{"id":189419,"date":"2025-02-10T23:10:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T04:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=189419"},"modified":"2025-02-10T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T04:12:10","slug":"random-thoughts-tourney-hoops-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/02\/10\/random-thoughts-tourney-hoops-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: tourney hoops, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the boys basketball tournament draw and sectionals, single season turnarounds and the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t like it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to sound negative, but I have to say it. I don\u2019t like this year\u2019s sectional\/district tournament setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there was always a certain charm to sectional doubleheaders played on a neutral site, it\u2019s okay that the higher seed will host at the sectional level. The rest of Ohio has done it that way for years. I\u2019ll admit, I\u2019ll miss the doubleheaders a little, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I really don\u2019t like is that sectional semifinal games are few and far between. Van Wert has one because there are 10 teams in the Elida district, but most other divisions have eight teams, which means no sectional semifinals, go straight to the finals. That in itself isn\u2019t the worst thing. The worst thing is seemingly all sectional title games will be played at the same time on the same night. In previous years, games were divided up over different nights by division. It was much better when the games were spread out a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Division IV<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Division IV Findlay district, formerly Division II, is an interesting one. In my mind, it\u2019s wide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elida (13-6) is the No. 1 seed and deservedly so. The Bulldogs have won four straight and seven of their last eight games, with the only loss coming to Lima Central Catholic (48-45).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Sandusky (14-6) is the No. 2 seed, but the Rams were dismantled by No. 6 seed Ottawa-Glandorf 63-40 on Saturday. No. 3 seed Shelby (12-8) is hard to figure out. The Whippets are a talented team and they\u2019ve played a challeging schedule. It\u2019s been an up and down year for Shelby, but I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d want to face the Whippets any sooner than I had to. No. 4 seed Bath is more than competitve and don\u2019t count out No. 5 seed Van Wert.  No. 6 seed Ottawa-Glandorf could be considered the wild card in this district. It wouldn\u2019t be a shock to see the Titans get out of the sectional and play a district game or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biggest turnaround<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest regular season turnaround award (boys basketball) goes to \u2013 the Bath Wildcats. Bath was 2-20 last season. Heading into tonight\u2019s action against Allen East, the Wildcats are 12-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The next biggest turnaround award goes to Defiance. One could argue this one is the real biggest turnaround but regardless, the Bulldogs were 7-15 last season and are 15-4 heading into tonight\u2019s game against Archbold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honorable mention turnaround goes to Van Wert. The Cougars were 4-18 last season, but are 8-12 next season. With a game against Kenton looming and a rematch against the Wildcats in the sectional semifinals, Van Wert has a real chance to hit at least 10 wins with a still very young team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turnaround II<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not pointing this out to disparage anyone or any team. I\u2019m doing it to show how senior-laden and how talented the WBL was last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No team suffered greater graduation losses than Ottawa-Glandorf, with Colin White and Co. moving on. Last year, the Titans were 19-3 during the regular season, but are currently 7-11. Here\u2019s the thing \u2013 no one wanted to play O-G in the sectionals and for good reason. Also, this team will be back sooner than some people realize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Marys Memorial was 16-6 last regular season but the Roughriders are 5-15 this season. Kenton was 11-11 last season, but is 1-18 this season. Celina was 12-10 last season but is 4-16 this season. Again, graduation really took its toll on the WBL. Yet, the future looks good for all of the aforementioned teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Division VI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Division VI Elida district, formerly the Division IV Elida district, is tough again. Lima Central Catholic, Crestview, Bluffton and Columbus Grove are the top four seeds. After years of running into Ottawa-Glandorf in Division III, Wayne Trace is in the Elida district and is the No. 5 seed. Ada is 13-7 and is the No. 6 seed. Yes, it\u2019s accurate to say the Elida district is a meatgrinder again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the Division VI Wapakoneta district \u2013 the top three seeds are Spencerville, Marion Local and Coldwater. Ouch. That\u2019s rough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls hoops<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls sectionals tip off this week, starting with Antwerp at Crestview tonight. Best of luck to all area girls basketball teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Super Bowl<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still astounded how bad Kansas City looked on offense, especially in the first half, against Philadelphia. That might have been the biggest shock of all on Sunday. To me, the Chiefs looked totally unprepared for this game, which is hard to imagine. While I picked the Eagles to win, it was hard to imagine that things would transpire like they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the boys basketball tournament draw and sectionals, single season turnarounds and the Super Bowl. Don\u2019t like it I don\u2019t want to sound negative, but I have to say it. I don\u2019t like this year\u2019s sectional\/district tournament setup. While there was always a certain charm […]<\/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-189419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 08:43:57","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\/189419","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=189419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189477,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189419\/revisions\/189477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}