Greater Cleveland Conference 2020-21

Mentor closes the regular season with a very shaky win on Friday over Chaney followed by probably their best win of the season tonight against St Ignatius. I'm not sure what was going on against Chaney, but that game stayed close throughout. Chaney is not a bad team by any stretch (#3 seed at their DII district), but Mentor was probably at least a 20-point favorite. Whether it was matchup problems, cold shooting, first full game without Kipp, or looking ahead to St Ignatius - Mentor had their hands full.

Tonight, Mentor was in control against St Ignatius from the start. The final score (58-33). Mentor's defense was on point all night. The offense got some better shooting too, which is always a good thing. St Ignatius is a team very capable of making it to Columbus, even if they didn't show that this weekend in losses against Jackson and Mentor. During the season they collected wins over St Eds, Medina, Shaker, Brush, Richmond Heights, Walsh Jesuit, and Cleveland Heights.

With 19 games being played, Mentor finishes the regular season undefeated. It is their first undefeated season under Krizancic, and probably the first undefeated season ever for the program. While the winning percentage is obviously the best, the team from two seasons ago set the program record for regular season wins with their 20-2 regular season (Chicone was a starting sophomore on the team). In Chicone's three years in the starting lineup, his teams went 55-8. Seven tournament wins so far pushed that overall record to 62-9 if I'm doing my math right.
 
Mentor closes the regular season with a very shaky win on Friday over Chaney followed by probably their best win of the season tonight against St Ignatius. I'm not sure what was going on against Chaney, but that game stayed close throughout. Chaney is not a bad team by any stretch (#3 seed at their DII district), but Mentor was probably at least a 20-point favorite. Whether it was matchup problems, cold shooting, first full game without Kipp, or looking ahead to St Ignatius - Mentor had their hands full.

Tonight, Mentor was in control against St Ignatius from the start. The final score (58-33). Mentor's defense was on point all night. The offense got some better shooting too, which is always a good thing. St Ignatius is a team very capable of making it to Columbus, even if they didn't show that this weekend in losses against Jackson and Mentor. During the season they collected wins over St Eds, Medina, Shaker, Brush, Richmond Heights, Walsh Jesuit, and Cleveland Heights.

With 19 games being played, Mentor finishes the regular season undefeated. It is their first undefeated season under Krizancic, and probably the first undefeated season ever for the program. While the winning percentage is obviously the best, the team from two seasons ago set the program record for regular season wins with their 20-2 regular season (Chicone was a starting sophomore on the team). In Chicone's three years in the starting lineup, his teams went 55-8. Seven tournament wins so far pushed that overall record to 62-9 if I'm doing my math right.
Be nice to see them in person.
 
Chaney is good. Their losses were to Brush, Minneapolis Prep, SVSM, Medina, Jackson and Mentor. Only the SVSM game wasn't close.

With that, congrats to Mentor on the undefeated season .... and capping it with a statement game. That team is gonna be a tough out for anyone and without a doubt a legit state title contender.
 
Anyone that has played the game competetively understands that not all games are going to be the same. You will play some games under your potential & some to or above your potential, so I would think that the Chaney game falls in the under potential pacategory. However, the great teams always find a way to bounce back, as shown in the St. Ignatious game. Just an observation, based on personal experience.
 
Anyone that has played the game competetively understands that not all games are going to be the same. You will play some games under your potential & some to or above your potential, so I would think that the Chaney game falls in the under potential pacategory. However, the great teams always find a way to bounce back, as shown in the St. Ignatious game. Just an observation, based on personal experience.

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn’t know teams were capable of playing over or under their potential.

But in all seriousness, I just pointed out that the Chaney game was probably the only time all season Mentor really struggled to keep an undermanned opponent down. It was unusual. So I made note of it. They recovered extremely well last night against St Ignatius.
 
I see NEOSports is going to announce their Player of the Year choices in each division tonight at 8 p.m. In D1, the four finalists are Mentor's Luke Chicone, Medina's Corey Tripp, Brush's Elmore James and Canton McKinley's Kobe Johnson. My guess is Chicone gets it, but really can't go wrong with any of the four.
 
I see NEOSports is going to announce their Player of the Year choices in each division tonight at 8 p.m. In D1, the four finalists are Mentor's Luke Chicone, Medina's Corey Tripp, Brush's Elmore James and Canton McKinley's Kobe Johnson. My guess is Chicone gets it, but really can't go wrong with any of the four.
Do you have a link?
 
After the first week, no big surprises. Strongsville went out first game but nearly came back from a big deficit in a tossup matchup against Avon, but no realistic expectations there. Elyria did win what was a tossup type game against Highland before taking the No. 2 seed in their bracket, Bedford, to the wire. ... overall about what I expected from easily the two bottom teams in the league.

Top 5 are all around with Euclid (on paper) pulling two upsets, though neither really were more than tossups. Their run probably ends against McKinley, but the Panthers by no means are incapable of pulling what would absolutely be an upset.

The top 4 all won their games easily and all four look to have solid paths to the district title game in each of their districts.

Ranking the the semis, Im going with:

1. Mentor: Massive favorite over Dover, which is gonna travel about 90 miles for what is likely to be a beat down.

2. Medina: Already beat Copley by 14 in a game (at Copley) where it was about in the 20-25 range for most. Copley is dangerous but Medina, coming off an impressive 40 point win against a decent Westlake team, should be a solid favorite.

3. Solon: I'm not as confident as a week or two ago since Solon has not played many games overall or many recently. Still, they should beat Massillon, but hardly a lock.

4. Brunswick: if it weren't for the fact Brunswick is known to throw up stinkers, at this point I should feel more confident than them than Solon, especially since they just took down Garfield Heights last week. Brunswick at their best can IMO beat anybody in Ohio. Just not sure if they will lay a clunker.

5. McKinley: while Euclid really wasn't a shock getting here, don't have much expectations in any game moving forward. If Brunswick is a capable of throwing up a clunker, Euclid is even more capable of getting hammered from here out just based on how they play. But they are this year's GCC seemingly annual "Cinderella", so we'll see.

Even without Shaker (which beat a sneaky Maple Heights team tonight) the league so far is showing its tournament mettle once again. While favorites in most games, so far an 8-2 tournament start.
 
Good roundup there, I agree. Elyria was really hanging around last night against Bedford. That would’ve been quite a win.

Euclid has had a nice run. Beating McKinley would be an incredibly tall task. Brunswick and Solon hopefully will find a way to win. At their best, Brunswick is very capable of doing so. I don’t know anything about Massillon, but Solon should have enough to win a close one.

I saw Corey Tripp became Medina’s all-time scorer last night. Szumski was a free throw away from tying it last year in the regional game I believe. Congrats to him. Another district title would be another big accomplishment. When was the last time Medina won back to back district titles?

Mentor’s Chicone has virtually no chance of doing the same. Cole Krizancic has over 1,700 career points. Chicone needed to average around 28 this year AND get the full 22 game season with a deep tournament run. He finished the regular season around 23/24 a game. Plus they only got 19 instead of 22. He might finish 3rd on the all time list at best. Chicone is more of a pure point guard than the top two scorers (Cole and Justin Fritts) on the list. Those two were score-first guards. Chicone’s assist totals are going to be higher than them I would guess.
 
After the first week, no big surprises. Strongsville went out first game but nearly came back from a big deficit in a tossup matchup against Avon, but no realistic expectations there. Elyria did win what was a tossup type game against Highland before taking the No. 2 seed in their bracket, Bedford, to the wire. ... overall about what I expected from easily the two bottom teams in the league.

Top 5 are all around with Euclid (on paper) pulling two upsets, though neither really were more than tossups. Their run probably ends against McKinley, but the Panthers by no means are incapable of pulling what would absolutely be an upset.

The top 4 all won their games easily and all four look to have solid paths to the district title game in each of their districts.

Ranking the the semis, Im going with:

1. Mentor: Massive favorite over Dover, which is gonna travel about 90 miles for what is likely to be a beat down.

2. Medina: Already beat Copley by 14 in a game (at Copley) where it was about in the 20-25 range for most. Copley is dangerous but Medina, coming off an impressive 40 point win against a decent Westlake team, should be a solid favorite.

3. Solon: I'm not as confident as a week or two ago since Solon has not played many games overall or many recently. Still, they should beat Massillon, but hardly a lock.

4. Brunswick: if it weren't for the fact Brunswick is known to throw up stinkers, at this point I should feel more confident than them than Solon, especially since they just took down Garfield Heights last week. Brunswick at their best can IMO beat anybody in Ohio. Just not sure if they will lay a clunker.

5. McKinley: while Euclid really wasn't a shock getting here, don't have much expectations in any game moving forward. If Brunswick is a capable of throwing up a clunker, Euclid is even more capable of getting hammered from here out just based on how they play. But they are this year's GCC seemingly annual "Cinderella", so we'll see.

Even without Shaker (which beat a sneaky Maple Heights team tonight) the league so far is showing its tournament mettle once again. While favorites in most games, so far an 8-2 tournament start.
Dover fans think they can win.
 
Dover can win.

No brian, YOU said Dover can win. Unfortunately for Dover, that is the absolute last thing they needed: brian’s kiss of death.

I know nothing about Dover. I don’t think they really have a shot. But crazier things have happened.
 
No brian, YOU said Dover can win. Unfortunately for Dover, that is the absolute last thing they needed: brian’s kiss of death.

I know nothing about Dover. I don’t think they really have a shot. But crazier things have happened.
Dover had athletes and some size. They can shoot the 3 ball.if mentor is off.it can be a good game.Brian kiss of death hmmm.i won 2 Yappi contests last year
 
Big Dover basketball guy, and everyone in T County knows that they are way overmatched going to Mentor, let alone almost against Everyone in D1! But I will guarantee you they will give 110% till the last buzzer sounds! Will have to play a perfect game to have a chance! Hope for a good game!
 
No disrespect to Dover at all. Mentor just happens to check off all the boxes in terms of a state level team.

Been there, check (season technically never ended a year ago).
Great coach, check
Great player, check
Great no. 2 option, check (either Key or Waag).
Senior leadership, check

Its really the perfect storm for Mentor. But its still basketball so anything can happen, but Dover winning probably would be an all-timer in state history.
 
No brian, YOU said Dover can win. Unfortunately for Dover, that is the absolute last thing they needed: brian’s kiss of death.

I know nothing about Dover. I don’t think they really have a shot. But crazier things have happened.
Dover would be a really good D2 team (like they usually are). Unfortunately they missed the cut-off by two kids and have to compete against schools with 4x as many kids. Either way, I’m excited for this match up, as my wife went to Mentor, and her family was pretty involved in Mentor basketball (I was at the Mentor/Brush game last year, so I remember a little about the team/was impressed by Chicone). Last year I kind of jokingly told her that Dover and Mentor could play in the post season, and it’s crazy to see that it’s a reality this year! If Dover keeps it within 20, I’ll consider it a win. This might be the best team that Dover has ever matched up against (I think they were one game away from playing against LeBron’s St.V/St.M back in the day). Excited to see how it goes!
 
Dover would be a really good D2 team (like they usually are). Unfortunately they missed the cut-off by two kids and have to compete against schools with 4x as many kids. Either way, I’m excited for this match up, as my wife went to Mentor, and her family was pretty involved in Mentor basketball (I was at the Mentor/Brush game last year, so I remember a little about the team/was impressed by Chicone). Last year I kind of jokingly told her that Dover and Mentor could play in the post season, and it’s crazy to see that it’s a reality this year! If Dover keeps it within 20, I’ll consider it a win. This might be the best team that Dover has ever matched up against (I think they were one game away from playing against LeBron’s St.V/St.M back in the day). Excited to see how it goes!

Back in 2003, Mentor did play LeBron's SVSM team during the regular season. That one was a beatdown.

It is a shame to be on the small end of DI. Quite challenging. I don't know what the best answer is (expand the size of the middle divisions by making DI smaller, adding a 5th division, leave it all as is, or something else) - but I can see how it would be a frustrating feeling.
 
Back in 2003, Mentor did play LeBron's SVSM team during the regular season. That one was a beatdown.

It is a shame to be on the small end of DI. Quite challenging. I don't know what the best answer is (expand the size of the middle divisions by making DI smaller, adding a 5th division, leave it all as is, or something else) - but I can see how it would be a frustrating feeling.
Even though I may have hinted otherwise, I think it should stay the same. Ultimately there is always going to be “the smallest school” in any division. It often means they’ll also be the biggest in other years when they go in the other direction. It’s a nice double-edged sword.
 

Luke Chicone wins the GCC Player of the Year. There were four really, really legendary players in the league this year: Chicone, Corey Tripp, Tre Massey, and Marcus Steele. All four are 1,000-point scorers. Tripp is Medina's all-time leading scorer. Massey is Brunswick's all-timer leading scorer. Steele, a varsity regular since he was a freshman, had to be near the top of Solon's all-time list. Even if Mentor plays four more games and Chicone averages 40 a game, he won't pass up Cole Krizancic. But he is certainly an all-time great at Mentor.

The league is graduating quite a senior class. The GCC will take a big of a hit compared to the high level of play they have reached in their first several years. But it is tough to maintain that year after year in a sport like basketball that relies on individual stars rising.

Mentor's Krizancic won the GCC Coach of the Year, naturally.
 
Yeah, this is likely the end (at least for a year) of what has been a great run for the league over the past 5 or so years, and probably the best top end class of senior players (at least as far as HS accolades). Only thing really missing is a state championship. Solon got to the title game a couple years ago but ran into Moeller. Mentor (or Shaker) never got the chance last year, though either probably would have fell short last year, again likely to Moeller if they matched up.

Hopefully either Mentor or Medina can get it done this year because next year looks like a big transition year for everyone. Medina probably on paper is the team to beat but don't see them being as good as they are this year and is going to be a very different looking team without a true go-to scorer(s) as they've had the past couple of years between Szumski and Tripp.

Congrats to Chicone. The POY honor is well deserved. Coach of the Year was a no brainer.
 
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Mentor and Brunswick will have the biggest drop off. Mentor loses a senior class that comprises like 9 of their top 10 rotation players. Brunswick loses two excellent players on a team that had very little depth after them. The GCC will not be knocking on the door of several district finals as they have.

Besides Dallas Lauderdale and Sincere Carey, I wonder if Solon fans (where are they??) would consider Marcus Steele to be the third best player of this 2000's era. I would.

I would be pretty surprised if the GCC isn't at Columbus this year. After that, it will be incredibly tall task (literally and figuratively) with Moeller almost certainly standing in their way. The other SW teams might have something to say about it though. St X, Elder, and Centerville have had really great seasons too. That part of the state in DI is more top heavy than NEO it seems.
 
The old cliche is that it is difficult to beat a team three times. I couldn't agree more. Mentor and Medina have had quite a battle over the last 15 months between basketball and football. Today, Mentor showed they were just simply the better basketball team as they were up by double digits for the majority of the game. It was an impressive feat to see two of the final 8 DI teams in Ohio be from the GCC for the second straight season.

Corey Tripp is quite a player. So is Luke Chicone. But the difference today was in how the rest of the starting lineup performed today. Kyle Culler made a couple early triples to help build out an early lead. Jonah Waag and Steven Key played hard and well. They provide Chicone with a couple playmaking backcourt mates. Medina had trouble scoring today unless Tripp was driving in the lane. Congrats to the Bees on a great season. I would have to guess that this is the best two-year run in the program history.

Mentor continues their undefeated season. Yes, a tall task awaits them. But for now, enjoy the season for what it has been.
 
I think Medina lost in regionals in 1982 then followed it up with a state final four trip in 1983..

would say that is a nice 2 year run...
 
Great game plan for Mentor, allow Tripp to get his points & shut down the other potential high scorers. Quite a feat to beat as good a team as Medina 3 times in same season. Says a lot about what a great program Mentor has developed.
 
Great team & coach. Hope they bring back the trophy. Those two transfers make a big difference. Look forward to watching Chicone at YSU.
 
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