Having been at every game this past week I'd be kind of surprised if the attendance numbers on Sunday afternoon weren't the highest numbers for the week. Looked like the best crowd of the week to me.

The crowds are nothing like they used to be. I remember watching Virgie (with Todd May) play Mason County (I think) in a 1982 Friday night semifinal game and I had to sit in the top of the arena. Good seats were hard to find. I believe there was over 21,000 in attendance that night.

I will never go to a Sunday afternoon Final

Once again a poster not knowing the facts. Long has played basketball for 3 years total. He is only 15, he needs to get in the weight room and get strong and become more explosive. He will improve and he did improve all year long. You can tell by watching him he is awkward in his body. As time and work happens he will develop and be a good player. He totally effected the big kid from Trinity that everyone raved about after the Hoptown game. Rae will be fine. I feel like they did not look at him enough yesterday which could have helped with an inside out game to free up the shooters for Scott Co.

I hope he developes to be Mr Basketball however 3 years is long enough to learn fundamentals and sure enough time to lose the bad attitude. This is coaching problem.

A few observations from this weekend. First, I am exhausted but in a good way, 3 trips to Lexington in 4 days while juggling work. Spent some quality time with friends and most important my 14 year old son. We sat 10 rows back playerside center court for the finals.

 

The HOF'er Coach Hicks is just not a pretty face with a red jacket, that man can coach. He worked the refs just with his glare alone. I thought the officiating was pretty well for the most part. Gilbert's only way to create separation was to shove off in the 2nd half, good players get that luxury, he was not going to pick his 5th up in front of the SC bench. On the flip side, Nick used his patented head fake to draw some tight calls in the 4th, there was no traveling called when Bo slid 8 yards in recovering the ball.

 

I liked what Clyde had posted regarding Parker Keller's high school journey(#49), it shows his perseverance paid off. We have been spoiled by Nick's acrobatic scoop shots in the crowded paint over the last three years. The degree of difficulty on the shot is off the charts, that is just what he does.

 

Whatever the Ruthsatz family endeavors may hold for the future, I wish them the very best and thank them. They are a wonderful family!

Edited March 24, 201412 yr by tark the shark

Some random thoughts:

 

1. Surely I’m not the only one who was worried Scott County was going to run away with this thing in the 2nd quarter. CCH hung tough and battled back. It was a solid start by CCH then things fell apart. CVH struggled in the 1st with 3 turnovers, Ruthsatz was getting abused defensively, Schuh missed 3 straight FT’s and Schult had 2 quick fouls. Things looked grim, but they continued to battle & finally started to knock down some shots & free throws. Absolutely great effort by all & this was the type of performance that we’ve come to expect from the 2014 Colonels.

 

2. #11 (I think) for Scott County had a huge 1st half. 15 points, I think. He & Gilbert both have good looking strokes.

 

3. Martini for Scott County was a man. He really hurt the Colonels in the post with offensive rebounds. Does anyone know how big he is? I couldn’t tell from my seat, but he was a force down low.

 

4. Parker Keller (#14) For CCH was great. If you look at the box score, his name won’t jump out at you. But he did a great job guarding Gilbert, especially after CVH fouled out.

 

5. There were a lot of comments in our section about the refs – there were a couple questionable calls from my POV but overall I thought the stripes did a fine job. Hicks called a Timeout which I think avoided an offensive foul (push off by Gilbert), and there was a tangle with Schuh & a Scott County Player (maybe the big kid) which may have gone CCH's way, but overall I thought they did well.

 

6. It’s nice to have a kid like Ruthsatz. He can obviously play, but he wants the ball in his hands when the clock is winding down. There was no doubt who was going to take the last shot.

 

This team was a lot of fun to watch. They played well together and always played hard. There are certainly more talented players out there, but CCH played well together & competed with everyone. It’s obvious they’ve put in the time all summer & season long.

I was disappointed that I had to drive home to Louisville instead of up to NKY to be there for the rally at Cov Cath as the basketball team got back, but such is life. I emailed my older brother this morning who had taken his 6 year old to see the spectacle, and asked how it went. Thought I'd share:

 

(2) Ft Wright police cruisers, (2) Ft. Wright Fire engines, (1) heavy rescue, (1) ambulance escorted the (2) buses from the old Thriftway shopping center to CCH.

 

The students were already there, and lined the entrance from Dixie to the entrance to the gym (pretty awesome)

 

Guidugli spoke for like 3 minutes about how he’s had the good fortune to do a lot of State Champ rallies over the years, but encouraged the students to savor this one because of how special this one is (i.e. first for Cov Cath, 3rd total for the 9th region in 97 years). Then he said a few words about Coach Ruthsatz and handed it over to Rowe.

 

Then Rowe began thanking the students and alumni and emphasized how grateful he was about the way the entire CCH community handled themselves in the sweet 16 and Rupp Arena from start to finish with class, from the team winning, to the all-tourney team and awards, to the fans and the student section accolades, to the choir singing the National Anthem and My Ole Kentucky Home. Then he spoke mainly about Coach Ruthsatz and his selection process three+ years ago. And that they pretty much knew immediately after his interview that he was the guy, but what sealed it was when Rowe asked him when his flight back to NJ was he said he’d driven the 12 hours overnight to be at the AM interview, and then had to drive through the night again to be back in school the next morning. Rowe spoke about the dedication of the entire staff and got a big roar when insisting that it was the best staff in the entire high-school-basketball-crazed-state. The proof being CCH’s unique, versatile, and effective game plans for each opponent on 24 hours’ notice. He finished with my favorite part of the rally, acknowledging Coach Tieman, thanking Coach T for essentially creating CCH’s program, setting the bar high, and thus making it a coaching and playing destination for talented high school players and coaches (looking to the heavens) – that’s when I lost it for a moment. Then he told the story about the new coach search committee vote to select Ruthsatz (Guidugli, Rowe and Tieman). He said after Guidugli and Rowe confirmed their support of Ruthsatz, Tieman stood up behind his chair and said, “ I agree he’s the best candidate for the job,” then leaned in to the two of them, grinned and said, “and gentleman, his son is a point guard.” (Crowd went wild.) Then Rowe handed it over to Coach Ruthsatz.

 

Ruthsatz thanked everybody, coaches, students, players, staff, etc. Gave an extra thanks to the Colonel Crazies telling the stats on Trent Gilbert (92% free throw shooter, 28 straight in the tourney going into Sunday, missed the front end of two 1 and 1’s in the last 2 minutes – then the students went into the “ He’s scared, he’s shakin’..” cheer for a minute) Then Ruthsatz told the story of the 12 hour drive and the interview. He spent a long time on the sacrifices the staff makes, giving them tons of praise and credit, told a story about one interview over the weekend when asked by a reporter what they would do against Bardstown’s length and athleticism and he simply said, “I don’t know, but I’m sure my staff will come up with something.” He talked about toughness, and how toughness is really the dedication to hard work and preparation, and that the discipline it takes always work hard at every workout and practice when nothing is on the line is the real toughness, and that’s why the team consistently outperformed the opponents in the clutch. Good Stuff. Then he gave out state championship medals to the entire team/staff (which was when he said a few words about most of them.) Medals were given out like this:

• Support staff (Kealin, Morris, trainer, student trainers/statisticians)
  
• JV team (then CVH last)
  
• Juniors (Bo Schuh last)
  
• Then he said a few words about the seniors in general, their buying in from the beginning three years ago, etc. Awarded their medals with Nick’s being last (acknowledged him as team and tourney MVP)
  
• Coaching staff (weird that he didn’t do them before the team, but hey, he was going on the fly)
  
• Mark Wehry (Acknowledged all the work Mark does and his own time/money that he volunteers for the internet broadcasts.)
  

Then they unrolled the state championship banner from KHSAA and that was it. Until…

 

Mark Schult stood up and thanked everybody for the support over the weekend especially the student body and the coaches. Then Nick said a few thanks finished with what I can only assume was a student body inside joke that all the students then responded to repeated.

 

Edited March 24, 201412 yr by PurplePride92

Congrats to CCH and the seniors.

 

Can't wait to watch CVH these next few years. He was recently offered by Winthrop and Northern Kentucky.

Congrats to CCH and the seniors.

 

Can't wait to watch CVH these next few years. He was recently offered by Winthrop and Northern Kentucky.

 

Wow, InItToWinIt, are you breaking some news here? Where did you hear this?

Wow, InItToWinIt, are you breaking some news here? Where did you hear this?

 

His instagram profile.

Congrats to CCH and the seniors.

 

Can't wait to watch CVH these next few years. He was recently offered by Winthrop and Northern Kentucky.

 

Correct. Some other larger schools have also reached out to Joe Fredrick about Cole.

 

Cole will decide most likely this week as to what AAU program he will play with this spring/summer.

 

Exciting and heady times for a 15 yr old kid.

His instagram profile.

 

Awesome for Cole.

Some random thoughts:

 

3. Martini for Scott County was a man. He really hurt the Colonels in the post with offensive rebounds. Does anyone know how big he is? I couldn’t tell from my seat, but he was a force down low.

 

Tony Martini is about 6'2-6'3 ish. He weighs around 190

Correct. Some other larger schools have also reached out to Joe Fredrick about Cole.

 

Cole will decide most likely this week as to what AAU program he will play with this spring/summer.

 

Exciting and heady times for a 15 yr old kid.

CVG can play D1 but Gilbert can not am I missing something here.

Correct. Some other larger schools have also reached out to Joe Fredrick about Cole.

 

Cole will decide most likely this week as to what AAU program he will play with this spring/summer.

 

Exciting and heady times for a 15 yr old kid.

 

Will he play 15U or 16U? I heard he wanted to play up in 16U this year.

Correct. Some other larger schools have also reached out to Joe Fredrick about Cole.

 

Cole will decide most likely this week as to what AAU program he will play with this spring/summer.

 

Exciting and heady times for a 15 yr old kid.

 

I'm interested to see where he ends up in the 1000 point club for Cov Cath....or if there's potential for Cole to start the 2000 point club. He pulled off nearly 400 points as a freshman. Four 400 point years would place him as the third highest all time scorer for Cov Cath, behind #1 Nick Ruthsatz, and #2 Andy Listerman. Assuming his scoring improves as Cole matures....and without Ruthsatz around, it's gonna be REALLY interesting to see how many points he racks up.