Random Thoughts: hoops and football

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

The latest installment of Random Thoughts includes congratulations, a great start by a local player, the MAC, good games, championship game locations and the College Football Playoff.

Congrats

Congratulations go out to Crestview boys basketball coach Doug Etzler, who notched his 250^th career victory with Saturday’s 51-42 victory over Parkway.

160 victories came while he was the head coach at Teays Valley and 90 have come at his alma mater. 250 wins is no small accomplishment, especially in this day and age.

Great start

Former Crestview girls basketball standout Cali Gregory has already made quite a name for herself as a member of the University of St. Francis’s women’s basketball team.

In a game against Bethel University on Saturday, the freshman scored 28 points and was 6-of-8 from three point range, with four assists and four steals. Gregory has been a key factor in an 11-0 start by the Cougars, who are ranked No. 13 in the NAIA poll. For the season, she’s averaging 16.5 points per game, 4.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per outing. She’s also shooting nearly 50 percent (23-of-47) from three point range.

Those are impressive numbers by the freshman from Convoy.

MAC 2-0

Mercer County has two more state championship teams, as Marion Local and Coldwater brought home the Divisions VII and VI football state titles.

Marion Local’s large victory wasn’t a surprise. Some people took issue with the final 74-0 score but I’m guessing most of them didn’t see or listen to the game. Marion Local wasn’t purposely trying to run it up. Basic dive plays by younger players on the roster wound up going for long touchdowns.

I’m not shocked that Coldwater won but I was surprised by the margin (31-7) over Kirtland. I thought it would be much closer than that.

Surprise, good games

Olentangy Liberty’s win over Cincinnati Moeller in the Division I championship game was definitely a surprise. In the Division II final, Avon and Cincinnati Anderson turned out to be an entertaining game and the Division III game (sparsely attended) between Columbus Bishop Watterson and Toledo Central Catholic was a good game. Perhaps the best game of all was the Division IV final between the Perkins Pirates and the Indian Valley Braves. The Braves won the game 37-36.

Location

I couldn’t help notice online complaints about football championship games being played in Stark County, in northeast Ohio.

Those who commented insisted that in all fairness to all teams, the games should be played in Columbus, and some complained about 2-3 hour drives to Canton. Apparently they don’t realize that for some teams, a drive to Columbus is easily 2-3 hours as well, so I don’t understand that argument. And of course, there will always be a team or two in the Columbus area that reaches the title game. For example, Olentangy Liberty is about 30 minutes from Ohio Stadium.

Speaking of Ohio Stadium – yes, it would be wonderful if the championship games were played there. It’s been done before. On one hand, it’s not ideal because let’s face it – even if 25,000 fans show up for a game, 80,000 seats are still empty. On the other hand, it’s Ohio Stadium. There’s one thing to keep in mind though – Ohio State has no interest in hosting the title game and obviously, neither does anyone else in the Columbus area. You can’t force any venue to host.

Personally, I think Canton has a fine facility, as does Massillon, a site that has hosted many state championship games. True, they’re not centrally located, but at least in my book, that’s a non-issue. They’re willing to host, they have great facilities and they’re willing to do it. 

College Football Playoff

At least there’s some consistency – while the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams, one thing hasn’t changed – griping about which team or teams should/shouldn’t be in the playoff. It’s no big surprise, no matter how much you expand it, that’s not going to change.

Not that it matters much but I think for the most part, the committee got it right. I guess the only team that I would have liked to see get more consideration would be Army. 11-1 with a true option offense? That could have been interesting.

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