This week, North Carolina public school basketball kicked off its postseason play. The first round of games concluded on Tuesday and the second round will occur on Friday. While there are so many appealing things about the private school sector, it’s difficult to beat public school basketball. In addition to (usually) being more competitive in every round, there’s also much more parity in determining the champions. Any team can win on any given night. Let’s take a closer look at some of the things to look for in each classification, moving onto 4A…
Top Seeds:
1- Lake Norman and New Hanover
2- Garner and West Forsyth
3- Sanderson and North Meck
4- McDowell and Jordan
Sleepers:
Green Level (5)
Clayton (13)
Weddington (6)
Cardinal Gibbons (15)
First-Round Upsets:
Hopewell (17) over Charlotte Catholic (16)
Heritage (17) over Chapel Hill (16)
Reagan (25) over Northern Guilford (8)
Leesville Road (21) over Holly Springs (12)
Millbrook (19) over Laney (14)
Apex Friendship (26) over Knightdale (7)
Panther Creek (23) over New Bern (10)
It’s not a hot take to say 4A Public is a bloodbath. Lake Norman and New Hanover are both deserving of the top seeds (and have a strong likelihood to meet in the championship), but anything can happen. Fortunately for Lake Norman, they have a strong mix of quality guard play (Nick Arnold, Josh Yates), wings (Tre and Taurean McKinnon), and legitimate size (Trent Steinour). Meanwhile, New Hanover has been one of North Carolina’s most successful programs under Coach Kirk Angel. This team is a deep, battle-tested group of tough, intelligent veterans led by guys like Rodmik Allen, Kellum Brown, Nolan Billings, Jazir Wright-McGhee, Zeus Batts, and CJ Kornegay. Ultimately, there will be several challenges for both teams. In the East, teams like Clayton and Green Level cannot be slept on. Should they can outlast Jordan, Clayton has a slew of legitimate college players and a ton of size across multiple positions. Green Level might not possess the depth of others, but they have an extremely talented trio leading the charge. On the other side, teams like Chambers, North Meck, Weddington, Mount Tabor, and West Forsyth should each make noise and/or surprise some opponents. This classification will be exciting to monitor.