james ricks

With football season being almost over it's about that time to turn full attention to basketball season and with that comes one of the top high school basketball tournaments in the country over Christmas break the kingdom heading into it's 43rd year, the 2nd longest running tournament in the state of Florida, a year behind the city of palms in ft Myers. Here are 1st round matchups for this years kingdom taking place at Vanguard high school in Ocala from December 27th- 30th:
 
10:00 am North Marion ( Citra ) vs Madison Memorial ( Wisconsin )
 
11:30 am Lakeland ( Florida ) vs Forsyth Country Day ( North Carolina )
 
1:30 pm Florida Prep ( Melbourne) vs Georgetown Prep ( DC )
 
3:00 pm Royal Palm Beach ( Florida ) vs Cincinnati La Salle ( Ohio )
 
4:30 pm Lakewood Ranch ( Bradenton ) vs Peachtree Ridge ( Georgia )
 
6:30 pm Calvary Christian ( Ft Lauderdale ) vs Meadowcreek ( Georgia )
 
8:00 pm Vanguard ( Tournament Host ) vs P.K. Yonge ( Gainesville )
 
9:30 pm Westminster Academy ( Ft Lauderdale ) vs Frederick Douglas Academy ( New York )

WA returns 4 starters and have a 6' 8" PF along with couple of small but young sound guards.  They beat @ Sarasota Riverview last week soundly 88-57 and held off Jacksonville Providence 62-60. 
 
I just PMd you .

Still not in the loop enough to comment on hoops but I am starting to follow... From what I am gathering early, I am hearing about some of the same teams of last year looking good early in the season....
 
In no order these teams come to mind in Broward:
 
Dillard 
Coral Springs
Ely
Boyd Anderson
Westminster Academy

Thanks man it feels awesome to have Dillard & nationally ranked in the same sentence.

Lol all good, I figured that's who it was Sagemont, the Kruel classic always usually is a loaded tournament, it's nice to see y'all playing a more national schedule to make a national championship run this year though

My apologies that was supposed to say next up sagemont in the kruel classics lol hahahahahaha
 
& yes we got approved for the out of state tournaments & we got 1 I believe in Miami as well.
 
& they look very dominant even better then last year which is scary & there schedule is even more brutal then last year. If they can lose only or 2 maybe 3 games with this schedule & repeat as champions I see a possible national championship invite they already are ranked 23 in the nation.

good opening win Dillard, how did you guys look with it being the 1st game coming out? I know you guys are loaded and the favorite to return to Lakeland and win it all again this year after getting back all the underclassmen. I see no Kingdom Of The Sun for you guys this year so I'm guessing you guys got approved for those out of state tournaments?

SOOOO Football season has ended & basketball season has started last year Dillard finished off the season with a championship & a 20 game winning streak. & now the season has started back & what better way to put that win streak on the line then against your heated rival who promised to take the district championship trophy from you.
 
And what did my panthers do they answerd the 🔔 bell and Got it done and in fairly impressive fashion. Now we're 1-0 & 1-0 in a 3 team district while Boyd Anderson fell to 1-2.
 
 
Next up safenont in the Keyes classics.

Dr Pepper.. Lmao

One hell of a game out their tonight, defenses showed up big time for both teams throughout the contest, The Vanguard offense put the defense in a whole a few times late in the 4th and that proved to be the difference in the ball game, but not taking anything away from the braves they fought all the way through and never gave up after being down 13-0 entering the 4th, that's what great teams do we had our chances but just came up a little bit short

Yeah I couldn't be more proud of what this team accomplished this year, first regional final since 2010, team broke some school records along the way including record setting QB N'kosi Perry.. We should be back in contention next year though, junior QB Marquez Glover should fill in nicely next year and will be surrounded with a lot of returning playmakers on offense, hopefully we're back to stay for many years ahead

One hell of a game out their tonight, defenses showed up big time for both teams throughout the contest, The Vanguard offense put the defense in a whole a few times late in the 4th and that proved to be the difference in the ball game, but not taking anything away from the braves they fought all the way through and never gave up after being down 13-0 entering the 4th, that's what great teams do we had our chances but just came up a little bit short

We can contend in north next year if we answer qb questions so we both in same boat

Yeah I couldn't be more proud of what this team accomplished this year, first regional final since 2010, team broke some school records along the way including record setting QB N'kosi Perry.. We should be back in contention next year though, junior QB Marquez Glover should fill in nicely next year and will be surrounded with a lot of returning playmakers on offense, hopefully we're back to stay for many years ahead

DP 20 VERO 10

DP 20 Vero 10 halftime

Vanguard defense was lights out in the opening half of play, up 13-0 at the half, if it wasn't for 3 turnovers it could be a lot worse. Booster Stadium is rocking tonight

will do, probably will get on between quarters when I'm not up their in the stands yelling my lungs out lol

I wasn't able to see Vanguard play this year, but i have heard they play many guys both ways. Could have a large part to do with it because as I saw Lake Gibson play, they didn't have any guys going both ways and rotating guys every play almost so they seem to stay fresh. Could play a huge role in their success thus far. Good luck to Vanguard and LG both. Enjoy the game James Ricks! Keep us up to date on how it is going. 

I have a lot more respect for Lake Gibson now than I did a month ago.  They have done everything right since August  and will be playing a Vanguard team that they handled with relative ease just 3 weeks ago.  
 
That said....I like Vanguard winning Friday night  .

have some confidence in your guys man

For real defense has brought it, but at the same time the opponents haven't been the cream of the crop either.   

I saw them against Timber Creek. Winter Park is a decent, hard nosed, well coached team. They have one stud player, Jordan Pouncey, Notre Dame commit, who is their go to offensive player. Defensively, their front seven were quite impressive. They harassed the Timber Creek QB all night which led to three picks (one for a touchdown) and several sacks. This was the difference between Apopka/TC and WP/TC. By putting relentless pressure on TC's QB, they effectively shut down their passing game which Apopka failed to do. 
 
This year's WP reminds me of their 2005 team, which made the semis and lost a very close game 10-7 to the eventual State champ. Slow start, not a lot of stars, but very good team by the end of the season. I could easily see them beating Seminole. 

Southridge 7 shutouts in last 7 games.. Nobody going to beat them if they can't score on them lol

He's been vacillating between wanting to be confident, and self doubt. I guess it's been so long since VB made it to the semis and beyond, that the doubt has got to be there.