Mr. Sixer

Congrats to FD for finding a way to hold on. FD had a 15-0 spurt in the first half and went up by 16 but the young jags fought back and had a chance to win it at the buzzer with a 3 but Andy Johnson’s shot was slightly wide after being well defended. Good game for both teams. Jags will be better when Jaidan Combs returns from his ankle injury as his defense and scoring is much needed.

While a win is a win, I can assure you that the Jags will not have a poor performance like they did last night with defensive lapses and an abundance of turnovers. It was 100% clear the Coach Sully was not happy with his team’s play many times during the night and he let them all know about as only Sully could ?! Heck, at one point he was so frustrated he let his asst. Dante’ Hendrix take over during a full timeout! You know he’s not happy when he calls a full timeout and has his team meet him at the foul line! He was able to light a fire under them to get the W but it’s clear, again, that if you’re on the floor that expectations will be met or you’re coming to sit down! On the positive side, I was thoroughly impressed with the play of Isaac Brown and Roman Combs! The footballers both played extremely well for not even being two weeks away from their last football game. Brown is clearly the PG at 6’3” and Combs did some great work on the boards as the big who was introduced at 6’6”. Andy Johnson was a little below his avg but still went for 23 points if I’m not mistaken. I look for the Jags to continue to gel and keep Sully off the BP meds ?. They will be a team in the hunt as the season progresses.

WOW! 29 points!! Shows just how much the departure of those 3 players has impacted this team.

Solid list and to the point, it's early. I wouldn't call the Cooper losing to S. Oldham that shocking as the eventual starters are football players and basically a week from hanging up the cleats. Andy Johnson continues to be elite avg. 33ppg. He'll definitely will need his supporting cast to ramp it up as the season continues. Holy Cross continues to impress me personally and I believe Ryle should be in the Top 10 somewhere. Closing kudos to the Holmes Bulldogs who've won their last two games and while that may not be significant to most, keep in mind that the team only won 2 games last year and 3 games in 22/23 which was the last time they won 2 games in a row. Small victories and I hope Coach Elsbernd can continue rebuilding the program in the upcoming years.

Go back and look at the Open Job Holy Cross thread. There were several naysayers.

Garyn is simply a WINNER!

Garyn is simply a WINNER!

And some said Ricardo Johnson wasn’t worthy of being a head coach! His second season is off to a great start!

Congratulations to the Bulldogs!

Couldn’t agree more. Sure, he hasn’t brought home the Gold yet but his teams consistently are always in the hunt. Ruthsatz certainly had a significant run and did win Gold but Cooper was easily their toughest opponent IMO and did something I don’t know that was ever done in beating a Ruthsatz CCH team 3Xs in a row and knocking them out of the regionals a couple of times. That 2017 regional final was a superb coaching job by Coach Sully! Coach R. certainly was at the top with some great teams but Coach Sully continues to do a heck of a lot with what some would call, lesser talent. His teams just flat out play hard because he demands it and frankly I could care less how low the scores are as long as the Jaguars have 1 more point than their opponent. “It doesn’t have to be pretty, just effective”

You’re right.

I look for the starting line up to be: Andy Johnson - 6’4” Isaac Brown - 6’3” Jaidan Combs - 6’3” Roman Combs - 6’ 4” Isaiah Johnson - 6’4” While I agree they won’t have a 6’6” Big in the paint, this will be one of the longest and most athletic starting lineups in NKY.

Big win for Ryle and I am not surprised on bit. They gave Newport all they could handle last year. Ryle has a very good and they play very hard!

Good first win for the Cooper Jaguars. Andy Johnson goes for 36 despite SK sitting in a zone all night. Great contribution from future starters Isaac Brown and Roman Combs on the defensive end who were playing in the State football finals just 3 days ago! Fellow footballer and starter Jaidan Combs did not play but I look for him to possibly suit up soon as well. Once the footballers get their basketball legs under them I view this being another good year for Coach Sully and the Jaguars.

IMO, there is no other team that progressively got better than Ryle from the start of the season until now. I think they are ready for Trinity and match up well from a size perspective. As long as they don’t get caught up in the “mystique” of the letter “T” and settle in and play their game, I firmly believe they pull off this upset. Hoping Savage is 100% healthy because he WILL be a game changer. Pulling for all of the NKY teams!

OUTSTANDING overview and preview of the game @Purple88 as usual. You’re work work continues to be stellar! I’ll add that both BG and Cooper have a history in the hard court as well as both teams faced off in the 2017 Sweet 16 Championship with BG taking that contest 67-56. Both of these two teams have definitely won the right to “run it back” this season and I look for another great game to close out the 2024 KHSAA Football season!!

Somehow that message didn’t seem to reach Longbranch either! ??

Cooper was not only down it’s starting rb in Maher but also down their starting Defensive Tackle in Colton Dean. Stanton, Campbell, Christian Brown, Carson Clark and Wilhite all adopted the “next man up” mentality and filled in nicely. Lastly, what a HUGE birthday gift for Austin Alexander who played a phenomenal game on both sides of the ball and got the W as the cherry on top! Good luck next week Jags! I hope all of NKY gets behind BW, Ryle and Cooper to support them in bringing home 3 titles!!

To put it mildly….

Anyone seen @FrankNicodemus? All his nostalgic memories and predictions didn’t reach Longbranch! Cooper just does what they do! They played the worst first half of the year and found ways to beat themselves but they settled down and made adjustments in the second half and played with passion and emotion! It doesn’t matter what the score is, the Jags are gonna play til the end and tonight clearly demonstrated that! 54-6 in me half doesn’t happen by chance! Time to continue the Mantra of “Nobody Cares, Work Harder!!” Go Jags…Finish It!! Congratulations to HHS on a great season.

That kickoff was a very important play but not the difference in the game IMO. I see you've forgotten the play just before halftime when the Cooper rb is heading to endzone from about a 70 yard run and the HHS player shows great hustle to knock the ball out of the Jags rb arm at the goal line which went through the endzone giving HHS the ball at the 20 yard line. The Jags secure that touchdown and Cooper goes up by 14 at half if memory severes me correctly. Prior to that, Cooper was driving for another score and O'Hara throws an interception when he should have just taken a sack. That game could be rationalized however you want to but the bottom line is this, throw the previous games out the window. This will be a battle between 2 very good teams who are fighting to get to the championship.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. No one, or at least anyone with the smallest of football knowledge, is drinking “The Poor Little Underdog” kool-aid. Highlands has and always will be viewed in the highest regard with the capability to beat anyone on any day so nice try @FrankNicodemus ? Cooper will continue to do what they have done all year in working off the philosophy of “Nobody Cares, Work Harder!!” Last year is last year and has been put to bed. No one on Longbranch is thinking about last year’s games, in fact, not even thinking about the game in the regular season because the staff isn’t remotely letting that happen. To the contrary, the Jags have been locked into the present of going 1-0 since the playoffs started. This will be a battle between 2 of the best teams not only in 5A but in the entire state.

And THIS is why games have to be played.

Interesting. So your opinion is CCH would beat BG, South Warren and Cooper this year? The competition is just as still in 5A if not more, minus Boyle of course.

Agree 100%. One of these two should have been named without a doubt.