By Peter Fusilero
Staff Writer
After finishing their last home game, the Prospect basketball team is now looking forward to this year’s Barrington sectional. Out of the 21 teams in the sectional, Prospect is ranked ninth.
According to coach John Camardella, this year’s seeding is very close. Ranging from the 13 to the four seed, these 11 teams have between 13-16 wins.
“It’s an extremely crowded field of not great teams, but really solid teams,” Camardella said.
In years past, Prospect was usually involved in sectionals that consisted of two really powerful teams and this year is an exception because of the variety.
As for the fairness of the bracket it can be looked at both ways and Camardella calls this idea of thinking: The Body of Work.
“I think it’s the fairest way to judge a team…look at the quality wins, strength of a schedule, and all things like that are in your favor,” Camardella said.
The Knight’s (16-8) first game will be up against the 8 seed Stevenson Patriots (13-10) on Feb. 29 at 6 p.m at Stevenson High School.
Their last meeting was back in December where Prospect lost by three points, so preparing will be important going into the Stevenson game.
“We’ll have to break down both offensive and defensive tendencies, look at the player personnel and start to project what match-ups we want,” Camardella said.
Prospect’s point guard Mike Latulip (20.6 PPG) will have to go against Stevenson’s star point guard, freshman Jalen Brunson who is averaging 7 points per game along with 6 assists.
If Prospect wins the game against Stevenson, they will play the winner of the Warren vs. Hersey or Buffalo Grove game.
Preparing as a player is different than the coach and senior Andrew Novak states that this will be a tough road through the playoffs.
“If we stick together as a team and play how we know we can, we could go to state, you never know,” Novak said.