Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: boys' basketball, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Cedar Rapids Washington, Des Moines, Linn-Mar, Marshalltown, state tournament, substate, Waterloo East, Wells Fargo Arena
Linn-Mar's Nate Hutcheson
As of Thursday night, every Metro boys’ basketball team was still kicking in the postseason. Marion played a 3A district final Thursday night against Williamsburg.
In Class 4A, all six Metro schools and both Iowa City’s schools have advanced into the substate semifinal round. That list will be pared starting Friday, considering there are some head-to-head matchups:
No. 2 Linn-Mar (19-2) hosts Cedar Rapids Xavier (7-14)
Cedar Rapids Washington (15-6) hosts Cedar Rapids Jefferson (11-10)
In other games Friday, No. 4 Cedar Rapids Kennedy (20-1) hosts Waterloo East (11-10). It’s Cedar Rapids Prairie (3-18) playing at sixth-ranked Iowa City High (16-5). Iowa City West (9-12) hosts Burlington (7-15).
It’s the Wash-Jeff winner facing the Linn-Mar/Xavier winner in a substate final at the U.S. Cellular Center on Tuesday night (8 p.m. tip). The City High-Prairie winner plays either West or Burlington in a 6:30 game at The Cell that same night.
Kennedy or East will play the winner of Friday night’s Marshalltown (ranked ninth)-Cedar Falls game in a Tuesday substate final at UNI’s McLeod Center.
So who will emerge out of all this to play in the state tournament in Des Moines in a couple of weeks?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ames, Bill Self, Billy Donovan, Florida, Harrison Barnes, Iowa, Kansas, Little Cyclones, Marshalltown, Todd Lickliter
So who do you like in that basketball recruiting battle?
Ran across a photo of Iowa men’s basketball coach Todd Lickliter discussing something with Kansas Coach Bill Self and Florida’s Billy Donovan last Friday night in Marshalltown. Bet it was Harrison Barnes.
The Ames junior star was in M-town to help his top-ranked Little Cyclones beat Marshalltown in a sold-out Roundhouse. That’s the name of Marshalltown’s gym, which is humongous, high school-wise, by the way.
My guess is the conversation went something like this:
Lickliter: “I’ll tell you what, guys. I promise not to recruit any guys out of Florida or Kansas in the next 10 years, if you lay off this Barnes kid. How many national titles do you need, anyway?”
Donovan is obviously dumb-founded (look at the photo). Self is simply astonished (again, look at the photo).
Diamonds and Ice 