BERKLEY BOYS CAGE CREW WILL BE FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH, EVEN IF EXPERTS DON'T HAVE FAITH 

Not a lot of prep pundits from around the area are talking about the Berkley Bears as a team to watch with the boys basketball season getting off and running this week. Burney, on the other hand, really likes the 2010-2011 Bears squad and is telling anybody that will listen that these guys are going to make some noise this year in the OAA.

Despite being firmly under the radar to the general public, first-year Berkley head coach David McGlown has inherited quite a talented bunch of ballers. Everything with the Bears starts with their formidable 1-2 scoring punch made up of Ryan Bush and Justin Peguese, a pair of rangy wings who can hurt you inside and out. Setting the tempo and running the point is Emory Mobley and keeping defenses honest with his deadeye marksmanship from beyond the arc is senior sniper Connor Reid.  Football stars Terrell Porter, Damon Eldridge and Jason Taylor, coming off back-to-back record-breaking campaigns on the gridiron, provide McGlown energy, athleticism and a winner's mentality.

The Bears are going to be battling it out in the OAA White this year with a stellar cast of other top contenders like AH Avondale, RH Adams, Stoney Creek, Lake Orion, Troy, Ferndale, and Birmingham Seaholm. This conference race is as wide open as any in the state. Nobody has picked Berkley to finish in the top half of the White, yet I think the Bears have a good chance of competing for the crown.

Burney's argument in favor of Berkley got a hefty boost on Tuesday night when McGlown got the first win of his career by leading the Bears to an 82-56 trouncing of Troy Athens. Led by Bush's 26 points and eight rebounds and Peguese's 17 points and 11 boards, the effort definitely made a statement.

McGlown was a nice find by the Berkley AD to fill the Bears coaching slot left vacant when Jeremy Denha departed to take the West Bloomfield job this past summer. The program's JV head coach and an assistant to Denha last season, McGlown has a solid hoops resume. As a high school floor general at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, he took the Fighting Irish to the elite eight when he was a senior in 1998, before having a cup of coffee at the D1 level with the Southern Illinois Salukis of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Twitter.com/Burneystweets