Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

When Gunn plays Paly they will seek to hold 21 below 21, points per game

John Reid, who Hans outs as a former Awalt coach, lauds Kevin Mullin of the Vikes.

Should be an interesting match up Feb. 7 Saturday at Gunn’s new gym (new to me). That’s in three weeks.check that, the game is at Paly.

Hans, Me, Matt “Naps” Passell and Baird checked out the Titans rout of Lynbrook the other night.

Hans says that the Titans have a bunch of “long” guys who are quick which could cause some mismatches and upsets of supposedly stronger teams. The Longs are too quick for other Bigs and too tall for other ball-handlers. Hmm. If so, you read it here first.

Meanwhile, when we toured the new Mitchell Park center Hans agreed that there is something odd about the new court. One, he said, little dingleberries fall from the trees onto the court. Two, the concrete is too hard and too slippery when wet. Three, the windows are too close to the backcourt. I double-checked if indeed that was the court where Jeremy Lin famously sprained his ankle the day before a CCS championship and was told, no that was Ross Road YMCA.

Even so, maybe they should lower the rims to make it officially a midget league court. Or, next time we build a $45 Million community center and include a hoop, someone with a clue should oversee it, and not just be dazzle-eyed because they met Jeremy Lin.

edit to add: Gunn beat Lynbrook by about 30 and it was fun to watch, with the exception of the Lynbrook rooting section, a group of about 12 boys and 2 girls who were rather obnoxious and actually started making monkey noises when Gunn put in a black player, although they self-policed enough to cut it out after a few seconds. Wow, their #5 did a reverse pivot!!!!!! The cheerleaders were very sweet, however, and delivered hot dogs for $2 each back to our section, and I bought a round for Coach and Baird.

Off the top of my head, and I could cheat by referring to about 50 shots from 4 or 5 games stored in my cell, but for the Titans I like: Russell, from outside and occasionally bringing the ball up court, Lee, or Lee-H-somethings, two brothers, skinny but good passers; Gil, a relative of Javier Gil a footballer from my generation, tall and quirky and athletic and explosive at 6’3″ — fun to watch — Noah Riley off the bench and some type of bench leadership, coach Brandynn said he is the toughest guy on the team — especially since as the football QB he got knocked on his fanny probably 100 times in 11 games; Davis, I think, a point guard; Sun, I think, a point guard; #13 the other point guard, and one of two blacks on the team; Sharod Miller who looks thin as a receiver in football but huge in hoops, especially since so many of his teammate are downright bony; another big guy, Silverman or something, off the bench – -Gunn really has 9 or 10 players who can contribute during prime time — Lukas Dorward tall at 6′ 2 but can also handle the ball, he and Silverman actually had one pass too many in a fast break that worked Tuesday; meanwhile Passell was more articulate and observant but we both felt that the team could be a little more disciplined. I may have to scout Paly tonight against Los Altos early tip off 6:30 while Gunn is idle.

MaxPreps meanwhile has Gunn at #23 in CCS and Paly at #5, behind 4 private schools. (edit to add: Monday before the Saturday, Gunn at 12-2 .857 winning percentage is #19 in CCS according to MaxPreps while Paly at 14-4 .778 winning percentage is #9. Gunn also has Lynbrook and #20 Pinewood this week).