{"id":200614,"date":"2025-12-16T07:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=200614"},"modified":"2025-12-16T07:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:57:15","slug":"random-thoughts-basketball-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/12\/16\/random-thoughts-basketball-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: basketball, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around a nice start, an offering of congratulations, the start of hoops for one team, a special event on January 3, Michigan and the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nice start<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about the Lincolnview Lancers? It\u2019s been a struggle in recent seasons but the Lancers are off to a 4-1 start, including an eye-popping 61-45 upset win at Lima Central Catholic on Friday. This team is young but talented and is sure to turn some heads this season and beyond. If you have a chance, get out and watch them. You\u2019ll like what you see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Congratulations to Delphos St. John\u2019s guard Cameron Elwer. So far this young season, he\u2019s surpassed the 2,000 career point mark and become the MAC\u2019s all time leading scorer. He accomplished the latter by scoring 45 points during Friday\u2019s 64-44 win over Minster. Van Wert will get a firsthand look at Elwer and crew tonight. The game is expected to be a sellout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last one<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of the MAC, St. Henry is the last school to tipoff its 2025-2026 boys basketball season. The Redskins had to postpone games due to run to the Division VII football state championship. Now, St. Henry will begin the season at Minster on Friday, then will host Spencerville on Saturday. The Redskins will play four games before the end of 2025, then will play 10 games in January, all against traditionally strong MAC teams and a tough non-conference schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday, January 3 will be two for the price of one and its all for a good cause. Van Wert and Lincolnview will play their annual girls-boys varsity doubleheader at Van Wert High School, with the girls game tipping off at 4 p.m. that day, followed by the boys game. There\u2019s some good talent on all four teams and it should be a treat to watch. Plus, it\u2019s the YWCA\u2019s Human Trafficking Awareness Game. Special t-shirts are being made up and donations will be taken at the door human trafficking survivors housed at the YWCA of Van Wert County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All I\u2019m going to say about the newest Michigan scandal is wow. I don\u2019t think anyone of us have seen a bigger turn of events that what happened last week. Personally, I think there\u2019s going to be some major housecleaning at UM. If not, there should be. The only people I feel bad for in this situation \u2013 the coach\u2019s wife and three young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleveland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of housecleaning, I have to believe it\u2019ll occur in Cleveland once the regular season is complete. I don\u2019t know how Kevin Stefanski survives what\u2019s happened and quite honestly, I\u2019m not sure how the front office makes it either. However, Andrew Berry and company may somehow be back next year. Now, some unsolicited advice to the people who will run the draft next year: when its announced \u201cThe Cleveland Browns are on the clock\u201d \u2013 offensive line, wide receiver or vice versa. Two first round picks, one of each. Second round, third round, one pick each, but wash, rinse repeat. Got it? No quarterback. Like him or not, Shedeur Sanders has shown enough potential to play next year. If nothing else, he\u2019d be a bridge quarterback. As I\u2019ve said before, he has a lot of work to do, but there\u2019s some hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments 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 This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around a nice start, an offering of congratulations, the start of hoops for one team, a special event on January 3, Michigan and the Cleveland Browns. Nice start How about the Lincolnview Lancers? It\u2019s been a struggle in recent seasons but the Lancers are off […]<\/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-200614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 21:04:33","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\/200614","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=200614"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200620,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200614\/revisions\/200620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}