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Canopus
“Sidney Lanier”
Macomb
Bellarmine
Rock Bridge A
Warren Harding
Cistercian

Procyon
Helias
Lisle
Walter Johnson
Dunbar A
Hunter A
Fenton

Vega
Oakville
St Anselm’s
Clover Hill
Dunbar B
St Ignatius
Dorman A

Sirius
Eden Prarie
Northmont
State College
Rock Bridge B
IMSA
Lisgar A

Hadar
Lisgar B
Auburn A
DCC A
Carbondale
Jefferson City
Torrey Pines

Rigel
DCC B
Simon Kenton
Walnut Hills
Thomas Jefferson B
LASA
Wauconda

Betelgeuse
Richard Montgomery
Alpharetta
New Trier
St Joseph’s
Auburn B
Villa Duchesne

Formalhaut
Loyola
Parkway
Danville
Maggie Walker
Olmsted Falls
Hunter B

Deneb
Quince Orchard
Dorman B
Mission San Jose
Centennial
Northmont B
Stevenson

Arcturus
Seven Lakes
Bainbridge
Oak Park
Thomas Jefferson A
Clayton
Frenchtown

http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=cbb6e22950/height=550/width=470

UPDATE: It appears that the consensus is fairly split between LASA and State College as the favorites, with LASA having a bit of an advantage. Should be an exciting weekend, and I look forward to it. Good luck to all teams!

Seven Lakes
Seven Lakes, perhaps the best team yet to be previewed so far in our coverage this year, has a distinct advantage in that they are the only team I have examined that is coached by a former ACF National Champion. Chris Romero’s presence and influence has to be considered, and perhaps explains how quickly this team blasted onto the scene last year. This year, their rise continued as the Jiawei Li-led Seven Lakes went on a barnstorming tour of the country, playing ACF Fall in Virginia, playing a Harvard Fall mirror in Illinois, and going to the Midwest NAQT Championship in Indiana, where they made the finals against Dorman. The question is, if they hit the super playoffs, will they have parlayed their advantages in to the knowledge and mental fortitude to pull off the big wins and return to Houston victorious?

Thomas Jefferson “B”
This team, despite its “B” designation just keeps on making upsets and beating teams they supposedly should not, including their defeat of Dorman’s “A” team at the GSAC tournament and avenging their “A” team’s loss to Olmsted Falls in the HSNCT playoffs. They especially have their own teammates’ number, repeatedly defeating their own “A” team over the course of this spring, culminating in knocking them out of the HSNCT playoffs on their way to tying for 8th place. How does this team keep winning?? The top scorers on this team are a freshman and a senior who two years ago had never played a quizbowl tournament. That progress and skill is quite simply amazing, and a great sign for the future of the TJ team.

Detroit Central Catholic “A”
DCC has attended every single NSC, but has yet to actually come home with a NSC title. DCC is perhaps the only of the top teams to regularly bring substitutes with their “A” team who get regular rotation, simply because they have six players capable of being regular contributors on the “A” team. In 2002, they lost to the upstart Richard Montgomery team, and three times finished in the semi-finals, but none of those appearances have come since 2004. Can this be the year they finally manage to break their unfortunate streak?

Alpharetta
William Horton is a very strong generalist who fell short of making the playoffs last year after finding himself in the same prelim group as Maggie Walker and Stevenson, and hinted that he may have belonged when he ran through the tough second tier of the tournament, including beating Seven Lakes to win that group. He could certainly find himself in the playoffs and may even make the All-Star Game. His play will almost certainly determine the fate of his team this weekend.

Dunbar
Idrees Kahloon and Helen Fu are the main scorers for this Midwestern traditional regional power. Dunbar has a bit of bad fortune in that many of the tournaments that they play feature a top-heavy field making for a harder path to the championship and as such are sort of underrated. At this year’s Midwest Regional Championship, they notably were able to upset Dorman (perhaps it should be a concern for Dorman how often I am typing those words while writing these previews?).

Auburn
Lloyd Sy is one of the top players in the country and he and Abid make quite the combination, and on a very strong team, Llyod led last year’s NASAT Illinois All-Star team in scoring. Despite being considered to be below fellow Illinoisans Stevenson in most polls and rankings, they have been able to defeat Stevenson to win multiple tournaments this year, including victories at Northwestern’s Prison Bowl mirror and NIU’s Huskie Bowl.

Olmsted Falls
Olmstead Falls beat Thomas Jefferson “A” in the prelims at HSNCT, proving they are a legit threat to top teams. Jim Coury is certainly one of the best players from Ohio, and his team is can make the same claim as a group. They finished tied for 21st at HSNCT, and I have no reason to believe they can’t do at least that well this weekend.

Thomas Jefferson “A”
One of the historically elite teams of the mid-atlantic, TJ made a recent lineup change before NAQT States, replacing biology specialist Olivia Murton with solid contributor James Bradbury.  At HSNCT this lineup may not have had a chance to fully gel together.  If this is again their lineup for the NSC, they could potentially play together better and perhaps avoid losing to their own “B” team again. Should certainly have a place in the playoffs, but may not get very far in them.

Illinois Math and Sciences Academy “A”
While the math distribution of their IMSANITY housewrite may have caused a small amount of controversy, their status as one of the best teams in the midwest is legitimate. IMSA appears to have burst onto the scene over the past two years, and has rapidly risen to be an elite team. While they may not do as well as Stevenson or Auburn, this is certainly a team on the rise that good teams should not treat as a break from the rest of the competitive rounds of their schedule.

St  Anselm’s Abbey School
The loss of the incredibly talented Matt Bollinger is certainly going to knock them down in the standings, and they seem to have never developed a third dependable scoring option.  This team is almost certainly ‘The Aidan and Jacob Show” and while that is certainly a strong combination, look for a lower finish than last year’s “superplayoff” team.  Somewhere between 10th and 12th is probably the ceiling for this team.

Mission San Jose
Mission San Jose has repeatedly split their “A” team at several tournaments this year, so it has been difficult to get a good grasp on how good a full “A” team for them would be. Much like Bellarmine, they have been to relatively few tournaments this year compared to teams from more lively regions.  Did not quite reach expectations at HSNCT, but should still find their way into the playoffs.  Look for them near the top of the lower portion of the playoff standings.

Hunter College “A”
Certainly the best team in the northeast, Hunter College is another team that should certainly find their way into the cluster of good teams at the top of the playoffs. Led by still-just-a-junior Lily Chen, Hunter College has won almost every tournament they have competed in this year.  They chose not to attend the HSNCT last weekend, so we will have to wait and see how that effects their performance this weekend.

Richard Montgomery
The explosive rise of Arun Chonai added to the elite skills of Raynell Cooper and Sam Reback has sent the Richard Montgomery Rockets flying back up the rankings. Their school has played in two NSC finals in the past, and maybe with a little luck this team can try for a third appearance and its second title.

State College
What is there left to say about State College? Going into the year this team was thought to be unbeatable- They had barely lost to an incredibly talented Maggie Walker team in the NAQT HSNCT finals, and they only lost a game at PACE to the Southside team that was later disqualified after it was revealed that Amit had gotten a copy of the questions before the tournament, and still was not able to beat State College in the finals of PACE.  By the end of NASAT it was clear they were the favorites coming into this season.   And yet, this State College team has struggled to meet outside expectations.  The team has been often shorthanded on the occasions on which they actually came and played at all. Now rumors are circling that State College may be shorthanded again this weekend.  After barely holding off LASA in the HSNCT finals this past weekend, can they survive possibly shorthanded this weekend?

Maggie Walker Governor’s School
John Barnes’ teams typically find themselves right at home in the NSC playoffs.  Tommy Casalaspi is still one of the top quizbowl players in the world, and JR Roach serves as a solid complementary player.  But one must expect a step down this year for this team, as it can no longer count on Sarah Angelo or Greg Tito to get a clutch buzz, and its hopes of success may depend on if Saumil Bandyopadhyay and Seung-Hwan Kim can find ways to make valuable contributions.  If they can, the sky is the limit for this team.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy
Aaron Pellowski stepped in this year to replace Shen Gong on a team that took 3rd at last year’s NSC. LASA was the clear favorite to challenge State College for the title coming into the season.  They proved that ranking correct by beating State College twice to win the Harvard Fall Tournament, and once questions began to be raised about if State College was as good as everyone thought they were, LASA became a popular choice to win nationals.  Last weekend, they stormed their way through the Sunday Playoffs, including running out to a big first half lead against State College A. Ultimately, they could not hold on, as State College rallied big twice in two straight games to win the tournament.  Coach Jason Flowers is becoming a fast rising star and is already among the top coaches in the high school game today.  One can be certain he will have his team ready to go for the gold with the extra motivation last weekend’s losses provided.

Bellarmine College Prep
Being from the San Francisco Bay area, Bellarmine does not get nearly as many opportunities to compete in regular season events as some of the other teams on this list.  Despite missing senior Tanay Kothari, Bellarmine performed very well at the HSNCT last weekend, and Nikhil Desai played last year’s NSC, so they have a small amount of experience at this level.  They should still be able to finish fairly high and would be a very likely team to see near the top of the playoff standings.

Adlai Stevenson
Perhaps the strongest team from the host state of Illinois, Stevenson is led by future Northwestern student Kevin Malis and Zach Blumenfeld.  They have combined to put some some very gaudy statistics this year, and have regularly beat down their competition.  Will they continue their great performances on lower difficulty questions? Can they build on an excellent HSNCT performance? Will they have a “home field” advantage this weekend?  Only time will reveal the real answers, but I will guess the answers are “yes, yes, and yes.”

Dorman A
The elite team of the southeast, coach Eric Huff has created another teams that can play with or beat anybody.  Despite only returning one player from last year’s “A” team, Dorman once again remains near the top of the standings.  This team got very hot towards the end of the regular season, and showed they were for real by running over their opponents to a 10-0 record in the HSNCT prelims before getting up-ended by duPont Manual in the playoffs.  This team will certainly be looking to make some noise early to prove that loss was a fluke; I certainly would not want to play them Saturday morning (or at all).

In the coming days, we will have coverage of this year’s event, and we aim to have live coverage again this year.