships, then the state draw and then state playoffs. It’s impossible (to make up).”
The Vikings also had a game against Columbus Beechcroft postponed Tuesday night. Sullinger was confident the game will be played Thursday.
“We were out of school today, but will be in tomorrow,” Sullinger said.
With forecasters predicting weather patterns to improve, it should clear the way for arguably the most star-studded lineup of the season at the PrimeTime Shootout in New Jersey.
The showcase is slated for Friday at Kean University in Union and Saturday and Sunday at Sun National Bank Center in Trenton. Six of the nation’s top 25 teams – including No. 5 St. Benedict’s (Newark, N.J.), No. 10 Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.), No. 11 St. Patrick (Elizabeth, N.J.) and No. 12 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) – are slated to play.
In an event full of games that would headline many events, Friday's pairing of St. Patrick and Oak Hill Academy rises above. Oak Hill's recent schedule has been severely impacted by the weather with four games wiped out since Jan. 29.
Findlay Prep head coach Michael Peck had no concerns about making the trip East, other than leaving the much toastier temps of suburban Las Vegas.
“I just looked at the weather report,” Peck said. “It looks like it is going to be cold but sunny.”
Look for more on the PrimeTime Shootout at MaxPreps.com on Thursday.
