The NCAA mens basketball brackets are set, so let The Madness begin. There are no big surprises as to the four regional number one seeds, Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida, but the usual pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth will surely follow some of the other picks and seedings.
Really?? North Carolina and Oklahoma making the field? Kentucky a #3 seed and the SEC with fourteen bids? The same self-aggrandizing SEC who went 7-6 in their initial football bowl games this year?
Sayonara West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio State, and Boise State, the First Four out!
Who do I like at first glance? I think Florida is looking awfully good; until I have a chance to do a little more thinking, I’ll hold off on any Final Four picks until next week’s award-winning column!
In last week’s column I mentioned that my sensibilities were offended by the USC and UCLA women’s basketball teams playing for a Big Ten tournament title in Indianapolis. This week’s head-scratcher is the second round game in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament that took place Wednesday between Stanford and California.
Although the two schools are located on opposite ends of San Francisco Bay, separated by only 47 miles, the Cardinal and Golden Bears men’s squads had to travel 2,718 miles to Charlotte, NC to participate in what used to be the so-called “Battle of Tobacco Road”, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world of big-time college basketball.
Stanford knocked off Cal before being eliminated the next day by Louisville, the Cardinals beating the Cardinal. Once again, money talks with all of the realignments that have overtaken the “power” conferences!!
Congratulations to the Vandalia-Butler Lady Aviators of the Miami Valley League for winning the D-I OHSAA girls bowling team championship! The victory was the second state title in any sport in Butler school history following the boys bowling championship in 2019.
Two huge announcements in the past week or so relating to Greenville High School football as first it was made known that this week will see the start of the demolition of the venerable Harmon Field stadium (built in the late 1930’s) with construction of a new 3,500-seat facility to follow, with an anticipated completion date of August 1st.
This will be the final phase of an upgrade of a complex that already includes a new track facility, a new Fieldhouse to accommodate both the track and football fields, and new artificial turf on the football field along with a new lighting system. Quite an accomplishment over the past several years that was much needed for both safety and practical reasons. The entire community should be proud of the new facilities!
The second was with this week’s Board of Education approval of veteran coach Steve Channell to head Green Wave football fortunes. Coach Channell brings a wealth of winning experience as he’ll attempt to rejuvenate a program that has fallen on hard times as of late. Let’s hope that he’s given the opportunity and time to make the Green and White competitive once again!
A quick glance at high school basketball for schools in West Central Ohio—
Fort Loramie’s girls fell just short of a second consecutive state title, falling to Waterford 48-46 in the D-VII championship game Saturday. Waterford gains a measure of revenge after losing to the Lady Redskins in last year’s title tilt. Congratulations to the Fort’s girls on yet another outstanding season!
Marion Local’s boys advanced to the D-VI state championship game this coming Saturday at 2:00 at UD Arena to face Woodsfield Monroe Central followed by the Raiders of Russia seeking their first state trophy at 5:15 taking on Willoughby Cornerstone Christian for D-VII honors.
In a few other games of note, Kettering Alter’s girls fell to Bellevue 40-29 in the D-IV finale while in the big school D-I it was Pickerington Central’s girls downing Cincinnati Princeton 47-44.
A great matchup will take place Saturday at 8:30 at UD as Lewis Center Olentangy Orange will tip against Reynoldsburg in a D-I boys clash. Orange defeated last year’s state champion, Cleveland St. Ignatius, 58-54 in overtime in one semifinal to advance while Reynoldsburg edged West Chester Lakota West 64-63, in the other semi. There will be some big-time quality talent on display in this battle!
Something I didn’t realize growing up on a Jersey dairy farm—broilers or meat chickens take only six to eight weeks from hatching to market, while layers take up to twenty weeks before beginning to lay eggs. With the recent avian flu outbreak, don’t expect egg prices to drop too rapidly as a new crop of laying hens has to develop. If you haven’t seen the MyCountyLink program with the Honorable James Buchy discussing said situation, be sure to do so. Simply go to the website, click on Columns, and go to the Round Table to learn about all things fowl here in West Central Ohio.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all, everyone is Irish for at least one day a year! I have just a tinge o’ Ryan blood in me to stake my claim to the Emerald Isle, my brother Kirk enough to have been born a redhead (although he prefers strawberry-blonde!). I do know that during my college days a few Theta Chi fraternity brothers at Miami turned green from the traditional Uptown Oxford celebrations! Erin go bragh!!
