State tourney is Metro Mania this week

CEDAR RAPIDS - Welcome to Metro Mania.

We've told you all winter how good boys' basketball is in Cedar Rapids and Marion this season. It wasn't just a bunch of blathering hype, believe it or not.

This week's state tournament in Des Moines includes Marion, Linn-Mar, Cedar Rapids Washington and Cedar Rapids Jefferson. That's four of the seven Metro teams, a first.

Throw Iowa City West in there, and you could call this the Corridor Cup. Include Dubuque Wahlert, and it's the Mississippi Valley Conference Invitational.

This is where we say “Told you so” one more time. Nicely, of course.

“There are some pretty good basketball players around here,” said Marion Coach Mike Manderscheid. “You start listing them off like you guys do, and you (realize) there are some really, really good players. A lot of them know each other, have played with each other. So for them to have the chance to be able to go down to Des Moines as a group like this I think has to be something special.”

That's the thing. Most of these kids have been playing basketball with and against each other since they were in grade school.

Linn-Mar's Marcus Paige, Washington's Wes Washpun and Marion's Kasey Semler grew up playing on the same youth team, and now they're starting point guards for their respective state-bound teams. Washington's Josh Oglesby and Linn-Mar's Matt Bohannon were youth teammates as well.

Washpun, Semler, Oglesby, Cedar Rapids Jefferson's Jarrod Uthoff and Taylor Olson and Linn-Mar's Josh Montague and Ian McBrayer played on the same Iowa Barnstormers AAU team last summer. The Barnstormers had a younger team that included the majority of Iowa City West's starting lineup, including super sophomores Dondre Alexander and Jeremy Morgan and freshman Wyatt Lohaus.

If you've been elsewhere for the past six months, you know Oglebsy is headed to the University of Iowa, Bohannon to Northern Iowa, Uthoff to Wisconsin and junior Paige to North Carolina. Washpun has yet to select a college, but will go D-I somewhere, picking up a recent offer from Missouri State.

“It's awesome,” said Marion's Dusty Albaugh. “There's a lot of talent, especially in the 4A schools. With Uthoff and Paige and Bohannon and Wes (Washpun) and Josh (Oglesby) ... All those guys. It's unreal, but it's good. It shows this side of the state can play basketball, too.”

“It shows a lot about our league, for sure,” said Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson. “The Wahlert kids talked about it (last week). They played 21 games in our league, and they're ready for anybody. That's kind of how we feel. We feel our league is the best. To go through it the way we did, we're prepared.”

Unbeaten Linn-Mar is the heavy favorite in Class 4A, a state qualifier for an all-classes record eighth straight year. The Lions have won their quarterfinal game in Des Moines seven years in a row, with Washington looking to end that streak in their game Wednesday afternoon.

It's the third matchup this season between the teams, with Linn-Mar winning the first two handily. Jefferson is 4A's seventh seed, playing Des Moines Hoover on Wednesday night. West has the 4-5 game with Waukee on Wednesday afternoon. The Trojans have won 15 in a row.

Marion and Wahlert are part of the 3A field and play Tuesday.

“You can't play against all these teams and not be ready for this time of the year,” Wash Coach Brad Metzger said.