MSL Cardinal/New Hope/Central District D4

[icanpickem]

Danville is a streaky team. They only have one consistent scorer(Durbin). He's only been held under 20 once or twice this season and avg. is 25ppg. They have 3 other guys that can get 20 in a game and then the next game have 4 to 6.

Seeing as Danville only plays 5 D4 schools in the regular season(centerburg, Cardington, GCC, Lucas and Del. Christian) they'll be the most battle tested come tourney time. (centerburg and cardington are usually D3)

FYI, GCC/Danville game was scheduled for opening weekend but was rescheduled due to Danville making final four in football.

[formerfcfan]

FC had a horrid first quarter against Rosecrans. Down 5-12 to a very well-coached Rosecrans, they clawed back to make it 31-35 after three. Then they had a bad start to the fourth, with foul trouble and poor passing, and BR widened the gap thanks to FC being at 10 fouls early in the fourth.

Credit to Rosecrans and Coach Rock.

[Hawks1112]

I'm from east district,east district winner plays Central district winner in Athens the regional semi finial,we have River who is third or second in the rankings,and then we a very very good Strasburg team that isn't even rank at 15-1,then my Hiland Hawks at 13-5 are playing real well right now, have a big game this Saturday against River and only lost to Strasburg by 2,who ever comes out of the east district, should be the favorite in the regional semi finial,now that the big three in the central district have move up to d-3

[Snowman]

Any idea what to make of the MSL Cardinal? Obviously HP and Wellington are on top and FC is the next best team, but what about after that? GCC just beat FCA and BU in the same week, but FCA also lost to Millersport. They've pretty much all beat each other. How would the division be ranked in terms of potential for the District Tournament?

[formerfcfan]

FC beat Granville Christian tonight. It wasn't a dominating win, per se, although FC played with a decently comfortable lead (~six points) the whole time. Sort of a sloppy effort on offense.

Neat article below on FC's Keenan Swindells.

http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/st ... 088516001/

[Chieftain2009]

D4 Central bracket:

http://www.cdab.org/sports/bk/boys/2018/bd4brkt18.pdf

[formerfcfan]

Two quick thoughts:

• BU opting into the FC side. Well if you insist, Matt! (BU coach is former girls basketball coach at FC who was non-renewed three years ago.)

• GCC apparently jump onto Shekinah.

[Snowman]

Definitely surprised BU chose the FC side of the bracket. Maybe they are happy to settle for a district semifinal appearance and figured that half would be easier to get there.

GCC going after the MOCAL. I wonder if it has anything to do with Shekinah playing at Jonathan Alder since their court isn’t long enough. Still strange that GCC chose not to host at least one game. That opened the door for what has to be the first time Granville Christian has ever hosted a tournament game, at least in recent memory.

Also odd that the 4, 5, 6, and 8 are all in the same sectional. Danville has an easy path to district semis, so if anyone from that difficult sectional can advance to the finals then they will have earned it.

[formerfcfan]

I wonder where Granville Christian will be hosting their Round 2 game. Anyone know if the Fifth Street Gym (where GCA plays their home games) is 84x50, or 74x42? If it is the latter, then I'm pretty sure it will need to be hosted somewhere such as Granville or Newark Catholic. I believe when GCA played at the Bryn Du, that court was 74x42.

I would guess that GCC wanted to not play in the half that had BU and FC. Not that I think they were scared of the two teams, but they probably wouldn't want to play either of them a third time (probably gets annoying / old.)

Good observation on the 4, 5, 6, and 8 sectional. It's also, obviously, in the same side of the bracket as the one with the #2 seed, Danville. So one half has 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 and the other has 1, 3 and 7. Everyone (essentially) wanted to stay away from FC?

I guess in defense of BU, maybe it's not so much thinking that FC won't win a third time (although it happened last year, FC swept BU 3-0 among regular season and district) rather than already knowing who you're going to play. Lancaster/Sugar Grove is pretty far from Danville, so that's a long scouting drive. At least with FC, you've scouted them before and know what they'll throw at you. And, of course, BU coach probably didn't draw into Fisher's side of the bracket with the mentality that district semi-finals versus the Irish is where the road definitely ends.


Regarding the paths to the district semis, I'm somewhat wondering if Danville has the easier path to district semi's than Fisher. That's what I'm thinking initially, but any guesses as to how GCA could stack up against Centerburg? Danville probably has too diverse of scoring opportunities for Millersport (assuming they beat DC) to be of any threat on that road.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hey, does anyone know what the result of the Centerburg and Delaware Christian game was last night, Saturday the 10th? It wasn't phoned into the Dispatch and while the Centerburg Boys Basketball account on Twitter announced the game on the day of, there was no result posted. (The account also tweets out victories for the JR High team as well, so no news is... bad news???) What is the issue with Centerburg this year? I know we talked about them a little bit up thread, and it hurts that Ross Ryan is at Pickerington North now, but they have been struggling to score the ball this year! I realize the competition level is generally high, eg Northmor and Ready, but the ball isn't finding its way into the hoop.

I'm looking at the bracket, thinking of any upset possibilities. Maybe GCA/Centerburg > FC in round 3? FCA > BU in round 3? Winner of the "Sectional of Death" (4, 5, 6 and 8) over Danville in district semi's?

[Snowman]

Couldn't find the Delaware Christian and Centerburg score either, although I would think Centerburg would win since they are likely more imposing team physically.

I've been to Granville Christian's gym for a middle school game. It's regulation size. There is pretty much no parking but otherwise I loved it. The gym was restored from it's glory days and has a second floor balcony hanging over all sides of the court. It was quiet during my trip (because middle school) but some parents said that it got rocking during their first high school game.

I am a little surprised GCC didn't want FCA and BU because they've played them well in their recent matchups. Since there are several lower seeds matched up together, I would think that GCC had several open slots to pick from but I guess they wanted to know their opponent and play on a neutral court. Maybe they just wanted the known opponent and didn't want to potentially get stuck with a Centerburg or Cardington. Also curious that GCC chose the Danville side seeing as they just lost to Danville by 18 last weekend. It's funny because I thought Shekinah might play GCC/FCA/BU in the second round and some MOCAL team in the first round, but it's the other way around.

Path to the district semis will be easy for both Danville and FC, but I'd lean toward FC having the easier route. Danville has Patriot Prep in the first round. Now Patriot is bad don't get me wrong, but they've at least shown a little bit of potential (nearly beat Newark Catholic and beat Millersport), so I see them as having a pretty wide range of how they play. Ridgedale is awful so I don't think Danville will have any issues with them whatsoever. FC is the other way around in that they have the traditionally easier game first with Cristo Rey, who has been pretty stead all year (they did beat Patriot FWIW), but Gahanna Christian has shown a few flashes for FC's second rounder. Either way both teams should have no difficulty advancing.

For the sectional of doom, I would think whoever wins with GCC and Shekinah would win the second round game. Shekinah plays Tree of Life this Thursday but they blew them out the first time. Of course, Shekinah also blew out Northside the first time and only won the second matchup by 1, but Shekinah seems to have been more consistent and GCC has been playing well of late.

For the upsets, I'd think BU losing in sectional finals is a real possibility. Maybe if Shekinah makes it they could beat Danville, but they need to get there first. FC did only beat GCA by single digits last week and Centerburg is sort of unknown but a big school, so I suppose that would be as good of an upset pick as any. Upsets are so difficult this year because everyone in the division is so even.

[icanpickem]

Centerburg 52
Delaware Christian 45

Centerburg trailed Delaware Christian at the half of their nonconference game on Saturday, but limited the visiting Eagles to six points in the third quarter en route to a 52-45 victory.

Three Trojans (5-15) reached double figures in points, Hayden Hankinson with 15 points, Jackson Goulter with 14 and Morgan Mead with 12. Michael Kuhn collected nine points, and John Wharton contributed two points.

Centerburg took advantage of Delaware Christian’s free-throw weakness, as the Eagles made only 3 of 10 free throws to the Trojans’ 14 of 22 (63 percent). Although Delaware Christian hit 21 total shots, Centerburg made two triples among its 18 field goals.

The lead changed hands from the first to the second quarter, as the Eagles turned the Trojans’ 16-15 first-quarter advantage to a 27-24 Delaware Christian lead. Centerburg came back with 17 points in the third quarter, a game high, and the Eagles scored only six to trail, 41-33. The Trojans made only one field goal in the fourth quarter while going 9 of 15 at the stripe to hold the lead in the fourth quarter.

Pryce Johnson paced Delaware Christian with 15 points, and Nathan Stewart posted 13 points. Curtis Brown finished with nine points.

[formerfcfan]

Some notes about the final night of MSL-Cardinal play.

• Berne Union is currently on a six game losing skid, with all losses coming within the MSL-Cardinal. While three of those losses were to Wellington (twice) and Harvest Prep, BU drooped the “second time around” games vs two league foes they previously beat in GCC and Fairfield Christian. The sixth loss came to Rosecrans earlier this week, who they also play tonight (thank you, icy roads.) If BU loses tonight, they will finish 4-10 in the MSL-Cardinal. Assuming that BU beats Federal Hocking (somewhat likely) next Saturday, BU will have a perfect out-of-conference record.

Here is where it is peculiar: I do not think it is a fault of the coaching that has led BU to this downward spiral in the second half of the season. And no, as backhanded as the following comments may sound: I don’t think it is on the kids. What I think explains the reversal of fortune is a combination of teams such as FCA, GCC and Rosecrans getting better as the season has gone on in terms of gelling and getting themselves accentuated better with the game dynamics at the varsity level (all three have very young, first-time starting-dominant cores) and BU not having the personnel depth & breadth to exert much multi-dimensionality against these maturing teams (all three of whom are coached by guys who have won district titles) in the second half of the season. In other words, the bottom pack of the conference has caught up. And to clarify, Coach Little knows what he’s doing and what he wants to do as well.

• Fisher has clinched third place in the MSL-Cardinal. Of course, third place usually wouldn’t be that laudable... but considering who is in first and second, and considering the obstacles the players have had to overcome (particularly the senior class, who will have played for four different coaches in four years), considering how frustrating and upsetting the past ten years have been for FC Irish hoops fans, this IS an accomplishment. Congrats to first year coach Shawn Brown, what an incredible job he has done. Congratulations in particular to the senior class, as the leadership they’ve shown... the dedication they’ve committed to... the coachable attitudes they’ve stuck to... the willingness to not only keep playing basketball, but to keep playing basketball at Fisher, when many other kids if they were dealt the same hand would’ve quit or transferred (and understandably so), the summation of all the aforementioned has brought us to where we’re at today. But the job isn’t done, boys... go get that district title. I’ll be in Athens to support our district winner regardless of who it is, but I must say that green and white looks particularly well in the Convo.

• I want to particularly recognize Noah Tomlinson of GCC, Caleb Collins of FCA & Zane Purvis of Millersport. Those three young gentleman are not only great basketball players, but they are incredible leaders on and off the court. The fact all three stayed at their schools, given the graduations that happened or the unfortunate depth situations, and never complained and instead have consistently focused for the 20 or so games played this far on what they could do to wind the sails of their teams toward victory, despite the understandable agony and frustrations of defeat: incredible. All three young men will go far in life, and congratulations + well wishes to Mr. Tomlinson as he embarks on the next chapter of his hooping @ Muskingum.

• Harvest Prep is staring down not just a possible AP poll title, but a perfect season. They have to beat FC tonight (which is likely, although not a given) and then defend home court tomorrow night against the visiting Spartans of Marion Pleasant (who has a VERY fine team this year as well.) I also want to point out this HP group of kids is one of the most sportsmanlike, graceful and hard-working teams I have seen ever in the state of Ohio.

• Last but not least, I want to recognize the incredible senior class at Wellington. They have accomplished so much in their four years, they are class acts and they haven’t let the now unattainability of an MSL-Cardinal title stop them in the pursuit of complete domination on the court... and they’re not going to let it stop them from the ultimate goal henceforth, the state title.

[Snowman]

Very nicely put! Enjoy the summaries. I'll try to put one of the MOCAL although it's a little more tournament previewy instead of a season wrap-up (EDIT: I took out some of the tournament preview stuff and focused more on the wrap-up).

- Strong season by Shekinah Christian (15-7 overall and 11-1 in conference), but they might be fading a bit and recently had a 3 game losing streak. They were beating teams by 15-25 the first time around and now are playing much closer or straight up losing. Still, the enrollment figures for Shekinah is 17 boys. The fact that they could theoretically win more games than they have boys enrolled is kinda crazy to me. I checked the OHSAA page and they are 797 out of 799 in school size. Being the third smallest school with a team in Ohio should make them the underdog every game, so kudos for them for winning their conference. Senior center Austin Lynn has set himself up for some postseason awards.

- Tree of Life really bounced back under Joe Arndt. They got a couple of athletic twins who transferred in that have really helped them, but they only play one senior significant minutes so I think next year will be very strong for them. They have a very balanced team so it's difficult to focus on one guy. After all of the losing in the last couple of years, Tree seems to be turning the corner once again and that is a huge credit to Arndt. I will say that they probably had the weakest schedule of any team in Central Ohio, but still a 17-4 record is nothing to sneeze at after only winning 3 games the last couple of years.

- Northside Christian had one of their best seasons that I could find, finishing with a winning 10-9 record (I'm assuming they'll lose to Columbus Academy today). Odd that they only play 19 games though. Forward James Meyer averages 20/7 and should also get some notice for postseason awards. This is the first time in 3 years that they've had a senior night, which just shows how crazy things can be for these small schools. Their starting lineup has been the same for 3 straight years, so it would be nice to see them get a tournament win to go with it (not sure if they've ever had one before).

- Granville Christian has 7 players total and I know they've played several games with just 6. Landon Sanford averages around 20 points and leads his team in every relevant stat category so I hope he gets recognized for being the best player that nobody has heard of. Kid can flat out play. Going 8-14 has never been more impressive IMO. Coach Tom Young does a fantastic job with those kids to get the most out of what he has to work with.

- Delaware Christian had a bunch of tough losses to start the year and really beefed up their schedule with the hope of making a tournament run this year. They don't have many seniors and go about 11 deep, so I think they'll see much better results next year. I think they'll beat Millersport in the tournament but Fisher Catholic has already proven that they can beat DC, so unfortunately DC won't have much in the way of success to show for this season.

- Madison Christian had to go through a coaching change, which can take some time to get into a rhythm. They've shown flashes of good play but ultimately just don't have the roster depth right now. I do think they have some nice pieces and return their best players for next year, so they will probably be a team that can improve next season.

- Gahanna Christian has a new coach and just 1 senior on their roster. Potentially their best player is just a freshman but had to miss the entire year with a knee injury. They have lots of quick athletes and I think will show tremendous improvement in year two under their new coach.

[formerfcfan]

Thanks for sharing! Hasn’t Gahanna Christian gone through a bunch of coaching changes lately?

With regards to Shekinah, I’ve personally have always been impressed with not just how competitive their sports are but also the breadth of competitiveness especially considering the small size of the school. What is the explanation behind Shekinah and their enrollment nature, however? Is it a school of the Mennonite tradition? Or, aren’t lot of students and alumni adherents (or descendants) of the Amish tradition?


/ /

[Snowman]

Gahanna Christian had a few switches over the last 10 years but always hired within the program. The coach last year started as a MS coach, learned at JV, and took over varsity. It’s a really tough situation as most of the staff was let go, including the majority of their coaches. So Paul Hartje wins conference coach of the year and is essentially let go. The school experienced some financial hardships and needed a church to help takeover, so they basically rebooted the school and are starting from scratch. The new coach is a graduate of Mount Gilead about a decade ago so it looks like that goes with their fresh face that they started this year. He’s done a fine job, just doesn’t have much to work with this year as most returning players decided to leave when the school made its changes.

I’ve spoken with a few parents from Shekinah and they always seem to point out how well everyone in the school gets along. I believe they were founded by Mennonite churches in the 70s and were pretty strict through the 90s. The vibe I got was that the strictness was a bit of a turn off for potential legacy students. It seems like they’ve loosened up since then though, so possibly within the next 15 years more alumni children will begin filling the halls.

The funny thing about the Mennonite stereotype is that most people associate them with the Amish (myself included), but I haven’t really noticed that in my experiences with them. Just sort of a slightly more conservative Christian faith (they have cars and everything lol). But I could see someone living in the area and not knowing much about them to be a little apprehensive based on perception.

Also with Shekinah’s enrollment (just my opinion), I think their name has to hurt them. Most people don’t know where the school is, even those close by. I didn’t know where it was until I actually saw them play. Heck, I didn’t even know how to pronounce it and figured they were a Jewish school. If they were called Plain City Christian I think that would help people at least know about them a little more.

[formerfcfan]

Gahanna Christian had a few switches over the last 10 years but always hired within the program. The coach last year started as a MS coach, learned at JV, and took over varsity. It’s a really tough situation as most of the staff was let go, including the majority of their coaches. So Paul Hartje wins conference coach of the year and is essentially let go. The school experienced some financial hardships and needed a church to help takeover, so they basically rebooted the school and are starting from scratch. The new coach is a graduate of Mount Gilead about a decade ago so it looks like that goes with their fresh face that they started this year. He’s done a fine job, just doesn’t have much to work with this year as most returning players decided to leave when the school made its changes.

I’ve spoken with a few parents from Shekinah and they always seem to point out how well everyone in the school gets along. I believe they were founded by Mennonite churches in the 70s and were pretty strict through the 90s. The vibe I got was that the strictness was a bit of a turn off for potential legacy students. It seems like they’ve loosened up since then though, so possibly within the next 15 years more alumni children will begin filling the halls.

The funny thing about the Mennonite stereotype is that most people associate them with the Amish (myself included), but I haven’t really noticed that in my experiences with them. Just sort of a slightly more conservative Christian faith (they have cars and everything lol). But I could see someone living in the area and not knowing much about them to be a little apprehensive based on perception.

Also with Shekinah’s enrollment (just my opinion), I think their name has to hurt them. Most people don’t know where the school is, even those close by. I didn’t know where it was until I actually saw them play. Heck, I didn’t even know how to pronounce it and figured they were a Jewish school. If they were called Plain City Christian I think that would help people at least know about them a little more.

Yeah, I think I remember reading about when Hartje got let go by Gahanna Christian. Seemed to make no sense then, but glad that you explained it. They had a really good girls hoops team about 6-7 years ago, too.

One of the reasons I asked about Shekinah and the origin/community structure was when you look at the surnames of many of the players over the years, the majority of them come from the German Amish/Pennsylvanian Dutch tradition and clanship that is also found in the Holmes County area (e.g. Showalter, Shetler, Troyer, Hershberger, Gingerich, and Miller.) Plus, there is a Der Dutchman in Plain City... so I figure the couple common denominators between the Plain City area and Holmes County that do exist could suggest something about the school's particular background and student body.

Is Gilead Christian still open? They used to have varsity basketball as recently as a few years ago, I believe. In fact, I think they had a volleyball or girls hoops teams win a district title within the last ten years.

[Snowman]

Very good point about Shekinah's background. I do recall a few players with those last names. No doubt that is still a part of their history and that many of those families have stuck around. I'm sure the patriarchs of many of those families have largely contributed to the school's background and student body. Again I've only had a few conversations so I'm certainly no expert, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a little more diversity over the next 15 years or so.

Gilead Christian is still open to my knowledge....I just checked their webpage and it looks like they still have a basketball team. Based on the pictures though it must just be a 7-12 team because it doesn't look like they have many students at all anymore...And I just found an article where it says they failed to keep up with OHSAA regulations and have had their status with OHSAA suspended. I know some schools like Village Academy keep their status but choose not to participate in some of the tournaments (Village participates in girls basketball but not boys). Gilead Christian must have just given up that hope for the time being.

It's kind of a shame too. If Central District had Village, Gilead Christian, and maybe one more team then they could have had two representatives in the Regional tournament. I've heard whispers that Liberty Christian might want to come back to OHSAA in a few years (especially since Hartje is coaching there now), so if you throw those teams in and Cristo Rey doesn't move up, it could still be a possibility.

[Chieftain2009]

Sectional action from today:

Danville 74
Patriot Prep 36

Fisher Catholic 68
Cristo Rey 35

[formerfcfan]

Rounds 1 & 2 are in the books.

Notable games: #3 Berne loses at home to Cardington by 8; GCC beats Shekinah @ JA handily.

FC v Centerburg
Cardington v FCA

Danville v Millersport
GCC v Tree of Life

[formerfcfan]

So, the AP teams for the Central District were released. Reading it, I found something that could make for an interesting discussion or a not-too-contentious debate.

Fisher Cath's Shawn Brown won District 11 Coach of the Year (which is voted on by the coaches), but the AP Coach of the Year for the district was won by Tree of Life's coach. Both coaches have done a great job with their respective programs, and both deserve the credit and recognition. However, if you had to pick either of those two (or, perhaps, a third!) for your own personal "Coach of the Year" in Central, D4 - who would you choose, and why?

I may be biased, but I'd have to pick Coach Brown. To take FC to the #1 seed in your first year, and give the school its first winning record since 2008 (I believe) is quite the accomplishment. I might expand further on my argument, depending on the responses.

Go!