TERRE HAUTE —
Let’s talk high school basketball.
Indiana boys teams are in the final week of the regular season while postseason play began Monday night for Illinois boys teams.
And eight Indiana girls teams are set for Final Four Semistate action.
In Illinois, Casey-Westfield is the host school for a 2A regional, where four of the six teams have winning records.
Marshall and Robinson are the top two seeded teams in the event and split decisions while Casey had a fine season against top competition and Georgetown-Ridge Farm won more than 20 games.
Paris met Georgetown-Ridge Farm in the first game on Monday and Casey met Cumberland in the nightcap.
Marshall faces the winner of the first game tonight and Robinson takes on the Casey-Cumberland winner on Wednesday. Championship action is set for Friday.
Two 1A regionals will be played at Chrisman and Hutsonville, with the Hutsonville-Palestine team seeded No. 1 in its own regional and Little Illini Conference rival Oblong No. 2. The Tigers defeated Oblong 47-40 in their final games last week.
The Tigers took Marshall into overtime earlier in the month as the Lions finished with a five-game winning streak and coach Tom Brannan won his 400th game — done in 20 years — in the process.
Robinson finished even stronger, being victorious in all but one of its games since Christmas, mostly against Apollo Conference rivals in its final season in the league.
Arcola and Tri-County are the top seeds at Chrisman but Martinsville, which won 11 games for the first time since 2007, could have something to say about the outcome.
Riverton Parke is one of the Indiana girls teams involved in semistate action and will face Class A’s top-ranked Fort Wayne Canterbury.
My [Northeast] Dubois Jeeps won the West Washington Regional, beating Tecumseh and Borden after Borden took out unbeaten Barr-Reeve. The Jeeps will face Southwestern, which beat Clay City for its regional championship.
It would be nice to see the Panthers and Jeeps in Terre Haute next week.
Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference teams still alive in the girls tournament are Ben Davis and North Central; they have a chance to meet in the state finals.
• Tom-Cattin’ It — Missouri Valley Conference teams finished 4-6 in Bracketbuster games. Wichita State had the biggest win at Davidson, shooting 70 percent in the second half, and Creighton rallied to beat a good Long Beach State team.
Evansville and Illinois State were the other Valley winners.
• The Marshall junior varsity finished the season with a 13-1 record. Chris Kessler is the coach.
• Martinsville defeated Whiteland in boys basketball to claim the Mid-State Conference title. It was the Artesians’ first game with Jerry Sichting on the sidelines as coach.
• Chad Dockery is the new football coach at Mooresville. The Evansville native has been coaching in North Carolina.
• Lebanon won a girls sectional but lost in the regional, with former assistant Penny Spolyar coaching the team after coach Dave Ferrell and assistant Troy Terrill resigned during the sectional.
• Yogi Ferrell of Park Tudor and Gary Harris of Hamilton Southeastern have been chosen to play in the McDonald’s all-star basketball games.
• No Indiana teams were in the top 25 of the USA Today prep cage polls last week. Hamilton Southeastern was seventh in the boys Midwest Region and the Hamilton Southeastern girls — beaten by North Central in the sectional — were 10th in the Midwest Region.
• Chad Collins continues to have tough luck on the PGA Tour in early events. He missed the cut by two shots last week.
Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by email at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.
Ramblin' Reck
RAMBLIN' RECK: No guaranteed wins in difficult Class 2A Casey regional
- Ramblin' Reck
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Castroneves a safe bet at Indy 500
The field is full for the Indianapolis 500 and the race should be another good one.
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RAMBLIN’ RECK: A good week to be a Sycamore
This week is a big one for sports fans and is off to a good start, particularly for Indiana State fans.
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RAMBLIN’ RECK: Clauson, 22, to make rare jump from USAC to Indy 500
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RAMBLIN’ RECK: May means it’s time for some thoroughbred horse racing
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RAMBLIN’ RECK: Following the changing Illinois coaching scene
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Golf battle at Rea Park
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Here’s to hoping for more Hoosier magic
Another NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship is history and fans already are talking about next season.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Retiring Casey football coaches Sinclair, Vidoni will be missed
An era ended in Casey last week when Keith Sinclair and Gene Vidoni announced they are retiring as football coaches at Casey-Westfield High School.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: NCAA Final Four down to UK & everyone else
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RAMBLIN' RECK: One man’s vote for public schools in the IHSAA tournament
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Terre Haute great to be inducted into college Hall of Fame
One of Terre Haute’s all-time greats will be honored again later in the year when Clyde Lovellette will be inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Big Ten tourney wide open
Selection Sunday is coming and action in some of the conference basketball tournaments could play big roles in determining the field for the NCAA’s Big Dance.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Big week for preps, ISU, Rose-Hulman
Monday began one of the biggest weeks ever in basketball in the Wabash Valley or at least one of the biggest.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: No guaranteed wins in difficult Class 2A Casey regional
Let’s talk high school basketball.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Assessing the NCAA tournament jumble
The college men’s basketball schedule is in its final month with Selection Sunday less than four weeks away.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: And now, on to the next beloved winter sport
The final football game finally has been played, meaning folks in the Valley can concentrate on basketball this week.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Indianapolis is looking mighty good this week
It’s Super Bowl XLVI week … in Indiana for the first time.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Fox gives TH punter kudos
The stage is set. It’ll be the New York Giants against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl that will be played for the first time in Indianapolis.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Big Ten shaken up last week
It was a very interesting week in men’s college basketball, especially in the Big Ten.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: A fresh round of predictions as the NFL dwindles to 8
More National Foootball League playoff games are slated this weekend, with the number of postseason teams down to eight following an interesting weekend of wild-card action.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Hile inducted into Hall
Indiana State grad Amy Lynn Hile will take her place in another Hall of Fame this year.
Inducted into the ISU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005, the former Sycamore standout has been named as one of the 2011 inductees into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: It’s time now for some intraleague hoops rivalries
It’s the final week of 2011 but it is the first week of conference basketball games for most colleges, particularly those in Indiana and Illinois.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: A long distance relationship
Indiana State’s trip out West to play basketball at Boise State brought back memories of one of the trips I made to that city.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Indiana Mr. Football still has big decision to make
Some awards in high school and college football were announced last week.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: No dearth of good basketball
Based on early games, the college basketball season is going to be very interesting for coaches, players and fans, particularly in the Big Ten and Missouri Valley.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Big Ten-ACC challenge gets under way tonight
Conference championship football games and challenge action in basketball will make for a busy week for college teams.
Wisconsin and Michigan State will meet in the very first Big Ten football championship Saturday at Indianapolis. Kickoff is 8 p.m. and the action will be carried by Fox.
Michigan State nipped the Badgers in the regular-season contest at East Lansing. We like Wisconsin to win and earn a trip to the Rose Bowl.
Other games and picks:
SEC — LSU over Georgia on Saturday
Mid-American — Northern Illinois over Ohio U. on Friday
Pac-12 — Oregon over UCLA on Friday
ACC — Virginia Tech over Clemson on Saturday
Conference USA — Houston over Southern Mississippi on Saturday
Western Kentucky will not play for a championship but the Hilltoppers won seven of their last eight games to finish with a winning mark. That’s the same team that lost to Indiana State, you will recall.
Meanwhile, the hiring and firing already has begun with Urban Meyer coming out of retirement to accept the job at Ohio State. That was a no-brainer.
Illinois is bowl-eligible but Ron Zook is out. Ditto for Turner Gill at Kansas and apparently Dennis Erickson at Arizona State.
In basketball, the first games in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge will be played tonight. The biggie tonight is Duke at Ohio State. Miami of Florida is at Purdue and Illinois plays at Maryland.
On Wednesday, Indiana is at North Carolina State, Wisconsin is at North Carolina and Michigan State goes to Florida State.
Indiana State is at Boise State on Saturday for a Missouri Valley-Mountain West Challenge game,
It was fun and gratifying to be able to watch the Sycamores on national television as they took third in the Old Spice Classic. The team got tons of favorable publicity and comments from the three games.
And what a game for Jake Odum and his triple-double. Wow.
I I I
n White honored — Taylor White of Casey has earned academic all-state honors in Illlinois football.
White was one of the top players at linebacker and fullback and was one of the captains on the team but did not play as the Warriors lost to Morrison in the Class 2A title tilt.
He was sidelined by injury in the game against Marshall and underwent surgery.
The Warriors gave Morrison all it wanted in the final game, concluding another banner season for coach Keith Sinclair and the team.
Nice work, Warriors.
I I I
n Tom-Cattin’ It — Carmel was the only public school to win a prep football championship in Indiana and was impressive in its 54-0 victory over Penn in the 5A finale.
Other winners — all private schools — were Lafayette Central Catholic in A, Fort Wayne Luers in 2A, Indianapolis Chatard in 3A, and Indianapolis Cathedral in 4A.
n Sullivan puts its undefeated girls basketball record on the line tonight at West Vigo. Its victory over Terre Haute South last week was its first over the Braves since 1992.
n Terre Haute North grad Steve Weatherford, now punting for the New York Giants, was featured in a nice story in The New York Times on Monday.
He was singled out for his conditioning program and called the strongest player pound for pound — at 210 pounds — on the team that met the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football.
n Jim Rathman died last week at 83.
He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1960, edging Rodger Ward in a race in which there were a record 29 lead changes.
Rathman also was runner-up in the race in 1952, 1957 and 1959.
n Flora has been tabbed by one newspaper as the preseason pick to win the Little Illini Conference boys basketball championship and to make it to the Final Four.
The Wolves play Marshall, off to a 3-1 start, next week.
Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by email at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802. -
RAMBLIN' RECK: Sinclair: ‘Never underestimate the heart of a Warrior’
Casey’s high school football team will have one more week of practice, including a workout early Thanksgiving Day, but the players don’t mind it.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: MVC’s quick start brings hope
Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball teams and others are off to a good start.
Valley teams were 9-2 in games played through Sunday. Two teams picked up some very nice victories.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: ISU’s ranking solid heading into basketball season
The college football season still has a few weeks to run for most teams, but the basketball season starts for real for a lot of teams this week; a few still have some exhibition contests left on the schedule.
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RAMBLIN' RECK: Terre Haute native had memorable career at Red Hill
When Red Hill played its final football game of the season last month in Illinois, it marked the end of an era for a friend of mine and for the high school.
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