With a plethora of shocking results and deep postseason runs, our contributors discuss the biggest surprise of the 2023 tournament.

Peatross (NEO Spotlight) : I'm going to go with the easy answer here and say that Toledo St. John's historic run has been the biggest surprise of this year's tournament. Senior C.J. Hornbeak has been a buzzing name amongst recruiting circles and he has started to see a major uptick in his recruitment. Junior Jaylen Murphy has been phenomenal in his own right and his 22-point outing against Toledo Whitmer allowed the Titans to capture a district title, despite finishing as the 5th best team in the TRAC. 

Goul (Cleveland.com) : Cleveland not getting a team into the Division I final four. It hasn’t happened since 2009, when Warren Harding came out of CSU. Coincidentally, it’s also the last time Toledo St. John’s got that far. Except for Lima Senior’s success, NEO has kind of owned that NE-NW split region. If it weren’t for the Titans, I might not have had time to fill this out. Haha.

Roth (Prep Hoops) : Toledo St John’s miracle run, from a district semifinal buzzer beater to the final 4 as massive underdogs.

Spegal (270 Hoops) :  As a Columbus guy, the biggest surprise of the tournament to me was Northside Christian coming just a few points short of making their first final four appearance in Division IV. While it seemed like a bit of a down year in Columbus D4, Northside Christian, powered by sophomore Landon Vanderwarker, made a hell of a run to the elite and were one bad quarter away from winning a regional title, which definitely took me by surprise.

Stubbs (Drive to Dayton) : This is a no-brainer to me. The answer here has to be Toledo St. John’s. Coach Schoen has done an incredible job with this group and senior CJ Hornbeak has been terrific on both ends of the floor. The Titans finished the regular season at just (13-9) and was forced to play No. 2 seed Tiffin Columbian in their second tournament game. After routing Columbian, St. John’s beat rival Findlay and then took down top-seeded Whitmer, a team that beat the Titans twice in the regular season. Finally, St. John’s was able to beat two teams that were red hot in Perrysburg and Garfield Heights. If we were ranking the teams in the Region 1 semifinals, the Titans would've been fourth. It’s a good thing Coach Schoen, his staff, and players didn’t care about any projections.