The Double Deuce

Joey is one of the most likeable people coaching Girls' hoops in the Bluegrass, so authentic, so funny, and so consistent.  Such an easy dude to root for.  

2 hours ago, Runcible Owl said:

Accountable journalism. Evan's The Man. 

Really good journalist, GREAT person.

A win is a win, but that doesn't sound like it was gorgeous basketball.  

However, pretty or not, a solid district win do the Lady Cru.

Good win for the Lady Stangs.  

1.  Sacred Heart (16 First Place Votes)

2.  Cooper

3.  GRC

4.  Pikeville

5.  Covington Holy Cross

6.  McCracken County

7.  Owensboro Catholic

8.  Anderson County

9.  Franklin-Simpson

10. Ashland Blazer

11. Butler

12. Ryle

13. North Laurel

13. Notre Dame

15. Franklin County

PaNDA's with a very impressive road win last night.  I've taken some arrows from the "Highlands is better than Notre Dame" crew, this should, I'd think, take a little of air out of their balloon.  At least for now.  

Grant County, who just beat the Campbell County team that knocked off Notre Dame, didn't put up as much of a fight as I'd have expected last night at home.  

Notre Dame will continue to get healthy on Beechwood, and probably St. Henry, over the next 4 days, before a great game with Ryle next Wednesday (the 13th), before ending their regular season with GRC, Manual, and then Cooper (rescheduled game).  

Kes will certainly have his PaNDA's battle-tested and ready for the Holy Cross rematch in the 35th District Finals after the gauntlet of Ryle / GRC / Manual (down, admittedly)/ Cooper.  

We have reached the point where there are only 3 weeks remaining in the regular season before we get into Districts and Regional Play.  In my humblest of opinion this area has a Big One, then a tier with Two, Then a tier of Two, Then I'd put Highlands slightly above the "rest of The Top 10".  I'm sure, like me, everyone is bummed that #1 Cooper and #2 Holy Cross aren't playing this week, but honestly, if I'm Ted Arlinghaus and I have any shot of pulling the upset at Truist in the 9th (not a great shot, but a shot nonetheless), I'd rather Coach Holthaus and his veteran team not get a dress rehearsal a few weeks early.  Oh well, we'll have to wait for that one and hope it comes to fruition at NKU although a lot can happen along the way (like Ryle coming out of the half of the bracket at NKU that Cooper isn't on).

Last week saw the biggest upset in the NKY Girls Basketball sphere this year with Campbell County beating Notre Dame....shocking.  On the same court that Holy Cross had given Campbell County a 32 point loss 12 days earlier, Notre Dame dropped one.  However, Campbell County still can't jump into the Top 10 because they've lost 4 of their last 5 (with that NDA win the lone exception), including a home loss to Scott (which uses that to vault themselves into the Top 10).  I struggled with Dixie / Grant County again this week for 7th, but defaulted back to Dixie has been playing well and has an early season H2H win vs Grant County on their resume.  I'm not 100% sure that game would go that way again, but I'm also not 100% sure it wouldn't.

Lastly, before we unveil the Top 10, congrats to Simon Kenton on the HUGE win over KY Top 5 Anderson County -- that is super impressive for Coach Stowers and the Lady Neers.  They are in the midst of a brutal part of the schedule, so great to get a win and now get a little bit of a breather this week before back into the frying pan next week with Holy Cross (KY #6) and Sacred Heart, part deux (KY #1).  Here we go....

1.  Cooper 19-4 (1-0 last week):  vs Boone County and vs Frederick Douglass

2.  Holy Cross 20-5 (1-0):  vs NewCath, chapter II

3.  Ryle 14-7 (2-0):  at Conner, at Mercy, at Campbell County (sneaky good game) and vs North Laurel (nothing sneaky about it!)

4.  Notre Dame 16-5 (1-1):  at Grant County (watch this one!), vs Beechwood, and vs St. Henry

5.  Simon Kenton 15-7 (1-1):  at North Oldham and vs Boone County

6.  Highlands 15-7 (1-1):  vs Bracken County and at Lloyd

7.  Dixie 13-9 (2-1):  vs Mt Notre Dame (OH) and at Conner (potentially very solid game)

8.  Grant County 16-5 (3-0):  vs Notre Dame (great game) and vs Shelby County

9.  Scott 15-8 (1-1):  vs Bishop Brossart (Top 10 play-in game?) and at Bourbon County

10. NewCath 16-7 (2-1):  vs St. Ursula (OH) and at Holy Cross

===============================================================

8th:  Walton Verona 13-9

9th:  St. Henry 12-9, Conner 10-12, and Bellevue 16-6

10th:  Campbell County 14-8 and Brossart 14-7

Get out and watch some great games this week!!

1.  Sacred Heart (all 16 First place votes)

2.  Cooper

2.  GRC

4.  Pikeville

5.  Anderson County

6.  Covington Holy Cross

7.  McCracken County

8.  Owensboro Catholic

9.  Franklin-Simpson

10. Ashland Blazer

11. Butler

12. Notre Dame

13. Ryle

14. North Laurel

15. Boyd County

Very mild surprise as New Cath drops one in Taylor Mill. 

Congrats to the Lady Eagles.  

No All A hangover for the Indians. 

Final from Erlanger.  Very solid road win by the Lady Stangs.  The up and down season for the Lady Cru continues.  

MASSIVE win for the Lady Neers!!!!!  Knock off State Top 5 Anderson County.  Huge congrats!!!!

Could this be correct on the scoreboard?  Camels, who lost to HC by 34, beats the PaNDAs?  If so.... Wow.  

Since winning the 2A, and losing their PG to a terrible knee injury, Boyd County has not been the same.  

Congrats to Russell on the impressive road victory.  

Guessing either 11 or 13 should be someone besides St. Henry!

Great work this week, this wasn't an easy week to rank these teams, although the Top 3 sorted themselves out a bit for you with two HUGE wins.

Nice job this year!

1 hour ago, Baseball Nut 24 said:

DD - Great job with the rankings this week!

Thanks "Nut".  

I was disappointed to see the Holy Cross "team" picture in the "Enquirer" and you and Coach Trame weren't in there.  You guys did so much to cover the Girls' run through the 9th All A (all but one game, I believe), and then down to Corbin for those games, but they couldn't get you guys in the photo!?  Miss on their part, "Nut", you guys do a GREAT job for that program.  

Thanks for all you do to add exposure to girls' basketball throughout the area.

Well first and foremost, Congrats to the Holy Cross Indians on defending their All A Classic State Championship; that is very impressive!  That is HC's 3rd All A State title in 10 years (2015, 2023, and 2024)...heckuva run.  They also allowed NKY to sweep the Boys and Girls titles for the 3rd time ever (2012, 2015, and 2024), so that is awesome as well (Congrats Newport Boys!!!).  Way to rep the 9th and the N-K-Y!!

Also, congrats to Cooper for a great tourney down at the LIT, suffering a narrow loss to Sacred Heart in the semis.   Cooper just keeps playing at an incredibly high level, and I believe they'll be the 2nd ranked team in Kentucky in the Statewide Media Poll when it comes out on Wednesday (or at least they should be...but I know GRC gets a lot of love from the media in the central part of the state).  Coach Holthaus and his ladies, assuming they get out of the 9th and don't draw into SHA's half of the bracket, have a great chance to play for a KHSAA Kentucky Sweet 16 State Championship.  They are that good.

A couple of quick notes for this week's Poll.  First, you'll see I flipped SK and Highlands in spite of SK not winning a game.  Playing SHA, in Louisville, closer than Highlands played Ryle at NKU was the key factor.  SK continues their brutal stretch of games, they will be hard-pressed to get a win in either game this week, but they play everyone tough and they compete...two things you have to love.  Also, St. Henry's win over Conner was both unexpected (congrats Coach Smart!) but also tossed the bottom-half of the poll into a bit of disarray.  The three 10th teams in the area have some gaudy records but they all lack for quality wins, and they each have taken some head-scratching losses along the way (either in opponent or margin of loss). 

There are some great games to get out and see this week:  Cooper vs Simon Kenton, Cooper at Notre Dame, Ryle vs Frederick Douglass, Simon Kenton vs Anderson County, Dixie hosting Sacred Heart (gulp), Grant County at Walton Verona, and the battle for 10th in the poll:  Bishop Brossart visiting St. Henry.  Get out and see some hoops this week!!!

1.  Cooper  18-4 (2-1):  vs. Simon Kenton and at Notre Dame (Saturday, the 3rd, at 4:30)

2.  Holy Cross  19-5 (4-0):  vs Lloyd

3.  Notre Dame  15-4 (1-0):  at Campbell County, at Boone County, and vs Cooper (details above)

4.  Ryle  12-7 (1-0):  vs Frederick Douglass and vs Scott

5.  Simon Kenton  14-6 (0-1):  vs Anderson County (state Top 5) and at Cooper (state Top 3)

6.  Highlands  14-6 (2-1):  vs Bishop Brossart and vs Montgomery County at Augusta

7.  Dixie  11-8 (1-0):  vs Ludlow, vs Owen County, and vs Sacred Heart (state Top 1)

8.  Grant County  13-5 (2-0):  vs LexCath, at Walton-Verona, vs Campbell Co., and at Summit Country Day (OH)

9.  NewCath  14-6 (2-0):  at Scott, vs Beechwood, and at Bellevue

10. Bishop Brossart  13-6 (1-2):  at St. Henry and at Highlands

==================================

8th:  Walton Verona 12-8

9th:  St. Henry 11-8, Conner 10-11, Bellevue 15-5

10th:  Scott 14-7, Campbell County 13-7  

I expect Cooper to be 2 (probably correct with GRC's injury situation).  I'd move GRC to 3.  I guess I'd have Anderson County at #4, but I wish they had tested themselves more this year.  I would have McCracken County at 5, in spite of their loss to O-Cath.  I'd go Holy Cross 6, Pikeville 7, and Franklin-Simpson 8.  Ryle and O-Cath would round out my Top 10.

This will be interesting to keep an eye on next week.  The 9th could have two Top 5 teams (although I think that flatters the Indians a little).  

NKY sweeps Boys and Girls titles for the 3rd time (2012 and 2015).  That is awesome.  

Huge congrats to @rjaland @Baseball Nut 24!!!   Enjoy this back-to-back Championship.  What a great accomplishment.  

If my memory serves, Julia Hunt is also back-to-back All A Classic MVP....that has to be a very short list on either side (boys or girls).

Northern Kentucky looking to sweep the Boys and Girls' titles for the 3rd time, and the first since 2015.   

The most likely, and highest rated option, Finals Match-up is here:  Pikeville vs Holy Cross.  

I wonder how often 2 of the 8 best teams in the state met in the All A Finals?  Can't be a common occurrence.  

Should be fun. 

Given how Butler played vs Holy Cross and Ryle last month, this result is shocking.  Congrats though, enjoy it!!

#4 Pikeville vs #8 Holy Cross tomorrow for the All A Classic State Championship.  

Should be a good one.