Two More Cents

Burney was wrong! Despite what was reported earlier today on this blog, there were Seven teams, not Six, from Oakland County that came away with wins on Monday night in the boys bball regional semi-finals. That seventh team – unintentionally dissed by the Great Burnzini himself – not given its due props previously was Academy of Oak Park. Head coach Bobby Thompson and the Rams took care of business Monday at a Class B regional at Riverview by slipping past Dearborn Heights Robichaud 66-60 and advancing into the program's second straight Class B Sweet Sixteen. Luckily for the athletic and "fun-and-gun" Rams they don't have to face the perennially loaded Yellowjackets of Birmingham Detroit Country Day in their quest for the school's first regional banner, as was the case last season when they lost in a regional championship played at Country Day. Instead of the 'Jackets, it will be the very, very good Detroit Douglas Hurricanes, that awaits AOP in the Riverview regional title tilt on Wednesday night. Douglas might not be DCD, but they are no Sister of the Poor. The Tim Bates-led 'Canes beat Southfield earlier this year. Could we end up seeing a rematch of the '09 regional final between the Rams and the 'Jackets in the 2010 state title game at the Breslin Center in less than two weeks? Burney thinks it's a serious possibility. With my primetime homeboys, Kendrick Ward, Cimerone Porter, Dimitrius Abner, and Devontay Miller, at the helm of the AOP attack, how could it not be?

The injury bug has hit the OC hard as of late, with three teams currently still playing in the boys hoops state tournament having to compete without key components of their squads. First and most importantly, it appears that Novi's "Big Sham Wow" Samier Ozier ended his season last night in the Wildcats comeback win over WL Northern in the regional semi-final at Hartland by breaking his hand. Now, the Cats and head coach Corey Heitch will be forced to get into the ring with a potentially lethal AA Huron squad in Wednesday night shorthanded. Secondly, Country Day has been playing short for the last couple weeks minus the services of the 'Jackets third leading scorer, junior guard Chris Fowler, who injured himself in a game against AA Pioneer in late-February. Fowler will not make it back until next year and that makes Burney sad that his main All-American homeboy, Ray McCallum, won't have his squad at its absolute most dangerous when going for his first state championship as a prepster. I personally think Ray and the Big Dandy aka Amir Williams can do it without him. Finally, Roeper lost its top 3-point bomber and a solid defender when senior forward Tomas Jhashi ended his season against Cranbrook back in February by tearing some tendons in his foot. It was initially thought that Jhashi could make it back for the playoffs, but it wasn't to be.