Vinton County (19-4) vs Unioto (23-1) - district semi-final

[danicalifornia]

Changed my mind, I'm going to post about that.

49-3 over the past 2 years shouldn't be acted like it's not a great achievement for Unioto. We have an outstanding coaching staff from the top down. He may be my friend, but Coach Easterday is a stud, looking at the posts about Kyle Miller and I truly believe that East would be getting that same attention if he went after an HC job. We were lucky for him to come back to Unioto. I'm proud to be a Unioto Sherman and I'm sure 99.9% of our insane crowd last night feels the same way. CC practiced all week and was ready to play, I was thrilled to see him back on the floor last night.

Coach Combs does an outstanding job and if we were going to have our season ended, at least it was against a Unioto grad who does an amazing job every year. I hope the Vikings keep rolling. They had great support and play their tails off.

[Kennyk]

Changed my mind, I'm going to post about that.

49-3 over the past 2 years shouldn't be acted like it's not a great achievement for Unioto. We have an outstanding coaching staff from the top down. He may be my friend, but Coach Easterday is a stud, looking at the posts about Kyle Miller and I truly believe that East would be getting that same attention if he went after an HC job. We were lucky for him to come back to Unioto. I'm proud to be a Unioto Sherman and I'm sure 99.9% of our insane crowd last night feels the same way. CC practiced all week and was ready to play, I was thrilled to see him back on the floor last night.

Coach Combs does an outstanding job and if we were going to have our season ended, at least it was against a Unioto grad who does an amazing job every year. I hope the Vikings keep rolling. They had great support and play their tails off.

Unioto is a class program with a class coaching staff!! Great game last night between two of the best in the area. We all hate to see our teams lose, but bashing a staff that has that type of resume is sad on the one who posted!! I don't know them, but you all do. Glad to see CC back in the court after what happened. Didn't seem to have the confidence I seen in him last year. But who would, after what he just came through. Hope they change to a super sectional next year!! We had too many good teams going home too early this year!!

Go Vikings!! District championship next Friday!!

[CavalierAlum05]

Cole Cottrill should not have played.
Let me rephrase that. He should not have played the minutes he did.

[HoopsGenius]

This was a great game. Congrats to the Vikings!

[vctransplant]

Usually teams don't play their best when they lose. Almost always part of it.

Well we must be one of the best! Think we proved it last night. And yes trace beat us but the lost last night! Teams get better down the stretch when there season is on the line. We didn't shoot very well as a team last night but found a way to get that W! I hope people keep underestimating us. Let the haters keep hating!

[vctransplant]

Unioto by double digits. With the bigs out for VC I don't see anyway they can beat them. Hosley will have no issues in the middle. Hope its a good one anyway but that's how I see it.

HaHa! Great prediction buddy!

[vctransplant]

VC will have to have a hot night shooting to come out with the win.

4-17 from three point land! Not a hot night. Found a way to win!

[vctransplant]

I'm embarrassed to be a Unioto fan right now. We were all just witness to the slowest death of state championship caliber team in the history of sports. After the closing run by VC to cap off the 3rd quarter, you could see the life being sucked out of Unioto. Turnover after turnover. Offensive rhythm still somewhere in Chillicothe and unable to attend tonight's contest. Unadjusted defensive sets. A mirror image to the Walnut Ridgr loss last season. Unioto has THE best off season program in the SEOP area. Last season they didn't have to do much to run the table besides show up. When this years team actually needed to be pulled aside, looked at, and reevaluated, it was nowhere to be found. Yeah, they went 23-2, but they didn't really beat anybody in their close games. They snuck away a couple times and got by. Never scoring more than 50 in the tournament for a team that averages close to 70 PPG. Matt Hoops is fantastic. His players play for him. I just with his staff would do something productive for him.

Let me be clear. I wanted to see Cole Cottrill play just as much as anybody, but at what cost? The offense was totally out of rhythm and it was immediately clear that they weren't scoring well with him on the court because they had become accustomed to playing without him. Yet, the bench staff behind Hoops felt it was necessary to not transition him into game speed, BUT PLAY HIM FULL MINUTES. He simply wasn't ready to go and nobody caught on.

Unioto, internally, beat themselves tonight. Huge huge huge congrats to Coach Combs and his kids for their work and their effort tonight. Sometimes you don't have to be better to win, you just have to make the right calls at the right time.

Back to back slow bleeding deaths to unioto's basketball seasons. Something I hope never happens again.

So you are saying we were not better! That kind of kills that fake congratulations, and shows how arrogant you are! It wasn't that our kids played hard the whole game. And that at every position on the floor we were shorter. Or that Combs had a great game plan. It couldn't have been that we were the better team..... It was THE "u" beat themselves. Love your arrogance. Very typical! Enjoy your off season Mr. Winningaintcheap!

[vctransplant]

I'm embarrassed to be a Unioto fan right now. We were all just witness to the slowest death of state championship caliber team in the history of sports. After the closing run by VC to cap off the 3rd quarter, you could see the life being sucked out of Unioto. Turnover after turnover. Offensive rhythm still somewhere in Chillicothe and unable to attend tonight's contest. Unadjusted defensive sets. A mirror image to the Walnut Ridgr loss last season. Unioto has THE best off season program in the SEOP area. Last season they didn't have to do much to run the table besides show up. When this years team actually needed to be pulled aside, looked at, and reevaluated, it was nowhere to be found. Yeah, they went 23-2, but they didn't really beat anybody in their close games. They snuck away a couple times and got by. Never scoring more than 50 in the tournament for a team that averages close to 70 PPG. Matt Hoops is fantastic. His players play for him. I just with his staff would do something productive for him.

Let me be clear. I wanted to see Cole Cottrill play just as much as anybody, but at what cost? The offense was totally out of rhythm and it was immediately clear that they weren't scoring well with him on the court because they had become accustomed to playing without him. Yet, the bench staff behind Hoops felt it was necessary to not transition him into game speed, BUT PLAY HIM FULL MINUTES. He simply wasn't ready to go and nobody caught on.

Unioto, internally, beat themselves tonight. Huge huge huge congrats to Coach Combs and his kids for their work and their effort tonight. Sometimes you don't have to be better to win, you just have to make the right calls at the right time.

Back to back slow bleeding deaths to unioto's basketball seasons. Something I hope never happens again.

Unioto is a very solid basketball team, but to call them state championship caliber, especially after the injury to Cottrill, is a massive stretch.

HaHa! Agreed! Chillicothe makes their free throws and the U doesn't get to the Convo.

[vctransplant]

So it was the Unioto assistant coaches' fault?

Has to be someone other than the teams! Arrogance has to have someone to blame!

[vctransplant]

Changed my mind, I'm going to post about that.

49-3 over the past 2 years shouldn't be acted like it's not a great achievement for Unioto. We have an outstanding coaching staff from the top down. He may be my friend, but Coach Easterday is a stud, looking at the posts about Kyle Miller and I truly believe that East would be getting that same attention if he went after an HC job. We were lucky for him to come back to Unioto. I'm proud to be a Unioto Sherman and I'm sure 99.9% of our insane crowd last night feels the same way. CC practiced all week and was ready to play, I was thrilled to see him back on the floor last night.

Coach Combs does an outstanding job and if we were going to have our season ended, at least it was against a Unioto grad who does an amazing job every year. I hope the Vikings keep rolling. They had great support and play their tails off.

Well said Dani. Also love the fact you made sure to let everyone know where coach graduated from! Lol!

[danicalifornia]

We are extremely proud of what Coach Combs has done at Vinton County. He is a perfect fit for the Vikings and his teams reflect that. Like I said about Coach Hoops in the coaching topic fits with Combs as well, has things set up and organized in a great way starting from the beginning of the program on up and things will continue to be positive for the Vikings for as long as Coach Combs is there.

[danicalifornia]

The Shermans will be alright. The past 5 seasons have been a treat and the next few should be as well. Sure, it's a disappointing end to the season, but there's a ton more positives to the season than negatives.

It might sound lame, but the highlight of the entire season for me was seeing CC back out on the court last night. That was all I wanted for the tournament run was to see him get the chance to play again, even if it wasn't the player we were used to. He did a good job defensively, just you could tell he was a little hesitant on the offensive end (but that escape at mid court was nasty). Say what you will about him playing too many minutes, but the Shermans scored exactly 1 point more in the sectional final than they did last night...the offense had struggled the last 3 weeks of the season and last night was a continuation.

Why did the offense struggle last night? Constant pressure from VC, 3/4 fronting the post, and beautiful helpside defense were all factors. Give the Vikings credit, they were a major cause in the Shermans downfall. They caught a wave of momentum and rode it into the District Finals, where I think they'll have a heck of a chance to advance.

I'm extremely proud to be a Unioto Sherman fan still today, 69-7 over the past 3 seasons. We will miss CC, Sawyer, Bubba, and Erique a ton, they have helped build the program into what it is today and had a lot of fun doing it. Their effort, heart, attitudes, and smiles brought in a ton of fans that will stick around for quite a while to watch the next wave, Bird, Dog, Swack, Kennedy, Hill, and Fisher, along with a good JV group, they should be pushing towards a return to the Convo next year as well. I wish we could just fast forward to November now, but the other SE teams have to go have their fun too. I'm going to log off for a bit, but I'll be rooting for the Vikings the rest of the way.

[vctransplant]

You should be proud and we are glad to have him! I guess it was a win win situation last night for Unioto fans. I hope every Unioto fan who was there last night comes out and supports us like they supported their ball team last night, because our team is led by a graduate of Unioto! The Convo would be rocking, and our kids will feed off it.

[vctransplant]

It was cool to see him in warm ups last week to Dani! Watched him in our scrimmage earlier this year! Kids a beast!

[pfloyd]

I'm embarrassed to be a Unioto fan right now. We were all just witness to ...

... seriously ??????? 49-3 in the last 2 years and YOU are embarrassed to be a Unioto fan ???? I'm proud to have been an Unofficial Sherman fan for the last 2 years ...not only for the "product" that was on the court every night BUT as a fan of "quality programs" in Southern/Southeastern Ohio ... Coach Hoops AND his ENTIRE staff are outstanding ! NO ONE has this kind of success (49-3) in a quality league as the SVC vs quality opponents without having coaches/program/ a system that works ... I have been allowed by Coach Hoops to share some of the off court "extracurriculars" that he/his family does with HIS program - the entire program is a "family" - the kids on the TEAM grow as young men because of the wholistic organization of the program ... embarrassed ?!!! ... because the TEAM didn't play as well as they have shown they can in the past ? because the opponent (VC) did exactly what THEY needed to exploit - even before the CC injury - what imo WAS a weakness or an area that was not a strong suit for UHS ... as an opponent when putting together a defensive strategy one tries to limit the strengths/exploit a weak area - I had in the past texted Coach Hoops and said "I would like to see UHS go up against a team which applies on ball pressure - I thought that THAT was an area to attack" prior to last nights game I told daniC that UHS was a team that you could force the ball into other players hands and make others -those not used to making decisions with the ball - make decisions/make the passes ... I thought VC did this as well as anyone this season - with the decided advantage in the paint UHS forced passes into the post trying to take advantage of their BIGS , many of which resulted in turnovers ... bottomline is that MUCH of last nights UHS performance on the courts was due to Vinton County ... the Vikings - when they had ALL 3 BIGS - Wood/McIntire /Caudell paired with Jones/Albright/Yates and Tristan Bartoe directing the "orchestra" the Vikings were the 2nd MOST COMPLETE TEAM right behind Unioto in SEOhio ... this is the "one & done" season ... a team as good as Unioto WILL lose and did IF they have 17 TOs vs a team as good as Vinton County ... Unioto players/coaches/fans have NOTHING to be embarrassed about !

... as I said , I spoke with daniC prior to the game - he told me that Cole Cottrill had been cleared to play ... I got chills thinking that this young man whose senior season was cut short by an injury was getting the chance "to play one more time , one more game" WITH his TEAM ... the players who played "not to lose" in the post season - an added stress - THEY were playing each game to win not just to advance in the tournament - this TEAM played to win so they could get that one more game ... one more week so their "heart & soul" Cole Cottrill could get out on the court with THEM ! with TEAM ... I was smiling from the time daniC told me to the end of the game ... embarrassed as a Unioto fan !!!???? - this scenario of a group of kids, putting it on their shoulders to come together as a group to not only extend the season so CC could get back ... they learned that having played together as a TEAM , winning as a TEAM, meant MORE than just "playing a game" - they were "playing a game(s)" to give a teammate what HE wanted more than anything - to be out on a court again WITH THEM, win or lose it would be WITH THEM ... learning that there is more to life than "a game" ... working so hard for someone else's dream that of being WITH THEM ... embarrassed ???!!! every Unioto fan , EVERY fan of high school basketball should WISH that their own kids could play for a program for a group of coaches who instill such traits in their kids ...

[Falcon01]

Usually teams don't play their best when they lose. Almost always part of it.

Well we must be one of the best! Think we proved it last night. And yes trace beat us but the lost last night! Teams get better down the stretch when there season is on the line. We didn't shoot very well as a team last night but found a way to get that W! I hope people keep underestimating us. Let the haters keep hating!

Are you mark dantonio? Pretty much everyone is picking you to win the district title and still playing that underdog, everyone hates us card.

I was never hating on VC.. just calling out a post that didn't make sense.

[vctransplant]

Usually teams don't play their best when they lose. Almost always part of it.

Well we must be one of the best! Think we proved it last night. And yes trace beat us but the lost last night! Teams get better down the stretch when there season is on the line. We didn't shoot very well as a team last night but found a way to get that W! I hope people keep underestimating us. Let the haters keep hating!

Are you mark dantonio? Pretty much everyone is picking you to win the district title and still playing that underdog, everyone hates us card.

I was never hating on VC.. just calling out a post that didn't make sense.

C'mon man! You was hating! And no one picked us to beat THE "u"! So I'm not playing any card I'm telling the truth! I'm no Mark D. But I think you got a little Captain Obvious in ya. What was your post? Usually teams don't play their best when they lose. Way to state the obvious. HaHa

[Falcon01]

Yeah... that was easy sarcasm.. sorta like when the dude from espn said Stanford lost because they didn't play Stanford football. Point being, nobody was wrong to point out MT had just beaten Vc, because they had. Regadress of how teams improved.


Fortunately we get to see who's the best in the district this Friday. Unfortunately whoever it is will then get hammered by John Glenn.

[vctransplant]

Yeah... that was easy sarcasm.. sorta like when the dude from espn said Stanford lost because they didn't play Stanford football. Point being, nobody was wrong to point out MT had just beaten Vc, because they had. Regadress of how teams improved.


Fortunately we get to see who's the best in the district this Friday. Unfortunately whoever it is will then get hammered by John Glenn.

HaHa! Sarcasm.....Hating...tomato....tomoto...Call it what you will. I do agree that whoever wins will be the underdog against JG. Look forward to a great game Friday.