WishIWasGolfing
Active member
I believe they are pretty big as well. That won't help. Watching them on such a big floor made that group look smaller than watching them at Grove City Christian. No offense, they are just really small.
Kind of an odd game. Part of this one is FC being unable to convert-and-extend in the second half (good takes to the rack and putbacks just not falling; shots they’re fouled on not coming down with 0/2’s and splits at the stripe) — this game was 29-19 with ~1:00 left in the 3Q before Tree ripped an and-1 and a 3 to narrow the deficit to 4.FC 14 13 2 10 | 39
TOL 10 7 8 10 | 35
Very good points! I think the MSL history of success slipped into my thought process too. They have bigger crowds with noisier student sections and schools with more tradition.I picked it based on the conference's history. I think the MSL/MOCAL challenge ended in a tie this year or close to it. History shows the MSL usually produces better teams year in and out. I also saw Wellington live this year and thought the big would create some problems.
I am torn about the game on Friday. I think Fisher has the discipline, coaching, and toughness aspect. I think they have played in bigger games this year. But I have also witnessed Shekinah shooters going off at the right time over the years. Fisher will probably need to get to 55 to win the game.
I’m curious why Northmor went into the bracket with Northside and not Shekinah, come to think of it. Does the upside of not facing Russia in Kettering (if you have the skills and wherewithal to figure out the convoluted SW District’s bracket pathing in advance) justify the risk of losing to Northside in district finals?@The Dock that is an excellent rundown! I actually watched both games via the stream on Central Crossing's web page.
I haven't gotten to many games this year, but Tree is one that I've watched in person and streamed online. Against disciplined teams it seemed like Tree gets into these slugfests and that's what it was last night. I was planning to write a recap but you nailed it so there's no need. FC scored 2 points in the third quarter and 12 in the second half (including when Tree was fouling) but won. How often does that happen? Survive and advance! Tree's first team all-district player got in foul trouble and never got into it on offense. I think from the scoreboard's stats he had 2 points before getting a head to the face and missing the last couple minutes. Hope he's okay that was quite the shot he took. Can't think of a much tougher way to end your career than a rough game followed by an injury as the season ends.
Now to get into the first game. Box score via MaxPreps:
FCA - 14 3 12 18 (47)
Shek - 21 14 15 22 (72)
I'll get to the shooting in a bit. FCA came out in a press and looked to trap in the halfcourt in a 1-2-2 defense. They trapped everywhere and were relentless with their pressure, quickly forcing Shekinah into some bad turnovers and generating some fast breaks that allowed them to score early. It looked like Shekinah took a few minutes to adapt, but once they did they got a number of open shots and knocked them down. I'm no coach, but it looked to me like FCA's high risk/high reward defense helped early but was soon figured out and was burned by a team that can make open jumpers.
Shekinah did indeed shoot the ball very well, although I don't know that I'd say FCA shot terrible. I will say that they did missed some bunnies (much like both teams did in the second game of the night) in the first half that could have slowed the momentum a bit. It's difficult to tell at times because of the far away camera in the stream, but if I had to guess I would say that most of Shekinah's 3s were open shots. They did make a couple heavily contested (including a bank and one with a foul late in the game), but they moved the ball well and got it to the hot hands. They also destroyed FCA on the boards from what I could tell.
I stole a page from another HS message board's legendary poster, who does "Napkin Stats." It's a little easier on a stream since I could rewind, so once Shekinah hit a few threes I went back and started documenting both teams on shots from the outside. Shekinah was 12-24 on 3s (50%) and FCA was 5-14 (36%). Shekinah made 8 in the first half and another to start the 3rd quarter before FCA went man. That's when Shekinah pounded the ball inside. When FCA went back to their traps, Shekinah hit 3 more 3s to ice it. I would have done more stats, but I wanted to watch the second game.
I would have posted this last night but I wanted the time to get this next section down. I will admit that I know less about Shekinah than just about every other MOCAL team because they are out west and that's about as far as it gets from where I live for this tiny little conference that I have adopted to follow. Those eastern MSL/MOCAL teams get some decent newspaper coverage, but Madison county has nothing. The closest newspapers I could find online are in Marysville and Delaware and they don't post anything about Shekinah. The team doesn't do current year stats on MaxPreps and 270 Hoops or the Dispatch doesn't care about D4 at all (didn't even post the district semi-final scores last night on their websites). So it's next to impossible to find anything on them. I should probably reach out to my coaching friend to see what he knows.
So now to ask is why didn't I pick them in the first place? Looking at MaxPreps they are now 21-3, have won 19 straight games, and haven't really even played many close games. They have a 1st team all-district player. Their schedule looked pretty soft and they were down the last two years, but they're such a mystery that I don't think I knew whether they were really an "elite" central district D4 team like Northside Christian or Northmor. I think that's why I picked FCA to win at the start of the postseason despite them finishing with a regular season record of 8-14. I don't think I'm alone in this thought, as @bballfan48 didn't think Wellington could slow down Shekinah and also picked FCA in the semi-finals. Maybe we were picking based on what we did know and not the unknown? Basically what I'm saying is that I probably shouldn't have picked against a 20-win 2-seed without knowing anything about them haha.
I picked it based on the conference's history. I think the MSL/MOCAL challenge ended in a tie this year or close to it. History shows the MSL usually produces better teams year in and out. I also saw Wellington live this year and thought the big would create some problems.
I am torn about the game on Friday. I think Fisher has the discipline, coaching, and toughness aspect. I think they have played in bigger games this year. But I have also witnessed Shekinah shooters going off at the right time over the years. Fisher will probably need to get to 55 to win the game.
The thing about the MOCAL’s (not great) reputation in the postseason is a ton of it revolves around one school: Tree of Life. TOL went to the Elite 8 in 2010, a few years before the ascent of (then-MOCAL) FCA and five years before GCC (also former MOCAL) got the train rolling. They beat HP that year, and HP was at the time rising in profile in Central Ohio (the saga of Grandview, FC and HP battling it out in the old Cardinal in the late Bush 43/early Obama years.)Very good points! I think the MSL history of success slipped into my thought process too. They have bigger crowds with noisier student sections and schools with more tradition.
I also don’t know what to expect Friday. If Shekinah played HP, GCC x2 and Rosecrans x 2 would they have 3 losses? I don’t think so. Either way both teams should be incredibly proud to be in this spot, especially based on preseason expectations. One will certainly be disappointed, but both will be able to hold their heads up high.
Polite disagree. It’s plausible. Any range of 4-1 through 0-5 is.If Shekinah played HP, GCC x2 and Rosecrans x 2 would they have 3 losses?
Great post and thanks for the history lesson! From what I've heard, Shekinah joined the MOCAL in 2016-17 and was independent before that, joining after GCC/FCA left. It's pretty wild to me to look at tournament results over the last 10-15 years and see how drastically different things have changed!The thing about the MOCAL’s (not great) reputation in the postseason is a ton of it revolves around one school: Tree of Life. TOL went to the Elite 8 in 2010, a few years before the ascent of (then-MOCAL) FCA and five years before GCC (also former MOCAL) got the train rolling. They beat HP that year, and HP was at the time rising in profile in Central Ohio (the saga of Grandview, FC and HP battling it out in the old Cardinal in the late Bush 43/early Obama years.)
The next year, 2010-11, HP was very good. And it was obvious. Tree was good but not HP level good. Something weird had happened that February of ‘11 — Tree had 2 losses by the draw (one was to Gahanna Christian) and HP had 2 losses (one was to Vincent Warren and the other was to a school from Maryland) with destruction of the Cardinal in pocket. Tree was awarded the #1 seed, HP the 2. The story goes that the information submitted by the then-HP coach didn’t get in before the deadline, so the MOCAL coaches basically said “well we don’t know how good HP is UwU” (uh huh.)
That district tournament, Tree got upended in the semi’s by an unseeded (and not good) FC whose season got screwed up the night before the first game of the season. Unseeded — they weren’t seeding beyond the top 8 teams back then. HP roared through the district by comparison.
After FCA and GCC came aboard the Cardinal following the 2012-13 season, the MOCAL’s reputation/image was taking some unfortunate hits. Gilead Christian had closed right around then, and the one other school whose hoops program looked like it could be ‘here to stay’, Gahanna Christian, closed soon after. Shekinah was probably the most consistent non-TOL program around that time (and they were probably the most respected, although for obvious reasons little known about other than the esoteric cliche of “Mennonite’s frown on football, so shooting hoops is a good activity to grow up with.”)
That mid-2010’s timeline still had the pervading opinion that Tree was getting seeded a little too generously because of their runs through the MOCAL (compared to BU, FC and to a certain extent Millersport, who were giving D4 leaders of the line GCC & FCA solid games and were already inheriting two losses off the rip from HP.)
Hopefully that gives some context.
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Polite disagree. It’s plausible. Any range of 4-1 through 0-5 is.
Prep
Rosecrans — if BR were to beat Shekinah in Plain City, I’m not sure the Flames would steal one back at The Rogge. Just speaking abstractly, that’s a very hard one to wrap a mind around. I could see something like Shekinah winning at home and dropping on the road, but replicating how FC split the series seems beyond my imagination (granted, there’s the added context of it being a come-from-behind win against a program whose coach has owned the Irish historically.)
The GCC one — yeah who knows. GCC was very good and deeply senior-laden, and the latter doesn’t just loom large… the experience of that unit drawfs an FC where only two of the six kids (the two JR’s) have at least two years of organized basketball experience at the HS level (three of the other four guys are freshmen.) Drawing that to attention in this hypothetical only because Timlin’s always been pretty determined to beat FC and there’s zero doubt he drew a pretty good idea of how to approach/gameplan for them in light of that familiarity.
On the other hand, Shekinah would probably beat Miller twice. But then we’re getting into the weeds of games played three months ago, and it probably wouldn’t be the most sincere point of reference given the context of how this season started.
That sounds about right, now that you mention it. I guess I commingled them as being MOCAL earlier since they had played those schools often, were very similar in size and notably did not have football. Other than Worthington Christian, I can’t think of any Christian schools (that were OHSAA) not in the MOCAL.Great post and thanks for the history lesson! From what I've heard, Shekinah joined the MOCAL in 2016-17 and was independent before that, joining after GCC/FCA left. It's pretty wild to me to look at tournament results over the last 10-15 years and see how drastically different things have changed!
yeah no doubt. With a rotation that’s 50% freshmen. Lone senior didn’t play organized basketball until last year. Stack that profile against every FC team to play since the last district crown in 2002, with the prop being “next FC boys team to win a district” and on paper it’d be very long odds. A lot of really good teams followed 2002. This one got it done. Defied the odds.year 1 of new coach and they are district champs!!
I think a rematch will be likely (a round 3, as this was played last year too in the tournament @ Fairbanks.)Incredible season for FC! Congrats to them! First year coach doing this is phenomenal he’s done a great job of working with what he had!
D7 rematch next year maybe? If there’s only one district then D7 could be really tough. Looks like the only high seeds to drop out would be Northmor and Tree year. But there’s more time to discuss that at another time. Congrats to FC for bringing a district title to the MSL!
@trimblefootball noooooooo!Congratulations to Fisher Catholic on making it to the regional title game!
I feel stupid now, lol. I need glasses, read it wrong. None the less great season for the Irish!@trimblefootball noooooooo!
They had a solid season. Sun comes up tomorrow; Russia would ball it up pretty ball well in the D3 and probably D2 district tournaments here (and vaporize many other county teams.)
Enrollment numbers for the next two seasons are out. NC is going to be D7 in boys’ hoops. They may pose more issues to Shekinah, than they would FC.Incredible season for FC! Congrats to them! First year coach doing this is phenomenal he’s done a great job of working with what he had!
D7 rematch next year maybe? If there’s only one district then D7 could be really tough. Looks like the only high seeds to drop out would be Northmor and Tree year. But there’s more time to discuss that at another time. Congrats to FC for bringing a district title to the MSL!