wheelhouse

Yes, that was what I meant -- sorry if my post was unclear. You are invariably way ahead of me in these matters, Clyde, but are you including Holmes JV and freshmen in your calculations? It's difficult to determine how thoroughly some of the first-year players will develop, and those will be the guys on the floor with Bolden his senior year. I think the picture also may shift if we broaden our horizons -- when we say "D1" we're including, for example, Savannah State. Just a thought.

I'm sorry, I though this was the "James Bolden gets first offer" thread; I seem to have stumbled onto the "let's snipe at each others' universities" thread instead. There is a lot of wisdom at BGP and I would really enjoy seeing our esteemed veterans speculate on how this unique athlete would fit with some of this region's college coaches/systems -- and yes, we may as well consider schools beyond the region as well, because Bolden most likely will. It would also be great to see some discussion on how "Beetlemania" may affect other Holmes players, since Chames and Housely will return next year and the class one year behind Bolden demonstrates substantial talent.

With all due respect, I was in the middle of the Holmes section for the entire game; if any Bulldog fans questioned those two calls in the manner you describe, they apparently spoke very softly and primarily in your direction. And even if your account were accurate, here is the bottom line: every close game is decided by an intricate set of factors and it would be best to focus on how well the players handled themselves under pressure. If the officiating was as poor as some believe, then these kids deserve even more respect since they were the ones being affected most directly. As spectators and adults, we should leave it at that.

Y'know, my original entry read: "Brandon Moore (when healthy)" -- he tore up his knee during the summer and the recovery seemed slower than originally predicted. In other words, you've got a good point:we haven't really seen what he can do at the high school level yet. Based on some of the BGP veterans' opinions, I'm optimistic about Moore's eventual impact, but it's probably too soon to tell. Glad I managed to seem sensible on two out of three!

Among frosh in the 9th, I would think we'd have to at least consider Andrew Arnold, Ben Weyer, and Brandon Moore for spots somewhere in the top 5. These are the guys I've seen most often in school and club ball, so I'll leave it to wiser and better informed folks to fill in the other two spots (or rearrange my three, for that matter).

"You kids think I won't catch you goofing off? I got eyes in the back of my head!"

Excellent points! I hadn't even thought of the male vs. coed situation. Plus, so many varsity squads carry a good half-dozen JV players plus more than one freshman, so it's a complex situation on so many levels. If college ball weren't still in session, maybe one of those gyms would be an option. Hope springs eternal.

Not much could match the excitement of the freshman championship, but the JV game was good indeed, and because it was such a good game I resonate to slamdunk's disappointment. Some of these JV players are juniors who may not make their varsity squads as seniors; that means this was their last high school basketball game and it would have been nice for them to go out in a bigger way. Nonetheless, things in general were extremely well run and the organizers deserve mega-props. Maybe this will provide incentive to establish a free-standing JV tournament with the appropriate bells and whistles (and smoke machines), but it's hard to figure when/where those games could be squeezed in at this time of year.

Even more clear and very sensible. Not sure why -- or at this point, not even sure if -- Holmes was asking whether last night's game could count towards the tourney after the fact, given the knowledge that CCH handles the event so well. I assume the coaches were all on the same page, so maybe a couple of players misunderstood the situation and got to talking. It happens....

Now I get it. Thanks for the clarification, and sorry for the rookie mistake!

Holmes JV beat Conner JV by ten (maybe twelve?) points last night (2/12/13); it was relatively close until fourth period. I know a lot of us thought this was the end of the JV tournament because schools had been using these games at the tail end of the regular season as JV tournament games. In this case, it seems that the Conner JV coach rejected that arrangement and requested an official tournament game, which will be this evening (2/13/13). I assume it's at Holmes but I'm not sure of the time. Also not sure -- not that it's a big deal -- whether Conner asked for the separate game before or after last night's loss.

I am not suggesting that Bolden's freshman experience somehow stunted his long-term development and I am not suggesting who should have won the Boone-Holmes game. A veteran BGP contributor expressed puzzlement over the difference in Holmes' level of play in this particular game after having seen them play differently earlier in the season. I thought his comment provided a chance to explore an important and interesting question, one that has already come up once or twice. I still think it's a good question; if I'm mistaken then hey, I'm okay with that.

This may be off topic, but it has come up during other BGP conversations so I'm going to revisit an idea -- if it belongs on a separate thread, I understand. So here goes: last year, some of us may remember James "Beetle" Bolden suddenly and unexpectedly getting shut down during a frosh tournament game in which he typically would have dominated. He had been playing and practicing the entire season with the freshman, JV, and varsity teams and there was some speculation that he finally hit the wall. This year, four of the five Holmes freshmen starters have been doing the same -- as has already been noted earlier on this or a related thread, the Holmes-CCH frosh game was rescheduled for 8:00 PM specifically because Arnold, Moore, Green, and Brolley were playing that night at 6:00 PM in a JV tournament game. If we assume that these kids also keep up with their studies, maybe they simply reached mental and physical overload. I'm not a pediatrician or a psychologist, plus I do not know precisely which schools pursue which policy, but more than one BGP contributor has already questioned whether frosh who play up should, well, simply play up rather than also playing frosh ball all season. I don't have a solid opinion, but given the collective wisdom on this site I am eager to see if this merits discussion.

Makes sense, and that's why I kept it brief and careful with the accent on "careful." I definitely don't know all the players or coaches involved -- as you wisely suggest, these things invariably come down to perspective.

This is my first BGP post so I'm going to keep it brief and careful. As I heard it, what upset the Holmes coaches most was that, very late in the game, Nussbaum decked one of the Bulldog freshmen with a hard -- and from Holmes' perspective, illegal -- screen.