by Alex Schwartz

Tomorrow night at 7:00pm, two of the top teams in the United States will face off on an ESPN nationally televised game. In the biggest high school game of the season thus far, two teams ranked top five in Northstar Basketball's National Preseason High School Top 100 will clash in Columbus, Ohio.

The #2 ranked Findlay Prep (NV) Pilots will travel to the home city of the #5 Northland (OH) Vikings in a game that will feature five players committed to high-major schools in addition to at least five more, plus a minimum of six other future DI ballers, two of whom could also wind up playing in a BCS conference. Four of the players are ranked in the top 102 of Northstar Basketball's Class of 2010 Terrific 125, with three being in the top 31. To sum it up, there will be a lot of talent on the floor Thursday evening.

Findlay Prep is led by a senior duo of Texas-signee Tristan Thompson '10 and fellow Canadian Cory Joseph '10. The Pilots, who went undefeated and won the mythical national title in 08-09, also have stud juniors Nick Johnson '11 and Jabari Brown '11, along with elite underclassmen Winston Sheppard '12 and Nigel Williams-Goss '13. Godwin Okonji '10, Dekeba Batee Aston '12, and Marco Petrovic '10 are the other key players for the Pilots. Joseph, Brown, Johnson, Thompson, and Okonji will start at the 1 through 5 respectively.

Northland's main man is the #2 ranked player in America by Northstar Basketball, in future Ohio State Buckeye Jared Sullinger '10. A beast in the low post, Sullinger will be aided by three teammates who have also committed to high-major schools in Ohio State-signee JD Weatherspoon '10, Penn State-bound Trey Burke '11, and West Virginia-pledge Jalen Robinson '12. Under the radar sophomores Devon Scott '12, Jordan Potts '12, and KeChaun Lews '12 are the other vital members of the Vikings' squad, a team that won an Ohio state crown last year.

To the matchups, Northland has a clear advantage in the post with Sullinger and Robinson along with Scott, but Findlay Prep has the upper hand at the guard spot. Burke is the lone top-notch guard for Northland—Potts is talented too though—while Findlay has Joseph and Johnson, both of whom are better than the future Nittany Lion. Findlay has other elite backcourt players at its disposal too. The schools are about equal on the wing. The current Pilots, who have not a lost a game while at the school, are much deeper and a more well-rounded team.

Thompson and Okonji will have to step up defensively, but assuming Sullinger can be somewhat contained—he will not be completely stopped—Findlay Prep should walk away with the W, as Joseph, Johnson, Brown, and Co. will be too much in the backcourt for Northland to handle. My pick is Findlay Prep over Northland by a score of 67-61. Be sure to watch the game on Thursday at 7:00pm on ESPN.

Note- photon on the left is of Cory Joseph and photo on the right is of Jared Sullinger; both are from http://scouthoops.scout.com/