Blizzard can't stop a thought storm

Thursday, December 5, 2013

The expected blizzard that forced local high schools to cancel all their events on Thursday has inspired my latest exaggerated and potentially ridiculous analogy.

I had planned to write a preview for the boys' county basketball tournament on Friday, but with the potential of a postponement there, here is my blizzard of thoughts. Hopefully it leads to less damage* than a real blizzard.

(*Don't read the Banner Graphic and drive.)

- My mustache bet backfired extremely quickly. To review, I had hoped to liven up the sports section with more ridiculous wagers.

This began with a challenge to the area basketball teams: If someone scores 22 points in a game and their team wins, I will shave my cheeks and chin and go to the county hoops tournament with a mustache.

The boys' teams have played seven combined games and accomplished this easier-than-expected feat five times. Is it too late to back out?

- Are the county boys' teams maybe kinda sorta really good? They're 6-1 so far, which is a small sample size but it speaks volumes.

Last year, which was admittedly not good, the four county schools combined to win 19 non-county games in 65 tries. Math tells me that's 1/3 of the way there in just 1/9 the games.

More than that, there's just a lot of really good players. I've only seen Greencastle and Cloverdale (twice) play so far, but both teams are loaded with unselfish, talented players that share the ball.

Cloverdale had a game the other day where they had 26 assists on 28 made field goals, which is insane.

North Putnam and South Putnam might very well have good players, too, but I haven't seen them yet*.

(*Shameless attempt to get coaches to send me game tapes.)

- The DePauw women are so good again. Not last season good, but still incredible to watch, ranked No. 1 and just beat No. 2 Washington University on Sunday. Everyone on the team can shoot and score and they're almost unselfish to their own detriment.

Junior Savannah Trees is probably the best shot-maker in DIII but she's still figuring out how to play point guard for the Tigers so she's been picking her spots to score.

Their stud transfer, junior Hannah Douglas, was a two-year starter at Butler and clearly has the talent to be extremely successful for DPU, but she's barely gotten going. When she catches the ball you can almost see her thinking, trying to figure out if she should shoot or pass, as if she's trying to fit in more than score.

She's a great teammate, I've heard, and immediately embraced what the Tigers do on and off the court. She'll make them better when she relaxes and plays.

Defensively, they're not quite ready to compete for a national championship this year. They've struggled defending the post, mostly because they're undersized. They were undersized last season, too, but they had athletes and experience and depth that hasn't been the same so far this year.

- The DePauw men have no such problems on defense. They play 11 or 12 guys without losing anything and have depth and versatility at every position. They're ranked No. 24, which might be too low considering they already beat then-No. 6 North Central and had a late lead over No. 4 Wash. U last weekend.

They've been banged up a bit, and their offensive execution on Wednesday was described by coach Bill Fenlon as "between terrible and horrible.*" Still, they play at No. 3 Wooster this weekend and a win would probably bump the Tigers into the top 15-20 in the national rankings.

(*As an aside, I learned that horrible is one full magnitude worse than terrible, information that will no doubt be extremely useful to me some day down the road.)

- The girls' high school teams have been ... not as good as the boys. Greencastle had a great win over Tri-West this week and they're starting to play closer to their own expectations.

Cloverdale, which I've watched a lot in the past few weeks, is really good when it plays aggressive and really struggles when it sits back. The close game with Greencastle in the county championship wasn't a fluke and it wasn't the Clovers' peak.

North Putnam and South Putnam both have talented rosters that have struggled to figure out how good they are. The Eagles are working with a new system and fighting to trust themselves, but they've got athletes, passers and enough shooting to start winning games when they get in a flow.

The Cougars have yet to play a game where everyone plays well at the same time but everyone has had games or stretches that hint at their high ceiling. Senior Bethany Wiatt had a triple-double the other day. That doesn't happen in high school.

- No new nicknames for the winter season (yet), but last year's basketball nicknames have been working so far. Northern Lights Nauert helped his team win its opener last week and Sling Coble put up 32 in the Tiger Cubs' first game, draining 6-of-9 3s.

Left-Open Collett has yet to play for the Clovers because of a wrist injury, which makes their hot start even more impressive.

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