Mr. Russell;1000671 wrote:Is Dennis the real deal Madman?

Big early season game Friday when Smithville travels to Chippewa to play the upstart Chipps.

saw him play and i will say basketball is definitely his sport. He is still only a sophomore but is impressive, still needs to get some more meat on his bones and more physical but hopefully that will come in the next 2 years. Good to see him do well after a very rough fall.

Mr. Russell;1000671 wrote:Is Dennis the real deal Madman?

Big early season game Friday when Smithville travels to Chippewa to play the upstart Chipps.

Time will tell. Those first two teams Rittman played are nothing compared to what he will face in the county. So far he has been crashing the boards pretty well and is fitting into Rittman's dribble-drive offense effectively.

After Northwestern beat Triway 75-68, someone asked me "Is Northwestern that good or Triway that bad?" I didn't get the comment, since it was a very close, competitive game. Neither team had REALLY high expectations this year, I don't think, but both teams I think will surprise some people this year. Northwestern is athletic and fundamental (only 8 turnovers). Once Triway gets some of their young, inexperienced talent developed around their core group of Seniors, I think they could have the depth necessary to stick with a lot of teams and could get a few wins they weren't "supposed" to get... hopefully starting tomorrow against West Holmes! (but that will be a TOUGH game)

Good luck to Northwestern this season.

Bates and Klotzle both with 22 tonight to lead the Smithies over Central Christian.

The team needs to play much much better to beat Chippewa Friday. Not sure of some of the rotations. It will be interesting to sew how it goes. Winner of this game has an early head up in the league in my opinion.

Beating Central is like beating up your younger sister

now that's funny:thumbup:

Central actually has some talent 4RINGZ. Younger talent at that too. No names, but they would compete with 2 or 3 teams in the WCAL this season, no doubt in my mind. That is funny though because they have been really down in recent years so I can see where your comment comes from.

Rittman got destroyed on the boards by Northwestern 61-40. Northwestern got a majority of their points on putbacks and completely dominated the glass. The Indians need to find someone who can battle underneath if they want to be competitive this season. Besides the offensive rebounding of the Huskies, Rittman can actually match up skill wise. It would have been a way closer game if the Indians could have cut the Huskies offensive rebounds in half

Waynedale beat Hillsdale 58 to 51. The bears will surprise a lot of people this season.

Smithville 63
Chippewa 45

Close game at the half, Bates had 15 second half points to put it out of reach and finish with 19. Jimmy Pew with a great effort tonight for the Smithies with 14 and Klotzle had another good outing with 12. Tough game for the Chipps, but the gym was rocking and I see the future looking up. Durbin (Fr) lit up the JV game.

Bears will be competitive in all games. That flat out out hustled Hillsdale all night. What a difference a coach can make!

Yes a much better coach than last year!

glad to see the chipps and bears showing some fight - those 2 have been in the cellar for a long time. Probably the worst 2 programs in the league the last 5 years.

Waynedale does have a better coach this year, but you have to look at what Waynedale had the last couple of years for players, nothing! They have some talent coming now!

Dalton over Fairless 59-50 although it doesn't seem to be in the paper. Moyer played his first game for Dalton and scored 15, Dalton is definitely a lot more comfortable with him there. Tough matchup this friday with smithville coming to town.

RRRock;1009802 wrote:Waynedale does have a better coach this year, but you have to look at what Waynedale had the last couple of years for players, nothing! They have some talent coming now!

Talent doesn't matter if you they don't play hard. In my opinion, Hillsdale had better talent this past Friday but the Bears just played harder. That starts with coaching.

I agree WCALFAN a coach can make a difference no doubt about it, I am just saying if you do not have talent it is a lot harder to win. Think about Smithville when Kornowski, Baird, Orr, and Bates were there, or Hillsdale over the last two years, they won because they had size and talent, how do you compete against that when you cannot even match up? If you do not have some talent or kids that do not have heart it makes it harder to win IMO. I watched a lot of different teams over the years in the WCL and when I watched Waynedale there was very little talent there, plus I understand the coach needs to get his players ready and needs to instill hard work in practice so you see it on game night, but don't the players need to be held accountable to make sure they are giving 100% effort? A coach can only do so much. I do agree that Reibe will do well there but I bet if you ask him if he could have won with the players that were at Waynedale over the last couple of years he would tell you what I am saying, trust me I have talked to him about it.

RRRock, you make a good point and I have talked to other Waynedale coaches who have said how much those kids do work on basketball, specifically the younger kids. You cannot be a special team, or even a WCAL winning team these days without extremely hard work. There is no coincidence Northwestern shared the league title last year. Yes, Brennan was special, but the other kids on that team were playing at his house and hitting the weight room at a regular pace. I honestly do not know if there is a special team this year in the league as far as work ethic goes, there are some good and talented players, but how many off of each team really dedicated themselves in the offseason?

^^ agreed Mr. Russell it depends on what the kid puts into it, coaches can only do so much. Kids today are not the way they use to be IMO, they want every thing given to them and not have to work for it. I know not all kids are like that but a lot are now.

Unlike some other sports where your god-given talent is extremely important, I believe that you definitely can make yourself into a good or even great basketball player.

You've drank the Orrville cool-aid, thou. LOL

Haha Flash, the hours spent at the OABGC in that gym were far too many to count. I remember when the multi-purpose room was put in, giving two places to play. It was like heaven.

3 really big games this weekend in the WCAL, should be able to tell a lot about the league after Friday!
I'll be heading to Dalton, a place where you can count the number of games Smithville has won in the past 25 years on 1 hand!

dalton has always had one of the better atmospheres in the wcl and has been a tough place for most teams. The smithies have started out little stronger this year and moyer's still finding his basketball legs, so I think I would bet the smithies on this one, but it should be a decent game. bates and especially klotzle have had nice starts to the season.

Someone from Norwayne just tweeted that the Creston State Champs are coming into the Bear Den to make some noise Friday night...Twitter is blowing up!

I can only imagine what the Norwayne student section has in store for the Red Riders when we come to visit on Jan. 10...that could get ugly!