OHSAA Division III Preseason Rankings: Watchlist

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The OHSAA basketball season is just about a month away and it's time to preview the top teams in each Division heading into the season. In this article we'll take a look at the teams that just missed our top 10 rankings in Division III.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cincinnati La Salle</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>An experienced team with a strong 2025 core, La Salle was probably the toughest team for me to leave out of the top 10 in these rankings. The returners like [player_tooltip player_id='2453393' first='Max' last='Welter'], [player_tooltip player_id='1718515' first='Drae' last='Arnold'] and Pat McLaughlin are key pieces as the Lancers look to get out of the basement of the GCL-South.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Akron Hoban</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Division I state champs in 2023, Hoban still has some nice pieces on their roster. [player_tooltip player_id='1506017' first='Kenny' last='Scott'] is the guy who will make them go and the emergence of [player_tooltip player_id='2443749' first='John' last='Johnson'] as a freshman last season was very promising. Another team that could've easily been inside our top 10, Hoban has the potential to make this exclusion from our top 10 look silly come playoff time. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Columbus DeSales</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pj Noles has been a staple of the DeSales program during his four year career and they have some other nice pieces with size and athleticism to round out their starting lineup alongside Noles. I expect this team to be gritty, tough defensively and good on the glass. If Noles can get one other player to consistently score, DeSales will be a nightmare for teams to pull away from and they'll likely play a lot of close games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Columbus Bishop Watterson</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Conference rivals of DeSales and a team that will make our top 10 list, Watterson returns 2025 standouts [player_tooltip player_id='2052128' first='Dominic' last='Theado'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1617848' first='Landon' last='Johnson']. I'm not sure where Watterson will get the rest of their scoring from but that's a great place to start. This is a team that had three different 4 game winning streaks and as well as two different 3+ game losing streaks last season so finding some consistency will be key.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Trotwood Madison</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>An exciting team to watch, the Rams still get up and down the court in a hurry. Junior guard JeCarious Reaves will need to play at a high level for the Rams to succeed but their ability to speed up opponents could allow them to overwhelm some opponents this season. While the Cincinnati area has some solid teams in Division III, it has the least top end talent of any region so there is room for a team like Trotwood to emerge.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->