Jeff Johnson

Cascade’s Jackson Lieurance and Iowa City Regina’s Will Litton are Players of the Year in their respective divisions of the River Valley Conference, it has been announed. Cascade’s Nate McMullen and Regina’s Paul Rundquist are division Coaches of the Year.

No Gazette-area schools are involved in boys’ basketball games this weekend, giving the perfect opportunity do a quick reset. Class 1A and 2A schools are at the district final stage, while 3A and 4A schools wrapped up their regular seasons Thursday night, with the postseason beginning Monday.

The Union Community boys’ basketball team scored the first 10 points of the game and never led by less than six the rest of Thursday night’s 63-48 Class 2A district semifinal win over Alburnett.

Call It Both Ways: High school basketball podcast with Gazette sportswriters Jeff Linder and Jeff Johnson talking area high school basketball.

Class 4A No. 10 Cedar Rapids Prairie’s boys’ basketball team appeared it might have a cakewalk Tuesday when it was discovered Cedar Rapids Xavier would have three starting players out ill. But the short-handed Saints hung around most of the game, a fourth-quarter run giving the Hawks a 57-42 victory.

Mark Carlson, the only coach the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have had, broke the United States Hockey League record for most regular-season games coached when his team beat Waterloo, 3-0, Saturday night. Carlson is nine away from tying the league record for most USHL regular-season victories.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association dropped its weekly boys’ basketball rankings Monday, as well as all postseason brackets for Class 3A and 4A. Top substate seeds belong to Decorah in 3A and Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Kennedy in 4A. Linn-Mar moved up to No. 2 in this week’s 4A poll.

Cascade basketball historically has been successful, with a nasty 2-3 zone defense taught by legendary head coach Al Marshall a huge reason why. But this season’s Cougars have gone 18-3 by playing man to man, of all things.

The Class 4A third-ranked Linn-Mar boys’ basketball team suffered an unexpected loss in early January to Ankeny at the Crossover Shootout in downtown Cedar Rapids. But it has been nothing but victories since, the Lions’ 11th straight coming Friday night at Dubuque Senior, 61-56, virtually wrapping up the Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division championship.

Center Point-Urbana’s boys’ basketball team lost its first 10 games last season, but a return of several key players and offseason work turned the Stormin’ Pointers into a team this season that has virtually doubled its win total and won the Wamac Conference East Division championship.

The postseason for boys’ basketball begins Friday night with 17 “pig-tail” district games in Class 1A.

Call It Both Ways: High school basketball podcast with Gazette sportswriters Jeff Linder and Jeff Johnson talking area high school basketball.

The North Fayette Valley boys’ basketball team won the Upper Iowa Conference outright Tuesday night, completing a perfect 21-0 regular season with a dominating 72-45 win over MFL/Mar-Mac. It’s the first unbeaten regular season in school history.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association announced Monday afternoon official postseason brackets for boys’ basketball in Class 1A, 2A. Top seeds in their district include Cascade in 2A and North Linn in 1A.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders head coach/general manager Mark Carlson will tie and break the United States Hockey League record for most regular-season games coached this weekend. Carlson will tie the record Friday night at home against Dubuque and break it Saturday night at ImOn Ice Arena. He’ll be honored pregame Saturday night.