NCMC Showcase Preview: Pickford v Harbor Springs

Holiday tournaments are happening all over the state, and today we're checking out two Northern Michigan heavy hitters with the 3-0 Pickford Panthers taking on the 5-1 Harbor Springs Rams at the North Central Michigan College Showcase in Petoskey. I like both of these coaching matchups with first-year Pickford coach Tracy Peterson going up against hall-of-famer John Flynn. Both have a lot of basketball knowledge and field very athletic and talented teams. These two teams also match up well with their respective starters. Let's roll through the match-up.    [player_tooltip player_id='2112170' first='Braeden' last='Flynn'] has had a great season so far, surpassing 1,000 points in the first game of the season against Mancelona. He also had a team-lifting game against Charlevoix, where he dumped in 25 including two clutch free throws toward the end of the game. Today Braeden will go up against a deep Pickford team, so the Rams will need Braeden to stay out of foul trouble and shoot well from the floor to have success.     Tommy Storey is coming off an apparent excellent work-out off-season. He has bulked up quite a bit and added even more foot speed and agility. He matches up well with Harbor Springs' guards and will undoubtedly be tasked with guarding Rider or Braeden. I look forward to Storey and Flynn's similar foot speed as they go head to head. Pickford is a bit behind this season when it comes to practices and games played due to a deep state championship run in football, however, they look to pick up right where they left off before the Christmas Break. They sit at 3-0 and have stacked up some solid points against some EUPC teams.     [player_tooltip player_id='2218043' first='Rider' last='Bartel'] and Braeden make an excellent 1-2 punch in the Harbor Springs backcourt. They feed well off each other and almost have a telepathy-type persona amongst each other. They both play very unselfish basketball and are great defenders. Rider has a very smooth shot from the elbow and out as he plays off of a ball screen. I noticed he does very well at getting offensive rebounds which attributes to great second-chance shots.     Like Eli's contributions to an excellent Pickford team. He matches up well against Harbor Springs' Bartel and both are similar to where they can catch fire from beyond the arc at any moment. Eli consistently impresses us with his work ethic and ability to jump out of the gym. A testament to his athleticism, he leads the team in double-doubles and usually leads the stat column in rebounds on both teams. Second-chance points and low turnovers is going to be the key to this game and Eli will need to take charge in both categories.     Collin Lang has been in charge of the dirty work down low for the Rams this season. Alongside his cohort Aaron Sowles, the two bigs have been a force of unsung heroes. They took a pretty hard beating against Maple City-Glen Lake's Plamondon, but did well in gathering rebounds for being outsized in the height column. Both of these boys can jump and shoot, which adds two very nice arrows to their quiver. These two bigs could be the difference-maker for this game as Pickford does lack in the size department.     One of Pickford's best finishers. Athletic, fast, evasive, and shifty. Will need to make it to the rim successfully for Pickford to have a chance. Like his ability to break free from his defender and make it to the hoop. I also like his shot from the elbow. When he gets double-teamed, he has a good ability to find the open man. I particularly like Pickford's ability to swing or skip pass the ball against a zone defense, and then get off a nice open three.

Holiday tournaments are happening all over the state, and today we're checking out two Northern Michigan heavy hitters with the 3-0 Pickford Panthers taking on the 5-1 Harbor Springs Rams at the North Central Michigan College Showcase in Petoskey. I like both of these coaching matchups with first-year Pickford coach Tracy Peterson going up against hall-of-famer John Flynn. Both have a lot of basketball knowledge and field very athletic and talented teams. These two teams also match up well with their respective starters. Let's roll through the match-up.