wheelhouse

My family and I bought tickets, paid for parking, and watched two enjoyable basketball games played on a really nice court. Your point?

I've never been clear on how the BOK arrangement works for local high school games, but I'm sure someone here can clarify the matter. In the meantime, I'd like to think that perhaps some folks with the means to make a kind and generous gesture went ahead and did so. It happens.

Do initial nominations come from a player's own coach or from other schools' coaches? I'm only asking because it would seem difficult to determine a player's level of academic achievement if he's at a different school.

delete

Holmes JV losses this season were to Brossart (OT) and Cooper (2OT) in the regular season and to CovCath in the JV tournament.

Good point. This was the first time I'd seen Conner's JV this year, but they had only lost four games prior to last night so they must be good defenders in general, plus I remember them running the 2-3 a lot as an eighth-grade team. As for Conner's varsity, I'd also only seen them once this year so I don't know where they stand on the quickness spectrum. I typically assume that when you default to the 2-3 zone you're admitting your opponent is quicker than you are, but I am no high-school coach. Hey, wait a minute! Are you saying Holmes' JV isn't that good? (Kidding, kidding, no thread hijack intended.)

Sharp observation (made by several folks) regarding Holmes' varsity difficulties with the 2-3. That being said, Conner's JV ran the same defense 90 minutes earlier and Holmes' JV tore it apart -- the ball movement was crisp, the shooters got good looks, and Holmes' JV PG earned about 10 free throw attempts by penetrating and drawing contact. My point here is that there is an offense for every defense and I am eager to see what BGP-ers with more coaching experience than I have will say about this situation. Is Holmes' varsity squad using a faulty strategy, or are they simply not executing?

This is an excellent point. When was the last time any team -- at least any local team -- didn't resort to a zone against Holmes for large portions of a game? You'd like to think the Bulldogs have some strategy in mind other than "let's shoot our way out of it."

Anybody catch the JV game?

While I think both contests will be great and I don't begrudge anybody the right to make some money, I am uncomfortable with the message being sent here. On one hand, it's okay to close school early due to poor weather -- and as of now, the weather is indeed poor. On the other hand, not only will the games go on but at least one school has taken advantage of the early close to get the team to BOKC ahead of schedule. Oh, well, I guess this is the world in which we live. Be careful out there, everyone.

Chames has been sick but appears to be on the mend. Hopefully he's close to 100% for this one.

And Buddha smiles.

Just found out he's been dealing with a stomach virus for the past few days. That might explain the situation.

My bad -- I didn't mean to divert the thread by asking the question about speaking captains. I was reacting to the earlier discussion regarding the tech called on Hill. Regardless of whether or not another thread does take shape, though, I'm still intrigued by the practice of appointing speaking captains when so few teams seem to use them as intended.

That's what I figured regarding the captain situation. As for proper or improper ways to address an official, I'd hope nobody on BGP would condone disrespectful behavior towards anybody. If you recall my original post, the central point was that once a speaking captain is chosen -- presumably because the coaches know that specific player handles authority appropriately -- I wonder why his teammates don't "get" the chain of command and simply let the speaker do the speaking. That being said, I have been told by a couple of players, including one speaking captain, that their questions have occasionally been rebuffed by officials even when the player felt he was being respectful. Of course, I only have one side of those isolated stories. Plus, I also imagine that if an official has already been subjected to some ugly behavior s/he might want to keep conversations brief. Anyway, thanks for the clarification, and for all your patience and hard work!

I can answer the first part of the question: Jordan and Jalen Daniels, Fred Vickers, Damonte Conrad, plus Brandon Moore has been injured on and off. They only had two to spare until recently when Moore's ankle got better and a couple of freshmen were included -- you probably noticed that version of a full bench.

As usual, you're spot on. I think I confused Housely with Mike Bell.

Avery and Covington have played JV all this season -- good thing, too, since Holmes' JV is minus four players since the winter break. Last year's JV team actually included even more (then) juniors than this year's; I know Herndon, Glover, Bell, Hill, and Pouncy all played some 2012-13 JV, and I think at one point Housely did as well. (Walter? Help me out here....) If there is any downside to Holmes' depth, it's the number of good players that wait in line. But they seem to handle it pretty well and it's a pretty nice problem to have, right?

This may be an ignorant question, but here goes....Is it standard practice for each high school team to designate a "talking captain" whose role is known to the officials? If so, it should be simple enough for other players to walk away from these sorts of situations and let that captain initiate any discussion. That being said -- and I am open to correction here -- I've been told by several players that certain officials simply do not enjoy being approached by players regardless of how much "yes, sir" or "no, sir" is employed. That does not excuse truly disrespectful player behavior, of course.

Walter has it right on all of Avery's upsides as well as all of his areas for growth. The bottom line is that he's a junior, Moore and Arnold are sophomores, and Jaiden Greene is a freshman. Chames' and Hill's contributions are undeniable, but Holmes has some talented bigs on the roster for least the next couple of years.

edit Wow! Considering all the material involved, this is some serious wizardry, Walter. Tasteful break in the soundtrack for Chames' dunk, too -- did you pay the drummer extra?

Does anybody have highlights from this game?

Holmes 45, Scott 31

I'm just waiting for Walter to post the Pro-Transfer Highlights v. Anti-Transfer and Anti-Transfer Highlights v. Pro-Transfer.:popcorn: