justwannacoach

Beechwood

Two good and developing players....Green is probably ahead as an offensive player and Salter is probably ahead as a defensive player but both are improving in all areas. They got to play together this weekend for NKY Legends, and they formed a lethal combo on the boards and defending the paint. They contest everything inside, and they are relentless rebounders. They are both athletic and can run the floor and dunk. Green will be a CCH kid. Good luck to both tonight. HMS has more firepower, but Green will compete and if things fell right, would keep them in the game as long as HMS press doesn't create a bizillion turnovers.

no Jefferson and no draud.

43 - 17

Agreed! That first bracket was loaded. I watched a few of those games. I am not sure if KBA did random pools, or if they had info about those teams so that they could group them together. We registered late, and were added to the 3rd bracket. But, I believe the top 2 or 3 teams in that 1st bracket were better than we are. It seemed that the teams in the 2nd & 3rd bracket were more evenly matched. Those 30+ppg are in our regular league. The competition we saw in our bracket at KBA was better than we have in our league, and was just a notch below what I was hoping. Not to disrespect any teams, but I wanted to play good competition. The first bracket was 2 notches above what we would be ready for. Those teams had good skill, good size, and played physical basketball. But, often times, your kids learn more in those games than you did when you win in blowouts.

Silly? Maybe, but when you enter tournaments you don't get to choose the schedule. You kinda play when you are scheduled. When you play 3 7th graders in your top 8 on the 8th grade team, and you win games by 30+ppg, it's time to look for additional competition. As we have said, we will play anyone that wants to schedule us. From a coaching perspective, we get it. Let us get our kids ready for the next level doing it our way. I also love the "authorities" on Caleb that don't personally know him or his family. For the Bluebird crowd, I'd be more concerned that a long standing Bluebird family might venture to a Kenton Co HS if the kid gets his way. And there's a chance that a current NCC lean might also look to Kenton Co for HS as well. It's early, kids still have 6 months to decide. Lots of aau basketball to play, and those friendships that seem to be trumping school friendships.

Yes, one day. Game times were 11, 1220, 425, and 630.

Long day of basketball for Beechwood 8th grade. League game, beats Ludlow 55 - 7 Turkeyfoot tourney, beats Conner 44 - 19 then heads to KBA in Lexington and beats Tates Creek 54 - 22, and finishes the night beating a very good team from North Bernstatdt (London, ky area), 49 - 46 in OT.

Teams I coach in school ball and AAU run a ton of different sets. In AAU the sets have many more options and decisions. That gets scaled back in school ball. But, we have been pretty successful in both environments. But, I guess our style isn't for everyone. We also teach an understanding of the game, and kids that play for us learn what is important and what contributes to winning basketball. Running up and down the floor, taking bad shots, standing around in a zone and not rebounding the ball doesn't win against good teams. But, like I said, our way doesn't work for everyone and every "good" player isn't our kind of player.

No feelings are hurt. I was just making the point that Beechwood belongs in the same conversation. We lost to an AAU team in a non-school tournament and we lost to Blessed Sacrament the first week of the season. We tried to get the Beechwood Boy's teams moved up to the Big school division. But, with the way things are structured, the Girls teams have to play up as well. Our Girls program is building up, and aren't quite ready for that level yet. But, we reached out to many of the BIG schools and scheduled all of them that were willing to play. We also entered tournaments in hopes of finding more competitive teams. As mentioned, we will get to play Camp Ernst in the Turkeyfoot tournament, as well as Conner and Ockerman (both of which we have already played). We are finalizing dates with Highlands as we didn't want to play them until Huddleston was back with them. Actually, I had made a commitment to Brycen that I wouldn't agree to a date until he was back from injury. So, we are trying to get that finalized.

Beechwood 8th grade is 8 - 0 in their small school division, and 19 - 2 overall. While we have currently only played 8 of the BIG school teams, (not including Pius, Highlands, and Camp Ernst), we are expecting to play Highlands and Camp Ernst in the next few weeks. Then maybe we will be worthy of being in the conversation with the "cream of the crop" discussions.

final

Not real sure what you mean, or what you are trying to imply, when you say that Jared is supposed to be a freshman anyway?.......

They definitely will have a tough matchupl. SV has more good players than St Agnes, but Neil will be one of the best players on the floor.

Nice to see 8th grader Jared Hicks having a good start to his JV season for Conner. He had 9pts and 5 assists in their game last night. Another player who has started the season well is Neil Green for St. Agnes. He had 19pts on Wednesday in a tournament win over Visitation. Keep up the great work guys!!

To answer your question about Beechwood, we are in the SMALL school division. Specific to the 8th grade team, we have played 7 of the BIG schools, and are looking to schedule any of them, with the understanding that we need to schedule for all 3 grade levels. We are happy to play on the road. Results against the schools in the BIG school division: Beat Summit View 34 - 29 Beat Conner 38 - 30 Beat IHM 42 - 30 Beat Ockerman 39 - 28 Beat CampCo 44 - 33 Beat Gray 65 - 28 Beat Woodland 45 - 26 Beat Summit View 43 - 36

Agree with most of what you stated. Beechwood is trying hard to schedule as many of the BIG schools as possible as "non-league" games, so that we can play the most competitive schedule possible for our kids. But, scheduling for open dates, and availability has been tough. So far, in the early season, we have already been able to play IHM, Woodland, Conner, Gray, Campbell County "A" team, Summit View (2x), Ockerman, and a scrimmage at Pius. We are working towards games with Highlands & Summit View (when Hensley is healthy.) And, we will play St Agnes later in the season. That might be as good a "non-league" schedule as possible. But, we will play anyone that wants to play & we will play at their gym.

If Kremer goes to a Catholic HS, it will probably be Brossart or NCC.

Let's be clear.... - he isn't a "whole year older". In fact, he was only a few weeks too old to play in the new 13U AAU age rules from last season. - "he didnt even start for his AAU team". In fact, he did start. And, he plays on a very select team that is pretty good and has some of the best players in NKY. Besides the kids who already play for us, there are probably only 2 other kids in NKY, who would start for us. He had a great Summer playing select basketball. I use the word "select" because people on here get in an uproar when people say AAU. I don't think he will "be the one to suffer". I think it is great, and will help him become even better than he already is.

I mentioned kids that can play multiple positions and dominate games on both ends of the floor. Sometimes it is hard to evaluate kids because their coaches have them stand around in zone defenses (just trying to win games), and you don't get to see kids play both ends of the game. When kids are forced to play man to man, then you start to see the separation in the kids' talent and abilities. I prefer kids that can guard people. To answer your question though, in terms of school players, I like a couple of the kids at Summit View and a couple of the kids at Highlands.

Other top 8th grade players, who play multiple positions and can dominate the game in a variety of ways - Michael Mayer, Pius Jared Hicks, Conner Paul Kremer, St Marys Neil Green, St Agnes

Mason Rausch from Calvary is a good player. He played with Shining Stars. I have watched him play a lot. He will probably play JV at Calvary this season. Who does the Clay County kid play AAU for? I think one important ingredient when evaluating these kids is seeing them play against top notch competition. Watching them play in a school game is not the same as watching them compete against high level competition where they can't just dominate physically. good discussion....

Caleb is very good. He is probably the best middle school guard in the State, and one of the best in the Midwest. I have seen most of the good ones on the AAU/travel circuit. His ranking at the Nationals was for Div I & Div II. All the 7th grade players were ranked in one group regardless of D-I or D-II. (And, they ranked him while he was playing injured at Nationals. In fact, he sat out one of our games because he was hurt). You can't watch him for 5 minutes and appreciate his ability. You have to watch him over time, and see all the things that he does at a high level.

I had the exact situation this past weekend in Indy. My player took a charge in the lane, but was called for a block. The official said, "he was in good position but he was too far under the basket" I tried to explain that under NFHS rules, there is no requirement for the defender to not be under the basket. But, what do I know? I am just a coach.

I wanted to thank all the people who have congratulated this group of kids for their accomplishments. All the texts/tweets/IMs/emails/etc. This has been a great week culminated with a great win in the Championship game. In winning the AAU 13U National tournament over the past week, they went 8 - 0 in Greensboro, NC. Brooklyn Kings 68 - 33 So. Louisiana Jaguars 60 - 36 Georgia Athletic Club 55 - 43 Myld Hornets 64 - 50 New Birth Warriors 58 - 52 Massachusetts Commanders 52 - 45 BMORE - Baltimore 64 - 53 MidAtlantic Finest Red 56 - 53 This team is 67 - 12 since their season started in late February. They have played in 16 tournaments (7th & 8th grade) throughout the Midwest, they have won 11 of those tournaments and finished Runner-Up 4 times. The only time they missed being in a Championship game was the 8th Grade D2 Ky State AAU tournament. It has been an amazing 5 months of basketball for this group of kids. They play the game the right way - they defend man to man; they rebound; they run their 1/2 court offense; they take care of the ball; they don't give up transition baskets; they don't whine/complain to officials; they don't foul jump shooters; they don't act demonstratively when a bad call goes against them; they compete on every possession; they share the basketball; they battle every week in hard practices; and they trust all their teammates & coaches. They take criticism from coaches with the mindset that they want to get better. They all get to play quality minutes, in high-pressure situations. If a coach doesn't trust them in these environments, how will their teammates? Off the court, they are BEST FRIENDS. They come from 9 different schools. They are all successful in the classroom. They laugh, they joke, they hold each other accountable, they come to each others' school games, they have each other's back. They spend so much time together off the court, it is what bonds them on the court. It is the TRUE definition of a TEAM. @NKYLegendsElite