North Farmington vs Detroit University of Detroit Jesuit Preview.

Written Friday March 25th at 9:30 PM

An OAA team is in the State Final in Class A and it's the North Farmington Raiders.

The Raiders currently sit at 24-2 will have an opportunity to do so on Saturday afternoon at the Breslin Center on the campus of Michigan State University against the Cubs of Detroit U-D Jesuit.

It would be the first State title for the Negoshian family, one of the legendary families of Oakland County Basketball.

The Cubs are undefeated at 26-0 and destroyed Macomb Dakota whom was also undefeated 75-51 in the State Semifinals. Detroit U-D Jesuit features the 2016 Mr Basketball of the State of Michigan in point guard Cassius Winston. Winston whom will be going to East Lansing in the Winter had 27 points against the Cougars in the State Semifinals.

North Farmington features point guard Billy Thomas whom had 26 points in their 60-48 win over Lansing Everett in the State Semifinals. Also the Raiders brought in Amari Hardy whom transferred in from Southfield to go along with returnees Alex Darden, Josh Hogans, Jacob Joubert, among others. North Farmington has 11 of their 12 players are Seniors.

Subplot to the Game:

The Thomas family decided they wanted to leave Detroit U-D Jesuit after Ron Thomas accused Cubs head coach Pat Donnelly of verbally abusing his players. Thomas wanted to take his son and his two adopted sons in 6.9 forwards Ikechekew Eke and Greg Eboibodin whom he brought to the United States from Nigeria and enrolled them at West Bloomfield. The Detroit U-D Jesuit Athletic Department filed a complaint to Child Protection Services which questioned the guardianship and allegations made that Thomas abused the two Nigerian forwards thus setting up a family custody hearing in which the two Nigerians were placed with different parents with Detroit U-D Jesuit ties. Thomas lost custody of both Nigerians and was banned from seeing them.

Thomas spent one semester at a prep school in Virginia before coming back to North Farmington to play for coach Todd Negoshian. He was ineligible until the final three games of the regular season where he played but because of transfer issues Thomas didn't play in the State Playoffs last season.

Eke and Eboibodin are huge parts to the interior of the Cubs this season especially rebounding and scoring from the paint. Eboibodin had 13 points and 18 rebounds against Macomb Dakota while Eke had nine points and eight rebounds in the game.

This will be the only meeting where Thomas will take on his former teammates from Detroit U-D Jesuit. He played for the Cubs as a sophomore on the team that lost to Bloomfield Hills 85-75 in the 2014 State Semifinals.

Last Time They Met:

The Cubs are no strangers in meeting OAA Teams in the last three seasons. They have wins over Clarkston, Berkley, Oak Park, Southfield, Lathrup, and North Farmington. Detroit U-D Jesuit lost to Bloomfield Hills in the State Semifinals three years ago. The Raiders and Cubs met last year at Southfield in the Regional Finals where Detroit U-D Jesuit won 52-34 behind balanced Cubs attack and a cold shooting night for North Farmington. Winston had 15 points for the Cubs while Joubert had seven points for the Raiders in that game.

Preview:

The most interesting matchup will be Thomas vs Winston in the battle of point guards because whom ever wins that matchup wins the game. Hardy is the interesting part of the matchup since he nor Thomas did not play in last season's game to go along with Joubert. Hardy had 15 points in the State Semifinal game against Lansing Everett. Detroit U-D Jesuit also has good guard play as well but looking at this matchup I got to give edge to North Farmington because all three of their guards can score. ADVANTAGE: NORTH FARMINGTON.

The inside matchup is most interesting as Eke and Eboibodin, the two 6.9 Nigerians will go up against Cincinnati Baseball bound center Alex Darden. The 6.9 Nigerians made Thomas Kitcher of Macomb Dakota struggled badly in the semifinal game and could very well do the same to Darden. Darden is not a scoring machine but will get his fair share of good looks. He had 14 rebounds in the State Semifinal win over Lansing Everett but against the two Nigerians it won't be much of a case whom controls the glass unless you get them into foul trouble then that changes everything. ADVANTAGE: DETROIT U-D JESUIT.

The bench matchup is interesting, both teams are deep but both could limit their bench. If Winston or the two Nigerians get into foul trouble then it could change everything. If Thomas, Hardy, or Darden get into foul trouble then that changes everything. If I had to choose a bench to trust more in this game, it's the Raiders because of Hogans. ADVANTAGE: NORTH FARMINGTON.

The coaching matchup between Pat Donnelly and Todd Negoshian is as good as advertising but something about having assistant coaches like Pete Mantalya and Tom Negoshian on your bench gives players a huge advantage to be at. ADVANTAGE: NORTH FARMINGTON.

PICK: This is a tough matchup for North Farmington because of Winston and the two Nigerians. If the Raiders can win the inside matchup then they have a great chance, expect Thomas and Winston to have big games but the inside game with the Cubs could be too much for North Farmington to handle in a really close and tight game. DETROIT U-D JESUIT 58, NORTH FARMINGTON 55.