You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Mike White's high school sports chat: 01.14.25
powered byJotCast
Mike White
11:04
The first half of section play in WPIAL basketball is over tonight. Can you believe already? So I'm ready to talk. Chat is now live.
Mr Ed
11:04
Iyanna Wade scored 60 last night, including 19 in the 4Q in which Clairton entered the quarter leading by 33. First, congrats to that young lady and what she is accomplishing. But, you’re a coach, Mike. Do you have some rules of thumb in your mind of what game situations exist  where you call off the dogs. Knowing a team is going to be outclassed, do you substitute freely throughout the game, do you go pedal to medal regardless of score for the first half, then ease up, etc.?
Mike White
11:12
This is a situation that always stokes opinions and viewpoints. Different coaches believe different things. I also think situations are different. Are they still pressing up 40 or 50 in fourth quarter? Is their best player still shooting 3s and running fast breaks up 40 or 50 in fourth quarter? This subject also sheds light on how bad some teams in boys and girls basketball are nowadays. There are some teams out there that are just so bad. It's hard to NOT blow them out. I don't know situations with Iyanna Wade. She obviously is a tremendous scorer. Hey, play your starters at start of game. But there are teams sometimes that are so bad that you know you are going to win by 50 or so. Teams that are held below 20 or 30 points on a regular basis. But some coaches believe play your starters until into the second half, no matter the score, even if you're up by 40. This has nothing to do with Clairton, but I sometimes see a girls game where a team might be up by 40 and still pressing with starters in 4th quarter.
goirishlee
11:12
Any chance of state high school basketball rankings coming from Post-Gazette? Go Irish!!
Mike White
11:13
Sorry we don't do state basketball rankings.
TM
11:13
In your opinion, off the top of your head...siblings who have had the most success in WPIAL sports. Not sure if you have ever done an article on this topic, but it would be interesting to see.
Mike White
11:15
Huh. Funny you ask. I'll just say I've got a story coming in the next day or so on one unique set of siblings. As far as the "most success," it's hard to say. There have been three or four siblings who have been really good players. Here's one for you. A few years ago, I did a story on eight siblings from Kromka family who all played basketball at Gateway. Some were better than others. But eight? That's crazy. Who even has eight children nowadays? And for all of them to play basketball at one school and have an impact, wow!
11:18
Hey, I'm going to the Montour-Moon game tonight. One of the best ones in the WPIAL. Another good one is Avonworth at Beaver. Two of the top scorers in the WPIAL meet head-on. It's Avonworth's Rowan Carmichael against Beaver's Brady Mayo.
hooks
11:21
Mike the kid from Beaver is he playing football in college? very tough kid he's strong will be an interesting matchup
Mike White
11:22
You're talking about Brady Mayo. Yes, he has signed to play football at Bucknell. He told me in the summer that he was hoping to possibly get recruited for basketball. But there was minimal interest in him for basketball. So he decided to go with football.
Anonymous
11:24
How Do You feel about the Hire Of Steve Spence From W&J As Char Valley Football Coach
Mike White
11:24
I don't know if that has become definite yet. Honestly, I don't know anything about him, other than he was at W&J for a while.
Anonymous
11:26
it just seems strange to me that he’d leave a college job for a high school job
Mike White
11:29
You never know the reasons. Other guys have done it. I don't know if there's a job to go with Char Valley coaching, but guys have gone from small colleges to high school before.
Big O
11:29
Biggest surprises so far in WPIAL Basketball?
Mike White
11:31
I'd say one would be Seneca Valley. Kevin Trost has done a terrific job there. I think everyone thought Seneca Valley would be OK this year, but they are tied for first in WPIAL Class 6A Section 1 with New Castle and Fox Chapel. And Seneca beat New Castle. I don't think anyone expected that.
City League
11:31
If all schools in the City League combined to form one boys basketball team, could they even win a WPIAL championship this year? I say no, it is that bad.
Mike White
11:34
This year? No. In the last 6-7 years, yes they could contend for a WPIAL title. You have to remember how good Allderdice has been just by itself. I know the Dragons aren't a power this season, but they have played even with WPIAL's best in many years. Then you maybe throw in a player or two from Obama and a few others, and you suddenly have a pretty good team. But I will say this: City League basketball is certainly at a low point this year. It is kind of sad, when you consider what City League basketball used to be.
Guest
11:34
Mike, A good friend of mine told me that Allderdice has a kid with Multiple D1 offers, I went to see them play and other then a strong undersized big I was underwhelmed - is the kid hurt?
Mike White
11:35
Here we go. Are you the one who brings this Allderdice kid up every week? Why not just let it go. Yes, he has a couple offers, but do you really need to take shots every week.
Popular
11:35
Heard through the grapevine that people are paying up to $6,000 a year to play baseball through some of these AAU teams... Boy were times simpler when you paid less than $100 to play for your community... Is the talent really that much better? If anything, it dilutes the talent as it cuts off those without money from playing certain sports.
Mike White
11:37
Most certainly some parents pay out that much money for travel teams, etc. And maybe even more when you consider the travel expenses. Like many sports, baseball has changed drastically. Nowhere near as many kids play community baseball as they did 25 years ago or more.
Brah
11:37
We all see what losing one player does to some of these teams.  For city league teams, if 1 player every year decides to go to Imani, or the Good Neighbor school, or Central, or Seton instead of their home school, its got to be tough on these coaches.
Mike White
11:42
Without a doubt. But you have to remember also that there are only six City League teams now. That means fewer kids are playing. But it's just said what has happened to City basketball, especially with a few of the teams. Look at Perry. Wow! Remember the days of coach Chuck Franklin, players like Will Macon, Courtney Wallace, etc., when they could play with some of the best teams in the state. They won a state title with Macon, Malik Hightower, Eddie Benton, James Billingslae. Now they struggle mightily. They are 0-9 this year and are being outscored, 64-37. Shame.
X
11:44
I looked up stats recently of Robbie Carmody and Ethan Morton.  I'm really impressed that Carmody has been able to come back to this level.   Something like 11.5 ppg on a little over 20 minutes per game. Morton was getting 30 minutes a game, but that has gone down some as the season progressed.  His shooting % has increased from about 20% to 31%, but 3 ppg.   Morton seems to be solid in other areas, but it's a bit like playing 4 on 5 when you have a guy that isn't a scoring threat.   Did you foresee him struggling at the offensive end when he was in high school?  Do think the PSAC or something like it would've been a more appropriate level for his transfer?   I realize he's still getting a lot of minutes, but still seems a bit out of his element at this level from a scoring perspective.
Mike White
11:46
Hey, remember now that Carmody started at Notre Dame the first game his freshman year. First freshman to do that at Notre Dame in a long time. It's a shame all the injuries he had. It took its toll. But hey, he got an education from Notre Dame and I think he will now have two masters degrees. So he stiill used basketball to get something. I truly believe if he didn't have the injuries - which were bad injuries - he would've had a nice career at Notre Dame.
11:49
As for Ethan Morton, you're never going to hear me say anything bad about him. What a great kid. He did so much for WPIAL basketball and also Butler. But it is head scratching what happened. Remember, he started I think most every game for Purdue just two years ago. But the offensive thing? I don't know what happened. No, I don't think he should've went PSAC. He was offered scholarships by a ton of schools. You get offered scholarships by major colleges, and you want him to turn them down and go PSAC? C'mon.
11:52
More on Ethan. I don't know what Purdue did to him, but it looked like his confidence in his shot was shot. At least that's what it looked like to me. Remember, he was a point guard in high school and I think everyone thought he'd play point guard in college. But Purdue had others playing the point - and maybe rightly so. So Ethan had to try and change his game and accept a different role. He's now at Colorado State. I still talk to Ethan. As I said, what a wonderful young man. I just wish he has some good things come his way in these last two months of the season. And I think he will coach at some level in the future. Who knows? Maybe he comes back to WPIAL and coaches. That would be great.
HotTake
11:53
Hey Mike. Any idea on what happened in the Imani hearing? I know it was closed to the public, but you seem like a guy who may know a guy who knows a guy in the meeting! Thanks!
Mike White
11:54
WPIAL said they will release findings in 7 to 10 days. I don't know what else to tell you. As you said, hearing was closed.
Guest
11:56
Hey Mike, looking at all the 6A and 5A teams so far that are ranked and at the top of their sections, and I see Latrobe sitting at 13-1 with a bad loss to Uniontown.  Is that section or team any good?
Mike White
11:57
Yeah, I think Latrobe is good. 5A overall has depth of some good teams. That Uniontown loss makes it hard to put Latrobe in rankings. They lost by 81-53.
X
11:57
I enjoyed watching Morton play at Butler.  He was getting lots of accolades at Purdue 2 or 3 years ago.  His shooting was bad initially at Purdue, but then was coming around, and went south again.  Of course D1 out of high school made sense.  It still may, but it's shame he can't go down for a year and have a year left...to develop as a scorer.   I'll say that i did think his shooting was the weakest part of his game at Butler...but not weak enough where it would be this big of an issue in college.  He defends and rebounds well at this level. His Assist to turnover ratio is very respectable the last i looked. But again, tough to play 4 on 5 at the offensive end.
Mike White
11:58
Agree with you on most points. But he can't go down for another year. This is his last year of eligibility.
11:59
Well, that's it everybody. Off to the kitchen for some of Mrs. White's leftover lasagna. Hope to hear from yinz next Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Connecting…