Winless Watch (Boys): Down to three; on to sectionals

The penultimate Winless Watch of the 2005-06 IHSAA boys basketball season finds the number of winless teams reduced by one; North White's Vikings removed themselves from the list by virtue of their 80-66 victory over Kokomo Christian on the last day of the regular season. This leaves Cannelton (pending the outcome of Friday night's game against Restoration Christian, which hasn't yet been reported to John Harrell), Howe Military and Cowan as the only winless teams in the state heading into sectional play.

Assuming - and it's a big assumption, I know, but make the leap if you can - our three WW teams fall in their first sectional games, that will bring to 20 the number of winless teams in the decade (calling the 2000-01 season the start of the decade). Where does this year's WW triumvirate stand in relation to its predecessors? Here, as WW sees it, are the 10 worst winless teams of the decade thus far, based solely on average margin of defeat:

10. (tie) 2003-04 Fountain Central, 2002-03 North White - (-27.0 ppg) - More on North White in a minute; Fountain Central, on the other hand, fell hard after its 16-6 season in 2002-03, having compiled a 6-56 record since. In the 03-04 season, the team went 0-21; that edition of the Mustangs was the school's nadir. While a 3-point defeat at the hands of Turkey Run was the high point of the season, other losses were by 56, 50, 49, 49 and 41. Believe it or not, that only garners them a tie for 10th on this list.

9. 2003-04 Lake Station (-27.1 ppg) - Save for a 3-point win against River Forest in the second game of the season, Lake Station would have been a WW member this year, but in 2003-04, they would have been full-on, dues-paying members of the list had it been in existence. That year, a 1-point loss to Westville was one of the Fighting Eagles' two single-digit defeats; the other was a 7-point defeat at the hands of LaCrosse. Eight of their defeats were by 30 or more points, including a 55-point shellacking by Hammond Noll in the sectional.

8. 2003-04 North White (-27.4 ppg) - It's not been North White's decade, really, having compiled a 7-118 record since the 2000-01 season, including three consecutive winless seasons (and very nearly four out of five if not for this weekend's victory). The 03-04 Vikings were the culmination of three consecutive 0-21 seasons. Three defeats in the single digits were offset by 11 defeats of 30 or more points, including a 63-16 defeat by Carroll (Flora) in the second game of the season, as well as consecutive defeats by 31, 48, 50, 36 and 34 to close out the season. The Vikings are the early leaders in the WW Overall Team of the Decade competition, but there's still time to turn it around (see #2, #3 below).

7. 2002-03 Shoals (-27.6 ppg) - WW's alma mater has never been a basketball powerhouse, appearing in a sectional championship (and losing) on average of maybe once a decade. Your humble correspondent witnessed the Jug Rox's season opener on this particular year, a 91-34 defeat at the hands of White River Valley; the game was not as close as the final score indicated. While improvement followed - the next seven games were lost by only 37, 30, 30, 36, 27, 34 and 35 - the Rox couldn't quite get over the hump, but they came close: in one weekend, they lost by only 7 to Dugger and 8 to Restoration Christian (who was not yet a full IHSAA member). The season closed with a respectable 13-point defeat in sectional versus North Daviess, and the Rox powered to a 5-win season the following year.

6. 2003-04 South Central (Union Mills) (-29.9 ppg) - The Satellites mixed it up with 20 opponents in the 03-04 season and came away empty-handed; Wheeler tripled up on them, 97-31 for their worst showing of the season, while they fell by only 8 to Michigan City Marquette for their closest defeat of the season. The rest of the season tended to lean more toward the former than the latter; only five of their losses came by less than 20 points, but eight of their losses came by more than 30.

5. 2003-04 Fort Wayne Keystone (formerly Fort Wayne Christian) (-30.2 ppg) - It took the Eagles almost a season and a half to garner their first win in IHSAA play (against Kokomo Christian, the same squad North White took out this weekend). Aside from their three defeats against current WW member Howe Military (by 3, 5 and 6 points, respectively), the closest they came to tasting victory was a 9-point loss versus Lakewood Park, who defeated the Eagles four times that season (by 9, 10, 21 and 28). Other notable defeats by the Eagles were by 45, 45, 50, 54, 58 and 67. Even White's beat them three times. White's doesn't beat anybody three times. (Except ...

4. 2005-06 Howe Military (-36.2 ppg, pending sectional) - The Cadets came close against White's in their third meeting of the season this weekend, falling by a 65-62 score. They didn't, however, come very close the rest of the time. Consider their game of February 1 against Central Noble - the Cadets fell 100-29. Low point? Not quite - two nights later, they traveled to Fairfield and lost by 97 points - 111-14. Yikes.

3. 2001-02 Oregon-Davis (-40.5 ppg)
2. 2002-03 Oregon-Davis (-44.2 ppg) - Yowie zowie. That was a futile stretch of basketball. When you take into account the following season, where the Bobcats went 1-20, the total record for the three years was 1-60. The lowlight was probably a 102-16 defeat at the hands of Glenn; over the two winless seasons, the Bobcats fell by 60 or more points eight times. No one should have to lose by 60 points. And yet, this season - remember earlier, where I said there was time to turn it around? - the Bobcats should challenge for a sectional crown, as they sit at 18-3 going into the tournament. Wow!

1. 2005-06 Cannelton (-50.4 ppg, pending results of Restoration Christian game on 2/24, as well as sectional) - The results are a roll call of misery. Start with a 52-point defeat against New Washington (the Mustangs finished the regular season with two wins to their credit), then a 70-point defeat at the hands of Paoli, followed by 68- and 60-point losses against their county rivals Tell City and Perry Central, before a 32-point loss against South Central (Elizabeth) stemmed the flow somewhat. That was followed by losses of 74, 81 and 74 points. Oregon-Davis had eight defeats of greater than 60 points over their two winless seasons; the Bulldogs had nine this season alone. Take away the two-game stretch against Cloverport (Ky.) and New Harmony, where the 'Dogs lost by only 6 and 4 points respectively, and that -50.4 margin would be even worse.

I understand that the Bulldogs were a little bit depleted this year (gee, do you think?), returning only one player from last year's 2-19 effort, but still, give them credit for showing up and trying to compete. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I really feel for them. There's a lesson to be learned somewhere from all of this; no, the lesson is not "don't suit up for Cannelton," but rather a lesson of persistence in the face of adversity. Or something like that.

(Special thanks, as always, to the inestimable John Harrell, whose Indiana High School Basketball site is priceless to me when putting together Winless Watch. The man should go into the Hall of Fame someday for his tireless work on compling current and recent Indiana HS hoops info.)