THE WIZARD’S PICKS
LAST WEEK’S WINNER
Jim Jordan of Springfi eld (15 -3; won by tiebreaker)
High School Friday Boys
Catholic Central at Triad Catholic Central
Graham at Benjamin Logan Graham
Kenton Ridge at Belleontaine Kenton Ridge
Northeastern at Cedarville Northeastern
Southeastern at Greeneview Greeneview
Springfield at Fairmont Springfield
Tippecanoe at Tecumseh Tecumseh
Urbana at Northwestern Urbana
West Liberty-Salem at Mechanicsburg West Liberty-Salem
High School Saturday Boys
Catholic Central at Cedarville Catholic Central
Tecumseh at Vandalia Butler Tecumseh
High School Saturday Girls
Fairborn at Springfield Fairborn
Greeneview at Southeastern Southeastern
Catholic Central at Cedarville Catholic Central
Tecumseh at Stebbins Tecumseh
Graham at Greenon Greenon
Northeastern at Triad Triad
West Liberty-Salem at Mechanicsburg West Liberty-Salem
Hey there basketball fans.
Remember me?
Yes, I’m back, finally, to writing about basketball.
I’m happy to return, even if I am arriving late to your winter sports indoor party.
The last few weeks, basketball season was put on the backburner with Shawnee’s run to the state football title game. When it happens once every 20 years, it’s a pretty big deal, right?
(When I’m old and gray and my fingers will no longer allow me to type, covering last Friday’s game will go down as one of my career highlights. The atmosphere was awesome. It’s a shame they’re moving the games to Ohio Stadium in 2014. It won’t be the same.)
From this point forward, the basketball season and the Wizard contest have my full attention (A quick shout-out to a certain reader from Bellefontaine who called me the ‘second worst Wiz’ ever this week: Sorry I missed your phone call, but I’m working on your request. Cut me some slack, I’ve obviously been preoccupied with our biggest sports story of the year.)
Most years, football doesn’t last long enough for the Wizard. We work for a solid month putting out the football preview, and in the blink of an eye, Week 10 is in the books, our teams have been knocked out of the playoffs and it’s done. The season, with its awesome Indian summer and Friday Night Lights, is gone before you realize it ever started.
Basketball season, with its long list of holidays (five total: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Martin Luther King Day and Valentine’s Day) and winter weather scheduling disasters, can seem like it lasts forever.
But with two extra Saturday games, playoff games and Shawnee’s run to Canton, I covered 18 football games this fall. That’s almost an extra season of coverage. I traveled to games in virtually every part of the state, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Newark, Kettering, Hilliard, Piqua and Canton.
This week’s return to the hardwood, which started last night with the Southeastern girls’ visit to West Liberty-Salem, will be a welcome one.
For the first time in what feels like forever, I missed last Friday’s Catholic Central at Kenton Ridge boys game, one of the biggest rivalries in the area and a great season opener.
I had a good reason to be gone, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t check the box scores on the way home.
I missed seeing what I heard was really big crowd in Cougar Country with two of the best student sections in Clark County. I missed the fans screaming at the officials, and I missed the dunk by KR’s Warren Napper.
A part of me wanted to be there, even with football going to the final week of the season.
It’s basketball season, finally.
See you on the hardwood.
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