Just watching their afternoon games in the Final Four on YouTube I have to go with East Chicago over Indianapolis Washington. Indiana Washington just beat Marion by 1 and they didn’t play very hard. East Chicago hustled harder than any team at any level I can think of and I believe they would have run Indianapolis Washington into the ground. They didn’t have anyone equal to McGinnis but they had two very quick guards and three pro level athletes and every one of them hustled. I am an independent observer that has to go with ECW for the win. They were an extreme high energy team.
IW's biggest downside was that their 2 stars both played inside, but they weren't that weak elsewhere.
that said, not only did they not have anyone anywhere near as good as McGinnis, they didn't have anyone as good as Downing either..
yes, IW let Marion and Jovon Price come closer than they should have, but McGinnis was on another level than anyone ECW had, and could turn it up a notch when he wanted to.
McGinnis could suffer gentle giant syndrome at times, but could also turn it up when motivated.
in the Ind-Ky all star series that yr McGinnis had a lackluster first game and Ky players got on him as not that great afterward.
don't poke the bear.
that pissed off McGinnis, so he came back with 51 points and 31 rebounds in the 2nd game of the series.
if ECW and IW played a 2 game series and ECW pulled out the 1st game, i have no doubt IW would have beaten them by 20 the next game.
no doubt ECW had 3 really good players, but they didn't have any great players who could dominate other high level players.
and in grudge matches, dominant players rule.
and like i said, ECW would never have taken Wilt's or Lebron's or Alcindor's or Bill Walton's HS teams, if both teams were playing their best.
some players are just so dominant that even really good balanced other teams aren't going to be able to take them when both sides on on top of their game.