Zane Trace and Piketon seem to be “teams to beat” in the SVC
The two teams that have more answers than most are the Zane Trace Pioneers and the Piketon Redstreaks. I feel these two squads are by far the most complete teams. Both teams have great guard play, great depth, and a great deal of experience. For Zane Trace, Kirk Maxwell and Gabe Haynes lead a group that returns seven key contributors off of last year’s district runner-up team. Maxwell is a tough match-up because of his versatility. The senior can shoot the three, but really does his biggest damage with his midrange game. His ball handling, his quickness, and his strength allow him to create space as well as draw contact which gives him a chance to get to the line where he shoots a high percentage. Haynes, also a senior, can shoot the three, but is probably more dangerous when slashing to the goal. Haynes also has the ability to be a lockdown defender.
As for Piketon, the Redstreaks are led by arguable the league’s most complete player in Evan Legg. Legg can obviously handle the point guard duties, but with the emergence of some other guards in the Piketon program, I think Legg is going to start to score the basketball more during his junior season. Piketon also has two of the league’s best athletes in 6’6” Caleb Southworth and 6’6” Keenan Brush. This pair gives the perimeter guys the luxury of overplaying, because the length of Southworth and Brush will cleanup most mistakes.
If I had to pick between these two, I would probably give a slight advantage to Zane Trace. Piketon graduated two 1,000-point scorers from last year’s team, and I question where their offense will come from particularly when a team forces them to play in a half court game.
In game one Friday night, I thought Westfall looked like a team that could compete for the third spot. The Mustangs have a senior-loaded roster that consists of incredible size and athleticism. Players like Zak Smith, Codey Musselman, and Clint Boring all waited their turn last season behind a very talented senior group, and now hope to help Westfall stay towards the top of the SVC.
Westfall’s opponent Friday was Adena – a team that is going to be extremely young this season. The Warriors have graduated some really good talent in their last three or four senior classes, and now look to their sophomore class (seven on this year’s roster) to help rebuild the program.
The second game saw Zane Trace playing with a split line-up most of the night. Their opponent, the Huntington Huntsmen, will be a middle-of-the-pack type of team that could cause certain teams some problems. Huntington has a trio of senior guards (Kyle Deal, Cole Addy, and Clint Turner) that do have some varsity experience, but the biggest question will be - can they carry more responsibility this season? For example, I think a player like Deal is going to have to assert himself far more on the offensive end. Deal has always been a solid guard who plays hard and handles the ball, but he is not playing with the same type of players. I feel Deal’s ability to create his own shots as well as easy looks for his teammates will be a big key for Huntington this season.
In the third game, Piketon – just like ZT in game two – had a roster full of athletes that they were able to run out there in just about whatever combination they wanted to use. This made life tough on Unioto, but I did see an improvement in Unioto from a year ago. Unioto returns a lot of kids who now have a year of varsity basketball under their belt. You combine this with the league not being nearly as deep as it was a year ago, and I believe the purple and gold have the ability to compete for a top half spot. The Shermans have six players on their rosters that stand 6-3 or taller, but Unioto’s guard play will once again determine the success of this year’s team.
In the nightcap, Southeastern got an explosive offensive performance from sophomore Michael Brown. If this type of offensive output is something Brown can consistently give, Southeastern could be a team that could make some noise in the bottom half of the league. I say this because Tyler Osborne and Chris Hahn both look to be solid retuning pieces to the Southeastern puzzle, and all they need is some young perimeter kids to step up and provide some offensive help.
Southeastern’s opponent in the night’s final game was Paint Valley. The Bearcats have some nice athletes on the perimeter. This will be an interesting group to follow this year because PV has eight juniors and two sophomores on their 11-man roster, so they will basically have the same team coming back in 2010-2011.
I guess after the Zane Trace/Piketon battle the top question will be which teams can find their identities the quickest. As I said earlier, there are so many teams looking to rebuild this season a team with average talent that can gel early could conceivably win a lot of games this season. Another positive for SVC fans could be some competitive games. After the top two teams, anybody can beat anybody.
