Saturday's drawings for the upcoming Class B cage carnival couldn't have turned out better if they had been staged. The way the teams are positioned in the brackets almost guarantees that four of the top five will be in the semi-finals. This statement can be knocked flatter than a pancake if one of the lightly regarded teams comes up with an upset. Therefore, it must be tempered with a conditioning agent in the form of the age-old cliche, "barring unforseen circumstances." Upsets are nothing novel in tournament play. Seems as though the festive air usually present at the tournaments acts as a tonic for the underdog, with the fans jumping on the bandwagon and spurring the "down-and-outers" to the heights of glory.*
Let's glance at the lineup for this year's county festival. Tuscarawas and Strasburg, the two leading teams in the league standings at the present time, were seeded into opposite brackets. Baltic, Sugarcreek-Shanesville and Port Washington have been positioned in brackets so that they will add a little more impetus to the tourney as it goes along. Here is where the rub comes in. The lightly regarded teams have always come through with an upset or two and knocked the race into a wide-open affair. While Port Washington and Sugarcreek-Shanesville don't appear to be favorites on the surface, these two teams could blow things sky high. Either is capable of knocking off any one of the top three teams if conditions are right. The gremlins and eluges who work overtime during the tournaments could give them a boost. It's happened before.
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As a prime example of what a stimulant the tournament tonic can be, let's glance at last year's Gnadenhutten team. Coach Fritz Jacob's team won two league games all season. The Tribe thumped Mineral City and edged past Dundee, two teams which were lower in the standings. Tuscarawas had lost but two league games. One to Baltic and the other to the undefeated league champion Strasburg Tigers. Gnaden had managed to defeat the Broncos 52-50 in the second game of the season, but Tusky had drubbed the Indians 70-54 in the return match which went into the records as a league tussle. These two teams met in the second round of the county tournament. What happened is in the records as an upset. The Indians went on the war path and broke the Broncos with an exhibition of championship basketball. It wasn't a last-second victory, but a well-played, well-deserved win.
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Next on the list was Stone Creek. The Panthers had kayoed Strasburg in the first game they played and were considered pretty much of a favorite to claw the Indians and wing into the finals where they would defend their 1952 crown. Stone Creek had defeated Gnaden twice during the regular season and it appeared that the Indians had coralled all their fourleaf clovers in the first victory. Fate stepped in again and Gnaden won. This one was another convincing victory as the Panthers couldn't quite seem to find the spark. A team that was beaten 69-55 and 73-60 reversed the charts and claimed a 60-53 decision. The Indians lost to Midvale in the finals 76-62 and then dropped a 75-59 verdict to Strasburg in the first round of sectional play, but they had their own moments on the pedestal. They clipped two of the teams that weren't figured to bow to them. It's all there in the records and there might be another team which will come up again this year.
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LINERS...Just in case there are some fans who make a study of coincidence, here are a few in connection with the Class B meet...Gnaden holds down the very same spot it held last year. That's the seventh position in the bracket and a bye until the third night of the tourney...Bolivar also holds the same position as last year and the team that defeated the Cardinals (that was Midvale) went on to win the tourney. Baltic is in the bracket occupied by Midvale last year...Coach Bray Toot of Port Washington was remarking about the fact that in the last seven years he's been at the helm of the Purple Riders, he has drawn into the same division as the champion. In the lower bracket with Port Washington this year is Gnaden, Midvale, Strasburg, and Mineral City.
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Strasburg's undefeated basketball team was saluted on the Dave Garroway television show this morning. The program is on a nationwide hookup on Channel 4, NBC. The picture of the squad was flashed on the screen during the news broadcast on Garroway's show and the names of Coaches Don Martin and Bob Haas were mentioned as the Tigers were congratulated for their record. The picture and information was sent in to the Garroway show by a Strasburg fan.
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Tuesday, February 9, 1954
Art Cicconetti
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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