Pete Mitchell

Ouch! Hate to hear that!

Who's guarding hall? Zone?

So outside the paint it was a 43-41 game?

Hadn't heard that. Good for Nolan. Is he playing golf, basketball, both? He's pretty good with the sticks.

One son already at Xavier.

Congratulations to Lexi Held on nice high school career. How'd she do in her final high school game? Just tough to play in that district at this point in time .... toughest district in the state, perhaps?

How long was he the frosh coach at Highlands?

There are a few stories about Mark that make me smile, including him telling me that I would never understand what this "whacked out cat from Minnesota" named Prince (who I saw on the Midnight Special I think) was all about. I remember him having a really big game like 38 points and 10 assists (seriously) and the headline said "Beal leads Bulldogs ..." He shrugged it off and said "it's been like that my whole life." He was a good guy.

He does a good job, and I don't mean it in a diminishing way at all, but he has had unprecedented talent in the two years at CovCath IMO. Highlands had them on the ropes. Did anyone else even play them close this year?

Mark Elmer, starting guard and running mate of Dicky Beal on one of the highest scoring teams of all time, has passed away at the age of 55. Mark was part of a Bulldog squad that averaged 88 PPG in compiling a 33-3 record. A silky smooth left handed guard, Mark was also an outstanding baseball player as a switch hitting and even switch throwing outfielder. Sadly he was preceded in death by two other members of the 1980 Bulldogs, Elliott Simpson and Todd Whatley.

A LOT of empty trips by Highlands at the end .... It was a 4 point game, highlands with the ball with about a minute to go.

When they buried a couple of huge 3s late in the game I thought ó

Sobering numbers. I've seen games where I've thought PC should get the ball to Dontaie more, that he was their best chance at winning .... but nothing makes that case better than the fact that the rest of the team could only manufacture 9 points for the entire game ......

Seems awfully low scoring. Can imagine Conner only putting 39 points up. Any details?

First, I'm with BBF .... That individual POY award means something ..... If it goes along with a state championship, fantastic icing on the cake. If not, still pretty good consolation for even the most selfless team player. I don't have a problem with some kids not getting a ribbon, and I don't have a problem with kids striving to be the POY, unless obviously it is at the cost of team success. That being said, as much as I like Kunkel and everything he has accomplished, Fredrick has put up ridiculous numbers the last month or so ..... Near 60 percent behind the arc, and no one has come close to CCH. If it comes down to a Cooper-CCH regional final again, I'd be okay with factoring their performances in that game into the mix. Short of that, gotta be Fredrick.

So I've got to ask a question I posed a couple of years ago, when Holy Cross won it in 2016, they had two players score over 80 points in the tournament (Spencer Macke 89 and Ty Houston 83) and it was my theory that that must be one of the very few times, and maybe the only time that ever happened ... I figured 6 minute quarters, most kids capable of scoring 20+ PPG would have been playing up, pretty unlikely to have 2 on the same team ...

Nicely done, CWB. I'd like to see those gaps filled in, 2008-10 for example, and I think it would be interesting to compare frosh regional winner with the region winner three years later. My sense is that there used to be a closer correlation than there is today, mostly because CovCath has just been so deep for the past 10 years. For example, 1977 Holmes / 1980 Holmes (Dicky Beal teams) 1978 Simon Kenton/1981 Simon Kenton (State champs/Troy McKinley teams) 1981 NewCath/1984 NewCath (No. 1 ranked team in state most the year) The common theme would be when really good freshman (like Beal and McKinley, for example) did not play up, you would see a strong correlation between frosh and +3 year regional champ. No great mystery there.

What was the closest any northern Kentucky team came to beating CCH this year? 10 points in the semifinals? For that matter, what was the closest any NKY team has come in the last 2 years?

Birds were down 6 at the break, came out and went on a big run to open the second half. Ashley Hayes played fantastic, dialed in from behind the arc. I think she had 4 or 5 threes. Chloe Jansen made 2 huge free throws with 7 seconds to go to give the three point cushion, Niece missed 30 footer at the buzzer. Allie Niece is still only moving at a fraction of full speed, but she still shoots it and finishes when she gets to the rim. Just really, really limited in how she attacks off the dribble. I hope she gets back to full speed, and doesn't risk re-injury. A couple of really cheap and dirty plays in the second half stood out. Punch to the back of Barth after a loose ball is inexcusable, would have resulted in ejection if referee had seen it.

Bluebirds 2nd win against a top 20 team in 2 weeks.

I bring him up because he was mentioned in the tournament program a few years ago as leading his NewCath team to the championship ... so either NewCath won it back to back years, or he played with that group as an 8th grader. That's what I didn't know...

Jimmy Pangallo? Or was he 1981?

My fault ... Simon Kenton won it in 2013. That would have been Cole Van Handorf's freshman year, and he started varsity on the state champion CCH team. I don't know if CCH got to the finals, and I don't recall who else in that class played then, but it shows how dominant that CCH has been that there have only been 2 teams other than CCH that have won that tournament the last 10 years.

I could use a little help, to be honest, discussing the Highlands frosh, but what I do know is contributors include Luke Muller, 8th grader Zach Barth, and Cam Hergott. Freshman Sam Vinson plays up, JV and varsity, and I know that that group had a successful middle school run, I believe going undefeated in the 6th grade and finishing as regional runners up the last 2 years. They will not have the size to match up to CCH, but they take care of the ball well and shoot it well, from what I've seen, so we'll see if they can manufacture some offense that way (Of course, in the past 10 years the only non-CCH winner, Holy Cross in 2016, led by Spencer Macke and Ty Houston, was seriously outsized as well and found a way to topple the Colonels). On the CCH side, I really like Murphy and Deere, haven't seen Eubank play enough to render an opinion, but I hear very good things. Hope to see a competitive game. It doesn't sound like CCH has been seriously tested so far, so we will see. I would say to both teams enjoy this tonight, win or lose, because this tournament is done right, with spotlight introductions, and the feel of a regional championship game. Its a little disappointing that it won't be on the Colonels radio network, I think that adds to the experience, but still one of my favorite tournaments at ANY level. I still remember being there more than 40 years ago ....

Spot on. I try to resist being a homer, but the lack of recruitment of some kids baffles me recently, and a couple that I have thought were way under recruited have proven to be. Ben Weyer and Jake Ohmer, both of whom I followed very closely in high school, should have been recruited by D1 schools. They are definitely both that caliber. Dontaie has more than held his own against EYBL opposition. This summer, if he plays in the events I anticipate he will play in, his list of offers will look a lot different. There just aren't a lot of big ten or SEC schools coming to Falmouth.