well now that football is whining down... "its basketball time everybody!!!" thanks to joe tate for the famous line...
wondering how people think the league will be this year... to early to tell for the smithies.... lost a lot of good seniors last years..

scotmich;1671408 wrote:well now that football is whining down... "its basketball time everybody!!!" thanks to joe tate for the famous line...
wondering how people think the league will be this year... to early to tell for the smithies.... lost a lot of good seniors last years..

Ask Alum1...he has all the answers.

I do love hoops season. Haven't heard much from around the league with not much practice going on yet. I am looking forward to see how the northwestern big man (Koch I believe) has developed. He really impressed me with his skill set at his age last year. He has a very high ceiling and I expect them to be quite good. Chippewa has breitenstine who can be flat out tough. They have a variety of other athletes too and some size. I look for reibe to have the bears in contention if he continues to add to his game. I don't know if they have enough pieces around him to win the league though. Norwayne continues to have some athletes and a very good coach in Brian west so I fully expect them to be in play. Dalton does lose quite a bit with Huth, Metzger, Lowe and Gregory, but return their best player in 6'7 Conner Clark (I have heard he is a little banged up coming off football, so he needs to get healed up). Wingman Zach Ryder is back as is Conner's little brother Mitchell who is a very tough matchup on the wing with his size - I look for a big jump out of the soph this year. The bulldogs should be in the league mix once again. I think Smithville, hillsdale and rittman will be on the lower tier from what I remember them having last year and who is coming back.

I saw Dalton, Waynedale, and Norwayne play some this summer. I think the WCAL will have a lot of parity in the league again. I'm looking forward to a lot of close games. The Clark boys do give Dalton a formidable duo. I also expect Mitchell Clark to have a breakout season. Most WCAL teams will play in the D3 sectional/district tournament at Wooster again. I would consider Orrville to be the favorite to advance to Canton. After a rugged OCC schedule, the Riders always seem prepared for the tournament.

187xovr;1675342 wrote:I saw Dalton, Waynedale, and Norwayne play some this summer. I think the WCAL will have a lot of parity in the league again. I'm looking forward to a lot of close games. The Clark boys do give Dalton a formidable duo. I also expect Mitchell Clark to have a breakout season. Most WCAL teams will play in the D3 sectional/district tournament at Wooster again. I would consider Orrville to be the favorite to advance to Canton. After a rugged OCC schedule, the Riders always seem prepared for the tournament.

Orrville needs to find a scorer. We graduated 20 pts/game in Summers, so hopefully a couple of kids can step up and fill those shoes. Luke Smith will be called upon to be the man, but I thought he struggled a bit last season. He's due!

Made the trip to Mapleton tonight to watch Waynedale. I think it is safe to say, that their games will be entertaining, to say the least this year. They had to hit close to 20 3-pointers. Sure looks a lot different than what I am used to seeing. Good job tonight Bears!

Dalton is going to be pretty good as the season goes on in my opinion. They were sloppy last night against an experienced and tall tuslaw team(bulldogs didn't finish around the rim, too many unforced turnovers and poor free throw shooting). That being said, I think this team has a pretty high ceiling. Was quite impressed with freshman guard Dominic Dalessandro. Has a very good feel for the game, is athletic and confident. Conner Clark will be a handful for everyone. Zach Ryder played well. Mitchell Clark looks better as well, but I still think he needs to be a little more aggressive. Clean things up a little and they will be a very tough out. From the results last night, it looks like a deep wcal again this year.

The WCAL went 6-3 in its opening weekend of boys basketball:

FRIDAY:
Cloverleaf 57 Rittman 46
Northwestern 69 Triway 59
Norwayne 65 Buckeye 61
Smithville 53 Strasburg-Franklin 39
Tuslaw 62 Dalton 52
Waynedale 83 Mapleton 47

SATURDAY:
Black River 55 Rittman 45
Chippewa 64 Heritage Christian 42
Northwestern 79 Mapleton 39

Complete standings and schedules: http://d3wooster.pitmanstats.com/league.php?id=79

well smithville is 2-0... but the games were as i thought they would go. so tonight's game upset me big time, even tho we won...... 56-54 smithville...... we were up 18 with about 4 minutes to go give or take.... and only won by 2, now smithville turned it over a lot in the last five.. and orrville hit some crazy 3's to make it a lot closer then it should have been......but we won!!!!! they have the skill and talent to win!!! but can they mesh together is the key!!!!! friday night is the best test of the year so far..... we shall see!!!!!

scotmich;1684743 wrote:well smithville is 2-0... but the games were as i thought they would go. so tonight's game upset me big time, even tho we won...... 56-54 smithville...... we were up 18 with about 4 minutes to go give or take.... and only won by 2, now smithville turned it over a lot in the last five.. and orrville hit some crazy 3's to make it a lot closer then it should have been......but we won!!!!! they have the skill and talent to win!!! but can they mesh together is the key!!!!! friday night is the best test of the year so far..... we shall see!!!!!

Smithville has a descent team. Not much of an inside game, but some good ball handlers and shooters. I wouldn't use the Orrville game as any kind of indicator of where you are at as a team. This is the worst Orrville team that I have seen...EVER! If we muster up 5-6 wins I will be shocked!

Old Rider;1684903 wrote:Smithville has a descent team. Not much of an inside game, but some good ball handlers and shooters. I wouldn't use the Orrville game as any kind of indicator of where you are at as a team. This is the worst Orrville team that I have seen...EVER! If we muster up 5-6 wins I will be shocked!

That's hard to believe that Orrville is that bad. I thought they had reasonable expectations for this season. Did the players not improve since last winter? Don't several of these kids have some previous varsity experience? I guess we'll see how the season plays out.

I am kind of surprised that Dalton is 0-2 right out of the gate. Looking ahead, they have tough games against Chippewa and St. Thomas Aquinas looming within the next week. Maybe a win against a quality opponent will get things rolling in the right direction.........or maybe they will start 0-4.

Disappointing start for Dalton for sure. Tuslaw is pretty decent, has a lot of size and experience. There is simply no way they should have lost to fairless ... Not a good team. Dalton not playing disciplined so far. Sloppy passing, poor offensive execution. This team still has a pretty high ceiling, but they really need to button things up.

Fairless is not awful. They have a 6'10" kid that, if he catches the ball inside, is automatic. They have some experienced guards that can get hot. As long as Neunschwander (the big kid) stays out of foul trouble, they can be very competitive with just about anybody (except Timken).

... Well, looking at the box score, I now see Neunschwander did not play. I had forgotten he was suspended for the first few games. Then yes, I think Dalton losing to a Neunschwander-less Fairless team was a bad loss given Dalton's expectations.

thePITman;1685224 wrote:Fairless is not awful. They have a 6'10" kid that, if he catches the ball inside, is automatic. They have some experienced guards that can get hot. As long as Neunschwander (the big kid) stays out of foul trouble, they can be very competitive with just about anybody (except Timken).

... Well, looking at the box score, I now see Neunschwander did not play. I had forgotten he was suspended for the first few games. Then yes, I think Dalton losing to a Neunschwander-less Fairless team was a bad loss given Dalton's expectations.

Actually I think the big guy is hurt again. Might be back for 2nd half of season. Without him they aren't near as good.

Yes, he is hurt. Bad loss for the dawgs. Another tough one tonight against Chippewa . I will be interested to see how they respond

Dalotn with their second buzzer beater loss of the season (this one was actually in time, unlike the fairless shot) against an undefeated st Thomas aquinas squad. Even with the loss, they played much better than they have to this point. Hit their foul shots down the stretch and they win the game. This team may be ok yet, bt they have to keep the intensity up. They have played very flat in their first three games. Was happy to see Mitchell being more aggressive offensively the talent is there.

That was definitely a heartbreaking loss for Dalton last night. They played very hard the entire game. I saw St Thomas 3-5 times last year, and I didn't think they played particularly well last night. The point guard (Paul I think) had a miserable night shooting the ball, until his buzzer beating heroics, despite getting quality looks all night long. Dalton will be an interesting team to watch from here on out as their record will probably look poor for awhile. They won't be an easy win for many teams though. The older Clark is a legitimate headache for teams at the D3 level. As was the case in previous years, Dalton still doesn't have a true ball handler on the roster.

I was surprised to read that Chippewa lost to Lake Center Christian last night. Did Chippewa play poorly, or is Lake Center Christian better this year?

187xovr;1687101 wrote:I was surprised to read that Chippewa lost to Lake Center Christian last night. Did Chippewa play poorly, or is Lake Center Christian better this year?

Lake Center is better this year. Not great, but better. They gave Fairless (3-1) their only loss, and Fairless beat Dalton, as well.

Agree, Ryder is better on the wing, he is a pure 2 IMO. Dalessandro can be that point, but prob not till next year. Tough for a freshman to be the man at point.

I completely agree that Ryder is a 2 guard. Dalessandro should be developing his game at the JV level IMO. I'm sure Holt feels the need to play them as he is because of the lack of depth he has right now. I thought the younger Clark would've been better off on JV last season also. I'm not against playing freshmen at the varsity level, but when they are completely out of their league and not playing much I think it hurts them more than it helps them. Dalessandro should be playing 2 quarters of JV each night.

Absolutely. He would be very good on jv and wish they would play him the first half of each jv game. Would give him a lot of confidence. Big step up from 8th grade to varsity strength, intensity etc.

Video of St Thomas Aquinas' last-second shot against Dalton: http://instagram.com/p/wsRtlChatV/

Scores from this past weekend:

Chippewa 56 Smithville 46
Dalton 54 Norwayne 36
Hillsdale 66 Waynedale 59
Northwestern 57 Rittman 44
Lexington 54 Hillsdale 31
Loudonville 58 Norwayne 52
Mount Vernon 67 Northwestern 65 (OT)
South Central 56 Waynedale 54
West Holmes 52 Chippewa 33

Standings: http://d3wooster.pitmanstats.com/league.php?id=79


Also, I am looking for reschedule date for Kenmore @ Dalton from 2014-12-20... I saw it was postponed/cancelled.

What do you think PIT? Are all the teams mediocre? Seems like everyone is beating everyone else. Smithville beats Orrville and loses to Chippewa and West Holmes beats Chippewa easily and loses to Orrville. I don't think that any team seems to be dominant. Wooster may be the best but I don't think they are great. Not many really good players. Koch seems to be the best but Northwestern may not have enough other help to win districts.

Flash;1688958 wrote:What do you think PIT? Are all the teams mediocre? Seems like everyone is beating everyone else. Smithville beats Orrville and loses to Chippewa and West Holmes beats Chippewa easily and loses to Orrville. I don't think that any team seems to be dominant. Wooster may be the best but I don't think they are great. Not many really good players. Koch seems to be the best but Northwestern may not have enough other help to win districts.

This past weekend I got to see Waynedale, Orrville, Triway, Wooster, West Holmes, Chippewa, and Northwestern.

Of those teams, Wooster is head and shoulders above the rest, IMO. There seems to be a lot of parity among the rest. In terms of the WCAL, there is much of the same. We are still very early in the conference games, so I'll wait a little longer to judge the teams.

Just some observations: Waynedale shoots a ridiculous amount of 3-pointers, so they could blow anybody out, or lose to anybody on a bad night. Typically Northwestern lets Koch play within the flow of the game, but they really forced the issue and fed him non-stop against Mount Vernon... if his supporting cast can step up, they can be good. Dalton has played a pretty tough schedule, so we'll see how they pan out as the season goes along. We'll see.