se7ens

Now with Cooper officially open, can Sully to the Cru be confirmed by anyone?

Newport is only at 1 if Taylen Kinney suits up. And I don’t think your statement is true at all, either way. Their just isn’t that big of a gap. I expect a region with a good deal of parity, at least in the top 8 or 9.

The cycle continues as the curtain as set on another season in the 12th and we turn our attention to what is ahead. The region overall was down this year from top to bottom. Will we see another year in decline of talent or will it tilt the other way? The trend of transfers in the state suggests that the prospective rosters as they are now will not be nearly the same once the dust settles in October. It certainly had a huge impact on the 12th last year. Will DCA be able to continue the construction of a dynasty? Will their defensive, methodical brand of basketball continue to be the dominant style in the region? Are Boyle and Danville finding themselves indefinite seats in the bottom of the district as DCA rises to the top with Lincoln right behind them and Garrard fighting for relevance? Rockcastle County showed some real fight later in the year. Will we see them rise to the level of contender with the return of Walker Craig? How are things in Wayne County? Will they have a quieter off-season this year? Can they contend for a regional title behind Kendall Phillips? Is Pulaski County and Carson Fraley (in what feels like his 17th year of basketball) the biggest threat to take the title away from DCA? They lose their two leading scorers but return Zak Anderson and Seth Farmer alongside Fraley. I am worried that the region isn't going to be much better talent wise but the parity that existed did give us one of the most competitive and memorable regional tournaments in recent history. I fully expect that parity to continue.

Spring in the high school basketball world means coaching changes and the start of transfer rumor. The school year then winds down, graduation happens, and we enter the summer and things really start hopping again on the hardwood. Summer ball takes off, the AAU circuit continues on in earnest, and we start to get even a better idea of what next season will look like. For the 9th, to me at least, the biggest question is what will Newport look like roster wise? Taylen Kinney came back into the fold late in the season, sparking a momentary flurry of speculation for the post-season run that turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking. Now it will be seen whether will indeed dress for the Wildcats again or not when 2025-2026 rolls around. What is to become of Coach Sullivan and Cooper? The reigning champs are facing the supposed impending departure of the only head coach in program history. Will that come to fruition? Who would take his place? Does that mean a new program will rise to the top in the 33rd? A handful of programs showed promise last year. A Newport team with Kinney is the clear favorite, but without him, this region becomes exceptionally wide open with CovCath probably being the front-runner, but not by much. What are your thoughts on how the region is shaping up? Any hot takes, dark horses, or names to watch? Let the fun begin.

So for every sport that does conferences besides boys basketball, I think the Newport and Holmes drops make total sense. Like a very positive change. But yes, Newport’s recent boys teams especially, I can’t see them playing a round robin conference schedule. On the other hand, a rebuilding Holmes program fits much better.

If memory serves correctly, I believe he was a baseball and basketball coach at NCC then when Ron Dawn got his first head coaching job as boys coach at St. Henry, he followed him out there. He would then assume the mantle when Ron went back to NCC to be head coach.

I would really like to see Scott Millay get this.

So we need to add in another piece of the puzzle here - if not Coach Sullivan, who? If the principal has a name he wants, no rush to get that job listing out. If they want to cast the net far and wide, you want that out as soon as possible. Also, spring break sometimes screws with when these listings come out. Boone County School District's is next week so they may wait until after.

I could be wrong but I believe the school and school district have pretty much held the “we can’t comment on personnel” line and nothing has been officially stated.

So after seeing the post game pics and reading the comments in articles, I get the feeling the coaches and players don’t think the principal is backing down. Anyone else get that impression or am I reading too much into normal season ending emotions?

The final game of round 2 is a battle between the mighty Warhawks of Great Crossing and the tenacious Jaguars of Cooper. Great Crossing features Malachi Moreno and an impeccable record while Cooper features Andy Johnson and an already stellar season boosted by a rallying around their coach, Tim Sullivan. Great Crossing easily dispatched Daviess County in their first round game while Cooper stymied Henderson County, holding them to 35 points. This could be a real fun way to end Friday in Rupp. Who do you have advancing to the semifinals from this one?

I wish so bad we could do RPI to seed but this the exact reason we can’t.

Defensive oriented region, as mentioned, down overall but down in two specific ways - no roster was extremely deep and there was a lack of serious three point threats. It is why Mercer and DCA were at the top of the region. Consequentially, I think Mercer also gets blown out in this game if South Oldham shoots the same way. Also, the regional tournament overall was a slugfest with 3 of the 4 first round games going to double overtime. DCA had no cake walks throughout.

It was perfect to succeed in the 12th this year where defense was king and there were more post oriented offenses than usual. A team built like South Oldham that shoots like they did tonight - that DCA style stood absolute zero chances.

We already dictate the football playoffs (in a limited way) by formula. Now, I think there is a lot more room for inaccuracy in basketball, especially since you have one pool of competition and not 6. But when you look at the questions surrounding seeding, a big one for me is what is healthier for the sport: the two best teams playing in a first round game on a Thursday morning or them meeting in the title game?

Heck, Campbell County has 5 independent school districts plus the county! Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, Fort Thomas, and Southgate (no high school). Of course, there also used to be Silver Grove. The Northern Kentucky independent districts, when it comes to sports, have had their fair share of winners and losers from sport to sport. What do I mean by that? Highlands, a prominent school in a wealthy independent district, is overall an athletic juggernaut. Holmes, with a larger but much different economically and socially situated population base, struggles athletically today. Beechwood has had vast athletic success while Bellevue, Dayton, Ludlow etc... can do well against similarly sized schools but don't compete like Beechwood does. I bring this all up to say that there seems to be some sort of"othering" with schools like Walton, Beechwood, Highlands etc... I don't think you can tie that to the type of district they are in. I think you tie that to where they are. And I don't think that's anything to be regulated.

Did they block out the noise or did they revel in it? Because honestly, I think a huge part of their run was how they became one unit in a way no other team did. Really a remarkable group of young men.

And I saw that but didn't look into it a great deal - was that trying something new out or in response to the flooding and disruption to the season? Apologies, but I don't follow a whole lot of that area.

This is EXACTLY what I am getting at. Such a massive consolidation of resources. I really fear the small schools losing freshmen basketball.

I think high school basketball has to adapt or suffer. I think there are two crises - shortage of officials (plus an aging population of them) and the competition of other sports including club sports and prep schools. I think shortening the schedule helps with both. I would also incentivize teams forgoing a district schedule so we don't have obligatory massive blowouts. Those games help absolutely no one and drain resources that are becoming much more valuable. Lessen the overlap with sports, lower the strain on officials, decrease the number of blowouts, and create opportunity for innovation in the post-season. We need to move on from the current model of everyone participating in the district tournaments and then flowing into a blind draw 8 team regional. I don't know what the perfect model is but the current one is antiquated. However, any new model should have an end result of an unchanged Sweet 16 (with the exception that I would be open to listen about seeding the Sweet 16). I also think we have to overhaul and add structure to the freshmen and JV formats. Ohio has a quarter count (or at least they did when I coached) where a kid can only play so many quarters across all three levels in one night. I also think you mass schedule freshmen games regionally so the same crew of officials can cover them all - will increase consistency and quality. Just some ideas to start with.

South Oldham (29-5) narrowly escapes the 8th region with a tournament title and now will take on Danville Christian (29-3), the All A state and overall 12th region champs. This game is 6:00 PM Wednesday 3/26. DCA is a defensive juggernaut, allowing their opponent to eclipse 50 points only 8 times and 60 points just once (and they won that game). They are led in the backcourt by Titus Boyd and in the front court by Geu Leek Ateny as well as Lila Ayiei. Cole Dadisman is the other “impact” scorer with Eli Perez rounding out the top 5 in points per game. Coach Shaun Busick takes DCA to their first Sweet 16 in his first year at the helm. South Oldham is helmed by Steve Simpson and features star Julian Miles. He averages over 22 points per game. The 3 point shooting numbers for the Dragons are staggering. Four players have over 100 3 point attempts. All of them are over forty percent from that range. Miles has shot over 300 threes. Second leading scorer Jake Fithian has 249 three point attempts. These are two vastly different styles of game play set to be on display in this one. It will be fun to see which team better asserts themselves.

The 1st round finale, this game is set to tip off at 8:30 PM Thursday 3/27. Henderson County, the 2nd region champs, take on the Cooper Jaguars from the 9th. Cooper is 23-5 and escaped the 9th without a loss to a regional foe all year long. They are led by co-player of the year in the region, Andy Johnson. Of course, the major storyline here is that their next loss may very well be Coach Tim Sullivan’s last game. He is the only head coach in program history but is currently embroiled in drama and intrigue surrounding the claims that he has already been made known he will be gone once the curtain sets on this season. Henderson County features deadeye shooter Cooper Davenport. He averages over 14 points per game and is shooting over 40 percent from three point range. The Colonels are 25-6 this season and pushed themselves scheduling wise as they took on some power programs outside of Western Kentucky including Trinity and Douglass. This is an experienced team with their top four scorers all in their senior year. We should have a fun final game Thursday.

That is a very fair and sensible argument. However, I did not see this in the Ryle game. I was not at last night's game (unfortunately, I missed a doozy). I think your argument, based on position, stats, and my observations from their first round game, may apply more to Walker freeing up Humphrey.

I just caught up on all of this and after watching Lloyd in person and following the stats all year, the most underrated and overrated players (based on performance) might both be on Lloyd. EJ is an amazing talent, a great player, and by all accounts a wonderful kid. He has no business being in the same conversation as Andy Johnson based on the performances of both this season. That being said, if I was a D-1 coach I would choose Walker over Johnson in a heart beat as well. Anthony Blaackar has quietly had an outstanding year and has powered this Juggernaut group in a lot of ways. Don't get me wrong, the success is a team effort, for sure, starting with Blaackar and Walker followed by Humphrey and the rest. (Also, let me take a moment to plug Tyler Copeland - AWESOME defender). But if you took one player off the team that would cause the greatest harm to the team's performance, it would be Blaackar, no doubt in my mind.

James Turner being held to zero pops off that stat page.