A new winter season is upon us, which means it's time to get the lowdown on MIAA girls basketball.
Boston Globe reporter Trevor Hass joins Ethan Fuller to break down everything you need to know entering the first week of regular season action. They touch on the top teams that should contend for state championships and the many schools with breakout potential, as well as the stars who define the current landscape of MIAA talent.
With several years of coverage between them, Trevor and Ethan also reflected on the best talent they've seen come through the MIAA since the pandemic. They each drafted All-MIAA teams from the last six years and highlighted their favorite stars who dominated in the state.
Finally, the two battle it out in a basketball movie-themed trivia edition of Full Court Press.
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Highlights
Wachusett is the heavy favorite in Division 1. How do you stop the Mountaineers at this point?
Trevor: "I guess you have to assume that if Jaelynn Scott's off, you have a chance. If she's on, you lose. I think that's really what it is — and she's usually on, so I think you'd just lose. But I think that really, the unsung heroes there is Sophie Gibbons and Teegan Lanpher. I mean, Jaelynn Scott is awesome. She's going D1, we all know she's great. She deserves her love. But the other two I think just really are the glue on that team, and they're both scrappy and small.
"So I always like players like that who are 5-2, 5-3, and they just play really hard — great defenders, great screen-setters. Like on Jaelynn Scott's game winning layup (in last year's Div. 1 championship), Sophie Gibbons set a perfect screen. I think that's an unsung hero kind of play that you don't really think about. You see the layup, but her screen was perfect, so give her credit there. And I just think they play so well together, the three of them."
Trevor, you cover a lot of the Patriot League between the Globe and your job as sports editor of the Duxbury Clipper. How great could the league be this year?
Trevor: "I think it's awesome. I think North Quincy and Whitman-Hanson are the two best teams on paper, but Duxbury, Hingham, Silver Lake, Quincy — you could keep going — Pembroke; they're all really good teams. So I think the depth is the best it's been maybe since I've started covering them in 2016. So I think there are a lot of teams that can make the tournament and a couple that can make a deep run, like North Quincy, Whitman-Hanson, Pembroke. So I think it should be a great year for the league."
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