Neither coach ran from that this week, but Springfield’s Isaiah Carson and Wayne’s Nathan Martindale didn’t sound eager to pump it up too much, either.
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Carson’s Wildcats travel to Huber Heights on Friday night with a 9-0 record. Their hosts are 10-0, and both teams have already been tested multiple times.
“This is a battle for first place in the league right here, but we’re going to just go in and let our play do the talking,” Carson said. “Hopefully we come out on top, but we just want to play the right way. Even playing the game the right way, sometimes you don’t always win, but we just want to go in there and play Wildcat basketball and give it everything we’ve got and hopefully it will go our way.”
Springfield won both games last season en route to a GWOC National East championship, a district title and an appearance in the regional finals.
“I love this team because we understand and we get it: ‘I’m gonna do what’s best for this team,’ ” said Carson, who plans to put senior guard Michael Wallace back in the starting lineup after he returned from injury in the team’s win over Lebanon last week. “A guy like Mike Wallace, he’s our leader. He’s our guy. He’s gonna play. They understand that. A lot of those guys played all these minutes earlier, none of us knew they would play that much early on, but they were in the position and they did a good job.”
Wayne is enjoying a bounce-back season in Martindale’s first season as head coach.
Calling a 15-9 campaign a “down year” might sound funny, but that’s the standard Travis Trice Sr. set in 10 seasons guiding the Warriors, who were a combined 72-10 with a state championship in the previous three seasons.
“I feel like last year for whatever reason we just didn’t click,” said Martindale, a teacher at Springfield who coached Wallace and Springfield center Leonard Taylor on a grade-school team that also included current Wayne players Deshon Parker and Darius Quisenberry.
“All the guys on this team are familiar with each other,” Martindale said. “It’s extremely competitive. Playing against someone you grew up with, you want what’s best for them if they’re not playing you, but at the same time when you’re playing them you want to compete at the highest level.”
The rematch is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Springfield.
Foes also Flyin’
The conference showdown Friday night is just the start of a busy weekend for the Warriors, who will host state powerhouse Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on Saturday night.
Two days later, Wayne is scheduled to take on Upper Arlington at the annual Flyin’ to the Hoop event at Trent Arena in Kettering.
Springfield will also be part of the Flyin’ festivities. The Wildcats play Cleveland Heights at 8:15 Sunday night at Trent.
Busy Wildcat
Taylor is in for an interesting weekend.
The Wildcats’ 6-foot-6 post will go head-to-head with a pair of big men who are planning to play football at Ohio State next season.
Blue Smith, a 6-6 four-star receiver prospect who signed his letter of intent with OSU in December , is averaging 14.2 points and 9.0 rebounds for Wayne after deciding to put off college enrollment until June.
Carson called Smith, who also was recruited by major schools to play basketball, one of the best athletes in the state.
The man in the middle for Cleveland Heights is Tyreke Smith, a 6-4 defensive end prospect who announced his verbal commitment to Ohio State earlier this month and will sign in February.
That’s not all for Taylor, who is averaging 12.6 points and 9.0 rebounds.
In between those basketball games he is planning to make a football official visit to Louisville, one of the schools still hoping to sign him as a tight end or defensive end.
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