Metro Sports Report

Atwater, Lions bracing for Iowa City High

The Linn-Mar Lions have reached this point before.

They've been undefeated late in the season before, they've been ranked fairly high in the polls, they've dreamed about making a deep run in the playoffs.

It didn't happen in 2009, when they started 6-0 and lost to Cedar Falls. It didn't happen in 2010, when they began 7-0 before losing to Iowa City High.

Both of those clubs lost in the second round of the playoffs, far short of their goal.

Now here they are again. The Lions are 7-0, ranked No. 3 in the state and bracing for Friday night's big home game with the fifth-ranked Iowa City Little Hawks (6-1).

The Lions have been burned once. They've been burned twice. A third time would be unacceptable.

"It's not OK to be at this point anymore, it's not OK to lose in the second round of the playoffs," senior Mark Atwater said Tuesday after practice. "It's not OK to be 8-and-3, 9-and-2. We are capable of the Dome, and everybody knows that."

Matt Bohannon fighting for spot at UNI

CEDAR FALLS - Matt Bohannon enjoyed a fairytale ending to his high school basketball career last March.

Linn-Mar breezed through the season 26-0, captured the Class 4A state title and Bohannon was named the captain of the all-tournament team after a brilliant performance in Des Moines.

He has the press clippings and the memories, but now he's in a battle for playing time as a freshman at the University of Northern Iowa. He's gone from being a veteran to being a rookie on a team stocked with experienced guards.

Bohannon probably won't start for the Panthers this season. Beyond that, he might not even play this year. There's a chance he'll be redshirted and have to wait his turn.

"I definitely want to play, but if I don't it's not the worst thing," Bohannon said Tuesday at UNI media day. "It's a whole year to develop your body and learn the game of basketball at a different level."

Coach Ben Jacobson was non-committal about Bohannon's status, saying it will be determined in November as the Panthers get closer to the regular season. Jacobson likes Bohannon and is impressed with his ability, but it could become a numbers game.

Football playoff projections

With two games left in the regular season, the favorite hobby of high school football enthusiasts has kicked into gear: projecting playoff points and possibilities.

Coaches also get into the act. Some head coaches and many assistants draw up their projections, all trying to stay a step ahead in determining which team they may face Oct. 26 when the 4A playoffs get underway.

Is it a perfect science?

Of course not.

Everyone has a method they use to try and come up with the correct scenarios. In my case, I project each team's record at the end of the season and then calculate their points and seed the teams in order from 1 through 16.

I have the favorites winning each remaining game in the regular season, but upsets do occur that cause seedings to be reworked.

There are more "tossup" games this year in the eastern half of the state coming down the stretch than we have had in many years. Despite that, I have calculated the 4A points for the teams in the eastern half of the state and come up with the following first round playoff matchups:

Metro's top diver is about more than scoring

In her own words, she is “a really, really, really competitive person.”

During her high school career, Linn-Mar diver Samantha “Sam” Wagner has twice rewritten the school record book for six-dive (dual meet) and 11-dive (multi-school invitational) scoring. This season, she has vanquished every diver she has faced.

Currently ranked second in the state in six-dive and fifth in 11-dive scoring, Wagner is a virtual lock to mount the diving board at state for the fourth consecutive year.

But a focus on her balletic prowess on the one-meter board misses Wagner’s larger role as the senior leader on a Linn-Mar diving squad that possesses a bounty of young talent, points out diving coach Meghan Sievertsen.

“She has been a dream,” says Sievertsen, a 2005 Kennedy grad who earned three state diving titles for the Cougars and went on to dive at the University of Iowa.

“We have a huge freshman class this year, and she is so supportive of them. She sends them messages before meets, reminds them of things, and tells them to go out and have fun. Nobody asked her to do it, and it’s been absolutely amazing.”