John Bruce, Contributor
After we announced that we would be letting the fans decide who was the greatest SVC boys basketball team of all-time on May 1, the votes, shares, and opinions rolled in. But, after 12 articles and over 22,600 votes, we can now safely announce the winner of the tournament.
With 54 percent of the vote in the championship round, the fan voted Best Ever SVC Boys Basketball Team is… the 1990-1991 Unioto Shermans.
In a championship final, the only SVC boys basketball team to ever reach the state championship game knocked off another historically great team in the ‘89-90 Southeastern Panthers. Unioto garnered 611 votes out of 1,129 total votes in the final.
Matt Combs (23.9 points, 11.1 rebounds per game) led the way for the Sherman Tanks, while Jeff Miller (14.2 points), Jason Thress (9.5 points), Dan Cox, D.B. Mullen, Jim Hutchison, Chris Seeley, and Brian Sturgill provided the champion Shermans with scoring depth and defense.
Let’s take a look at the tournament, by the numbers:
| 22,628 – the number of votes cast in the 63 matchups in the tournament |
| 9,004 – the number of votes cast in the Dale Haynes Regional |
| 3,659 – the number of votes for the ‘76-77 Southeastern Panthers in the Elite 8 |
| 4,121 – the total number of votes that the ‘76-77 Southeastern team received in five matchups |
| 1,577 – the number of votes the champion ‘90-91 Unioto Shermans received |
| 14 – the lowest seed to win a tournament game (‘88-89 Huntington Huntsmen) |
| 359.2 – the average number of votes per matchup throughout the tournament |
Thanks to the tournament, we were able to celebrate 64 of the greatest boys basketball teams in SVC history, along with over 250 historic players and coaches as well.
Based on the success of the tournament, there will be another one for girls basketball in the SVC in the future. How soon? That could depend on the Governor’s decision for fall sports, but if the next school year plays out like we hope, that tournament will take place next summer.
Thank you for all of your votes, shares, opinions, and likes on this tournament. It has truly made all of the time and effort of putting it together absolutely worth it.
