Dublin Scioto High School boys basketball coach Tony Bisutti had heard all the talk about his team's strength of schedule before showing up for the Division I district tournament draw last Sunday.

There were no surprises.

Northland, which remained unbeaten, earned the No. 1 seed, followed by once-beaten Newark at No. 2 and Scioto -- which is 16-1 overall and 8-0 in the OCC-Capital Division -- at No. 3.

"It pretty much went as expected," said Bisutti, whose team will open the tournament against Groveport on Feb. 20 at New Albany. "There are some tough divisions in the OCC, and the City League is always tough and you've got to give them that respect. I think we're a good team, but maybe the jury is still out on us."

Scioto found out it was beatable after losing at Mount Vernon 54-52 on Jan. 27 when the Yellow Jackets hit nine of 17 from 3-point range.

There have been wins over quality opponents. It defeated Dublin Coffman (67-54 on Dec. 27), which earned the tournament's fourth seed, and OCC-Capital rival New Albany (52-20 on Jan. 12), which is a game back of the Irish at 6-1 in the league and 12-3 overall. The rematch is Feb. 16.

Not only that, Scioto, which will face visiting Olentangy Liberty on Friday, is defeating its opponents by an average 24 points per game.

"I think we know we have one of the weaker schedules out there," forward Austin O'Connell said. "Then again, I think we're beating those teams pretty handily and we're beating the teams that we should be beating with the exception of Mount Vernon. I don't think everybody can say that."

The Irish last appeared in a district final in 2003, when they entered the tournament as the No. 11 seed and lost to fifth-seeded Newark 55-38 to finish at 15-9 overall.

Scioto last earned a top-five seed in 2002, when it was second at 19-1. It was upset by unseeded Upper Arlington 85-78 in triple overtime after taking a first-round bye.

It never has won a district championship.

"Sometimes you can overanalyze the whole thing," said Bisutti, whose team will play host to Westland on Tuesday. "Quite honestly, I thought about taking a bye, but I said these guys need to play. We want people to have to worry about us and we want to worry about ourselves."


The girls team climbed to No. 2 in the Division I state poll behind Wadsworth and has clinched its first outright OCC-Capital. It will close league play Friday at Liberty.

"It was certainly on the list of things to do, but the way we're playing right now and the expectations we have for ourselves we've moved onto the next thing," said coach Todd Hardesty, whose team was 17-0 before last Tuesday's game against visiting Mifflin. "But take it from the guy that knows those kinds of things don't happen every year and we're certainly thrilled."

Scioto shared the OCC-Cardinal championship last season with Pickerington Central at 9-1.

The Irish, as the top seed in the Division I district tournament, are eager to tackle their next challenge, which is the school's first district championship.

"We've been trying to keep practices short and sweet," Hardesty said. "It's our job as coaches to make sure we keep things fresh and make sure we're not getting full of ourselves. But when you have a veteran team like we do what they say means much more than what's coming from us."

Scioto will face its first-round tournament opponent, Thomas Worthington, on Saturday. The Cardinals were 0-17 overall after last Friday's 69-28 loss to Pickerington North.

The Irish then will meet Thomas on Feb. 15 at Westerville Central in the postseason opener.