The high school basketball season may have ended this past weekend, but there will be one more chance for people to see some of the best boys and girls players in the state.
On April 24 at Oakland University, a high school basketball All-Star game will be held.
Former Auburn Hills Avondale graduate D'Mario Dudley has organized All-Star games in past years, and said this year's game will be bigger and better than ever.
The girls game will take place at 4 p.m., while the boys game will follow at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10. Players such as Keith Appling, Trey Ziegler, Ray McCallum, Roy Marble, Kyle Vinales and Richaud Pack are scheduled to participate in the boys game, while Madison Williams, Ariel Braker and Jenna Bachrouche are notable players who'll compete in the girls game.
For more information, visit www.miallstars.com

Word from East Lansing here on a Friday evening is that one of Oakland County's two remaining boys basketball teams, Southfield, is out following a 76-64 loss to Ann Arbor Huron in a Class A state semifinal.
This continues a troubling trend for area Class A teams in the state semifinals. Since Pontiac Northern won the Class A state title in 2002, there have five area teams that have advanced to the semifinals in Class A, and all of have lost.
West Bloomfield in 2003, Northern in 2004, Orchard Lake St. Mary's in 2006, Clarkston in 2009 and Southfield on Friday all have come up short in bids to advance to the Class A final.
The same can be said of the girls, since Southfield-Lathrup, Lake Orion, West Bloomfield and North Farmington all lost in the Class A semifinals last decade. Only Lathrup in 2005, when the Chargers won the Class A state title, was the exception for the girls.
It's a sad trend, one Kosmo hopes is reversed if there are future Class A boys and girls basketball teams that get to the state semifinals.

Spring sports contests actually are going to begin in the next day or two. Even though much of the attention within the high school sports world is rightfully on this weekend's boys basketball semifinals and finals, games for both girls soccer and boys and girls lacrosse will get going on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It's definitely strange because normally one sports season doesn't get going until another ends, but in this case spring won't be waiting for winter, and nor should it. Spring sports are compressed enough as it is, so good to see there'll be some games taking place.
— With the end of the basketball season, Kosmo is anxious to find out in the next weeks if there'll be any coaching changes around the county, whether it's retirements or school districts just moving on in a different direction. Kosmo has heard some rumors about potential retirements all season, but he's been sworn to secrecy in terms of revealing something until they become official.

The Class B state championship in boys basketball may technically be on Saturday in East Lansing, but figuratively it'll be Tuesday night at Brighton High School.
For the third straight year, it'll be Birmingham Detroit Country Day and Flint Powers in the state quarterfinals, with Country Day looking to avenge losses the last two years to the Chargers.
Country Day is ranked No. 1 in the state, while Powers is No. 2, so this is the de facto state championship.
Kosmo has thought Country Day would win the last two years, but obviously Powers managed to win despite being vastly undersized in comparison to Country Day.
We'll see if Country Day has learned its lessons on Tuesday. Kosmo thinks Ray McCallum and Amir Williams will be plenty motivated to dominate, which will be needed to dethrone Powers.
Hopefully there'll be enough room in the Brighton gym.
- Sometimes Kosmo isn't happy when he was right, and he's definitely not happy he was right about Grand Rapids Catholic Central beating Country Day in the Class B girls basketball final on Saturday. Kosmo's worst fears were realized when it came to Country Day's young ballhandlers.
As good as Aeriel Powers and Amber Deane are and will be, they just seemed a little to excited playing in a state final for the first time. It's good that they experienced it though, because they'll be better for it the next two years.

In Thursday's final girls basketball column of the season, Kosmo predicted that Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes would lose the Class D state final to Central Lake.
Well, now that Central Lake got eliminated by Adrian Lenawee Christian, Kosmo wants to amend his pick.
Namely, it'll be a state championship for the Lakers.
Lenawee Christian will give a battle, but if the Lakers play anything like they did in Thursday's semifinal win over Ontonagon, they shouldn't have much trouble.
Lauren Robak is playing out of her mind now, so it appears to Kosmo that the only thing stopping the Lakers is the Lakers themselves.

Just finishing reading up on what happened in Wednesday night's Class A regional final between Clarkston and Southfield, and Kosmo admits he's mighty impressed.
It's hard enough for a team that's never been to a regional in 26 years to beat someone who's there every year, let alone thoroughly win.
But that's what Southfield did against Clarkston, and Kosmo admits he's impressed.
Very impressed.
So much so that even though the Bluejays weren't ranked to start the state playoffs, it's not out of the realm of possibility to think they can now win it all in Class A.
Southfield should beat Warren De La Salle in the quarterfinals, and then after that, who knows? With defending state champion Detroit Pershing getting knocked out in a regional final by Detroit Denby, the field certainly got a little more wide open.
With Southfield possessing a terrific backcourt in Carlton Brundidge and Desmond Barnes and an improving inside player in Patrick Onwenu, the sky is the limit.

A lot is normally made about the first day of practice for Fall sports in August, but with this nice March weather, Kosmo thinks it was just as wonderful a sight on Monday to see spring sports teams around the state be able to conduct their first practices outside.
Each school around the county has been and will continue to be a flurry of activity this week, with athletes in baseball, softball, track, girls soccer, boys golf, lacrosse and girls tennis all able to start their practices outside this year.
If that's not a sign that spring is around the corner, than Kosmo isn't sure what is, so he hopes people take notice despite the fact it's not the publicized event the first practice day in August normally is.

For those like Kosmo who are observers of high school basketball, it simply won't get any better than Monday night's boys regional doubleheader at Lake Orion High School. Not only is the regional site right in the heart of Oakland County, but it'll have four county schools, ensuring one will get to the state quarterfinals. Boy, what a pair of games it is. Southfield and Pontiac are two OAA Red teams who'll run up and down the court on each other all night. Put your helmet and race suit on, because this will be like the Daytona 500. Then, Clarkston and Brother Rice will take the court after that. As storied of athletic powers as these two schools are, it's rare when they actually play in a significant playoff game, especially in basketball. It should be quite a night.
- Kosmo wants to extend his heartfelt congratulations to the Birmingham Groves boys swim and dive team, which won the Division 2 state championship at Oakland University this past Saturday. The Falcons obviously were heartbroken they narrowly missed out on winning it last year, and fulfilled their year-long mission for redemption.
- Interesting to see at the boys hockey state finals that there were repeat state champions in all three divisions, Trenton, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood and Novi Detroit Catholic Central. Maybe parity is not on the rise in high school hockey after all.

Normally when the girls basketball quarterfinals arrive, Kosmo is worrying about which Class A team or teams are seeking a trip to the final four and bidding farewell to the Class D teams.
It's the exact opposite this year, as no county Class A team advanced to the state quarterfinal, while Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes advanced to its second straight quarterfinal in Class D.
The Lakers will play Deckerville at Carsonville on Tuesday.
Kosmo simply can't remember the last time there wasn't an area team in the quarterfinals, with West Bloomfield (twice), Southfield-Lathrup (twice), North Farmington, Lake Orion all advancing to the state's final four this decade.
In addition, Kosmo believes the last Oakland County team to advance to the Class D semifinals was Oakland Christian in the late 1990's (feel free to correct Kosmo if he's wrong), so the Lakers have a chance to do something nobody in the county has been able to do in a while on Tuesday.

It's going to happen. It's actually going to happen. The matchup that observers of high school hockey around the state dreamed of seeing will actually take place on Friday when Orchard Lake St. Mary's meets Novi Detroit Catholic Central in a Division 1 semifinal at 8:30 p.m. Friday night at Compuware Arena in Plymouth.
These are not only the powers of Oakland County, but could well be the powers of the state. Catholic Central is ranked No. 1 in the state and is the defending state champion, while Orchard Lake St. Mary's is ranked No. 3 in the state, won an outright state title in 2007 and a co-state championship with Marquette in 2008.
The Eaglets have had a harder road, squeaking out a 3-2 win over Rochester United in a regional final and a 2-1 overtime win over Detroit U-D Jesuit in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, but they'll no doubt be champing at the bit for another shot at Catholic Central, which won both regular season meetings at the beginning of the year.
The game, and atmosphere, should be electric. Not only that, but with No. 2 Marquette eliminated from the tournament, this could very well be the de facto state final. The winner faces either Howell or Traverse City West in the state championship game on Saturday night.
- In addition to the boys hockey finals, the boys state swimming and diving finals will be held this weekend. The Division 2 finals will be held at Oakland University, with Birmingham Groves a favorite to win the crown. The Division 1 finals will be held in Holland, while the Division 3 event is at Eastern Michigan.

Tuesday night at Troy Athens, Lake Orion and Birmingham Marian will meet in a girls basketball regional semifinal, which puts one thought into Kosmo's head: It's about time.
Kosmo has thought for sure these teams would meet in regionals the last two years, but upsets have foiled any potential meeting.
Two years ago, Lake Orion was upset in the first round of districts when it looked like it was headed for a regional showdown with then No. 3 Rochester, and then possibly Marian.
Last season, the Dragons and Mustangs were on a collision course to meet in a regional final, but Marian was shockingly upset by Romeo in a regional semifinal.
Finally, these two will meet tonight, with the winner taking on either Waterford Mott or Detroit Renaissance in a regional final on Thursday.
Marian is ranked No. 2 in the state in Class A, while Lake Orion can still be dangerous even though the Dragons aren't as good as they were last year when they had Bethany Watterworth.
- Monday's first night of the boys tournament proved to be devoid of upsets, so there was nothing surprising of note to Kosmo. However, the K-Man is disappointed to see his pick to win the Southfield district, Southfield-Lathrup, bow out of the playoffs at the hand of Detroit Henry Ford.

There's a lot of high school hockey pundits around the state who for years have felt that Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood should voluntarily move up from Division 3 to Division 1.
It's done no good, as Cranbrook has stayed in Division 3, and thus is going for its 15th state title next week.
Kosmo understands why Cranbrook feels it should stay in Division 3 because it's school size and what not. The same argument certainly rings true for Birmingham Detroit Country Day, which has never desired to move up from Class B to Class A in boys and girls basketball.
Still, Cranbrook plays a Division 1 schedule during the regular season, annually has some of the best players in the state and could easily have won multiple Division 1 or Class A state titles by now. It may not be 14, but it still would be a few.
Even if it's for just one season, Kosmo in the future would love to see Cranbrook move up to Division 1 just to see how it measures itself against that level of competition in the state tournament. Yes, Division 3 has gotten better over the years, but Cranbrook can compete with anyone in the state, and should rightfully earn a state title by beating the best in the state.
— Sincere congratulations go out to the Stoney Creek competitive cheerleading team, which broke the Rochester and Grandville string of titles by winning the Division 1 state title in Grand Rapids on Saturday. Nice to see a beautiful new school like Stoney Creek has its first state championship banner in any sport to hang now. Well done, Cougars.

Of all the games in this week's district round of the state girls basketball tournament, Kosmo was most looking forward to Wednesday's battle between Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes and Auburn Hills Oakland Christian.
Those two far and away have been the county's best Class D teams this year, and Kosmo knew the winner could end up in the state's final four.
There's still a ways to go, but WOLL could be in the team that ends up in East Lansing following a solid, 54-40 win over Oakland Christian, which was ranked No. 4 in the state.
The Lakers, who won the Catholic League-CD title, have a great shot to get to the semifinals as a result.
While WOLL happily raised a district title trophy after the win, there could be more to follow for a team looking to go further after losing in the quarterfinals last season.
- Friday is the last regular-season night for boys basketball teams before their state tournament starts on Monday. Fittingly and thrillingly, the OAA Red and White titles still haven't been decided going into the last night.
Clarkston and Southfield-Lathrup will play at Clarkston for at least a share of the OAA Red title, with Southfield also in the mix.
Rochester Adams and Birmingham Seaholm will meet for OAA White supremacy at Seaholm. The host Maples are one game ahead of the Highlanders, so they've already sewn up at least a share of the title. But not only does Seaholm want to win the title outright, it wants to avenge its only loss of the year, which came at Adams last month.

Glancing through the roundup of high school hockey scores the other day, Kosmo was particularly intrigued with the thriller played between Walled Lake Northern and Walled Lake Central.
Northern is ranked No. 6 in the state in Division 2, so Kosmo didn't envision that the Knights would have much trouble.
But Northern did, as Central took its rivals to two overtimes. The Knights finally prevailed when Aaron Schwartz scored the game-winner with .1 second remaining in the second overtime.
No doubt a terrific game and atmosphere, one that makes the high school playoffs so great.
- This weekend, the state competitive cheerleading finals will be held in Grand Rapids, and shockingly, Rochester isn't favored to win. A younger team than normal, the Falcons finished just third in regionals, with rival Stoney Creek winning the regional title. It's a strange sight, but it just goes to show how hard dynasties are to maintain. That no doubt makes what Rochester has accomplished, nine state titles since 1999, even more incredible.