The MIAA girls basketball season is upon us, with first games tipping off at the end of the week.
To get you up to speed, Steve Hewitt and Ethan Fuller invited Trevor Hass onto the HoopWise Podcast. Hass covers high school girls basketball (among many other topics) at The Boston Globe, where he and Ethan partnered on the beat for four years.
The group previews the top teams to watch and the players that will help them chase a state championship.
They also make predictions for each state champion in Divisions 1-4 and highlight some additional stars that local fans should consider appointment viewing.
Watch the video
Highlights
What are your general thoughts about the big themes of the upcoming season?
Ethan: "I think I've talked about this generally, and it's interesting because we just talked on our boys preview about the amount of
turnover that happened. I feel like compared to recent years in girls basketball, where there's been a lot of NEPSAC transferring, that seemed a little bit less this year and there are a lot of really good stars back in the MIAA. Because trevor and I picked the
Globe All-Scholastic team last year, I was looking through a lot of players to watch and I was like, wow, close to half, maybe more than half the All-Scholastic players that we picked are back this year. And so, that's going to be really fun."
Trevor: "To me it's interesting because I think all four teams in D1-4 — we focus mostly on those schools, occasionally D5 — but D1-4, have a chance to repeat. I think when you look at Bishop Feehan and Medfield, Foxborough and Cathedral, I think those four teams are all really strong year in and year out, and they have pretty much their entire teams back. They lose some seniors from last year, but I think all four really have a good shot. So it's up to the other teams in those divisions to see if they can knock them off, but I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one or two repeats, if not three or four."
Who are some underrated teams you like a lot?
Trevor:Â "(Notre Dame Hingham and) the Orlando sisters. I feel like anytime they're playing in a game, they can win the game. ... Ava is a really good driver, and she can obviously shoot too, but really good facilitator. And then Elle is just a knockdown shooter. Good defenders too, I noticed. So they're in any game they can play. It's all about their supporting cast, and they have the pieces to do it. So it's just about those, third, fourth, fifth options really stepping up, and I think it's a good year for them to do that."
Ethan: "Whitman Hanson, I think, was really good last year and kind of came on my radar late, just with them beating Dartmouth and then taking Oliver Ames really (close) in the state tournament, Dylan Hurley is an underrated, really quick guard, good shot-maker, good playmaker. Maliah Pierre is on breakout watch big-time. A sophomore wing who can shoot a little bit, really good touch in the mid-range areas, can drive, a really great defender — just kind of does all these little things super super well, and I think that's cool to see in an underclassman."
Listen
The HoopWise podcast can be streamed here and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
