Blood On The Tracks

The OAA Red is a bloodbath this season. The "Red Zone" is always a top echelon and extremely competitive boys basketball conference, but the 09/10 campaign has been especially rough and rugged with parity reining amongst a cadre of Metro Detroit's best and brightest hoop squads.  Although the race for the CHSL crown may end up being just as tight this year, the talent from floor to ceiling in the OAA's top tier division is far superior. When it all shakes out at the conclusion of the season, the fiercely combative OAA Red could easily wind up being the best conference in the entire state.

It might be a cliché, however it couldn't be more accurate to say every game is a war and there are no nights off for every team, top to bottom. Oak Park and Avondale, supposedly the weakest of the star-studded bunch of county cage powers in the conference, are both capable of beating any team they face in league play. The re-charged Knights of Oak Park led by up and coming first year head coach, Denolious Burkes, dropped their first six games of the season (all non-conference affairs), yet have taken three of their next five with all three wins coming against conference stalwarts – West Bloomfield, Southfield, Southfield-Lathrup.  

North Farmington, who lost to both West Bloomfield and S-Lathrup, just beat conference leader and perennial conference king, Clarkston, 42-40, last Friday night on the road in the very tough to win Wolves Den. The Raiders are a very deceiving 6-5. 4 of NF's five losses have come via buzzer-beaters from the opposing team. In three of those affairs, Kyle Vinales went for 40 points. C-Town is 8-2 and ranked number 8 in the state according to the AP. Southfield is sizzling this year behind the Blue Jays excellent corps of juniors (Brundidge, Barnes, and Owneu) and a steady group of role players (Atterberry, Kelly, Floyd, Brown, Ware) that play their tails off. West Bloomfield is always dangerous cause of great coaching an outstanding front court – Larry Johnson, Spencer Parker, David Pool. Despite starting the season slow, Pontiac is starting to gain steam with two straight convincing wins against North Farmington and West Bloomfield.

And then there is the high-caliber of individual prowess that takes place in the Red.

This season the OAA Red boasts a roster of some of the best prep players in all of Michigan:

Carlton Brundidge (Southfield)                       committed to Michigan as junior

Matt Kamieniecki (Clarkston)                         signed with Ball State

Roy Marble, Jr. (S-Lathrup)                            signed with Iowa

Desmond "Pee Wee" Barnes (Southfield)      mid-major D1 recruit as poing guard

Bryan Coleman (S-Lathrup)                            mid-major to small D1 recruit

Jalen Crawford (Oak Park)                             mid-major to small D1 recruit

Kyle Vinales (North Farmington)                    signed w/d2 power G. Valley St, but had d1 offers

Urban Bingham (North Farmington)              mid-major to major D1 recruit as power forward

Juwaan Moody (Pontiac)                               mid-major to small D1 recruit as combo/lead guard

Anthony "The Ant" Adams (Pontiac)              mid-major to small D1 recruit as point guard

Other players getting looks by college programs:

Larry Johnson, Jr (West Bloomfield)  

Spencer Parker (West Bloomfield)                

Ray Tillman (Avondale)

Tony Harris (Avondale)

Marcus Hardy (Clarkston)

Patrick Owenu (Southfield)