Arlington Preview - Regional Semifinal

Fast facts

Opponent:  Arlington

Enrollment: (9-12):  308

Division/League: D-IV / Blanchard Valley Conference

Team Nickname: Red Devils

From the Blanchard River Buzz Preview

Coach: Jason Vermillion – 14^th season

Last season: 13-9, 5-4 BVC

This season: 17-3, 8-1 (first place) BVC

Top players: Returning lettermen - Seniors Thayne Recker, (6-4), Jake Leonard  (6-1) Adam Inniger (5-9) and Wes Corbin (5-11) Junior Blaiz McBride (5-11), Sophomore Andrew Hunter (5-8).  Others include Senior Brian Mohr (5-10) and Sophomores Michael Blunk and Jordan Freed.

Regular season stats: Team stats are similar to the Hawks – Arlington averages 63.4 ppg and allows only 41.9.  They feature an inside game, making a league second-best 54.7% of their two point tries.  The Red Devils were 78-313 (31.3%) from three point range, placing them 5^th in the BVC.  They are also fourth in FT% at 62.9%, but they made their free throws in the District Final game vs. Columbus Grove.

Arlington was third in the league in rebounding (29.1 rpg) and second in assists (14.2 apg).  They appear to like pressure defense forcing 10.7 turnovers per game.

Individually, Thayne Recker was the Devils leading scorer averaging 16.6 ppg, followed by Jake Leonard (12.3) and Andrew Hunter (9.0).  Recker is big and effective (think Lucas Janowicz), Mr. Inside who also averages 8.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.  Jordan Freed and Wes Corbin are Messrs. Outside, both averaging over 40% from beyond the arc. 

Road to BG – opponents w/ regular season records:

Def. 6-14 Riverdale 71-20

Def. 13-7 Ridgemont 58-37

Def. 12-8 McComb 57-33

Def. 16-4 Columbus Grove 51-44

MV's home away from home - this week

Congratulations to the District Champions. 

Here is a photo of the Stroh Center taken at Saturday evening's Anthony Wayne - Norwalk game

OK, break's over.

Gettin' closer

Previewing the D-IV playoffs - Far West and East half of the Bowling Green D-IV Region

Introduction - copied from yesterday''s post

This post will be better understood if you take aminute to glance at the Bowling Green Regional bracket.

Here’s how it works. There are four districts – each with two #1 and two #2 seeds – all playing for the chance of going to the Regional Final in Bowling Green. The four regional finalists battle for the golden ticket to Columbus.

Each District includes 12-14 teams, grouped into two 6-7 team Sections. Each section’s coaches meet to seed themselves, determining who plays who down the stretch.

This year, the D-IV tournament seeding was announced on February 12, 2012. As opposed to NCAA Selection Sunday, the tournament is selected prior to the regular season, so a late stumble does not impact the seeding. 

The opposite side of the Bowling Green Regional features teams from the far east (east of Sandusky approaching Norwalk) and west of the area (west of Toledo to the State line and down the Indiana/Ohio border to about Van Wert. 

In the Far West / Napoleon District, teams from the Green Meadows Confrence, Buckeye Border Conference and a wildcard or two from the Putnam County League play for a spot at BG.  This District includes the only undefeated team in the Region, the Edgerton Bulldogs.  Edgerton must get past a seasoned Kalida team from the PCL, Pettisville and Stryker from the BBC and conference foes Antwerp and Holgate among others.  

Edgerton is currently ranked #2 in the state, but has only played five teams (but Antwerp twice) with a winning record, the six games tying Ada for the lowest frequency of games against harder teams. 

The Far East includes mostly North Central and Firelands Conference teams, but is also the home of TAAC member Danbury.  North Robinson Colonel Crawford has to be the clear favorite here with some quality wins against larger schools.

Aside from these three teams, the other #1 and #2 seeds on this side of the bracket have no more than 13 wins total.  Additionally, the other contenders have not fared well against teams with records over .500.  Expect two of these three teams to show up in the Regional Semifinal game on March 13. 

Click on the grid for a larger view.

Previewing the D-IV playoffs - MV's half of the Bowling Green D-IV Region

This post will be better understood if you take aminute to glance at the Bowling Green Regional bracket.

Here’s how it works.  There are four districts – each with two #1 and two #2 seeds – all playing for the chance of going to the Regional Final in Bowling Green.  The four regional finalists battle for the golden ticket to Columbus. 

Each District includes 12-14 teams, grouped into two 6-7 team Sections.  Each section’s coaches meet to seed themselves, determining who plays who down the stretch. 

This year, the D-IV tournament seeding was announced on February 12, 2012.  As opposed to NCAA Selection Sunday, the tournament is selected prior to the regular season, so a late stumble does not impact the seeding. 

The table below shows one half of the NW Ohio playoff Bracket, with particular attention paid to MV’s bracket and the top half of the TAAC. 

MV’s Section includes six TAAC teams, MV, Gibsonburg, TC, OH, Cardinal Stritch and Northwood plus Fremont St. Joe’s from the Midland Athletic League.  Intertwined with this group is the Fostoria Section, mostly composed of teams from the MAL. 

The winner of this district plays in Bowling Green against the Findlay Liberty-Benton champion.  The Findlay District includes several tough teams from Hardin and Paulding counties pulled principally from the MAL, the Blanchard Valley Conference and the Northwest Conference.  It must have been a very difficult process to choose among the top seeds for Findlay - Vanlue, Columbus Grove, Arlington, Leipsig and Ada. 

Your HawkBlogger agrees with most observers that this half of the BG draw is loaded – much more so than tomorrow’s other side.

You may draw your own conclusions from the chart below, but the winner of the Bowling Green Region will certainly have earned the title Regional Champion.

Tomorrow, the preview will continue with the other side of the bracket, which includes teams from the far east and west of Northwest Ohio.

Click on the grid below for a larger view.