42 replies to this topic

[BathBaseball247]

With all the talent thats graduated from last year, what teams will be able to stay up and compete for the WBL title? Obviously O-G are the pre-season frontrunners. But will there be any suprise teams this season?

[dhsdawg06]

I think even without McAdams Elida will be decent. Mathias really impressed me when I saw them and the young guys got a lot of experience in the run to state.



Defiance will still be alright I think, probably more towards midpack. Jordan Tobias is back to give them a big body still, and Trey Guilliam and Katwan Singleton played some solid varsity minutes showing a lot of potential last year. The JV team was also good, although that's never a sure thing in predicting varsity success. It'll be almost impossible to replace that senior class or win 20 games again, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have a say in who wins the league, even if they aren't truly in contention themselves. 12-15 wins is possible I think.

Edited by dhsdawg06, 17 October 2012 - 03:43 PM.

[Dakota Green]

Its early to predict, however O-G basically has everyone back from their state team; all five starter plus some reserves that played pivotal parts in their tournament run. Van Wert always is tough and they will get stronger as the year progresses. Celina will be decent and of course there is Elida. The bulldogs lost McAdams but return Aric Thompson and a few other letterman who names escape me. The bottom feeders will be Shawnee, Kenton, both with new coaches and possibly St. Marys although they have their starting point guard a four year letterman but not much else. Wapakoneta, Defiance, and Bath will be in the middle of the field at least in my eyes. To me its O-G title to lose this year, they are really gonna be strong.

[Big_Blue]

One thing (or two) that might play a role in OG's WBL title hopes is how far the football and/or soccer teams advance in their tournaments. Nearly all of the key basketball players play on either the soccer team (Metzger, Rosebrock, Kaufman, Beckman) or football team (Siefker, Leopold, and even Bramlage). If either or both of these teams make deep tourney runs, the basketball team could get off to a late start. And even then, they might not be firing on all cylinders for the early league games.

[RealitySpeaks]

With Lehman's ability to waste talent and coach toward mediocrity rather than success, you can bet this will be an average year at best for Defiance. Despite the spectacular talent and chemistry the Defiance teams could have had the past few years, Lehman worked hard to polarize and alienate his players against each other… and this year will be no different. Once again, he will succeed in making Defiance the also-ran team that we have gotten used to watching for the past many years.

Edited by RealitySpeaks, 18 October 2012 - 09:01 PM.

[Bullfrog]

You need to change your name to IgnoranceSpeaks. I should know better than to reply to your repeated attacks against Defiance and its programs. It's obvious to anyone on this site that you are an ignorant bitter small minded insignificant source of anything informative about sports. Quit embarrassing yourself and stop posting.

Edited by Bullfrog, 19 October 2012 - 02:08 PM.

[dhsdawg06]

Would we rather go back to 10 years when ago when going .500 was a success and basketball was a clear 3rd fiddle? Yeah, didn't think so.

[RealitySpeaks]

dhsdawg06, on 19 October 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

Would we rather go back to 10 years when ago when going .500 was a success and basketball was a clear 3rd fiddle? Yeah, didn't think so.

You don't need to go back 10 years, my friend. If you check the record I believe you will see that Lehman was under .500 until the 2009-2010 season. He's a really nice guy that just so happens is a below-average coach. It's as simple as that.

[RealitySpeaks]

Bullfrog, on 19 October 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

You need to change your name to IgnoranceSpeaks. I should know better than to reply to your repeated attacks against Defiance and its programs. It's obvious to anyone on this site that you are an ignorant bitter small minded insignificant source of anything informative about sports. Quit embarrassing yourself and stop posting.

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid! It won't change the reality, but you'll continue to feel good about yourself.

Edited by RealitySpeaks, 23 October 2012 - 10:06 PM.

[Exo4life]

Looking on the WBL website it shows Defiance to be 86-22 in the last five seasons. Looks like he has been pretty successful lately.

[Exo4life]

Also off of the Defiance website, in the Lehman era the bulldogs have been 118-80. That is good enough for a .595 winning percentage. And my above post shows in the past 5 seasons he has been really successful. I'm not even from Defiance and I would take those numbers in a heartbeat.

[dhsdawg06]

RealitySpeaks, on 22 October 2012 - 09:31 PM, said:

You don't need to go back 10 years, my friend. If you check the record I believe you will see that Lehman was under .500 until the 2009-2010 season. He's a really nice guy that just so happens is a below-average coach. It's as simple as that.

Still doesn't change the fact that this program has now had 5 straight winning seasons. The 13 before that? 1, with 2 11-11s. No one can tell me that we didn't have great athletes in those days either, considering the success of both the football and baseball teams. Somewhere along the line basketball changed from a clear 3rd(and maybe 4th or 5th) most important sport to kids to arguably 2nd. Maybe it was one really good class, but I tend to believe the coach had something to do with it. One class doesn't play for 5 years....

But we'll see. This year especially early will take his best coaching job if this team's going to contend. Come back at the end of the year and we'll see how he did. For now though, I'm letting this thread go back to WBL talk like it should instead of us cluttering it up with only Defiance.

[fortfan]

Nobody ever really picks Celina….but Coach Bihn always seems to have to guys playing well.Might not win the league-but will play an important part.

[BathBaseball247]

Guess I forgot about the Mathias kid from Elida, He's probably the pre-season player of the year. So Elida will be another decent team along with Bath, Wapak, Defiance and Van Wert.

[Dakota Green]

BathBaseball247, on 26 October 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

Guess I forgot about the Mathias kid from Elida, He's probably the pre-season player of the year. So Elida will be another decent team along with Bath, Wapak, Defiance and Van Wert.

Along with Michael Rosebrock from O-G.

[SteadyReady247]

O-G is the force to be reckoned with this season. I believe their are only two teams in the league that will be able to, maybe not pull the upset but simply give them a game. With all the shooters the Bath Wildcats have , theyll be a threat to anybody they play on any given day, so there's always a chance they come out on fire and knock off the top dog. Then there is Elida. Even with losing Mcadams, they still possess a vital weapon who I think actually has a higher ceiling then Mcadams, and that is Dakota Mathias. With his ability to create shots and score the ball along with perimeter shooters like the Thompson boy and others, itll be a hard offense to stop. Let's also not forget to mention Ebin Stratton who i viewed as the best defender in division two last year during that incredible tournament run. Locked up leading scorers across the state game in and game out.

[D.C. Boy]

Is everyone forgetting about Noah Bramlage up in OG the 6'5 PF that can play inside and out along with the ability to run the floor. Mathus from Elida has been in mcadams shadow for a while n he's definetly gna shine this year! As for Defiance Lehman needs to take a page or even a whole chapter from Paul Wayne's defensive book. N they will be fine if they can play D.

[OG_fan6]

Also I believe Jaylen Von Sosson will be a huge contributor to the Titan line-up. Seems like young Tom can stroke from anywhere behind the arch.

[mbramlage]

D.C. Boy, on 30 October 2012 - 01:24 AM, said:

Is everyone forgetting about Noah Bramlage up in OG the 6'5 PF that can play inside and out along with the ability to run the floor. Mathus from Elida has been in mcadams shadow for a while n he's definetly gna shine this year! As for Defiance Lehman needs to take a page or even a whole chapter from Paul Wayne's defensive book. N they will be fine if they can play D.

Noah Bramlage, OG's PF is actually 6'7" now...irrelevant but wanted to correct that. He has 2 full-ride offers so far from Miami (OH) and Wright State with many other schools highly interested.

[doslobos]

mbramlage, on 06 November 2012 - 02:19 PM, said:

Noah Bramlage, OG's PF is actually 6'7" now...irrelevant but wanted to correct that. He has 2 full-ride offers so far from Miami (OH) and Wright State with many other schools highly interested.

Are you his mom or dad? I'm guessing mom.