State Tournament Round 3 Preview: #1 Granville vs. #10 London (Bonus: Free Livestream With Special Guest Commentary From...No Barstool Employees Because They All Turned It Down)
And here….we…..go. There are now 64 teams left, and with one half of the state getting eliminated in the first two rounds, the Big Dance really starts tonight. There is no one "bad" still alive, and while there will still be blowouts from some of the state's best teams, there will also now be legitimate upsets. Highlighted in yellow are the Top 10 teams in Ohio's final AP Poll of the year. Remember, you put yourself on the bracket, and while location does determine a lot of it further down the road, the top teams have the ability to maneuver a little bit and avoid each other for as long as they can. So as you can see, #1 Purcell Marian (2x defending state champs, ranked #15 in the ESPN Top 25 for the entire country, the reigning Ms. Basketball in Ohio who is a 5-star recruit and is ranked #2 in the country, another Ohio State commit, and I believe 4 more D1 players) has a pretty easy path to the Final Four. The rest of the state will have some bangers here starting this week.
Okay, that's enough talk about a talk about a team that we won't see for a few weeks. Let's first recap how our 66-25 2nd round victory over Linden-McKinley, and then we'll preview tonight's game vs. London.
Stat Lines:
Harper: 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks (20 minutes)
Aliyah: 14 points (4 threes), 3 assists
Elle: 7 points, 9 rebounds
Katie: 6 points, 6 assists, 6 steals, 9 deflections
Delaney: 6 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals
Hanah: 4 points
Taylor: T played the first 90 seconds because she's a Senior and it was her last game in the home gym. She made a left-handed layup and then sat the rest of the night with a right shoulder injury (we need Taylor back….bad)
Notables:
- To anyone saying we run up the score, please take a look at the 95-4 and 110-10 wins across the state, the box score that shows our minutes breakdown, our 6 to 5 fourth quarter, and our 19-8 second half. It's unfortunate that some of these games are played, but you can't say we are ever trying to embarrass our opponents…unlike some other schools are doing.
- We have to be better from the Free Throw line. 5 of 14 doesn't affect the outcome in a 40 point win, but it can and absolutely will end our season in a close game.
- Huge shout out to our Senior Class of Harper, Aliyah, Taylor, Hanah, and Haley for finishing their high school careers a perfect 52-0 in the home gym. When you come play the Aces in The Casino, you go home BROKE!
The House always wins, baby!
Okay, the fun and games are over. We have a basketball game to play tonight.
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*I make a graphic for every single game we play, and I really enjoy turning the opponents mascots into cartoons and making it look like a fight poster against one of our players. But then we have situations like tonight where we play teams like the Redskins, Red Raiders, Warriors, etc -- and I have to use a cartoon character of a basketball player instead because apparently their potentially offensive mascot that they use every day is my problem if I tweet it. Whatever, I threw some face paint on the girl tonight, hope that's okay.
I would say the biggest news for those that have been following the Blue Aces through the first two rounds is that tonight we'll finally have a free livestream of the game. I'm utterly shocked, but even more so disappointed, that no one from Barstool took me up on calling the game. Am I crazy or would 95% of personalties benefit from this….? I mean, sure, I get that Dave and Big Cat don't need the bump, but I think that calling a random third round high school girls basketball game in Ohio is classic Barstool and….literally anyone….had the chance to jump at it. I really wish Mark Titus and Brandon Walker would do it, as they would be my #1 duo by far and would do an excellent job, but their work speaks for themselves and if this isn't something they want to do, I'm fine with that. I do think Jake Marsh would've done it had he not had a golf tournament tomorrow morning, but guys, would this not have been a hilarious bounce back for a man who was under fire just 24 hours ago for missing a company combine? Doesn't he have sports talk radio experience too? Ben Mintz should be calling this basketball game tonight (with a dump button, of course)! Either Granville or London is going home losers tonight….but America already lost with that missed opportunity. Either way, enjoy the broadcast tonight, Blue Aces fans. Here's some background on the matchup:
Again, on paper, the Blue Aces have some clear advantages in tonight's matchup, but it's no secret within the program that we had a rough start to practice on Monday. I made it very clear to the girls after the first 15 minutes, which included about 13 minutes of running, that just because you put on that Granville uniform and have had success in the past means ANYTHING, let alone that the Red Raiders are going to lay down and let you walk all over them. We do appear to have flipped the switch after I had to pull out an old coaching move the next day that John Wooden taught me: watch the animated YouTube version of the tortoise and the hare. We discussed how the hare, although naturally talented and clearly favored to win, lost a race he shouldn't have because he was too cocky. Now what if because of that loss, the hare never got to race ever again? The girls understood the silly yet spot on message, and we had a great practice yesterday. Perhaps our best of the year, led by our Seniors who understood it could be their very last one. Man, I love coaching high school sports.
Keys to the Game
1. Our Pressure Man-to-Man Defense MUST Be Effective
London's best attribute is their ability to shoot the 3, and they do it very often. For us, we generally start in our full court pressure man to man defense, which has no change in philosophy when you cross over the half court line. However, if that is not effective, we usually switch it up and run some 1-3-1. That cannot be the plan tonight. While the 1-3-1 can force turnovers and make teams pass the ball well, it also is susceptible to giving up corner threes. We cannot risk our season on London's shooting percentage tonight. Our man defense must be effective. There is no Plan B.
2. Run Them Off The 3 Point Line
We've been practicing closing out with our hands high and contesting shooters. If they ball fake and go around us, fine. We will take our chances of 3 point shooters getting into the lane and shooting over our two 6 footers instead of protecting the paint and allowing them to launch.
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3. Handle Their Press / Press For Easy Buckets
They run a 2-2-1, which if we go up the sideline into a corner, can cause us to throw it all over the gym. We will also be pressing, which we hope to generate run-out layups from, as well. The team that can get under the other's skin and get a few easy layups will be at a huge advantage.
4. REBOUND!
After seeing them in person on Saturday in their 63-27 win over Columbus East, I did come away feeling like we'd have a size advantage in tonight's matchup. Now, especially in girls basketball, it's not the size of the dog in the fight but rather the size of the fight in the dog, but if we can get our 6 foot posts….AND our guards….to rebound like crazy, we should be able to steal a couple extra possessions and/or cut their shots per possession opportunities to one or less.
Alright, that's what I got you for guys game plan wise. One of our program goals is always to make it to March….because once you get to March, anything can happen. The winner tonight will move on to the District Final on Saturday, March 2nd. And not to look ahead, but it was Upset City on the bottom half of the bracket this past round.
To be honest, we wanted to play Centennial (18-2). North Union and Heath are both very well coached, tough nosed girls. Centennial had a freshman sensation (on both the court and TikTok) that played very freely, and we liked that matchup of playing with 5 as opposed to their 1. We went to scout on Saturday night, and North Union (down 1) stole an inbound pass and scored at the buzzer to win by 1. It will go down as an upset on paper, but I think ultimately the tougher matchup for us won the game.
We've got a scout heading to Heath vs. North Union tonight, and if we are able to handle our business vs. London, I look forward to two days of intense preparation with the staff and players to get ready for the District Championship. District Finals in Ohio are a big deal, as the winner cuts the nets down and then moves on to the Sweet 16 to represent their area against the rest of the state. But again, you can't win a District Championship without winning a District Semifinal. Big one tonight vs. London.
GO BLUE ACES!!!
Livestream at 6:00: