Random Thoughts: tournament hoops

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

This week’s installment of Random Thoughts centers around expansion, some surprising numbers, a four-peat, a strong schedule and private vs. public.

Is 7 greater than 4?

As I said a couple of weeks ago, I’m still on the fence about the OHSAA’s basketball expansion from four to seven divisions. However, this past weekend nudged me a bit to the side of seven.

Of course there are people who say seven divisions is too many and the thing is, they’re not necessarily wrong. Then again, look what three additional divisions did this year alone in this area. Three years agao we would have never seen Crestview and Lincolnview in the regional semifinals or Delphos St. John’s and Kalida in the state finals. In fact, it’s more than likely both games would have been district finals. Lincolnview and Marion Local? It wouldn’t have been a state semifinal game.

There are other similar stories across the other divisions and judging by overall attendance at state semifinals and finals game, people don’t seem to mind too much.

Maybe – just maybe the three additional divisions wasn’t such a bad idea.

Numbers

Some of the numbers from this past weekend were mind boggling, some in a good way, some in a not so good way. 

For example, Westerville North put up 81 shots against Massillon Washington and had 53 rebounds, including 34 offensive rebounds. Despite all of that, Warriors hit only 22 shots, lost a 15 point lead and lost the Division II championship game 68-63 in overtime.

In the Division II state semifinals, Lima Sr. connected on just 3-of-33 three point attempts.

Marion Local converted just 10-of-25 free throws in a 54-51 loss to Berlin Hiland in the Division VI championship game.

Delphos St. John’s head coach earned his 300th career win with Saturday’s 56-47 state championship victory over Kalida.

Four-peat

Cleveland Heights Lutheran East won a record fourth straight state championship with a 50-36 victory over Columbus Academy. It didn’t even feel that close.

Two of the titles came in Division III before expansion and the last two have come in Division V. It feels like “The Lue” should be playing in a higher division, but that’s a discussion for a different day.

Van Wert

The Cougars saw their season end in the Division IV regional semifinals at Bowling Green State University nearly two weeks ago. Five of Van Wert’s seven losses this season came to the Division VII state runner-up (Kalida), the Division VII state champion (Delphos St. John’s), Division VI state runner-up Marion Local, and WBL champion Shawnee. The Cougars also defeated state semifinalist Lincolnview.

Public vs. private

The final tally from state title games: Public schools went 5-2 against private/parohocial schools. If you want to get technical, public schools actually went 4-1 vs. private/parochial schools, since Division V was an all private/parochial matchup.

Lutheran East and Delphos St. John’s were the parochial schools that won state titles. Cincinnati Princeton, Massillon Washington, Trotwood-Madison, Cincinnati Wyoming and Berlin Hiland won the remaining titles. 

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