I hope Warsaw Lady Tiger basketball fans are not disappointed in the 1-2 start as the team travels to the Region today to play two games in the Duneland-Northern Lakes shootout. Those opponents are tough even during seasons when Crown Point (4-1) and Merrillville (2-0) aren’t among the top-ranked teams in the polls.
Be of good cheer.
Your Warsaw girls’ hoopsters are starting the first half of their season with a schedule comprised mostly of teams who are compelling to watch.
The girls’ basketball season will afford orange and black fans an exciting slate of non-conference opponents who are worth more than the price of admission.
Penn (November 21) and Columbia City (December 12) are the two strongest upcoming home opponents who will clash with the Lady Tigers, who only host three home games between today and the New Year holiday.
Road games against Westfield, and a holiday tournament in Brownsburg in lieu of decades of hosting a holiday tournament in the Lake City, will be great tests for the Warsaw girls’ cagers. The tourney in Center Grove features the fourth-ranked hosts, and solid squads, Brownsburg, and Jeffersonville.
Warsaw rings in the New Year with a January 6 clash with its most talented conference opponent – head and shoulders above the rest of Warsaw’s opponents in the NCL field – Northridge.
There are four opponents whom the Lady Tigers will likely dominate in November and December if they can play opportunistic defense and transition basketball like they did against Fort Wayne North. Otherwise, the remainder of 2023, and the aforementioned Northridge game, afford Lady Tiger fans some of the best basketball opposition they’ll get to see this season.
You’ll see the ups and downs - hopefully only a few downs - of the 2023 side of the Lady Tigers’ slate pay off wonderfully in January.
Frankly, Northridge is the only conference foe who has a team capable of giving Warsaw anything close to a fit unless the Lady Tigers stoop to the levels among the rest of the league’s competition.
Warsaw’s squad still must play its best basketball, and stay healthy, though, among the rest of the field whose teams probably have their homecourt announcers calling more substitutions and fouls than the number of baskets made.
Fans will be treated to a visit from the Homestead Spartans squad, already off to a strong start, Tuesday January 16, an exciting break from the orange and black’s run through the conference gauntlet.
Warsaw’s girls’ hoopsters can use January to sharpen all their tools in time for the rigors of their sectional where each opponent, except for Elkhart, are also part of the Lady Tigers’ regular season schedule.
So, you’re 1-2 so far? Be of good cheer.
Next week, in the meantime, Indiana high school football fans all over the state are likely waking up today evaluating the accuracy of their picks among the six football enrollment classes as it relates to who comprises the final 12 teams facing off this coming holiday weekend for a state title.
While the matches on the gridiron are exciting fans throughout the state, I’ll be even more excited to take a look, in next Saturday’s column, to see if any of the title clashes will affect a few teams’ movement up and down from their current classes due to the IHSAA tournament success factor (TSF).
Even Warsaw’s 2024 season football enrollment class assignment might be affected by Class 5A state title results further affected by some other 5A schools already eliminated from the postseason run who are showing signs of growing enrollment trends.
I’ll have plenty of other thoughts, too. Until then, have a wonderful weekend.