Laney and Westside are splashed all over Hoopseen.com and Kyle Sandy's state championship coverage... for good reason!

I so enjoy seeing Laney and Westside splashed all over Hoopseen.com ’s 3A state playoff coverage and Kyle Sandy’s 3A top 10 state rankings. These have to be the leaders in providing statewide basketball coverage and analysis.

Hoopseen calls Laney’s Wednesday evening first round game against Southwest Macon the class’s “best game” here:
http://www.hoopseen.com/index.php/news/headlines/item/4203-march-to-macon-aaa-state-playoffs-preview

The Suwannee based provider of “exposure” to aspiring basketballers goes on to identify Westside as a sort of “sleeper” in the race to Macon, where the state championship game is held (after a stop at Augusta University for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds next week!).

And Sandy Spiel ranks the area powers 3rd (Laney) and 9th (Westside) in the state here:

http://sandysspiel.com/week-13-rankings-state-playoffs/

All this attention is well deserved. Before Saturday’s 3A region championship game, which Laney won, was decided, these teams went back and forth during the third quarter (video above) for over two minutes with no whistles while four of the city's top ten players (Christian Keeling, then Trez Hawes, then Zep Jasper, then Christian Robinson, then Hawes again) splashed in jumpers on consecutive possessions. (See full 2+ minutes with no editing here - http://youtu.be/kIg3plE4IXk)

While filming this series of possessions I had the thought that it showed how great Augusta basketball is. These are highly skilled and highly competitive players. The two teams battled passionately three times this season and had me sort of shaking my head in wonder most of the time.

Like I said, the attention they are receiving is well deserved. So let’s get out to their home games Wednesday and cheer them on for wins! And Saturday too. Then if they are successful we can watch them on the biggest stage in town, Augusta University, next week.

Go Cats! Go Pats!

(Note: I have not blogged here much lately, at least by my standards. But I have been putting out tons of stuff at AugBball's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. So check those out.

I blogged about Laney and Westside because of all the attention they are getting and because it is easier to share a bunch of information and a bunch of links here. If all goes as planned, I'll blog again in the morning with Richmond Academy being the subject.)