I spent the Class AA quarterfinals and semifinals rounds in Milledgeville, and was the media's only member to cover all 12 games played between girls and boys competition. Below are some insights I gathered while watching the best competition AA has to offer, including a championship preview and additional tidbits from the three-day event held at Georgia College.
It seems not that long ago that Pace Academy was crowned Class AA state football champions. Less than three months later, the Knights are a win away from a AA basketball title.
The Knights (20-9), a No. 1 seed from Region 6, will play the No. 4 Manchester Blue Devils (25-5) – a No. 1 seed from Region 5 – on Friday at 4:45 p.m. at the Macon Centerplex. Should they win, they will have beaten the top four ranked teams around them in the playoffs, including No. 1 Thomasville, No. 3 Crawford County and the Blue Devils.
But playing high-level competition is nothing new to the 2014-15 Knights. In fact, a tough schedule is one of the reasons the Knights began the season 2-8. They were playing some of the top in-state competition in A's No. 1 Greenforest, AAAAAA's No. 3 Westlake and AA's No. 6 GAC. Westlake and Greenforest are a win away from winning their classification's state title. The Knight's also played stiff out-of-state competition in two holiday tournaments in South Carolina. The competition included North Carolina's top-ranked overall team and nation's No. 23 team, Providence Day and Lower Richland (S.C.), Gainesville (Fla.), Laurens (S.C.) and Rocky River (N.C.). All of those games were losses.
An argument could be made that, while the Knights played the best, they didn't beat the best. Well, that's where the second reason they got off to a tough start comes in: they were missing players. The nation's overall top class of 2017 player, 6-foot-10 center Wendell Carter, missed five games and power forward Isaiah Kelley missed four with injuries. The Knights went 0-5 during that stretch. In addition, they were missing five players - including starting point guard Deon Jackson - who were busy helping to deliver Pace the aforementioned state football title.
It wasn't until Jan. 11 - nearly halfway into the season - that the Knights' team, as currently constructed, practiced together for the first time. Since that day, the Knights have a 14-2 record, with their only losses coming to Tennessee's No. 3 overall ranked team Brentwood, and Lovett - another AA quarterfinalist - in overtime.
Knights coach Demetrius Smith said the team is better for having played through the rough start.
"The ultimate goal was to play that schedule so we could handle the south Georgia teams when we get there, so that's paying off," Smith said after Pace eliminated top-ranked Thomasville 78-48 in the quarterfinals.
At this point, the Knights look almost unstoppable. Carter and Kelly are dominating down low with rebounding and dunk after dunk, and small forward Zach Kaminsky complements the two nicely with an effective inside-outside game. When those three get going, it helps to give open looks from 3, with Barrett Baker the most notable of the guards taking advantage.
If there's one weakness the Knights have, it's protecting the ball in transition. Crawford County effectively ran a full-court press that resulted in a number of points off turnovers, which kept the Eagles in the game until the Knights finally pulled away in the fourth quarter.
If the Blue Devils can apply the same or better pressure on the Knights' guards in transition, they'll have a chance. They'll also need another big game from Demarcus Addie, who led the Blue Devils with a 26-point scoring average in the quarters and semis.
And as well as Pace has played since Jan. 11, the Blue Devils have the better record in that span. They're currently riding a 19-game win streak, with their last loss coming on Jan. 5 to Central (Phenix City, Ala.), the Cotton State's No. 3 overall-ranked team.
In fact, Manchester played Central twice, losing both games by a 30-point average. Central was the toughest team by far that the Blue Devils have played all season.
So who's going to win? One gauge could be the Maxwell Rankings, which have Pace as the state's 57th-best team, regardless of classification, and Manchester as ranked No. 64.
Before the tournament began, I correctly pegged Manchester and Pace to meet in the title game, and here we are. Back then, I picked the Knights to win AA championship and after having seen both teams play twice in Milledgeville, I'm more convinced than ever the championship trophy is going to the Knights.
The Blue Devils are an excellent team, with Addie, solid guard play from Jah'Nile Hill and Cardarian Brown and a formidable frontcourt that includes Jerquavion Mahone and Bobby Stevenson. But I think the Knights' Carter-Kelly-Kaminsky combination will simply be too much for the Blue Devils.
Final score: Pace 75, Manchester 57
- Clyde Zachery has coached Crawford County since 1981 and has led the Eagles to back-to-back titles ('81, '82), a runner-up finish, three semifinals, a quarterfinals and five Sweet Sixteens during that span. He has a sense of humor, too. After beating Holy Innocents' on Friday to advance to the semis, he was asked what it would take to get to Macon (which meant a trip to the title game). "Beat the next opponent," he said with a smile.
- Speaking of Holy Innocents', it's always fun to watch an underdog claw its way up the bracket. The unranked Golden Bears advanced the furthest of any No. 4 seed, and out of Region 6 they upset No. 10 Model, beat Swainsboro and put up a fight against No. 3 Crawford County, trailing by just seven points late in the fourth quarter. No other four-seed made it out of the opening round.
- Of the six boys games played at Georgia College, all wins came by double digits, with the average margin of victory being 13.8 points. The largest margin of victory was 27 by Pace over Thomasville, and the smallest was 10 by three teams: Pace over Crawford Co., Manchester over Monticello and Crawford County over Holy Innocents'.
- Here's an updated look at my bracket:
Credit: Adam Krohn
Credit: Adam Krohn
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