February 22nd, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Congratulations to Coach Ray Lauwers, who won his 600th game at SMCC Thursday.Counting his 31 wins at Detroit Annunciation, he now has 631 career coaching victories, making him one of the winningest coaches in state boys basketball history. (http://www.mhsaa.com/games/recbbb.html#coach)Here’s a link to look at his year by year record: www.monroenews.com/assets/pdf/MP39859222.PDF Here’s an excerpt from the 2008 Prep Basketball reference guide (on sale now! — shameless plug, I know) - keep in mind this is straight out of the book. You have to add this year’s 13-7 mark to get to 631:Ray Lauwers has compiled an incredible career at SMCC.Prior to coming to Monroe, Lauwers coached four seasons at Detroit Annunciation:1963-64 (11-7); 1964-65 (7-11); 1965-66 (6-12); 1966-67 (7-11); TOTAL (31-41)Since taking over the Monroe Catholic Central program, here’s what Lauwers has accomplished:-587 wins, bringing his overall record to 618-329. [It's 600-295 after Thursday, so 631-336 overall]- Michigan Associated Press Coach of the Year in 1976. That Falcon team posted an 18-3 overall record, owned a 15-game winning streak and finished No. 4 in the statewide AP poll.- United Press International Michigan Class B Coach of the Year in 1985. That Central powerhouse notched the school’s best hoop record at the time of 21-2 and No. 1 winning skein at 20 in a row.- Region Coach of the Decade for the 1980s over stiff competition.- Monroe County Region Coach of the Year nine times.- Won 12 District championships- Won 12 league championships- On Jan. 28, 2006, SMCC officially named the court where the Falcons play “Coach Lauwers Court.”
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February 20th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
St. Mary Catholic Central Coach Ray Lauwers is getting closer to another milestone — his 600th career coaching victory. Lauwers has a 598-284 record heading into Thursday’s game at Blissfield. Blissfield is coached by John Vandecaveye, who recently won his 250th game as head coach of the Royals, and played for Lauwers at SMCC. Both are featured in the history book, which are still available at Evening News offices.
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February 19th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Whiteford came up short in its biggest game of the season Tuesday, losing to the Tri-County Conference champion Madison Trojans, 69-46.
The Bobcats were never really in the game and a 24-point, 10-rebound performance by forward Dave Gust was the only thing that kept Whiteford from being blown out early in the contest.
Madison scored the first 11 points of the game and held the Bobcats scoreless for half of the first quarter. Gust scored 13 of Whiteford’s first 17 points and helped lift the Bobcats within two at 20-18 at the midpoint of the second quarter.
Then, the wheels fell of the Bobcat bus. Madison went on a 11-2 run to close out the second quarter, including a free throw after a technical foul and a pretty buzzer beater that gave the Trojans (18-1, 14-1 in the TCC) a 31-20 halftime margin.
It never got better for the Bobcats as the Trojans continued to build on its lead with short runs of its own. Whiteford cut the lead to 13 with two minutes left in the third quarter but a buzzer-beater by Chase Mann at the end of the third quarter extended the lead back to 15 points entering the final stanza.
Jake Agruda scored a career high 26 points for Madison. Vince Beekel added 17 and Jon Vallejo 11.
Mann, the Trojans’ four-year point guard chipped in with eight. Jacob Crison scored three points but more importantly for Madison shadowed Whiteford’s top scorer, Josh DuPree. DuPree scored only once, on a broken play layup off a steal. He missed his other six floor shots to give him 2 points on the night. He came into the game averaging 23 points a contest and challenging Flat Rock’s Devon Crain for the Monroe County Region scoring lead. His basket came with 4:14 remaining in the game.
Madison outscored the Bobcats in every quarter, had only eight turnovers and forced Whiteford into 20 miscues. The Trojans scored the final 10 points of the game to seal the outright TCC championship. The Bobcats play at home Thursday against Sand Creek.
Whiteford and Madison could meet again. Both schools are in the Class C District at Blissfield, but are on opposite sides of the bracket and couldn’t meet until the finals.
Whiteford is 16-3 (12-3 in the TCC) on the season, with two of its losses coming to Adrian Madison.
The TCC crown is Madison’s sixth all-time, and first since 2001. Trojan coach Jeff Webster played on TCC champion teams in 1978 and 1979 for Madison and now has coached the squad to a league title. He’s the first boys basketball coach in league history to play on and coach a league champ. He played for Jim Hartley, now Madison’s superintendent.
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February 18th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard won its third consecutive Catholic School League tournament Sunday, beating Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in the finals. The Fighting Irish improved to 14-5 with one regular season game left. Eso Akunne and Josh Herbeck are two outstanding players for the Irish and both are underclassmen.
Gabriel Richard could face a couple of Monroe County Region teams in its tournament run. The Irish face Greenhills in their District opener with the winner playing Dundee. On the other side of the bracket is St. Mary Catholic Central, who would have to get by Clinton and then Romulus Summit Academy to get to the finals. Like I said before, this year’s Class C tournament has the makings to be really fun.
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February 18th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Ron Montri writes in today’s Evening News about the big week Whiteford faces. It’s simple for Whiteford: They win both games this week and the worst they can do is tie for the TCC championship. The Bobcats face Adrian Madison Tuesday. The Trojans are 17-1 and handed Whiteford its first loss earlier this season, 65-62. Whiteford then has 13-5 Sand Creek on Thursday, a team that is dangerous due the outside shooting of Fred Smith and the inside ability of 6-foot-10 Alex Croll. Whiteford has won just one TCC title since 1989, that coming in 2003.
Tuesday’s game is the biggest for Whiteford since that 2003 season when it faced 18-2 Blissfield in the District quarterfinal and 23-0 Hanover-Horton in the Class C Regional.
Josh DuPree continues to lead the Bobcats in scoring, averaging 23.3 points a game. Dave Gust is making a bid to average 20 points a game himself as he is at 19.23. Both could be in line for post-season honors.
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February 15th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
I blogged before on how I was looking forward to the Class C state tournament. One of those reasons are the games are going to be in our backyard and lots of good teams will be playing, from the District sites (Blissfield, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard) to the Regionals (Adrian Madison) and Quarterfinal (Whitmore Lake). A local prep basketball fan could follow the Class C tournament by going to games and not having to drive across the state to do so.
I’ve put a bracket on here showing the road to the Whitmore Lake Class C boys quarterfinal. Someday I’d like to have the whole state tournament laid out into a bracket. Wouldn’t that be great on your wall? Go to http://www.monroepublishing.com/images/districtpairings.pdf to see the bracket.
Incidentally, every boys basketball District pairing I’ve seen thus far has the boys playing Monday-Wednesday-Friday. There are no Tuesday or Thursday or Saturday’s in there. Why? Because boys district week is the same as girls regional week. Those games will be played on those nights.
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February 15th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
The race to be the 2008 Monroe County Region’s boys scoring champion continues to tighten.
Whiteford’s Josh DuPree scored 28 points last night vs. Morenci and now has 423 points — 16 points behind Devon Crain of Flat Rock. That’s a lot to make up with only a handful of games remaining, but, remember, The Evening News counts the tournaments in determining the scoring champion. There’s also a great race for fourth between Dave Gust of Whiteford and Nic Jobe of Ida. Here’s a look at the leading scorers in the Region through last night’s games:
1. Devon Crain, Flat Rock, 18 games-439 points-24.4 average
2. Josh DuPree, Whiteford, 18 games-423 points-23.5 average
3. Ryan Winningham, Carlson, 17 games, 376 points-22.1 average
4. Dave Gust, Whiteford, 18 games-348 points-19.3 average
5. Nic Jobe, Ida, 17 games-326 points-19.2 average
Winningham plays tonight. Mike Clark of Huron (16-312-18.3) is making a move to get into the top five as well.
It’s been a while since so many Region players averaged at least 19 points in a game. I’ll have to check some archives to see how long its been. Fun time of the year, isn’t it?
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February 14th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Stan Joplin picked up his 200th win last night as the head coach at the University of Toledo. Later today, you can visit www.monroenews.com and read a story The Evening News did about Stan in 1979 when he was named the Player of the Decade in boys basketball. Trivia: Who was named Player of the Decade for the 1980s?
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February 11th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Devon Crain, on the strength of his recent 43-point outburst, has regained the lead in the county scoring race. Crain has 419 points in 17 games, a 24.6 average. Here are the leaders heading into tonight’s games:Devon Crain, Flat Rock, 17-419-24.6 (3 games left in regular season)Josh DuPree, Whiteford, 16-377-23.6 (4 games left in regular season)Ryan Winningham, Carlson, 17-376-22.1 (3 games left in regular season)Nick Jobe, Ida, 15-287-19.1 (4 games left in regular season)Dave Gust, Whiteford, 16-296-18.5 (4 games left in regular season)The scoring race probably won’t be decided until after the season is complete. For decades, The Evening News used only the regular season to determine the region scoring champion. In fact, that was the case from 1955 to 1997. Since then, all games are used to determine the top scorer (by average). We’ll keep an eye on the leaders. Should be an interesting race.
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February 6th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
I read in The Toledo Blade today that Milan graduate Stan Joplin’s next win as coach of the University of Toledo will be his 200th career coaching victory. Joplin, some might recall, is one of the greatest players in Monroe County Region basketball history. He might be the best. He was a four-year starter. Scored 1,501 points. Was named the Region Player of the Decade for the 1970s. Stan, of course, is one of the players on the cover of the Monroe County Region 2008 Prep Basketball Record Book. He’s mentioned throughout the book, including by Evening News sports writers Ron Montri and Bill Brenton when they chose the best players to ever play in the region. Congratulations to Stan.
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