{"id":128314,"date":"2020-02-18T04:48:33","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T09:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=128314"},"modified":"2020-02-18T04:48:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T09:48:39","slug":"random-thoughts-thinking-about-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/02\/18\/random-thoughts-thinking-about-hoops\/","title":{"rendered":"Random thoughts: thinking about hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s Random Thoughts center around congratulations and best wishes, 2019-2020 poll champions, boys basketball league and conference races,and the Cleveland Cavaliers and John Beilein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to Van Wert wrestler Gabe Steyer for winning his fourth Western Buckeye League championship on Saturday. It\u2019s a rare feat and certainly one to be proud of. Just one other Van Wert wrestler won four league titles – Brad Russell, who graduated in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations as well to Van Wert\u2019s Macein Bigham and Eli Kline for their WBL runner up finishes, Killian Sudduth for a third place WBL finish and Lincolnview\u2019s Dylan Bowyer for finishing second in the Northwest Conference tournament, and teammate Tyler Ulery for placing third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck to each of them and their teammates in the upcoming sectionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls tournaments<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls sectional basketball tournaments tip off tonight. Best of luck to Van Wert (Division II) and Lincolnview (Division IV) in tonight\u2019s games and best of luck to Crestview who plays tomorrow night in Division IV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three teams have a good chance of advancing to Saturday\u2019s sectional championship games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poll champions<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final Associated Press boys basketball poll of the season came out Monday afternoon. Your 2019-2020 poll champions: Division I \u2013 Cincinnati Moeller; Division II \u2013 Shawnee; Division III \u2013 Canal Winchester Harvest Prep; Division IV \u2013 Columbus Grove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ottawa-Glandorf and Versailles finished No. 2 and 3 in Division III, while Antwerp finished No. 2 in Division IV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basketball races<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barring the upset of the year, it appears Shawnee will be crowned outright 2019-2020 Western Buckeye League boys basketball champions. The top ranked and Associated Press poll champion Indians (20-1, 8-0 WBL) will host Bath in the regular season finale on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Division IV No. 1 Columbus Grove (21-0, 7-0 NWC) has wrapped up an outright Northwest Conference championship and the Bulldogs are Putnam County League champions as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Division IV No. 2 Antwerp (21-0, 7-0 GMC) has won the Green Meadows Conference championship for the first time since 2011, while Division III No. 3 Versailles (21-1, 9-0 MAC) has won the Midwest Athletic Conference championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much for suspense down the stretch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Beilein and the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just a matter of time before the Cavs and rookie head coach John Beilein part ways. All that remains to be seen is how soon it takes place, i.e. this week or at the end of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beilein isn\u2019t your typical rookie NBA head coach. He\u2019s 67 years old and took over after a successful stint at Michigan. By all accounts he\u2019s a good man and an excellent teacher, but he\u2019s struggled to adapt to the pro game and pro players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a bit skeptical when he was hired, simply because it didn\u2019t make sense. The front office tried to push the teaching angle as a big factor in his hiring, but this isn\u2019t a young team with guys like Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t blame Beilein one bit for accepting the job. Why wouldn\u2019t he? There are only so many of these jobs and it was a shot to coach an NBA franchise. However, I blame the Cleveland Cavaliers front office for thinking this would work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s back to square one for the 2020-2021 season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week\u2019s Random Thoughts center around congratulations and best wishes, 2019-2020 poll champions, boys basketball league and conference races,and the Cleveland Cavaliers and John Beilein. Congratulations Congratulations to Van Wert wrestler Gabe Steyer for winning his fourth Western Buckeye League championship on Saturday. It\u2019s a rare feat and certainly one to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 11:14:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}