Jane Miller- Ratings & Blogs

Jane Miller in Thursday edition mentions this blog. The PJS ratings for the area:

1- Richwoods 17-3

2- Galesburg 16-3

3- Morton  15-3

4- Central  11-6

5- Limestone  12-4 & ND  11-7

It is certainly flattering to be mentioned in same company with those teams. Those are some pretty good teams. It is exciting for us to go from not being mentioned at the beginning of the year to now be rated. The following is Jane Miller's story on this blog and more--

Coaches can be a good read

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Though both claim to be somewhat unhip when it comes to social media, Galesburg coach Evan Massey and Morton coach Bob Becker have ventured into the world of blogging.Each coach is taking a different approach.

Becker has a formally set-up website built by Dave Byrne, father of freshman Kate Byrne.

It features photos of players and coaches, biographical information about each, a schedule with updated results and some historical data. Becker is refreshingly candid and unfiltered so his blogs are entertaining.

The web address is mortonladypotters.com.

Massey’s is more of a personal site. Though there is information about Galesburg’s games and milestones this season, the site is not affiliated with the high school. As Massey says in his introduction, “As a coach, I wanted to share information about my basketball interests. The reason for choosing ‘Massey Basketball’ is to make sure people understand this is not an official blog of Galesburg HS. The blog is designed to provide information about Streaks Basketball, System Basketball, Massey-Purlee Shooting Camps, and more.”

Massey does a lot of interviews and did one with me early in the season. He also writes what we in the newspaper business would call opinion pieces, where he responds to comments about the team and generally gives his views on a variety of basketball-related subjects.

Anyone who knows Massey knows what an interesting and thoughtful person he is, so it’s stating the obvious to say every post is a good read.

The address is masseybasketball.blogspot.com.

KNIGHTS HOBBLED: The injury bug has bit Richwoods hard the last few weeks.

Starting forward Susan Lynd has been out since Dec. 21 with torn knee ligaments and is done for the season. She’ll have surgery later this month.

Starting point guard Maggie Cunningham reaggravated her sprained ankle and is questionable for this weekend’s game against Lincoln.

Last year’s Journal Star Player of the Year Mariah Smith (17.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game) has been battling tendon problems in her foot and starting forward Karissa London also has a sprained ankle.

“I told the kids, last year when Katie Murphy broke a bone in her foot, it gave other kids an opportunity,” said Richwoods coach Todd Hursey. “Did we lose some games along the way? Yeah, we did. But when Katie when out against Notre Dame in the regional championship with four fouls and we played six or seven minutes without her and when Mariah got hurt in that same game and we had to play three or four minutes without her, we didn’t miss a beat because the (other) kids had played a lot of minutes, they were prepared for it and the same thing’s going to happen here.”

Though Saturday’s game probably won’t be challenging — Lincoln was winless at the Manual Holiday Tournament and averaged 24 points in those four games — the Knights have a huge stretch of games coming up.

In an eight-day span, Richwoods plays all four of the schools in its regional — Central on Tuesday, Manual on the 20th, Dunlap on the 22nd and Notre Dame on the 25th.

The seeding vote is the 27th.

“Talk about a critical four-game stretch,” said Hursey.

To fill spots vacated by some of those injuries, Hursey has brought sophomores Gabby Cunningham and Brenna Detra up to the varsity. Detra, a state medalist sprinter and hurdler in track, scored 11 points in her first varsity game. Cunningham is averaging 5.2 rebounds per game.