Recreational Spectacles — A New Way to Look at Sports in the Ozarks

OK, so that ball in the picture above isn’t the trophy for the upcoming Pink and White Tournament, nor is it the type of ball you’ll see in McDonald Arena. However, if Mount Vernon’s Kenzie Williams has anything to do with either, she could probably make it happen.

But before we get to talking about how Williams is the top individual talent in the P&W, let’s talk about the main reason to get excited about this year’s Pink and White Tournament — the tournament planning committee.

Let’s start with a round of applause for the Greenwood folks who now have the ability and facilities to begin both divisions of the Blue and Gold Tournament, as well as the Pink and White at the same time. As I’m sure you’re familiar with, the P&W always gave way to its male counterpart, the B&G, using both McDonald Arena and Hammons Student Center to get its 16 first-round games completed on the day after Christmas. The P&W waited, starting the next day and sometimes finishing on New Year’s Eve. Yuck.

But now, with JQH Arena in the mix, the B&G is taking JQH and HSC and letting the P&W dominate McDonald Arena the same day as the boys. And, more impressively, the P&W championship is on the same day as the B&G finals and it’s at JQH Arena. Genius. And about time.

Now, on to Williams. The 5-10 senior star, is as versatile as they come, navigating her 5-1 and top seeded Lady Mountaineers into the P&W. She leads her team with 19.3 points per game, and has the ability to score inside with post skills, outside with the 3-pointer and handles the ball well enough to distribute to open teammates. Plus, Mount Vernon plays a matchup zone, which is tough enough to figure out by breaking game tape, let alone in a four-games-in-five-days format.

It’s no wonder she has been the early talk of the local girls’ basketball scene. With a victory over Republic to win the Aurora Tournament and only an eight-point loss to Nixa, Mount Vernon might be for real. Just look at the teams MV is seeded above:

1. Mount Vernon
2. Ozark
3. Branson
4. Willard
5. Republic
6. West Plains
7. Parkview
8. Sparta

Yep, MV is ranked above all of those Class 4s and 5s and rightfully so. The only better teams according to the RecSpecs 15 are Nixa, Webb City, Glendale and Kickapoo, all of which are in the Lady Classic (which we will preview Monday).

As for seeds 2-8, no one is invincible. Ozark is better than people think, thanks to a developing offensive cast. Sophomore Melanie Williams has come out of nowhere to help the second-seeded Tigers, scoring in double digits in four games this season. And with a reputation for tough man-to-man defense, this year’s Ozark team can guard, led by senior Kara Dickemann.

The rest of the field? It’s honestly a crapshoot. Branson, Willard and Republic have been surprises. Despite having one of its better players, Kyndal Clark, transfer to Webb City, Branson has received strong play from its front line, especially forwards Ruby Stevens and Moriah Dapprich. The Pirates are a tough matchup, considering they have four post players that are 5-foot-11 or taller.

Willard has been led by a core of seniors Sammie Gathercole and Amanda Allen and sophomore Brook Duncan. The talent pool seems to be replenished, exclamated by wins over Hillcrest and Central.

Unlike Branson, with sophomore post player Alexis Edwards out with a leg injury, Republic has no true post players. Instead, the Tigers depend on a full-court press attack and an offense that revolves around a slew of 3-pointers. So far, it’s worked, but if it’s not clicking for a few quarters, the Tigers are vulnerable.

West Plains and Parkview are interesting case studies, seeing as how West Plains’ leading scorer is 5-foot-7 freshman guard Andi Haney is averaging 13.1 points per game and how Parkview has used nearly double-digit variations of its planned starting five.

But my question is, how did Sparta get the No. 8 seed? Is it hazing? Sure, Sparta isn’t normally in the P&W field, but the Trojans extended their winning streak to 37 with a 58-46 victory over Hartville Monday.

Now, this is the true beauty of the P&W and B&G formats, at least in theory. Barring an upset loss to unseeded Blue Eye (more on the Bulldogs in a minute), we’ll get to see Sparta and top-seeded Mount Vernon. Ideally, I’d like to see Sparta against a Class 4 or 5 school, but the Trojans and Mountaineers would be a heck of a matchup.

But, I’m still trying to figure out this seed thing. Could Sparta beat any of the teams in the top seven with regularity? Probably not, but for them to be seeded is a slap in the face, even if coach Jerry Songer won’t say it out loud.

It’s a great opportunity for seniors Brooke Stevens (15.5 ppg) and Kayla Coffer (13.6 ppg), as well as sophomore Mikalah Hardcastle (11.0 ppg) to show they can play with the bigger schools. Or not.

As for unseeded teams with a realistic chance for an upset, you’d have to look at Blue Eye — Sparta’s first round opponent. The Bulldogs (5-2) are led by Timbo Barrett and are always a tough Class 3 out. Despite some early-season struggles, also look for Catholic to be a tough out for West Plains and teams like Skyline and Marshfield aren’t used to being out of the top 8. And you all know what it’s like to deal with scorned women, right?

But, honestly, this is Kenzie Williams’ show. Sit back and enjoy.

Click here for the Pink and White Tournament bracket

Here is a list of the unseeded teams:

• Aurora
• Blue Eye
• Skyline
• Marshfield
• Rogersville
• Morrisville
• Hillcrest
• Catholic

Game times begin at 9:30 a.m. daily with the tournament starting on Dec. 26, taking a day off Sunday, then wrapping up Dec. 28-30. The championship game will be at JQH Arena at 5 p.m. Dec. 30 and all the of the consolation games will be played at Hammons Student Center.

Want to get ahold of Allen Vaughan? E-mail him at Allen@TagSGF.com. You can follow him on Twitter here or on Facebook here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 7:27 am and is filed under High school girls' basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.