Pete Mitchell

Congratulations Cole. I have never seen that statistic kept in high school basketball, but I did always find it enlightening that Pete Rose said that of all of his records, he was most proud of the fact that he played in more winning games than anyone else in baseball history.

Very, very strong numbers. Way to go Jake.

Six 9th region teams? SIX?! I am pretty sure I have never seen that in 45+ years of following 9th region basketball ... And I am a little suspect of it now ...

Okay, someone's gotta ask .... Jefferson getting any minutes at NCC? Tonight would have been good to use him one would think against his longtime teammates ...

In this day and age I am surprised there is not video out there somewhere of the incident. Anyone?

I still think they are a work in progress and will get significantly better as the season progresses. They have definitely underperformed so far.

What does "step and half" even mean? The rule articulates, as Clyde said, that a violation occurs when the pivot foot is lifted, and THEN LANDS AGAIN. If you are considering a "step" to be when you lift your pivot foot and land on the non-pivot foot, then I would say anything less that "2 steps" is legal... i.e. as long as the ball is released before the second foot lands ... just before, let's say ... then more than a step and a half is legal .... in your vernacular, as I understand it, 1.99999 steps would be legal. The difficulty, and I think Clyde will back me up on this, is ascertaining when the dribble "ends" to establish the pivot foot, especially on a shot on the run. If you can figure out when the dribble ends, its pretty simple to judge the legality of the move.

A little surprised by this, especially that Walton's two leading scorers were Miles and Jones, I would have expect more dominance from upperclassmen. I think Walton has an outstanding sophomore class, and I am curious who Beechwood had to match up to Miles but I am still surprised by this result. Who are Walton's starters?

They are both special players, and I hope that is not the last time they are on the same floor. Dontaie does have exceptional physical gifts, but he does truly work his tail off to maximize them. Jake and Dontaie are both good kids who work hard and play within the team game plan. I find it unfortunate that some would criticize them because they are, on most possessions, their team's best option to score. I have yet to see either one of them take a shot when they had a teammate in a better position to score. Congratulations to both of them. I hope they both continue to play the same way.

Bench clearing happened with 29 seconds to go, and Cooper had already extended what was a 5 point lead with 2 minutes to go to double digits. No need for anyone to make this something it wasn't. Holy Cross gave Cooper more trouble than expected, and while Cooper was in control all night, HC challenged them.

I still think it's amazing Jake Walter's profile isn't higher ... Still a really young junior with tremendous physical gifts. At any other school the entire offense runs around him and he gets 20-25 shots a game. Not a very bold prediction, but I think he winds up being most heavily recruited big from northern Kentucky ever.

It was a 5 point game with 2 minutes to go and HC had the ball. HC 2 most athletic kids were only 4 days removed from football, and didn't contribute very much. Bottom line is I think Cooper is really good , particularly Sean McNeil and kunkel, but HC is gonna be better than people expected.

I think it will be a close game but Simon Kenton will outlast the Raiders, even though the best player on the floor is a freshman and will be wearing black and orange. I would not be at all surprised if the best player for Simon Kenton turned out to be a freshman, also, but I guess I will just wait and see.

Thanks. Those teams look a lot different than they could. Seems to be a break with recent history at Highlands, having middle schoolers playing up.

I know Beechwood 8th is good - is Draud playing 8th this year, and did he play in this tournament? - but that class at Highlands was, 2 years ago, the best class to come through in a long time. Anyone know the makeup of the Highlands 8th team? Heard a few of them may be playing up. Hergott, Vinson, Buten, Rom play in this? And are they allowing Barth to play up? Either way, great win for Beechwood, and no disrespect intended to either school, I just wanted to get a feel for the makeup of the teams.

They will go 9-10 deep and will surprise people. Losing the number of seniors they lost is tough, but it kept a couple of classes of underclassmen well concealed. A couple of very, very athletic seniors in Williams and Barnes, a good junior class including Schrand, Niehaus and Zimmerman, and one of the best sophomore classes in the 9th including Houston, Macke and 6'7" Pete Knochelmann (who still may have another couple of inches left). They lack the seasoned leader/scorer that Bezold was, but they should be able to score. Biggest hurdle to overcome will be defending IMO, although they will be right there with anyone in the 9th after CovCath and Cooper.

A few names I know .... Hergott, Rom, Vinson at Highands, Ginn at Conner. Murphy, St Pius (may be playing frosh). Are Bessler and Vieth going to wind up at St. Henry? Who will be heading to CCH next year? Last few years the classes at CCH have been crazy loaded.

Basketball IQ catching up to exceptional physical gifts, but I agree, tremendous potential. Long with very long arms, he will be a defensive presence for the next three years. Wing span something like 85-86".

Hey AG Who do you have as best 6th/7th/8th teams and players? Did Highlands 8th win it last year as 7th graders? Tough to keep up ... only so many games a person can get to ...

Highlands had a great year, but Notre Dame hasn't won all those regionals by coincidence. I look forward to watching them over the next few years, particularly outstanding underclassmen Lindsay Meyer and Ali Gessner. Highlands will definitely be in the mix for the next 3 years ... And while I agree one call should not be celebrated or bemoaned as the reason you won or lost, the morbid curiosity part of me would like to see the video that the stills were taken from .... is there a reason you didn't post the few seconds of video Q? I think that would put an end to that part of the conversation.

Like who? There are a few sophomores and even a frosh I would have been expecting to get some minutes at this point in the season.

Completely agree. A 7 footer with good hands, good footwork, a VERY YOUNG junior, any other time I think we'd be talking about him as a transcendent talent. The fact he is at CovCath with a lot of talent around him completely distorts the level of talent he is, at least in my opinion. we will see how this season unfolds, but I don't see anyone matching up to him in NKY. Who is the next biggest in NKY? Wurtz at NewCath? Miles at Walton? They are still giving up 5-6 inches..... I guess we will see, but I expect Jake to have a big year.

Conner and Highlands unquestioningly have the two strongest sophomore classes IMO. Of course I also think Maddie Scherr may have been the best player in the region as an 8th grader, and I expect her to be easily the best by the end of this season. Just my opinions though.

Hate to hijack the thread, but since you guys brought up Cooper/CCH, do we know for certain that Hendrix is playing? I love Cooper's team and staff, but without him I think CCH has much easier go of it.

What am I missing about 3 touchdown passes and only 18 points??? No pats at all?