6A boys basketball preview: Pleasant Grove the favorite, although upsets are certain to occur

OGDEN — The narrative is largely the same it's been most years at the outset of the 6A boys basketball tournament, with Region 4 stacking the four most formidable teams within the 16-team single-elimination tournament. The Deseret News rankings have the top four 6A spots being held down by Region 4 teams, and for good reason when considering their respective resumes.

"Region 4 is always tough, but this year it's probably as tough as we've seen," said Pleasant Grove coach Randy McAllister, whose team enters as the No. 1 seed out of Region 4 and as the subsequent tournament favorite. "I mean, just look at Bingham. That's a great team capable of beating anyone, and they're out."

As for the Vikings, they finished the season undefeated in Region 4 play, although doing so wasn't easy.

"A few things go one way and we could have been the team out of the tournament and Bingham would have been the No. 1 seed. That's how competitive it was," McAllister said.

Indeed, Pleasant Grove narrowly escaped with two wins over American Fork, which captured the No. 2 seed out of Region 4, with Westlake earning the No. 3 seed and Lone Peak the final spot.

“You can't overlook anyone. If I've learned anything, I've learned that.”

Pleasant Grove coach Randy McAllister

But as dominant as Region 4 appears to be on paper, no one knows better than McAllister himself that come tournament time things often don't go according to chalk. In his 17 years coaching at Pleasant Grove, McAllister has seen a lot of things happen that run contrary to the popular opinion going into Monday's first-round play.

Popular opinion would dictate that Region 1 is up against it big-time, having to take on Region 4 teams in the first round, although Fremont coach Corey Melaney doesn't necessarily share that opinion.

"I think we'll be just fine as a region," said Melaney, whose team took the Region 1 championship. "We know the teams up here and we know there's teams capable of making runs, and hopefully that includes us."

McAllister largely agrees with Melaney's assessment.

"You can't overlook anyone. If I've learned anything, I've learned that," McAllister said. "We have Weber in the first round and no one probably thought Weber would beat Kearns in the first round last year. But they did. They play very good basketball up there in Region 1 and we can't overlook anyone."

Fremont poses a young and exciting team that could certainly make some noise. Davis enters as a formidable No. 2 seed with Layton as the No. 3 seed.

As for Region 2, Kearns repeated as champions, with the other three seeds being earned by Cyprus, Granger and Hillcrest.

Region 2 will be matched against Region 3 in the first round, with Copper Hills earning the No. 1 seed, followed in order by Herriman, Riverton and West Jordan.

"It's a deep tournament and it always is, with a lot of really good teams that are capable of making some deep runs and pulling some upsets," McAllister said. "One thing I know after coaching in this state 17 years is there will be some upsets and it almost assuredly won't go according to plan. That's what the tournament is in this state and it's a great thing. It should be a lot of fun."

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2EwF8vN