The Northwood Basketball League, founded by hockey players at Northwood School in the 2021-2022 school year, has quickly become a highly anticipated tournament among the students and faculty at the school. Every year in March, 16 teams of two players start out with the goal of winning the NBL, a very hard tournament to win.
The past two years have consisted of extremely competitive basketball games, where players are willing to do whatever it takes. The games are played to 11 points with one and two-pointers as the scoring. The league prides itself on the quality of defense and physicality, which means some of the games take a long time for one team to reach 11. This year will be very similar. The pool of players this year understands the importance of defense, and everyone is willing to give it everything they have.
This tournament really brings people together as well. It is always interesting to see who teams up for the games. The matchups also bring lots of fans. The gym gets packed with people who are on the edge of their seats watching highly interesting basketball games between their classmates.
Before the tournament starts, the official NBL social media makes their power rankings of who they think could be the top teams this year. At the top place this year is team Uncoordinated, which consists of Michael Peluso and Will Schneid as they look to go back-to-back. “I’m very excited for this season. I think the competition is pretty stacked this year, and it will shape up to be a very entertaining year of basketball,” the 2024 NBL MVP, Will Schneid, said when asked about the upcoming season. The projected second-best team in the league this year is Shane Tronoski and Ty Simonet. One of the strengths of this team is its chemistry. These two are roommates and can make plays on the court together; they will be a very fun team to watch. Rounding out the top three is Pete Moore and Henry Kress. This team has height and skill, which can be hard to defend. Moore made it very clear he has unfinished business after losing in the finals last year, and he won’t leave Northwood without a championship.
The league is kicking off this week with the first round of games. If you would like to stay updated, follow @Northwood_ball on Instagram for score updates, game reminders, and highlights!
