By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

 CHINA GROVE — It’s not really fair to burden youngsters with lofty expectations, but the last two weeks have made it clear that freshmen Caden “CP” Perry, Jacob Mills and Drew Neve aren’t just the future of Carson basketball, they’re the present.

Carson has other good players — junior Colin Ball absolutely lit up A.L. Brown last week, junior point guard Jonah Drye is playing at a high level as he adjusts to having scorers all over the place, and senior Jay McGruder is tough as nails as an undersized forward — but the three freshmen are no longer at the starting point in the learning curve.

They’ve already proven they can play. The trio combined for 65 points in North Rowan’s gym on Friday, one more point than the Cavaliers scored.

It’s their time.

The difficult task in front of the Cougars now is to show they can win in the South Piedmont Conference — and especially to win on the road in the SPC. That’s not easy. There are some rugged, talented grown men playing high school ball in Cabarrus County.

In the 3A West RPI rankings, six SPC teams are in the top 26. While those rankings are based on a mathematical formula, they aren’t necessarily logical.

Central Cabarrus is ranked third, which makes anyone who has seen Central Cabarrus smile and shake his or her head vigorously. Almost everyone with decent eyesight  believes that the Vikings, who have won 45 in a row, are better than they were last season.

West Rowan is the second-highest SPC team in RPI, No. 15. There are times when the Falcons haven’t looked worthy of such a lofty ranking, but they have played well against rival Carson and beat the Cougars twice in sensational games — once in Mount Ulla, once in the Christmas tournament.

Concord, which has won last-second games against West and Carson, is No. 20. Carson is 24th. Robinson, which won at Carson, is 25th. Northwest Cabarrus is 26th.

Thirty-two make the playoff bracket, so hopefully there will be room for all of them. Lake Norman Charter’s not bad, either.

Carson is 6-5 overall and owns a three-game winning streak and a growing group of believers, but the Cougars are still only 1-4 in the SPC. They sit in seventh place in the league standings, although Carson’s first SPC meetings with East Rowan and South Rowan, the bottom two teams, are coming soon.

On Tuesday, Carson plays at Northwest Cabarrus. That should be a terrific game. Northwest (8-5, 3-3)  is a solid, respected team.

Whether it’s a break-though victory for Carson or one more heartbreaker, only time will tell.