Poland Live | Thirty minutes to game time

Toledo Libbey won the first game, 51-44. Libbey's Mr. Basketball winner William Buford scored 21 points. Most observers consider Libbey and Chillicothe to be the two best teams in Division II.

Poland, of course, is ranked first in the division.

I haven't seen Chillicothe play, but my gut tells me they'll win by 10 or so. I think Poland has a much better chance of winning than it did the last two times it was here, when the Bulldogs played LeBron James and Akron SVSM in 2002 and then when they lost to John Diebler and Upper Sandusky last year. Both losses were by 30 or more.

Poland's' student section is serenading the Chillicothe players. The Bulldogs have the best student section in the tri-county area and they've done a nice job in recent years in toning down the inappropriate stuff. I think the Poland administration deserves a lot of credit for that.

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again. Poland's student section was trying to unnerve LeBron in 2002 and he seemed to love it. He went on a dunk-a-thon in warmups, then exploded in the first quarter and the rout was on. During warmups, he threw a gum wrapper on the ground and one of the ushers picked it up and put it in his pocket. And the crazy thing was, it didn't seem crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens in Cleveland now.

Last year, a couple Poland fans went down to Diebler before the game and got his autograph. So far, nothing like that has happened yet. But, then, there's no Mr. Basketball on Chillicothe's team.

I'll be blogging live during the game, once or twice a quarter if I can, so if you can't be here, stay tuned to Vindy.com.