2010 Holiday Classic

Congratulations to J Clarke Richardson....a twenty point win over the previously undefeated Vaughn Voyageurs. That's very impressive! It is definitely going to an interesting year!Once again it looks like it is wide open and about 8 teams of have a legit chance to win the 2011 OFSAA AAAA championship. The best team all season may not win and a team that is hot down the stretch or just playing well that particular OFSAA week might take it this year.

I called J Clarke as the winners, didn't get much else right though lol. But I did get that right so it does feel good. I'm interested in this Sacred Heart team, are they in any future GTA tournaments?

And on another note Pope folded in the competition, MT lost some close games but had a strong showing, and FHC also looked to bounce back strrong after playing a tough Sacred Heart team.

The final game score is a little deceiving Wiggins got injured in the last quarter and he could be seen limping and playing through pain through-out second half. Richardson probably would have won just because their shooting was hot and Vaughan was missing everything. I think if both teams were on their best day playing, Vaughan would win.

The team to watch out for at offssa is definitely going to be Sacred Heart. They were beating Vaughan by like 10 with two minutes left and Vauhgan got LUCKY with 4 three pointers down the stretch. The threes were pretty much impossible shots to hit too, Sacred Heart should have won the game.

Sacred Heart got some sniper shooters on their team and i dont think they even missed more than 1 or 2 free throws the entire game. Theire small guard Sean is raw and plays fierce and their big brown guy Gill is a technical beast who plays the game with brains.

Like I said this tournament was a pre offssa if not a better one cause more of the GTA teams were there and not some of the waste regions that just need a team there.

NEVAQUITNEVALOSE

You called the winner respect to you thumbs up.

jt I don't understand he was injured in the 4th but was limping through the second half? You can't say the final score is deceiving Vaughan lost the game. Excuses can be made but at the end of the day they got their asses handed to them. This was a 20 point loss to a talented team I don't quite see how one could call that luck. And heyy Wiggins got injured that just exposes Vaughan's weakness in terms of depth. This game its an injury, next time its because he got in foul trouble, and the next time he gets trapped in 10 ft of snow. I wasn't at the game so I can't say for sure but maybe J Clarke's D just did a number on Vaughan.

And thanks Gunta, though I missed out on Sacred Heart as a sleeper team. Definitely not going to overlook them at OFSAA they might make a run like St. Thomas More did last year.

I think people just hate to see J clarke win because they were an unknown until last season when they beat carr and pickering in i think the rim rocker last year

anyone have a break down of the final game? probably shows how much wiggins does for vaughan in terms of the attention he gets and spacing he creates for them... don't me me wrong with or without wiggins vaughan is still a top 16 team in the gta..but are they still top 3.. i dont know.

"jt I don't understand he was injured in the 4th but was limping through the second half? You can't say the final score is deceiving Vaughan lost the game. Excuses can be made but at the end of the day they got their asses handed to them. This was a 20 point loss to a talented team I don't quite see how one could call that luck."

I am telling u he was hurt the entire second half and then he went down in the 4th where he had to be taken out. Looked like he was crying they had to help walk him off he was down for about 5 minutes. Plus how you figure they got assess handed to them it was less than 10 point game when he left and the rest were just vaughan chucking up 3s to try to come back.

"don't me me wrong with or without wiggins vaughan is still a top 16 team in the gta..but are they still top 3.. i dont know."

Do you know anything about how ratings work. Look at how many teams vaughan already beat this year. They beat richardson 2X already. You should have seen the Sacred Heart team they beat, I bet they would have beaten Richardson. Vaughan is still #1 in gta, just because they had 1 loss to a team they beat already. Look how many losses richardson has this year.


Btw I aint riding vaughan ppl know me i rep PEEL but im telling it like it is, Vaughan is still the time to beat in GTA and Ontario. If you guys seen wiggins in final u would see he was hurt and he was still holding it down.

kkillah23 wrote:I think people just hate to see J clarke win because they were an unknown until last season when they beat carr and pickering in i think the rim rocker last year

Not in the Rimrocker. They beat Thornhill, West Hill, D'Youville, Ascension and Notre Dame (Brampton) on their way to winning the tournament.

I am in agreement with NEVA. jt making an excuse for the poor Vaughan team. When other teams lose nobody makes excuses for them. Other teams have had injuries, played without one or two starters. Parity is good for high school basketball.

Thumbs up to J Clarke for bouncing back in the semi final and beating the top team by 20!

Xavier Rimrocker wrote:

kkillah23 wrote:I think people just hate to see J clarke win because they were an unknown until last season when they beat carr and pickering in i think the rim rocker last year

Not in the Rimrocker. They beat Thornhill, West Hill, D'Youville, Ascension and Notre Dame (Brampton) on their way to winning the tournament.

yes I know about that tourny it was a different where they beat pickering. it was pickering 1st time in how ever many years losing to a durham team

jt wrote:"

I am telling u he was hurt the entire second half and then he went down in the 4th where he had to be taken out. Looked like he was crying they had to help walk him off he was down for about 5 minutes. Plus how you figure they got assess handed to them it was less than 10 point game when he left and the rest were just vaughan chucking up 3s to try to come back.

"don't me me wrong with or without wiggins vaughan is still a top 16 team in the gta..but are they still top 3.. i dont know."

Do you know anything about how ratings work. Look at how many teams vaughan already beat this year. They beat richardson 2X already. You should have seen the Sacred Heart team they beat, I bet they would have beaten Richardson. Vaughan is still #1 in gta, just because they had 1 loss to a team they beat already. Look how many losses richardson has this year.

Jt your comment on j Clarke are with a lack knowledge. Richardson has lost 2 games this season only once to Vaughn and to Oakwood. injuries dont mean any thing if the team can't beat a good school with out wiggins carrying the load then you can just compare then to the cavs team last year. a huge bust.

jt you didnt read it right.
He is saying that if you had to rank Vaughn without Wiggins they are not a top 3 team. He is not saying they are not a top 3 team now because they lost to J Clarke.
He is pointing out that they are an elite team because they have the best young player in the country. Pretty hard to argue with that.

Richardson has lost twice this year. They lost to Vaughn in Pool play at the Henry Carr Early Bird. The score in that game: Vaughn 82 J Clarke 72
Their other loss came to Oakwood at the Heinbach Tourney in Waterloo.
I think the score in that game was: Oakwood 54 J Clarke Richardson 53

Vaughn is a good team with or without Andrew Wiggins. However, he is that elite talented athlete/player who can make plays in tight games and get the job done. That's what separates the elite championship teams from the contenders. Julian Clarke did that for Oakwood last year. Anyone who attended OFSAA witnessed the big 3 point shots he hit in the J Clarke and St. Thomas More games to help Oakwood pull out close games.

A healthy Andrew Wiggins is a difference maker! However, if Tyrelle Samuels is constantly beating his man off the dribble and getting in the paint and J Clarke is bombing 3 pointers all game, then any team in the province is in big trouble. The season series is tied at 1-1. Hopefully they will meet at the St. MIkes tourney, the Mother Teresa Tourney that J Clarke Richardson won last year beating cross town rival Pickering High 79-69 in the final or maybe the Guy Vetrie Tourney before a possible showdown at the 2011 OFSAA aaaa championships in London.

Congrats to JC ,Vaughn is a good team but if you have to depend on one player then that team have no depth.
I have to look back at the Scared Heart game How could Vaughn let one player score 33 points which is half the score.Was there no defense in that game?

The JC vs Denison game was another one where 2 stars going at each other Pangos 39 points,Samuels 36.

gunta wrote:Congrats to JC ,Vaughn is a good team but if you have to depend on one player then that team have no depth.
I have to look back at the Scared Heart game How could Vaughn let one player score 33 points which is half the score.Was there no defense in that game?

The JC vs Denison game was another one where 2 stars going at each other Pangos 39 points,Samuels 36.

yea but it was the other way around Tsam 39 and Pangos 36. and 21 of pangos point were from the freethrow line so it wasnt really a battle

Congratulations to Eastern Commerce for organizing such an excellent tournament. For us (SH Ottawa) it was a great experience to play against some of the top teams in the province. Was tough losing to Vaughan, being up but we knew they weren't going to lay down and that's why they're #1. We learned a lot and will build on some of the good things we did. The recipe is simple, play hard defensively, rebound the basketball and hit some shots at the other end. Doing it collectively for 32 minutes is the tough part.

Unfortunately, we're done with GTA tournaments - heading out to Saskatoon for the BRIT early January and waiting to confirm our invitation to attend the prestigious 16 team All-Ontario Catholic Classic mid-February in St. Catharines. Should be interesting to see how the year unfolds, still lots of hoops to be played. Happy holidays and good luck to all the rest of the way!

Coach House

"jt you didnt read it right.
He is saying that if you had to rank Vaughn without Wiggins they are not a top 3 team. He is not saying they are not a top 3 team now because they lost to J Clarke."

Oh if he saying that then off course its true. Vaughan is definitely not a top 3 team without wiggins. But hey thats the cards they have been dealt and they got lucky that he returned this year.

Word on the block is that he will be gone by next year. In the latest newspaper article check this out:

There has been no firm decision about heading south to a prep school, but that has certainly been discussed.

Wiggins himself says it will likely happen sooner than later.

His dad knows it too. “I don’t know if he will be back in Canada,” Mitch Wiggins said. “We’ve had the top of the top prep schools calling since the (under-17) world championship. The top colleges are calling. We’re going to take our time and make the right decision.”

But if he stays for next 3 years Vaughan is going to be the team to beat cuz 3 of the starters Wiggins, Tan and Knight and just in grade 10 or 11. When you look at it like that Vaughan is definitely best team in gta cuz all the other teams starting lineups at this tourny were most grade 12s and 5th years (especially Richarson, whose program is going to take a big hit next year)

Was'nt He in Prep in the US last year ? why did he come back?

But if he stays for next 3 years Vaughan is going to be the team to beat cuz 3 of the starters Wiggins, Tan and Knight and just in grade 10 or 11. When you look at it like that Vaughan is definitely best team in gta cuz all the other teams starting lineups at this tourny were most grade 12s and 5th years (especially Richarson, whose program is going to take a big hit next year)[/quote]


yes the program is gunna take a hit but not as big as people might think. they still have a lot of talented grade 11's and 12's(gunna be 5th years next year) that will still be there that will attempt to fill the void

Actually i think richardson is going to be one of the teams that takes the biggest hit next year.

Nobody can deny it that Redpath, Alexander and Samuels are the only ones carrying that team and on top of that they are 5th years. If those 3 are off the team, Richardson won't barely be cracking top 16. Lets face it Richardson is a do or die team that can live by the 3 pointer or die by it. If they hot they hot, if they not game over.

but its not like that all the time, they are a fast past team that does their damage by getting alot of steals and converting on the offensive end. those 3 are the heart of their team but they still have a alot of grade 11's that can ball. you will be surprised.


Also they have a another 5th year guard thats injuryed right now. thats coming back in the new year, so they are gunna be very dangerous this year

I agree with jt on that. I GUARANTEE that next year J Clarke will fall off the radar once again. But the reason that J Clarke can hit so many threes starts with tyrelles dribble penetration. I've seen the kid play for years and its been very rare that people can keep him out of the paint. And on the other end of the court its like kkillah23 said the team likes to get out and run. J Clarke has onle 2 losses on the year, and they just avenged that loss. I would put J Clarke at #1 because ratings are based on the whole season but recent wins and losses are just as important, if not more important than overall record.

i agree without wiggins vaughan will be out of the top 3.....but take any teams top player out and they will drop.

Vaughan is still a talented team without him. I also believe they return the whole team (minus a bench player, and possibly wiggins)

JC Richarson is a very tough team, and can beat any team on any given day. They have a triple threat.

BTW JC was beating Vaughan most of the game last time they met