Thor of Asgard

So much for Christian County and Edwards. You thought he was Mr. Basketball?

These same players led them to a 9-21 record. Their points and assists and rebound averages are meaningless when you can't defend opposing players. I saw every game this season. One of the underclassmen who will go unnamed could not guard an empty room on a deserted island. His +/- differential when graded out on video was -7 average per game. Simply put, that means this player can't defend at the Division I level. He is not alone, as most of the returning players also struggle to stop the opposition. Maybe Holland will start at point guard next season, but I would not be surprised to see a completely new starting five. Williams, Faulkner, Garrett for sure. Walton will likely start.

Inside at the 4. Williams and Faulkner will both start as freshmen. Another freshman from Lima, Ohio, named Dantez Walton will likely start as well at a wing. NKU lost Jalen Billups and Tyler White, not much in the way of talent returning. The infusion of freshmen and Alabama transfer Jeff Garrett will make a big difference for Coach Brannen next season.

No, you are right with most of your points. The fan experience was not good at this year's Sweet 16, many would agree. There were positives about the event (plenty of cushion seats, accessible from highway, etc.), but the parking and even something as simple as the dropping off of the teams in their bus was totally overlooked. Thankfully they solved where to park the buses before that became a complete disaster. They ended up parking them in a tired lot up the road about 1/4 mile from the arena.

You are wrong as well. The KHSAA spends tons more for the football playoffs than any other sport in terms of ads, support personnel, productions for marketing and media, etc. Do you think they are spending the same for the state cross country championship? They also invested a lot of money into this Sweet 16, more than they ever would for a non-revenue sport. They just dropped the ball in forgetting to buy ads in the local media.

You are completely wrong about the Title IX spin. Has nothing at all to do with ads. Your point is so far off that in your world because Beechwood football offers a program at its game, it means they also have to offer the same at a softball or soccer game. It's not true. Do you think because NewCath has a football program they also have to do one for the cross country team?

Any pub is good pub. The KHSAA did not even attempt to make deals (signage for full page ad, TV spots, etc.) they could have had for free from newspapers up here and TV stations. Someone would bite. I know newspapers are dying, but getting 100k people looking at it is a good piece of PR. Same with TV and 1 million potential viewers in this area. As is, there was nothing to promote the event in the media.

I think most of the mistakes were acts of omission rather than commission, so that means everything is very correctable for next year if the KHSAA takes the steps to do it.

Have to agree. The SEC Tournament schedule was available last spring. Why the KHSAA people did not look ahead and plan as if UK would be playing today is beyond me. The KHSAA needs a promotions/PR consultant in the worst way to look at what could affect their events. Maybe they learn from this year.

No. Another oversight by someone. lol

The other problem with e-programs is many of the organizations do a terrible job of archiving their own publications and they can get lost in cyberspace. At least a printed item is there for keeps.

Julian is a good guy. He wasn't happy about a lot of things this week and did not visit the buffet line as much as you might think. The problem of empty seats in the arena and the lack of community support was on his mind, but his own organization is at fault for its failure to publicize and promote the event. Hopefully next year the KHSAA will buy invest in buying a full-page ad in one of the newspapers up here and a couple of TV ads.

If the Internet goes down, these e-programs become a problem. The KHSAA cut a lot of things out, like not buying ads locally. The fact there was no program isn't a surprise. Printing costs are rising and that's a problem. Printing companies are putting themselves out of business by overcharging their customers. Now the KHSAA does not need to go with glossy paper and that would cut some costs, but welcome to the tech-driven who-cares-about-quality-and-customer-needs of the 21st century.

With UK playing Texas A&M, I had to skip the Sweet 16 today. They should have played the game tonight when all the NCAA selection stuff was over.

Good points on all. The football attendance is also down at varsity games for Holmes. Even the boys basketball home games draw next to nothing. Played CovCath at home this season and the gym was not even close to half full. That's why I knew when the girls won the region the crowd support would not be good at the BB&T arena.

I'm a Holmes guy, and I agree with you completely. Not sure what happened to the Bulldog fan base the last 10 years. The small crowd Holmes had at the state is concerning for a lot of reasons. It's a 5 minute drive to the BB&T Arena from Covington and we had the smallest turnout of fans in the Sweet 16. You are right on, as much as it hurts to say.

I estimated about 1/3 capacity, so that sounds about right. With the Murray fans leaving, it really hurts the Sunday crowd.

Great points. The Enquirer does not even cover high school sports period with reporters, they use "contributors" as the alternative. They got rid of Mike Dyer a few months ago because of more salary cutbacks. Now all they use are a group of stringers to cover the most popular part of the sports in this area. Yes, the Bengals are very good and get coverage. Same for Xavier. But who really cares about UC football? Or UC basketball for that matter. Yet the Enquirer covers these teams with real reporters. The Reds are awful, but they are a MLB team in theory. The Enquirer is a miserable publication, the latest evidence being the non-coverage of the girls Sweet 16 8 miles across the river.

I counted about 176 people in the crowd across the way. Even those expensive court side seats were mostly empty. Just a shame to have an event like that up here, and no community support.

No, he is correct about that. But sponsoring an event is different than publicizing and promoting the thing. That falls on SMG or the KHSAA.

Yes, you could clearly see them in the video you posted minutes ago!! Many of the fans look just like the empty seats in the BB&T arena.

Matt Merchant works for the BB&T management group. He does not represent NKU in any fashion, just SMG. It would be like saying NKU is supposed to publicize or promote a concert or the circus. They are not involved in the promotions of BB&T events other than their own games.

The video shows the crowd. Not good at all.

Yes, if there was 6,000 in the place it was when one group arrived while the other was watching the end of the first game. There did not appear to be more than 4,000 at the first game, maybe 1,500 at the second. The 6,000 announced is maybe counting everyone one and a half times.

It is not NKU's fault. They have nothing to do with this event. This is a joint venture between the BB&T management and the KHSAA. Any promoting or publicity had to come from one of those two. It amazes me that neither had to foresight to approach the newspapers and television stations months ago.