As boys high school basketball tournaments start this week, The Lima News offers 10 things to watch for:
1. Can this year compare to last year for area teams?
A better question might be could any year live up to last year? This area produced a state champion (Lima Central Catholic), two state runners-up (Lima Senior and Lincolnview), two other teams which reached regional tournaments (Ottawa-Glandorf and Perry) and a Mr. Basketball (Xavier Simpson) in 2016.
But memories still will be made this year, even if expectations are not quite as high as the stratospheric ones of a year ago.
2. What are some possible tournament rematches from 2016 that could be very interesting?
• Ottawa-Glandorf against Upper Sandusky. Last year the Titans knocked an undefeated Upper Sandusky team out in a Division II district semifinal game. Upper Sandusky is undefeated again this year and ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press state poll, but O-G got the No. 1 seed in the district.
They could play each other in a district championship game at Ohio Northern University.
• Lima Senior against Toledo St. John’s. The Spartans won by one point in a district championship matchup with St. John’s last season. The two teams split their regular season games this year.
They would have to get to a district championship game at the University of Toledo for a tournament rematch to happen.
• Perry against the MAC. Perry beat two Midwest Athletic Conference teams in the Wapakoneta District last year on its way to the Kettering Regional. The Commodores are favored to get to the district, where they probably would encounter more MAC teams.
• Ottawa-Glandorf against Lexington. They wouldn’t play until a regional championship game at the University of Toledo, but the Titans came back from being down by 11 points in a regional semifinal against the Minutemen last year and came back from 10 down to win a regular-season game this season.
3. Is there a Do You Believe In Miracles team somewhere out there in the area?
In 1993, Coldwater’s boys basketball team was 4-16 in the regular season, lost its last nine regular-season games and was eighth in the Midwest Athletic Conference. Its tournament season didn’t end until the Division III state semifinals.
Two years later, Delphos St. John’s was 5-14 in the regular season and also got all the way to the state semifinals.
It doesn’t happen often, but history proves it can.
4. Can Perry make back-to-back trips to the regional in Dayton and maybe take the next step and get to the state tournament?
The Commodores have already repeated as the Northwest Central Conference champion. Their only losses have been to Division II teams. Now they’re looking for more.
Jakoby Lane-Harvey, Plummie Gardner, Kobe Glover and Orion Monford all were starters on last season’s Perry team, which won the first district championship in boys basketball by a Commodores team.
5. Will last season’s upward trend in attendance at the state tournament continue, or was it the product of special teams and special circumstances?
The Division I championship game between Lima Senior and Westerville South drew 13,457 fans, an increase of around 2,800 fans over 2015. In Division II, New Concord John Glenn and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary attracted a crowd of 14,643, a gain of around 4,700 fans.
The Division III championship game between Lima Central Catholic and Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph was attended by 11,109 people, an increase of 702. The Lincolnview-Cornerstone Division IV championship was the only one to show a decline. And that was only 119 fans, from 9,794 in 2015 to 9,675 last year.
6. Who are some of the top college recruits around the state who fans might get a chance to see play in the state tournament?
Several of the top players, not surprisingly, play for teams with at least a decent chance of getting to the state tournament.
They include Versailles junior Justin Ahrens (Ohio State), Upper Arlington junior Dane Goodwin (Ohio State), Westerville South senior post player Kaleb Wesson (Ohio State), and Massillon Jackson senior Kyle Young (Butler).
7. Putnam County League teams won’t have to do a lot of scouting because they will be playing familiar opponents.
Six of the PCL’s eight teams play another PCL team in the first round of their sectionals, and another opens against the winner of one of those PCL vs. PCL games.
Kalida starts with Fort Jennings. Ottoville’s first game is against Pandora-Gilboa. And Continental and Leipsic is the third inside the PCL matchup. The winner of the Kalida-Fort Jennings game will play Miller City, which has a bye in the first round.
8. Western Buckeye League teams can pull the scouting reports out of the files, too.
Six of the WBL’s 10 teams will play each other in the first round of their sectionals, and three others with byes could play a WBL opponent in the second round.
The first-round matchups are Shawnee against Kenton; Bath against Defiance; and Van Wert against St. Marys. Wapakoneta opens against the Bath-Defiance winner. Elida starts with the Van Wert-St. Marys winner, and Ottawa-Glandorf will play the winner of the Celina-Bryan game.
9. Taking a first-round bye seems to have won the debate.
In the past, there seemed to be a significant number of coaches who avoided first-round byes.
But in the brackets involving area teams, the only No. 1 seed playing a first-round game is Toledo St. John’s.
10. Who are the winners and losers of the Check the Price of Gas Award for having to drive the shortest and longest distances to watch their team play?
St. Henry opens against Waynesfield-Goshen on Feb. 28 at Coldwater, a drive of five miles. Ada plays the second game at Coldwater that night against Waynesfield-Goshen, a drive of 58 miles for the Bulldogs’ fans.
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