weekend review

Just small bullets today.  Deprived of bowl preparations, this time of year is so bereft of news and such that I might end up posting a full-blown preview of the Morgan State game on Wednesday.  (On second thought no.  Not that desperate.)  Anyway.

-- It's highly unlikely you missed the fact that the basketball side of the Big East finally snapped and voted to leave the conference.  Things would've been even more entertaining had they been able to vote to dissolve it entirely.  (Realignment is all fun and games when it's going on below you.)  I think the final word on dissolution was they needed two football-school votes, so it's a shame they didn't latch onto this idea before Rutgers left.  (Just to see if anyone could ever top the dick move of voting to dissolve the conference while secretly knowing you have an invite from somewhere else.)

At any rate, what's left is a Conference of Sanity, coming sometime in the future to hoops only, and a spread-out agglomeration of random former CUSA and MWC schools.  And Connecticut, but let's face it, a football program that isn't even old enough for a drivers' license is hard to have a lot of sympathy for.  Does that suck for their hoops program?  Yes, but then, Memphis seemed to do just fine as the one behemoth in CUSA.

As for the ACC, it probably means nothing in the short-term.  The main effect is that now, Notre Dame can't figure out what it's supposed to do if it wants to leave early. (Had the rumored dissolution occurred, it would've quadrupled the weird factor, since in that case ND and Louisville would've been free to jump right in next year.  In which case we would've had to figure out what to do with Maryland, since the B1G would've probably added Rutgers early as well and would've been likely to demand Maryland's freedom too.  But that's all moot now.  The Zombie Big East will carry on without much direction for a little while longer yet.

UConn and Cincinnati are no doubt feeling rather out in the cold right now, but they'll be around if the ACC needs them.  (Let's hope it doesn't.)  Pre-emptive expansion would be a bad idea.  If for some reason the Big Ten decides to add UConn, I'd be furious as a B1G fan but highly relieved as an ACC fan, and the scales, in case you're wondering, would tilt decidedly towards my ACC loyalties.  I don't want to see UVA in the Big Ten, that's why.

-- Rumorz on the LaxPower forum are harbingers of a tough time to be a UVA goalie hopeful.  Dan Marino has (another) broken thumb and Austin Geisler has transferred to High Point.  Geisler is no longer on the roster, so there's your corroboration.  Marino's thumb is newsworthy this time around because there isn't time for it to heal before the preseason, or even perhaps the season itself.  That turns a three-man derby for the starting gig into a one-man derby: Rhody Heller, as the last man standing, is now almost certain to start the season in net.  And he needs to spend the next few weeks lovingly encased in bubble wrap, because after that is nobody who's a solution.

-- It's been almost two years since we had to put up with a decommitment, so the time was ripe.  Losing Brad Henson to North Carolina, though, stings a bit.  More so than any recent decommitment I can think of, going back several years.  Henson was the most highly-sought-after member of the O-line class (obviously) and part of the succession plan at center.  Thinness at the O-line (partly due to Tim Cwalina's unfortunate heart condition) was causing the coaches to pursue a fourth offensive lineman for the class, but now they'll have to make it a priority.  Decommitments are not in and of themselves worth getting worked up over, but Henson's handling of the situation ("two-faced" would not be a complete stretch) left much to be desired.  Contrast that with Tim Harris, who, if he decommits (I don't think he will, but you never know) will at least have been up front about his intentions.

-- Will Stewart at ITA has an excellent article that does a nice job of reading between the lines of the WaPo's behemoth article on Maryland's move to the Big Ten.  Top quote:

"30 years as a career academic administrator at the collegiate level, and Loh admits to knowing almost nothing about athletic conferences, other than 'there are games.' And he’s the driving force behind moving Maryland to the Big Ten."

Admittedly some of the article plays on the emotional pull of historical matchups and tradition and yadda yadda, none of which anyone that makes any decisions gives a shit about.  But here is a guy who used to know nothing about athletic conferences other than "there are games," and now knows nothing about athletic conferences other than "there are games, and some conferences have more money than others."  And he decided exactly what you'd expect someone would decide given no knowledge but that which relates to money, and only that knowledge which Jim Delany deigned to let him in on.  A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

the recruit: Brad Henson

Name: Brad Henson
Position: OL
Hometown: Surf City, NJ
School: Monsignor Donovan
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 275

24/7: 87, three stars; #26 OG, NJ #19
ESPN: 75, three stars; #65 OG, NJ #31, Atl. #131
Rivals: 5.7, three stars; #22 OG, NJ #12
Scout: three stars; #17 OG

Other offers: Miami, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, NC State, West Virginia, Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut, various others

If you liked the Jack McDonald commitment, you loved the Brad Henson one, since it came one day later.  Everyone loves when that happens.  It had the makings of the guy who watches the doors closing and decides to hop on before the train leaves.

Henson is a tough one to peg.  The scouting services have him as a highish three star, except ESPN where you can just see the meh oozing out of the screen.  Yet his offer list is four-star all the way; solid interest from the SEC, about half the ACC, and that quasi-holy-grail of O-lineman offers, Wisconsin.  And then you have his position.  ESPN says guard all the way.  Rivals says, "Henson has the length and frame to be a prototypical left tackle."  And where will the coaches use him when he gets here?  Center.

It's a good fit, I think.  Henson played center his junior year, and he has experience on the inside as he's also played a significant amount of OG.  He's your basic smart-head-on-his-shoulders kid that UVA would take every time if they could, and for another thing, he does well with the concept of leverage.  Whereas the dominant theme in, say, Morgan Moses's highlight tapes was him trucking some hapless defender thirty yards straight downfield whether or not the play required it, Henson is more adept at scooting the defender in a direction unsuitable to making a tackle.  A center needs to do this all the time.  You don't want the guy downfield, you want him out of the way.  Michigan's David Molk was way undersized and not remarkably strong and won the Rimington Trophy because he was absolutely perfect at adeptly pointing defensive tackles in the wrong direction.

The scouting services do agree, however, that Henson needs to get stronger.  I mean, that's dazzlingly obvious for any offensive lineman, but they say it so often and so consistently (and Henson looks kinda doughy in some of his pictures) that they probably really mean it.  It's also been mentioned a couple times, however, that he's already bigger than the listed 275 and is probably pushing 285-290.  And they all make a point to speak well of his physicality, always an asset.

I wouldn't worry much about ESPN's lukewarm evaluation; as you know it's generally better to assume that a dozen coaching staffs with a scarcity of scholarships to offer out have a better idea of talent when they see it than one analyst who has a job whether or not he's right.  Henson is the leading member of an offensive line class big on quality, if not quantity.  UVA whiffed on every instate lineman worth anything and still came away with a better O-line class than Tech did, and Henson is a big reason.  Assuming he sticks it out at center, and assuming the succession plan at center stays the same, Henson will fall in line behind Ross Burbank and serve a lengthy apprenticeship before getting the job in his junior year.  Center is tricky, and not everyone can handle it, but Henson is as well-equipped as anyone for it.

**************************************************************

Senior Seasons, yo.  This is the last week in which everyone will play; four seasons are complete and awaiting their playoffs.  Speaking of which, the GP South Blue Devils ended theirs in the first round by taking a fully-expected beating at the hands of Cass Tech.  Cass Tech routinely sends players to Division I.  South does not.  (And when they do, said player shows exceedingly poor judgment.)

Salisbury 47, Brunswick 35: Sadiq Olanrewaju got into the backfield on defense and helped rack up three sacks.  Salisbury is 6-0.

Good Counsel 30, Bishop O'Connell 0: Brendan Marshall was 10 of 16 and scored a touchdown on a keeper, but the more exciting news is that Andre Levrone is back on the field.  Levrone caught three passes for 34 yards in his return.  OLGC is 8-1.

Concord 21, A.L. Brown 14: Levrone isn't the only receiver back on the field.  Keeon Johnson is back too, and caught a couple of big passes to set up a Kannapolis touchdown.  Brown is 8-3.

South Iredell 30, East Burke 0: LaChaston Smith chipped in on the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run.  South Iredell is 9-2.

Oscar Smith 27, Grassfield 0: Zack Jones caught a touchdown pass, and Oscar Smith secured the district title.  Oscar Smith is 7-2.

Ocean Lakes 41, Landstown 0: Three more touchdown passes for Turtle Cutler.  Ocean Lakes is 9-0.

Gilman 48, McDonogh 12 (Micah Kiser) - Gilman is 7-2.
Damascus 14, Seneca Valley 13 (Zach Bradshaw) - Damascus is 9-0.
Potomac 27, C.D. Hylton 21 (Donta Wilkins) - Potomac is 6-3.
BC High 44, Malden Catholic 0 (Jack McDonald) - BC High is 3-4.
Monsignor Donovan 36, Central Regional 0 (Brad Henson) - Donovan is 5-2.
Houston Westside 49, Houston MS&T 7 (Hipolito Corporan) - Westside is 5-3.
Bayside 34, Cox 27 (Taquan Mizzell) - Bayside is 8-2.
Fork Union 39, Benedictine 30 (Malcolm Cook) - FUMA is 8-2.
Varina 44, Glen Allen 0 (Tim Harris) - Varina is 7-1.
Woodberry Forest 13, St. Christopher's 6 (Jack English) - St. Chris is 5-4.

Two of those wins - Damascus's and Potomac's - qualify as decent-sized upsets.  Hylton is a very good team and has a top-flight junior athlete named Travon McMillian who'll definitely show up on the 2014 recruiting board in some fashion.

Four regular seasons are over.  Bayside will wait a bit before learning their playoff fate.  They're in, they just need an opponent.  Gilman secured the #1 seed and a bye week in their six-team conference tourney, and will play one of two teams they crushed earlier.  They don't do state playoffs.  The two North Carolina squads are both in and heavily favored in their first round matchups, though Keeon Johnson and A.L. Brown will have an awfully difficult time in the second round.  (Then again, Brown is a team that would've dominated the earth if they hadn't been completely slammed with injuries, so perhaps it's them that is the nightmare second-round game that nobody wanted.)  The vast majority of the rest of the regular seasons wrap up next weekend.