D-III Southeast/East First Look

[SouthEast Hoops Fan]

This week we reach the halfway point in the 2025-26 regular season, so a good time to begin looking at the prospects for a very competitive D-III post-season in the new combined OHSAA Southeast/East tournament. No official prediction here but some observations:

--Very possible that 11 of the 13 teams in this district will have winning records by the time the seeding occurs.
--Look for 9 of 13 teams to have records of 14-7 or better, at least 4 teams with 4 losses or fewer.
--A key battle will be winning a seed in the top 3. Anything lower will make a district title extremely difficult. There will be two district champions.
--As of today, 5 teams are in strong positions to claim a top 3 seed, but there are 4 others potentially in the hunt.
--Likely that MaxPreps RPI rankings will undergo usual scrutiny and perhaps criticism. Stay tuned.

Southeast/East Schools: Steubenville - Miami Trace - Jackson - Marietta - Chillicothe - Dover - New Philadelphia - Tri Valley - Warren - Zanesville - Sheridan - Athens - Hillsboro.

[Ironman92]

Tough teams

[danicalifornia]

A ridiculously tough district/regional.

Hillsboro is probably the worst team and they have a kid who could score 30 on anybody.

[SouthEast Hoops Fan]

A ridiculously tough district/regional.

Hillsboro is probably the worst team and they have a kid who could score 30 on anybody.

I've done a projected seeding for every team with won-loss records -- all 13. Not going to reveal actual teams, but here's what I see:
1. 20-1
2. 19-3
3. 18-4
4. 18-4
5. 16-5
6. 15-6
7. 15-7
8. 14-7
9. 15-6
10. 12-10
11. 11-10
12. 10-12
13. 5-17
I might be somewhat optimistic about some of these teams. And of course there will be upsets and injuries that affect these records along the way. Interested in what others think about the schedules in the next six weeks.