Reality Check

I agree that the boys from Beechwood should have received some recognition, but that is how it goes sometimes. Flannigan is a very nice player and deserving of any awards that he receives. But take Blake Bryan off of Villa and they might not win a game. Like him or not the kid has talent and put up amazing numbers this season.

I think you will see a different Holmes team tonight. I think their mentality will be completely changed. It's hard to keep a team motivated throughout the season and during the grind. But when its tournament time and its win and advance or lose and go home it's a completely different story. Same can be said for last years Holmes team.

I completely agree, I thought the Tigers might struggle with the pressure and the crowd. Shumate really seemed to have them prepared to play.

Newport is that team that can sneak up on you. Willie will do his best to slow this game down and sit in the half court and grind it out. But be careful with Newport

Great atmosphere for a high school game last night. Beechwood showed a tremendous amount of poise for a school who has not played a lot of games in that type of atmosphere. Maile for Covington Catholic is a great athlete, he made some amazing plays. Romes guarded him very well, there was not much else he could have done to stop Maile. Maile did a great job of creating shots. Beuttel for Beechwood was being completely face guarded but still managed to get open for some big shots. Great win for the Beechies!

Reality is most DIII schools have seen waves of talent come through and other years they will struggle. It is tough to forecast when you are going to have a good year. Beechwood's non-conference schedule was very strong this year with playing in the Ashland Invitational, Conner, Ryle, Highlands, Dixie Heights,etc. They played the schedule they had to and added strong competiton in the spots that they could.

Coach Faust is one of the best coaches in NKY. I will be interested in seeing his gameplan to stop Blake Bryan. There are some major differences in this match up compared to last year. The biggest difference being Stephen Love. Bryan is a one man show at Villa with an occassional help from Schue spotting up. I don't think Villa will have the gas or manpower to pull an upset, even at home.

Holmes