It’s doubtful that you plan to run out of work early or rearrange your schedule to get up to the County Center at 3 o’clock today to see the Class D state regional semi between Clark Academy and Greenport of Long Island. But if you’re sitting around this afternoon, there’s a few reasons why you should.

The first is Ryan Creighton. People always ask what would happen if a Mookie Jones or Sherrod Wright played in Class D. Well, Creighton shows it. He’s a 6-foot-2 junior guard/forward/center at Greenport yet he’s already scored 2,000 points and averaged nearly 30 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and anywhere between 5-7 blocks and steals per game. He’s a one-man wrecking crew who I heard about when he started as a seventh grader.

Creighton is a Division I caliber athlete, who apparently is BETTER at football and will play fullback in college. He completely dominated Clark in last year’s state tournament. Greenport, which had lost to MLK the two years before, won the game by 23 and went onto Glens Falls.

Now, here’s the other reason you should go today: Clark believes it will win.

The only Class D team in Section 1, and therefore the champion and state tourny rep, has had over a month to plan for Creighton. They’ve gone to scout Greenport several times and feel that they’ve devised a great defensive scheme to contain him. I know what that plan is but I won’t say just yet. But it seems quite logical.

If I were writing full scouting reports for these games, I’d say that Clark has to hold Creighton to 25 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists. Yes, they must hold him to that in order to win. He doesn’t have quite the supporting cast he had last season, so he’ll have to do it more on his own.

One thing that is working against Creighton is the fact that County Center is a regulation floor, which he hasn’t played on for most of the season. It’s hard to run the point and defend the opposing center when the floor is that large.

But one thing working against Clark is that Creighton always shows up for big games. Don’t be shocked if he goes for 40 and Greenport wins.

There’s still time to cancel that afternoon meeting or to skip eighth period. See you there.