High school basketball: Sandy Creek one win away from three-peat

The Sandy Creek team gunning for its third consecutive state championship Wednesday is dramatically different from the past two.

Those teams — and most of the others during the successful tenure of coach Jon-Michael Nickerson — have featured a big man. There was 6-foot-10 Jabari Smith, a McDonald’s All-American who was the No. 3 draft pick by the Houston Rockets in 2022, and 6-7 Micah Smith, now a big contributor at Georgia Southern.

And while this year’s team has some height, most of its success has come closer to the ground. If the Patriots are going to become the first boys team to three-peat since Wilkinson County (Class A Public, 2017-19), most likely it will be the guards who are carrying the water.