Greetings HS hoops junkies from across the warm and springy Piedmont! The Sadster is here to recap the Regional Finals and give out his picks for who will get sized for rings and who will dream of next year. The upset trend continued as we saw back-to-back title holder North Meck fall to former Viking and Mooresville Head Coach Armard Moore and his Blue Devils in the 7A West finals. 2 seeded West Charlotte ended the menagerie of an undefeated season for the top seed West Forsyth in the 8A West Finals. The biggest Cinderella of all has made it to the 6A finals as the 12 seed Kings Mountain stunned 2 seed Charlotte Catholic in the West Regional Finals. In the 5A East, #2 Fike took down top seed SE Alamance to face the top seed in the West, Hunter Huss. The 4A Regional Finals both ended in one point affairs. Salisbury hit an improbable bank shot from half court to give the Hornets a date in the finals with the top seed in the East, Reidsville, who survived a very good Washington team. Another Cinderella, 7 seed Walkertown, advanced to the finals by blowing past the 4 seed E. Surry. In the East, 2 seed Kinston is trying to return to glory and punched their ticket to the finals by turning away upset minded Martin. In the 2A, top seed Queens Grant rolled past S. Stokes in the West. Cinderella Warren County will see if the slipper will fit in the Ring Round as they stunned the 2 seed Voyager Academy in the East Finals. The 1A saw the Cinderella 8 seed Thomas Jefferson end Jackson Day’s title hopes in the West Finals. Top seeded Vance Charter slipped past the 2 seed Southern Wake in the East Finals. The Ring Round is now set and the games begin at 12 on Wednesday. The Sad One posted a dismal 7-9 record in the Regional Finals round that has a tendency to be brutal at times. His overall record is now 260-84 or about 77%. Without further delay we will now get…….TO THE PICKS!!!!!
8A: WEST CHARLOTTE
7A: SOUTHERN DURHAM
6A: NORTHERN NASH
5A: HUNTER HUSS
4A: REIDSVILLE
3A: KINSTON
2A: QUEENS GRANT
1A: Upset Special winner THOMAS JEFFERSON
There you have it folks! The dye is cast so try and get to see one of these last games of the 2026 campaign and support these student athletes. We will return next week with a Ring Round recap, the final Furious 5 rankings, The Great One’s traditional Meck Power 6 all-conference team and farewell to the season articles. We will also name the all-important Hot Dog of the Year award. Stay tuned!!!!!
SAD SAM – HS HOOPS GENIUS