This was on Ryan Ernst's blog today about how the Sweet 16 completely changed the b-ball options for SK's Troy McKinley:

 

 

I was just going over some notes from an interview I did a few years ago with Larry Miller, who coached Simon Kenton to the 1981 boys' state basketball title. When I asked him about what the Sweet Sixteen victory did for star forward Troy McKinley (right), he had this to say:

 

"(After the tournament) the recruiting war began over Troy. That was crazy. (Before the tournament) he had one major offer, from George Washington. And George Washington's coach had been fired that week, so the only real solid offer he had was to NKU. UK and Louisville hadn't bothered. When the state tournament was over, he could have gone anywhere in the country. DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country, wanted him and he wasn't interested. When (DePaul coach) Joey Meyer heard that, he called me and asked me, 'Does he realize we're not DePauw, that other school over there? We're DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country.'

 

Troy McKinley

Great story:thumb:

"DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country, wanted him and he wasn't interested. When (DePaul coach) Joey Meyer heard that, he called me and asked me, 'Does he realize we're not DePauw, that other school over there? We're DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country.'

 

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Good story, for sure.

Not a bad deal. State Championship and a spot on a final four team. That's a great basketball journey.

This was on Ryan Ernst's blog today about how the Sweet 16 completely changed the b-ball options for SK's Troy McKinley:

 

 

I was just going over some notes from an interview I did a few years ago with Larry Miller, who coached Simon Kenton to the 1981 boys' state basketball title. When I asked him about what the Sweet Sixteen victory did for star forward Troy McKinley (right), he had this to say:

 

"(After the tournament) the recruiting war began over Troy. That was crazy. (Before the tournament) he had one major offer, from George Washington. And George Washington's coach had been fired that week, so the only real solid offer he had was to NKU. UK and Louisville hadn't bothered. When the state tournament was over, he could have gone anywhere in the country. DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country, wanted him and he wasn't interested. When (DePaul coach) Joey Meyer heard that, he called me and asked me, 'Does he realize we're not DePauw, that other school over there? We're DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country.'

 

"I asked (McKinley) if there was anyone in the country who hadn't called that he was interested in, because he was the hottest thing in the country. He said Vanderbilt. I called coach (Richard) Schmidt. ... I left a message and a half hour later Coach Schmidt was at the airport. At noon he pulled up in a rental car."

 

McKinley, as most good Northern Kentuckians know, ended up at UK.

 

Great story, and one I had not heard before. If I can bend the thread to a story that I do know, I am surprised that DePaul came back to northern Kentucky after what had happened with Dicky Beal the year before. If you'll indulge me, the story of Dicky's recruitment goes something like this:

 

Entering his senior year, Dicky was too small to get the interest of most D1 schools and was nowhere to be found on any All America lists. Holmes played Summit Country Day in a preseason exhibition game that year, though, and SCD had a D1 player in Dexter Bailey. A number of scouts came to that exhibition and were treated to a tremendously athletic exhibition, including a fast break dunk by Dicky over Bailey. The dunk was captured by an Enquirer photog and ran on the front page of the sports section. After that, Ray Meyer (who was still coaching at DePaul) was at many of Holmes games and locked up a commitment from Dicky to attend DePaul. To give some indication of the magnitude of that, a headline ran on the front page of the Enquirer above the Enquirer banner that said "Beal will play at DePaul". It was a huge story because, as you said, Depaul was at the time one of the top programs in the country.

 

So Beal committed to DePaul and everything went very nice until Joe Hall started coming to see Holmes play. DePaul got worried that Dicky was waffling and had an assistant go almost everywhere with him. Somehow, Dicky let it slip to an Enquirer reporter that he had changed his mind and was going to attend UK. Except he hadn't told DePaul yet.

 

The story goes that when Dicky and the DePaul assistant got off of a plane at the Cincinnati airport, the DePaul assistant read a headline that "Beal will attend UK". Flabbergasted, he said "Dicky, is this true?"

 

Years later, when Dicky was winding up his career at UK, Ray Meyer made a statement that he thought Dicky had made the right choice (I don't know that Dicky or a lot of the rest of us agree), but other things I read and heard over the years indicated that Mr. Meyer felt used and betrayed for a long time.

This was on Ryan Ernst's blog today about how the Sweet 16 completely changed the b-ball options for SK's Troy McKinley:

 

 

I was just going over some notes from an interview I did a few years ago with Larry Miller, who coached Simon Kenton to the 1981 boys' state basketball title. When I asked him about what the Sweet Sixteen victory did for star forward Troy McKinley (right), he had this to say:

 

"(After the tournament) the recruiting war began over Troy. That was crazy. (Before the tournament) he had one major offer, from George Washington. And George Washington's coach had been fired that week, so the only real solid offer he had was to NKU. UK and Louisville hadn't bothered. When the state tournament was over, he could have gone anywhere in the country. DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country, wanted him and he wasn't interested. When (DePaul coach) Joey Meyer heard that, he called me and asked me, 'Does he realize we're not DePauw, that other school over there? We're DePaul, the No. 1 team in the country.'

 

"I asked (McKinley) if there was anyone in the country who hadn't called that he was interested in, because he was the hottest thing in the country. He said Vanderbilt. I called coach (Richard) Schmidt. ... I left a message and a half hour later Coach Schmidt was at the airport. At noon he pulled up in a rental car."

 

McKinley, as most good Northern Kentuckians know, ended up at UK.

 

Great story, and one I had not heard before. If I can bend the thread to a story that I do know, I am surprised that DePaul came back to northern Kentucky after what had happened with Dicky Beal the year before. If you'll indulge me, the story of Dicky's recruitment goes something like this:

 

Entering his senior year, Dicky was too small to get the interest of most D1 schools and was nowhere to be found on any All America lists. Holmes played Summit Country Day in a preseason exhibition game that year, though, and SCD had a D1 player in Dexter Bailey. A number of scouts came to that exhibition and were treated to a tremendously athletic exhibition, including a fast break dunk by Dicky over Bailey. The dunk was captured by an Enquirer photog and ran on the front page of the sports section. After that, Ray Meyer (who was still coaching at DePaul) was at many of Holmes games and locked up a commitment from Dicky to attend DePaul. To give some indication of the magnitude of that, a headline ran on the front page of the Enquirer above the Enquirer banner that said "Beal will play at DePaul". It was a huge story because, as you said, Depaul was at the time one of the top programs in the country.

 

So Beal committed to DePaul and everything went very nice until Joe Hall started coming to see Holmes play. DePaul got worried that Dicky was waffling and had an assistant go almost everywhere with him. Somehow, Dicky let it slip to an Enquirer reporter that he had changed his mind and was going to attend UK. Except he hadn't told DePaul yet.

 

The story goes that when Dicky and the DePaul assistant got off of a plane at the Cincinnati airport, the DePaul assistant read a headline that "Beal will attend UK". Flabbergasted, he said "Dicky, is this true?"

 

Years later, when Dicky was winding up his career at UK, Ray Meyer made a statement that he thought Dicky had made the right choice (I don't know that Dicky or a lot of the rest of us agree), but other things I read and heard over the years indicated that Mr. Meyer felt used and betrayed for a long time.

Great story, and one I had not heard before. If I can bend the thread to a story that I do know, I am surprised that DePaul came back to northern Kentucky after what had happened with Dicky Beal the year before. If you'll indulge me, the story of Dicky's recruitment goes something like this:

 

Entering his senior year, Dicky was too small to get the interest of most D1 schools and was nowhere to be found on any All America lists. Holmes played Summit Country Day in a preseason exhibition game that year, though, and SCD had a D1 player in Dexter Bailey. A number of scouts came to that exhibition and were treated to a tremendously athletic exhibition, including a fast break dunk by Dicky over Bailey. The dunk was captured by an Enquirer photog and ran on the front page of the sports section. After that, Ray Meyer (who was still coaching at DePaul) was at many of Holmes games and locked up a commitment from Dicky to attend DePaul. To give some indication of the magnitude of that, a headline ran on the front page of the Enquirer above the Enquirer banner that said "Beal will play at DePaul". It was a huge story because, as you said, Depaul was at the time one of the top programs in the country.

 

So Beal committed to DePaul and everything went very nice until Joe Hall started coming to see Holmes play. DePaul got worried that Dicky was waffling and had an assistant go almost everywhere with him. Somehow, Dicky let it slip to an Enquirer reporter that he had changed his mind and was going to attend UK. Except he hadn't told DePaul yet.

 

The story goes that when Dicky and the DePaul assistant got off of a plane at the Cincinnati airport, the DePaul assistant read a headline that "Beal will attend UK". Flabbergasted, he said "Dicky, is this true?"

 

Years later, when Dicky was winding up his career at UK, Ray Meyer made a statement that he thought Dicky had made the right choice (I don't know that Dicky or a lot of the rest of us agree), but other things I read and heard over the years indicated that Mr. Meyer felt used and betrayed for a long time.

 

Interesting stories on Beal and McKinley. Ray Meyer was a standup guy, too bad he got the shaft. Those Depaul teams were awesome back in the 80's. HOT ROD STrickland was one of my favorite playmaking guards.

Interesting stories on Beal and McKinley. Ray Meyer was a standup guy, too bad he got the shaft. Those Depaul teams were awesome back in the 80's. HOT ROD STrickland was one of my favorite playmaking guards.

 

If I'm not mistaken, I think DePaul wanted Doug Schloemer from Holmes as well. At the time I thought Doug would have done well at DePaul but he went to U.C. instead.

I understand that Ray Meyer was not really interested in Doug Schloemer and Dickie Beal, he was just looking for an excuse to hang with Turboennis and Eta Rho.

I understand that Ray Meyer was not really interested in Doug Schloemer and Dickie Beal, he was just looking for an excuse to hang with Turboennis and Eta Rho.

 

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

"I asked (McKinley) if there was anyone in the country who hadn't called that he was interested in, because he was the hottest thing in the country. He said Vanderbilt. I called coach (Richard) Schmidt. ... I left a message and a half hour later Coach Schmidt was at the airport. At noon he pulled up in a rental car."

 

 

That's when you know you're the man. You recruit the school. :lol:

If I'm not mistaken, I think DePaul wanted Doug Schloemer from Holmes as well. At the time I thought Doug would have done well at DePaul but he went to U.C. instead.

 

Depaul may have been interested in Schloemer but I think what made Dicky's recruitment and commitment such a big story was because Depaul had just burst out as a national powerhouse with Mark Aguirre in 79 (Final Four) and was undefeated and ranked first in midseason 79-80 when Dicky committed.

 

At the time, when Doug signed with Cincinnati, they were consistently top 20 caliber and had some really good teams. Seemed like a good decision until Gale Catlett left and Ed Badger (not the biggest Schloemer fan by any means) took over.

Great memories of Troy and Dickie. Great High School Players! Troy should have played more at UK. Could you imagine how quick Joe B would have yanked Bradley and Crawford for some of their shot selection...ha ha

Troy was one of the best shooters I ever saw.