Eyes and Ears

Cooper has really improved. Coach Sullivan is doing good things there.

Good to hear. Heard Clay Robinson had a huge game for the Cougars.

How does he play U17 again? Wouldn't he be too old?

I agree completely that some of the blame lies on the players. There is no arguement there, but some of the blame lies with the coach as well. I don't have a dog in the fight. I like high school basketball and happen to know some ex Conner players. I root for them as well as a few other teams in NKY that I know or have known guys from. I hate to see this happen for guys like Hodges and the rest of the senior class. If they were close games, then I would say play harder, make shots, free throws, limit turnovers. These guys are getting beat by double digits by everyone. I am not asking for a coaches head on a platter, but I would think that he may want to change direction at some point. That may involve maybe shaking up the rotation, but loosing isn't helping any of these kids.

Leadership comes from the top. Maybe everyone was bitten with the #1 bug early on.

But consistent. Consistently lousy.

Conner has been really consistant lately.

Brown is a player that goes in night in and night out and does the same thing. He cleans up everything around the basket. He is the best I have seen at doing it. He knows what works and he sticks to it. He never opens his mouth and he seems to always have a smile. He is fun to watch.

A few late season wins cannot be considered sucess. Ask any Bengals fan.

Or it could be the typical basketball fan's reaction. There were high expectations of this team and they have really disappointed. That is a fact. They have a loosing record and have dropped two district games by 20 plus. It is hard to argue with that. Area coaches thought enough of the talent to rank them the pre season number one.

I was in Union tonight to witness another waxing for the Cougars. Good game by the Raiders. Stauffer is very good and Perkins and Mullins both contributed alot. Conner never got started in this one. Their half court game is horrible and their fundamentals are lacking. The players do not look motivated and they got out hustled. This Conner team that came in as the preseason number one has a lot of talent. Hodges is one of the better players in the NKY. It is very sad to see such a disappointing display. At what point does the leadership come into question?

How do you have Ryle above Boone when Boone beat Ryle?

No not at all. I think that sometimes the players get caught up in the play and just miss the oppotunities.

Plays have their place and are neccesary at times, but good ball players play basketball. I have seen guys passing up scoring opportunites because it was not in the play. I have seen that several times. I also realize all of Conner's losses were to good programs, but Conner was the preseason number one and have been waxed twice. They really need the win at Ryle on Friday.

Good assesment flat rock. I beleive one of Conner's woes last night was the inability of Coach Hicks to call plays and direct his team because of the noise of the fans. You would think there would be a motion offense or a plan in place if the play breakdowns. Conner seems lost in the half court set. This is terrible because they don't play a transition game. So much talent and it appears to be self destructing in Hebron. I know it is only six games, but this team is in a downward spiral. Long faces and hanging heads on palyers is not good. Friday's matchup with Ryle will be key for the Cougars. Congrats to Cov Cath. They looked like one heck of a team last night. I loved the momentum and the team play.

I may have missed it, but what is wrong with these boys?

I've seen better play out of them, but I agree it was pretty poor play. At this level, you need to be able to handle a zone defense.

Conner only had one kid that could hit from the outside. #10 hit 2 or 3 three is the first half, but did not play until about a minute left in the fourth.

First half score was 28 to 26 in favor of Boone. At this point it was a pretty good game. I am not sure what adjustments Conner made at half time, but they must have been all wrong. Boone sat back in a zone and allowed a disorganized Conner to self destruct offensively. Conner actually played pretty good defense in the third quarter holding Boone to only 6 points. The fourth quarter you could see the Conner heads drop and the drive left. This game was over at the start of the fourth. Trevan is a beast, but I give the credit for this win to Coach Mcqueery. He had a plan that worked and he stuck to it and flat out beat the Cougars. Conner is a much better team than the score reflects and they will bounce back. There is no doubt that Boone is the team to beat in the 9th.

Will anyone be covering this game?

Missing players, age, what not aside. Two teams played last night and the better team won. What I noticed from Conner was very good perimeter defense. SK was screening and rotating the ball trying to get their shooters good looks, but they were not there. Offensively Conner controlled the ball extremely well. Flesch had a very nice game for the Cougars. He did a great job at getting through the SK traps and distributing the ball to guys who "ALL" scored. What will make Conner tough to beat is their team play. Teams will not be able to focus on any one player because another one will step up and beat you. I was really looking for a big game from Nick Gray. I realize he had the early foul trouble, but he looked disrupted. I guess good "D" will do that to you. SK will definately improve with Chambers in the lineup, but I still don't believe it would have changed the outcome of this game.

The only call I can really rememeber as controversial would be the foul on Pike where he grabbed Robinson around the waist. It could have been called intentional IMO I had just seen almost the same incident the night before at Boone where Stauffer grabbed Montgomery.

After seeing Dixie play last night agaisnt Conner I look for Pike to take control of the paint against Campbell. I just don't see Graff being able to stop him. Muntis off the bench is also very solid and will do well giving Pike rest. Dixie's guard trio is top notch also.

I agree . He was out for long stretches and often at key moments of the game. I have always thought that if you had a guy with a hot hand you keep feeding him. Robinson definately impressed me with his outside shot.

I would love to see Ryle win this one, but after watching their guards struggle with Boone I think this will be more of the same. Barksdale and Fucci will go wild in this one. Ryle will need to improve their ball handling this year if they want to be successful. Stauffer and Vollet are a very solid tandem in the post, but their guards are very suspect right now.