Southwest DII Teams who is in the top tier?

[panther 72]

I feel that Thurgood Marshall with the addition of Greg Gainey from Trotwood has to be put right their at the top if not the number 1 team. Two time regional runner up Alter, C-J, Taft, Wilmington and state qualifier Graham would be in my top six teams. My order would be:

1. Thurgood Marshall
2. Graham
3. Alter
4. C-J
5. Wilmington
6. Taft

[thehasbeen95]

Looks like a good list. who does Thurgood have coming back besides Mr. Staten

[hphball]

You better watch out for Roger Bacon. They are stockpiling a serious group of basketball players.

[RoundballOZ11]

HPH like who?

[RoundballOZ11]

has wilmington dropped down do division 2?

[hphball]

RB has 3 starters back (6'3" Hudson, 6'3" Williams, 6'1" Fleming) from a team who made a nice run at the end of the season. They made it up to Dayton and lost a very close game to Alter (44-38) in the district finals. They have a 6'8" sophomore center (Bryant) who had a very good summer in AAU. Also, RB could very well have the best incoming freshmen class in the entire state of Ohio. 6'4" Washington and 6'5" Stanford are big timers. Guards Lemons and Berry have high basketball IQ's and are very effective. The Spartans are going to be very dangerous.

[wheatfield32]

maybe rb can make cincy proud as the d2 sw has been dominated by the dayton area the last five years. alter, cj, dunbar and graham.

[GCLHoops]

maybe rb can make cincy proud as the d2 sw has been dominated by the dayton area the last five years. alter, cj, dunbar and graham.


Not this year. I think CJ, Alter, and probably Graham are all still better than Bacon. I think Bacon is a year or two away.

[hphball]

You might be right about RB. They may be a year or two away. They will be a team, come tournament time, that others should be aware of. The Spartans will have size, speed, athleticism, and depth. The element of experience will eventually arrive and when it does---watch out!

[tooloo328]

By the way, Hudson also averaged 25 points a game in AAU nationals this year. I hope you all sleep on him this year. You won't at the end!! trust me. And he has grown a bit. much strong and bigger. scary thought

[ManofMoe2]

Does Solomon Tentman(SP) still play basketball for RB? i watched him his freshman year. Extremely athletic.

[GCLHoops]

By the way, Hudson also averaged 25 points a game in AAU nationals this year. I hope you all sleep on him this year. You won't at the end!! trust me. And he has grown a bit. much strong and bigger. scary thought


Quit hyping your son! If he's good enough he will get the hype he deserves. That's could be the downfall of Bacon as in years past... too many people worried about individual accomplishments!

[PlayersCoach98]

I can promise you Jorian is not that type of kid GCL. He has a ton of potential and plays hard all the time. He will end up playing DI basketball if he wants to(he is also a great football player and was featured in a story in the Enquirer last Saturday). I am not sure he averaged 25 in AAU, though. I can promise you will hear about them this year, but they do need help at point guard that might be their only weakness.

[legendarycoach]

I wouldnt count dunbar out they will be much smaller this year but they do have some talented players. but they did lose alot off of last year team.

[tooloo328]

First Off, He Is Not My Son, Wish He Was. A Wonderful Kid, Talent Level Way Above Average. I Just Enjoy Seeing Kids That Play Hard, And Has The Grades To Match Grow Into A Ram In The Bush. You Sound Like Someone Who's Kids Needed Your Help For Playing Time.
I Think Solomon Plays Football Exclusively. I Think He Had Some Family Things Going On During Last Year's Final Cuts. That Whole Junior Class Is Blessed. Just Show Up At Bacon During Very Bad Coaching Issues. Hopefully They Will Get Some Due Results This Year. Their Freshman Class Was Very Highly Spoken Of.

[HoopHound]

First Off, He Is Not My Son, Wish He Was. A Wonderful Kid, Talent Level Way Above Average. I Just Enjoy Seeing Kids That Play Hard, And Has The Grades To Match Grow Into A Ram In The Bush. You Sound Like Someone Who's Kids Needed Your Help For Playing Time.
I Think Solomon Plays Football Exclusively. I Think He Had Some Family Things Going On During Last Year's Final Cuts. That Whole Junior Class Is Blessed. Just Show Up At Bacon During Very Bad Coaching Issues. Hopefully They Will Get Some Due Results This Year. Their Freshman Class Was Very Highly Spoken Of.

You might consider having your caps-lock key looked at.

[falcon22]

First I would have to go with Graham since they return 7 of their top 8 players and they are the defending SW regional champs. They were also 26-0 until their loss to Toledo Libbey in the state semi final game by 7. CJ is going to be a force also. Possibly a CJ/ Graham regional final game. Taft or Roger Bacon from Cincy. Dont believe Alter is a force after watching them many times during the summer. My pick is either Graham or CJ going to Columbus out of this region.

[vvknight40]

I think you have to have Graham as the favorite since they return almost everyone from their state team last year, however will they play enough competition to prepare them for a tournament run where everyone will be gunning for them, instead of being the underdog? I think C-J will be a close second, with a ton of talent returning. Can they replace Kauth, who I felt was a key to their success? After that, Alter has never impressed me that much the past couple years, but Siggins is very good and they won't beat themselves. Thurgood Marshall will be dangerous just because of Staten. Wilmington returns lots of talent also. You can't forget about Dunbar, although I think we will learn much more about Pete Pullen as a coach now that he doesn't have an incredible amount of talent as he has in the past 5 years. I don't really know much about Taft, but wasn't super-impressed when I saw them against Graham. Just want to throw out another young team that may be a year away; along with Roger Bacon: Valley View. Ricky Denny averaged something like 20 pts. and 14 rebs. a game last year as a sophomore, and they started two freshmen, one of which was a 6'4" forward who averaged 15 pts. and 9 rebs. The key for VV is if they can handle high expectations that they have never dealt with, playing solid defense, and finding another big man to grab some rebounds.

[HoopHound]

I think you have to have Graham as the favorite since they return almost everyone from their state team last year, however will they play enough competition to prepare them for a tournament run where everyone will be gunning for them, instead of being the underdog? I think C-J will be a close second, with a ton of talent returning. Can they replace Kauth, who I felt was a key to their success? After that, Alter has never impressed me that much the past couple years, but Siggins is very good and they won't beat themselves. Thurgood Marshall will be dangerous just because of Staten. Wilmington returns lots of talent also. You can't forget about Dunbar, although I think we will learn much more about Pete Pullen as a coach now that he doesn't have an incredible amount of talent as he has in the past 5 years. I don't really know much about Taft, but wasn't super-impressed when I saw them against Graham. Just want to throw out another young team that may be a year away; along with Roger Bacon: Valley View. Ricky Denny averaged something like 20 pts. and 14 rebs. a game last year as a sophomore, and they started two freshmen, one of which was a 6'4" forward who averaged 15 pts. and 9 rebs. The key for VV is if they can handle high expectations that they have never dealt with, playing solid defense, and finding another big man to grab some rebounds.

HELLO, vvknight!!

:welcome: to the boys basketball forum. We hope you enjoy the forum as much as the rest of us, and look forward to your future thoughts and opinions!! :cool:

Again... we're glad you're here!! :)

[sportsguy]

I think Graham, CJ and Alter have to be the favorites. They return most of their players and all three teams were in the Regionals last year with Graham and Alter going to OT in the Regional final (a game that Graham won). Graham returns their top 3 players: Shuler, Jones and Ward, I think those are their names. CJ returns everyone except Kauth and Alter returns Siggins, White, and Joseph as well as has some pretty good players coming up.

Barring any transfers, Thurgood Marshall is nothing but the Staten show and their coaching will do nothing but hurt them come tourney time. I think Wilmington and Roger Bacon have some talent but they are a year away, still pretty young. Valley View, um no? They don't stand a chance with any of these teams.

[vvknight40]

I'm not saying the Spartans can be competitive with these teams this year. I was just saying, much like Roger Bacon, they are probably a year away. The Spartans should be much improved though this year and are a very good offensive team. I think many people last year also thought that Graham wasn't going to be very good either. VV will not be Graham, but as i said earlier, should be improved.

[sportsguy]

I'm not saying the Spartans can be competitive with these teams this year. I was just saying, much like Roger Bacon, they are probably a year away. The Spartans should be much improved though this year and are a very good offensive team. I think many people last year also thought that Graham wasn't going to be very good either. VV will not be Graham, but as i said earlier, should be improved.


VVknight, I hope you are right. I would love to see Valley View succeed and be able to keep up with the aforementioned teams. Frankly I am tired of seeing the same old teams represent this region and district in D2 (Alter, Dunbar and CJ). It seems like it comes down to those 3 every year, finally Graham was able to knock them off last year and win the Regional.

[vvknight40]

I hope so to sportguys :) I think VV is a year away. They will have 3 or 4 seniors this year, but the main guys are juniors and sophomores. In high school, if you have 2 really good players, you can be competitive and the Spartans certainly have that. If you want to see a team that can score, check the Spartans out this year. Denny is just a scorer, and the team is full of shooters. The trick is gonna be getting guys to play defense. I think last year they were easily first in scoring offense and 2nd to last in defense. If that happens again the Spartans aren't going to be very good. However, I believe having the new coach being able to be settled in this year will help a lot.

[thehasbeen95]

I think you have to have Graham as the favorite since they return almost everyone from their state team last year, however will they play enough competition to prepare them for a tournament run where everyone will be gunning for them, instead of being the underdog? I think C-J will be a close second, with a ton of talent returning. Can they replace Kauth, who I felt was a key to their success? After that, Alter has never impressed me that much the past couple years, but Siggins is very good and they won't beat themselves. Thurgood Marshall will be dangerous just because of Staten. Wilmington returns lots of talent also. You can't forget about Dunbar, although I think we will learn much more about Pete Pullen as a coach now that he doesn't have an incredible amount of talent as he has in the past 5 years. I don't really know much about Taft, but wasn't super-impressed when I saw them against Graham. Just want to throw out another young team that may be a year away; along with Roger Bacon: Valley View. Ricky Denny averaged something like 20 pts. and 14 rebs. a game last year as a sophomore, and they started two freshmen, one of which was a 6'4" forward who averaged 15 pts. and 9 rebs. The key for VV is if they can handle high expectations that they have never dealt with, playing solid defense, and finding another big man to grab some rebounds.

VV sounds like this team has a lot of young talent. Keep us folk in NEO posted on their success.

[sportsguy]

I hope so to sportguys :) I think VV is a year away. They will have 3 or 4 seniors this year, but the main guys are juniors and sophomores. In high school, if you have 2 really good players, you can be competitive and the Spartans certainly have that. If you want to see a team that can score, check the Spartans out this year. Denny is just a scorer, and the team is full of shooters. The trick is gonna be getting guys to play defense. I think last year they were easily first in scoring offense and 2nd to last in defense. If that happens again the Spartans aren't going to be very good. However, I believe having the new coach being able to be settled in this year will help a lot.

Who is the new coach? Where is he from?

[vvknight40]

The new coach is Brian Lemke. He was VV's freshmen coach before he was hired as varsity head coach when Brian Gunter left for Arcanum.

[Glenn Quagmire]

You might be right about RB. They may be a year or two away. They will be a team, come tournament time, that others should be aware of. The Spartans will have size, speed, athleticism, and depth. The element of experience will eventually arrive and when it does---watch out!

At what level will the incoming freshmen play? They are good enough to compete at the JV and contribute at the Varsity levels.