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WCAL Basketball 2024

 
Bobcatsfan2016 said:
Norwayne should be the top dog again this year does hillsdale take the second spot ?
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I agree about Norwayne winning this league again this year. While a slip up or off game could happen to anybody, I really expect Norwayne to go 14-0 in league play again this year. They are simply too far ahead of the other programs in the league to lose this year. I do expect Hillsdale and Smithville to truly be in the league title mix the next couple of years after this year.

The race for second place should be fun this season. Hillsdale and Dalton should be the lead candidates to compete for second in the league this year.

Hillsdale and Dalton also seem to have gotten the best draw when it comes to the new division alignments. Norwayne will have to go through Lutheran East & Richmond Heights in D5. Canton Central Catholic, who knocked Norwayne out of the tournament two seasons ago, is also in D5. Hillsdale will have to deal with Warren JFK in the tournament. That will be a tall task for Hillsdale, but Warren JFK is definitely not Lutheran East or Richmond Heights.
 
The top 1/2 of the league is solid with Norwayne, Dalton, Hillsdale, and Smithville. The bottom 1/2 is going to be pretty bad. I doubt anyone competes with Norwayne. They have the best all-around player in Metsker who may be their 3rd leading scorer behind West and Arnold. They have some size and are just so athletic. The battle is for 2nd place. Norwayne could be the only team that is better this year than last year. Smithville may have the early season advantage over Dalton and Hillsdale due to football, but in the end I think Dalton is the 2nd best team. Not having Tomlinson for basketball will hurt them more than people think. Dalton and Hillsdale both lost quite a bit from last year and Smithville will be counting on some young players.
 
Agree completely- Norwayne senior group is very talented, add Arnold to that mix and they will be 1.
If Tomlinsin was playing I would put Dalton at two, without him it’s either Hillsdale or Dalton. Hillsdale will be pretty big. Smithville will be a handful night in and night out, but I just don’t think they are quite deep enough.
The bottom half of the league will not be good, but I expect waynedale to easily be the best of those 4 (Raber can fill it up).
 
I was at the nov 9 scrimmage at Hiland with the three team scrimmage Hiland Norwayne and Marietta,they played each other on a 10 minute running clock,I watch them play each other three times was very impressed with Norwayne, didn't know much what Norwayne had coming back, but my Hawks played with them,tied one 10 minute round with them and lost the other two rounds by 5 or less points,Bobcats will very good this season
 
TeeGreen said:
Norwayne beat Richmond Heights in both their quarters last night in a scrimmage, split with Jackson, but lost both to Medina.
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buckcc said:
I was at the nov 9 scrimmage at Hiland with the three team scrimmage Hiland Norwayne and Marietta,they played each other on a 10 minute running clock,I watch them play each other three times was very impressed with Norwayne, didn't know much what Norwayne had coming back, but my Hawks played with them,tied one 10 minute round with them and lost the other two rounds by 5 or less points,Bobcats will very good this season
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Norwayne has a top notch scrimmage schedule. Nobody close to the level of these teams on their regular season schedule......unless I am missing some games. It looks like their toughest regular season game is against Canton Central Catholic at home. Bobcats aiming for an undefeated season?
 
Is Norwayne playing at the Smithville classic in February,I thought I look at the schedule I didn't see them on there
 
I did see on there schedule, are they playing in a out of state tournament on Christmas break, there's three dates showing , that are open, another non league matchup would have been interesting is Lexington which is supposed to be loaded this season
 
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I don’t think an undefeated regular season is out of the question. They are playing 3 games in Florida between Christmas and New Years. Not sure of the level of competition they’ll see there. CCC and Northwest are likely their best competition in non-league right now.
 
buckcc said:
I did see on there schedule, are they playing in a out of state tournament on Christmas break, there's three dates showing , that are open, another non league matchup would have been interesting is Lexington which is supposed to be loaded this season
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Pretty sure there going to Florida
 
buckcc said:
I was at the nov 9 scrimmage at Hiland with the three team scrimmage Hiland Norwayne and Marietta,they played each other on a 10 minute running clock,I watch them play each other three times was very impressed with Norwayne, didn't know much what Norwayne had coming back, but my Hawks played with them,tied one 10 minute round with them and lost the other two rounds by 5 or less points,Bobcats will very good this season
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I wish Norwayne and Hiland would start playing each other every year. That would seem to make a lot of sense to me. Maybe there is a reason why they do not? That would be a great non conference atmosphere. I know Norwayne beat Hiland at Orrville a couple of years ago........not sure they have played other than that.
 
No they haven't, not sure why we don't play Norwayne either,we play Triway every year seems like the last 15 years or so,we played Dalton for 4 seasons and then stop playing them, same with Northwestern a couple of times and Waynedale a couple of times here recently, not sure if there's some unfriendly blood with some of these teams
 
buckcc said:
No they haven't, not sure why we don't play Norwayne either,we play Triway every year seems like the last 15 years or so,we played Dalton for 4 seasons and then stop playing them, same with Northwestern a couple of times and Waynedale a couple of times here recently, not sure if there's some unfriendly blood with some of these teams
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I think Hiland is above the level that most of the Wayne County teams play at almost every year. They were probably just picking and choosing which teams they thought would be the best competition in those years they played the WCAL teams. They played Waynedale a few times also if I remember correctly. Norwayne's program has really gained steam in the last few years. They should be strong for a few more years too with the young kids they have in their program. Hiland would definitely get more out of playing against Norwayne each year than they get out of playing Triway.
 
I agree 100 percent, not sure what Triway will bring to the court this season,with all the drama going on there ,with coach Holt being let go and he took his son,who now he is playing for Colonel Crawford, and also was hearing that some players weren't coming out this season, because Holt being let go,I guess we will see when the season starts, who's playing or not playing for Triway
 
I was thinking Norwayne looked very beatable if they shoot like they did tonight. I don't look for that to continue. But I can see a team with some size and athleticism being a handful for the Bobcats. Should be an interesting year in the WCAL.
 
Bobcatsfan2016 said:
Norwayne should be the top dog again this year does hillsdale take the second spot ?
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Depends how much lag they have after football. I don't see them beating norwayne or dalton the first go around. I've also heard there are rumblings that some of the kids from last year aren't coming out for basketball this year.
 
Orrville is much improved over last year and will win their share of games if they play as hard as they did tonight throughout the year. Norwayne struggled shooting the ball(1 made 3) and were missing 2 of their top 7 due to injury. They had some JV kids playing in the Varsity game that struggled but likely won’t see the floor much once they are healthy. They still won by 14 tonight on Orrville’s floor.
 
WCAL BBall said:
Orrville is much improved over last year and will win their share of games if they play as hard as they did tonight throughout the year. Norwayne struggled shooting the ball(1 made 3) and were missing 2 of their top 7 due to injury. They had some JV kids playing in the Varsity game that struggled but likely won’t see the floor much once they are healthy. They still won by 14 tonight on Orrville’s floor.
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Agreed there will be several nights to come where especially west will go on a three frenzy .
 
IMO....I think it would have been a different game if Orrville would have had Kodah Allen playing the entire second half. He was battling leg cramps the entire final 2 quarters. I like the intensity that Orrville played with. Kids look like they want to be there (unlike the last 4-5 season under Frizell). Two of Orrville senior starters, Haley and Diehl, both combined for less than 10 points I believe. If Orrville can get those two scoring, along with Allen, they are going to win games. Foul trouble didn't help, either.
 
WCAL BBall said:
Orrville is much improved over last year and will win their share of games if they play as hard as they did tonight throughout the year. Norwayne struggled shooting the ball(1 made 3) and were missing 2 of their top 7 due to injury. They had some JV kids playing in the Varsity game that struggled but likely won’t see the floor much once they are healthy. They still won by 14 tonight on Orrville’s floor.
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This game was much closer than I expected it to be. I guess you never know what to expect in the first game of the season. Orrville will be much improved. I took a look at their schedule. Norwayne is probably the toughest team they will play by a pretty wide margin. Orrville could rack up a lot of wins this season.

It's too bad these two cannot meet up in the tournament this year due to the new seven division format. Orrville is D4 and Norwayne is D5. Orrville is probably in a better situation for the postseason with juggernaut teams like Lutheran East and Richmond Heights both in D5. Teams like Buchtel, Glenville, and Warrensville Heights will be a problem in D4, but you would rather face them than the top teams in D5. The super district format they changed to a few years ago has changed the tournament landscape significantly. District titles where you are only playing area teams are a thing of the past.

The season opener between these two teams at Norwayne next year should be a great atmosphere.
 
Northwestern will struggle this year. In their 83-36 loss to Triway on Friday, they had only 3 players score, with #3 having 31 of those 36. The rest of the team shot 0-32 (which I'm sure will not happen again all season). There just wasn't a lot of depth there.

Orrville having Kodah Allen back changes everything for them.
 
Rambis said:
Dalton played a solid first half but lost to Malvern 69-53
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Dalton trailed by 5 at half time. Defense was solid in the first half, but in the second half Malvern was getting open looks. With every starter coming off of a long football season, you could tell they were gassed in the second half. Offensively, the senior Hignight had a big night with 27 points. No one else was in double figures (that needs to change and will). No reason to hang their heads on this one.
 
Rambis said:
Dalton played a solid first half but lost to Malvern 69-53
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Old Tex said:
Dalton trailed by 5 at half time. Defense was solid in the first half, but in the second half Malvern was getting open looks. With every starter coming off of a long football season, you could tell they were gassed in the second half. Offensively, the senior Hignight had a big night with 27 points. No one else was in double figures (that needs to change and will). No reason to hang their heads on this one.
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Agreed. No need to hang their heads. Malvern is supposed to be really good this season. It will take Dalton some time to figure things out. Dalton Coach Huth played a rotation of 10 players in this game. That is a lot for a high school game. He is probably trying to figure things out as well. Dalton has three players who would play regular minutes for most small school basketball teams. There is a big drop off after that. Maybe they play a lot of bodies to hopefully build depth as the season progresses? It might be till mid January before you can really see what this Dalton team has. That will be too late for any league title hopes, but a deep tournament run is definitely in play. Dalton's road to Dayton is as favorable now as it was unfavorable for a couple of decades. This team has the potential to be solid once late February/early March rolls around.
 
Agree as well - the top 7 or so for Dalton are all really good defensively - the issue for them will be finding another scorer or two after the top 3. In the first game, really only one player scored with any consistency. I think that will improve as they get more than a week of practice under their belt.
 
1486wd said:
Agree as well - the top 7 or so for Dalton are all really good defensively - the issue for them will be finding another scorer or two after the top 3. In the first game, really only one player scored with any consistency. I think that will improve as they get more than a week of practice under their belt.
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I think the first five will be solid as the season goes on and the sophomore Hignight and Clark get their basketball legs and adjust to varsity ball. The challenge for Coach Huth will be finding the 6th and 7th guy.
 
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