The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Random Thoughts: hoops and more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Northwest Ohio basketball and state rankings, good basketball at the right time, Lincolnview hoops, the Elida district, Cleveland Heights basketball and wrestling are among this week’s Random Thoughts, along with a non-sports question.

Northwest Ohio basketball

Once again, the area is well represented in this Associated Press boys high school basketball poll.

Shawnee is now tied with perennial power Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s for the top spot in Division II, while Ottawa-Glandorf and Versailles are No. 2 and No. 3 in Division III, trailing only Canal Winchester Harvest Prep.

Columbus Grove remains the No. 1 ranked team in Division IV and Antwerp has moved up to No. 3. Ottoville was ranked No. 12 last week but is unranked this week, which is a mystery. At this point, I’d put the Big Green up against almost anyone in Division IV.

Hot at the right time

The Van Wert Cougars are playing better down the stretch, with three wins in four games, including Saturday’s resounding 66-49 win over St. Henry. This is the time of year you want to play good basketball.

After the regular season, the Cougars will open the Division II sectional tournament against Wapakoneta, a team Van Wert beat earlier in the season. The winner gets a rematch against No. 3 seed Defiance, which could be interesting. The Bulldogs have won eight of nine, with the only loss coming to Ottawa-Glandorf.

Lincolnview

They didn’t get the win, but I was still impressed with how Lincolnview played against a much bigger Coldwater team on Saturday.

Brett Hammons has done an outstanding job with a team that didn’t have much varsity experience at the start of the season.

Win or lose, this team is always fun to watch.

Division IV Elida district

For the most part, seeding went as expected for the Division IV Elida district. Personally, I think it’s a little odd that Delphos St. John’s picked up the No. 3 seed over Kalida but outside of that, there were no real surprises.

As I noted last week, this is an extremely tough district. Whichever team gets out to regionals will have truly earned it.

OHSAA and Cleveland Heights

It doesn’t happen often, but the Ohio High School Athletic Association has removed Division I Cleveland Heights from this year’s boys basketball tournament. The decision was made late last week.

The reason – the team played in a tournament in Las Vegas in December, missed two school days and played two games in one day. The trip to Las Vegas or any non-contiguous state is permissible, as long as it doesn’t interfere with school. Two games in one day violates OHSAA five-quarter per day rule, although it’s considered a minor violation.

The school is appealing and has said it will pursue every avenue to get into the tournament, which I’m taking to mean going to court if necessary.

I’m wondering how this is going to work if the school wins the appeal or gets a court injunction. Seeding and matchups have already been determined, so something would have to change.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Wrestling

Best of luck to Van Wert and Lincolnview, as they prepare to wrestle in the Western Buckeye League and Northwest Conference tournaments this Saturday.

Non-sports question

Why is it when you have an extremely upset stomach, the only commercials you see on television are all for food?

If you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.

POSTED: 02/10/20 at 11:17 pm. FILED UNDER: Sports