By Michael Letendre
The upcoming boys Central Connecticut Conference Tournament can’t start soon enough because on Monday, March 22, a couple huge showdowns will be taking place that could rattle all the local polls and rankings.
In terms of the top tier, which will include the best eight teams in the conference, the division is going to be stacked.
The recent GameTimeCT Top 10 boys basketball poll has four of its first five slots occupied by squads from the CCC which doesn’t include undefeated Maloney (10-0).
For all the heat the CCC gets around the state, the league truly boasts some of the best and most talented squads you’ll find in Connecticut.
In that top tier of the upcoming CCC Tournament, No.1 East Catholic (9-0) will be one of the squads vying for that championship.
The program earned 17 of the polls 18 first place votes in the latest GameTimeCT Top 10 rankings.
Just last week, the Eagles spun Manchester (79-34) and South Windsor (85-31) and was really only challenged by East Hartford (66-55) back on February 16.
Brody Limric and company are about as good a team as you’ll find this year, and even as the program has to play three games in four days this week, East Catholic should be undefeated as the postseason commences.
Second in the poll is Northwest Catholic, earning the only other first place vote that East Catholic did not receive this week, and the squad is 11-0 off its 59-46 victory over Enfield on Monday.
Yes, the Lions survived two overtime games last week with wins over Hall (56-54) and Simsbury (61-56) but should enter the postseason without a loss after playing slumping Hartford Public this Thursday.
The poll has Sacred Heart, a Naugatuck Valley League school that will close its doors at the end of the year, ranked third while Windsor (10-1) has just one loss and scored 100 or more points twice this season.
The Warriors are going to be a match-up problem for all the squads in CCC postseason play.
Bristol Central (No. 5, 11-0) has shown remarkable balance as of late and when the program dumped New Britain on Monday, the team look primed for a three-game postseason run next week.
The Rams spun the Hurricanes by a 73-40 final from New Britain and a few Bristol players notched career high point totals.
Damion Glasper dumped 25 points on the Hurricanes, his best ever showing in a Bristol Central uniform, while Victor Rosa had his first double-figure scoring game.
His 11 points was a career-high as was D’Ante Ross’s 10.
Sean Wininger added 10 points while Bristol Central’s All-State center, Donovan Clingan, added 14 points to the winning effort as five different players tallied ten or more points for Central against New Britain.
That’s a dangerous proposition for opponents when the Rams show that kind of scoring balance and ability.
Just outside of the top-10 is Maloney, while Middletown – a squad very few people have been talking about – is hanging in at 9-1.
That could change tonight because those two squads, Maloney and Middletown, are on the docket in a huge Region D showdown from Meriden.
A loss by Maloney, who was able to pickoff the Blue Dragons 50-45 in Middletown back on February 22, would drop the number of undefeated squads in the CCC to three.
Two teams, the ones reaching the final round in all four tiers, will play three times next week in the CCC Tournament with games commencing on Monday and then every other day after that.
And teams like Central are itching to get that tournament going as the Rams will be in the spotlight against some of Connecticut’s elite squads for the first time this season.
NOTES…In CCC tournament play, the team with the best record will be the home team. Also vying for a spot in that top-8 is Edwin O. Smith (8-2), East Hartford (7-3), Glastonbury (6-3), and New Britain (5-3)…Each team will play at least two games next week.
