Quite a week around Northern Kentucky!  More than that, this upcoming week has a ton of great games that will help us crystallize our Poll next week through the end of the season.  Simon Kenton looks like they will be much the best in the 8th, the 9th is going to have 5 teams who will enter the 9th Region Tourney thinking they can win, and Campbell and Brossart will at least do their best to make GRC work in the 10th.  Been a fun year thus far, but starting this week, post-All A, we get a ton of great games week-in and week-out through the end of the season.

We have quite a shake-up in our poll, and you'll see my thoughts about Thursday's HC at Dixie game based on the order they are in.  You'll also see my thoughts about next weekend's Highlands vs Campbell County game based on how they are in the polls.  I actually think Notre Dame is playing very well and could well get their game with Holy Cross in 10 days, but that is not yet manifesting itself in our poll -- but very well could be by next Sunday night.  I'm actually excited to attend the Pandas' game with Cooper this week, which should be OUTSTANDING!  The game of the week is our top two teams playing out in Independence -- hope to see a great crowd at that one, I'm excited for it!

1.  Cooper 12-4 (3-1):  at #2 Simon Kenton and vs #5 Notre Dame.

2.  Simon Kenton 13-3 (1-0):  at #9 Walton-Verona, vs #1 Cooper, and vs #7 Campbell County at Hoosier Gym (cool facility).

3.  Dixie 11-5 (3-1):  at Lloyd, vs #4 Holy Cross, and at Ryle.

4.  Holy Cross 18-2 (0-1):  vs Bracken County, at #3 Dixie, and at #9 Walton-Verona.

5.  Notre Dame 12-3 (3-0):  at Beechwood, vs West Jessamine, vs Conner, and at #1 Cooper.

6.  Highlands 15-4 (2-0):  vs TBA at Valley High School, and vs #7 Campbell County at NKU

7.  Campbell County 11-5 (1-2):  at #10 Scott, at Montgomery County, vs #2 Simon Kenton at Hoosier Gym and vs #6 Highlands at NKU

8.  Bishop Brossart 14-5 (2-1):  vs Paris, vs St. Henry, and vs NewCath

9.  Walton-Verona 12-6 (0-1):  vs #2 Simon Kenton, at Grant County, and vs #4 Holy Cross

10. Scott 11-6 (2-0):  vs #7 Campbell County

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*  Grant County 10-7 (1-1):  vs #9 Walton-Verona, and vs Pulaski County at Pineville

*  New Cath 11-10 (1-2):  at Ludlow, at Beechwood, and #8 Bishop Brossart

*  Ryle 7-11 (3-1):  at Frederick Douglass and vs #3 Dixie

*  St. Henry 8-10 (2-0):  at Villa Madonna, vs Boone County, and at #8 Bishop Brossart

*  Conner 5-12 (1-2):  vs Bryan Station and at #5 Notre Dame

 

DD - great analysis on your write up this week as always.

I'll disagree slightly at the top this week. Holy Cross drops one game, a tight one to Bethlehem in the All "A" and drops from #1 to #4 is interesting but it's your poll. Should never drop 3 spots for losing a close game (ending a 15-game winning streak I might add) against a top 10 in the state team. You are correct though the next week of games should tell us a lot with these top teams as many play each other. I could see 5 teams with a chance to win the region in the 9th this year.

As of today here would be my top 5 based on games played so far. This could change quite a bit next week depending on the results of some big matchups this week.

1. Holy Cross

2. Simon Kenton

3. Cooper

4. Dixie

5a. Notre Dame

5b. Highlands

22 minutes ago, Baseball Nut 24 said:

DD - great analysis on your write up this week as always.

I'll disagree slightly at the top this week. Holy Cross drops one game, a tight one to Bethlehem in the All "A" and drops from #1 to #4 is interesting but it's your poll. Should never drop 3 spots for losing a close game (ending a 15-game winning streak I might add) against a top 10 in the state team. You are correct though the next week of games should tell us a lot with these top teams as many play each other. I could see 5 teams with a chance to win the region in the 9th this year.

As of today here would be my top 5 based on games played so far. This could change quite a bit next week depending on the results of some big matchups this week.

1. Holy Cross

2. Simon Kenton

3. Cooper

4. Dixie

5a. Notre Dame

5b. Highlands

Nut, have great respect for your opinion, and more so, all that you do for High School sports in the area with Holy Cross radio.  Anyone who gives of themselves so completely to promote and draw attention to the work of these young people has my undying respect.

I know you know what I'm going to say, but they dropped because their record is not like the others, and losing to Bethlehem just brought light to that.  Their best opponent since December 14 (13 games) until Bethlehem was Bishop Brossart.  The Lady Stangs are good, not great, and I think I have them ranked accurately as well.  HC feasted on not-so-great competition for 5 weeks and did what they should have done -- won games.  I think my ranking is a more accurate account for how the teams are playing right now, but the good news is, we'll know as soon as Thursday if I was right or I judged them too harshly in this week's ranking.

The "meaty" part of HC's schedule, sans Cooper, is in front of them, so we'll have no doubts where they belong over the next few weeks:  Dixie on 1/30, Notre Dame on 2/5, Campbell County on 2/6, Simon Kenton on 2/12, and Sacred Heart (seems like all of the top NKY teams are taking a turn with the Valkyries this year) on 2/15.  Those games should tell us everything we need to know and will certainly sort out our quasi-debate.

Thanks for reading and contributing each week, Nut, it is greatly appreciated.