Tony DiBiase first experienced the hold high school basketball has on small towns around Maine when he coached at Machias High in the late 1970s.
He experienced it in Gorham a few years later. Now DiBiase, in his latest stop, is experiencing the aura of small-town basketball again at Gray-New Gloucester High.
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DiBiase, in his first year with the Patriots, has Gray-New Gloucester headed to the Western Class B quarterfinals after Tuesday night’s 61-36 preliminary victory against Maranacook before a packed gym.
The eighth-ranked Patriots (11-8) will play top-seeded Greely (16-2) at 4:45 p.m. Saturday at the Portland Expo.
Reflecting on the full gym in the prelim game, DiBiase said: “We’ve had crowds like this all season. Small towns love their high school basketball.”
The Gray-New Gloucester gym filled up quickly and a few fans who showed up late had to be turned away. Those last fans who were fortunate to get admitted were standing in the corners.
Tonight begins the annual pilgrimage by fans to high school basketball tournament games in Bangor, Augusta and Portland. They’ll be converging on those locations through next week’s school vacation, culminating in regional championship games Feb. 26.
At the Augusta Civic Center and Bangor Auditorium, the tournaments’ top crowds traditionally are for Class C — schools with enrollments in the 300s.
MOUNTAIN VALLEY and Yarmouth play in different leagues and don’t meet during the regular season. Getting a scouting report on each other requires a little extra effort.
The teams will play Saturday in the Western Class B quarterfinals at the Portland Expo.
Late in the season, if there’s a chance a certain team might be an opening-round opponent or if one of those teams is in a prelim game, it’s a good bet the opposing coach and his players will be in attendance.
First-hand is the best way of scouting an opponent.
Short of that, coaches often rely on coaching friends who might have knowledge of an opponent.
That method has been used prior to state championship games for years.
In football, coaches exchange tapes, but basketball coaches always have used insights from coaching buddies.
With the class B, C and D regional tournaments on television, coaches have been able to watch their possible state final opponents.
Mountain Valley Coach Rick White hasn’t let playing in a different league slow him from getting information on Yarmouth. White has seen the Clippers live and said he has a 10-page scoring report on them.
White feels both teams closely mirror each other offensively. Points scored, points allowed, 2-pointers and 3-pointers are comparable.
White and the Falcons will know in about an hour or so from the opening tip if their scouting efforts paid off. So will Yarmouth, which hasn’t been standing idly by.
ONE OF THE drawbacks of the 50 percent rule for tourney qualification is some pretty good teams and players get left out.
That includes Nolan Allen of Windham, who led the SMAA with 24.8 points per game and was voted the league MVP.
The Eagles were on the cusp of making the Western Class A tournament but finished ninth in the Heal point standings after losing their finale against Bonny Eagle.
Allen, a junior, got to play in the tournament as a sophomore.
With a year’s experience, the Eagles, many of whom were seeing their first varsity action, should have a better chance of making the 2012 tournament.
Zach Bean of Scarborough is another top player whose season ended last week.
The Red Storm were in position to make the tourney but faded at the end, finishing 10th. Bean, a senior, averaged 15.6 points.
THEO BOWE of Cape Elizabeth, which will be in the Western Class B tournament, led the Western Maine Conference with 25.2 points per game.
Josh Britten of Yarmouth was second at 23.6 points, followed by Adam Jensen of Gray-New Gloucester at 23.5. Aaron Todd of York was the league’s leading rebounder at 10.5 per game.
Tyler McFarland of Camden Hills averaged 26.1 points per game to lead KVAC Class B. Teammate Keegan Pieri was third in the league at 19.8 points per game.
Bo Leary of Edward Little led KVAC Class A with 23.1 points per game.
Staff Writer Tom Chard can be reached at 791-6419 or at:
tchard@pressherald.com
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