gbballfan21

Coach Jones does a great job. I hope he wins the big trophy soon.

On 4/17/2024 at 8:47 PM, snakesnot_2000 said:

Does it really matter if PT plays a great schedule? Look at LCA the last couple of years, they played a phenomenal schedule, zero titles.  It will be what it will be, PT will get the job done or all the players they got (like LCA) will be for naught.

I really enjoys the times when we agree! To snakes point ...I think that LCA got a little to used to beating teams of high caliber ... at it gave them a sense normalcy.

Great point here. Obviously the schedule isn't ideal. If they approach it right ... it can be overcome. Having Mayfield on the schedule helps. Graves should be better as well. 

They certainly are not the only team in this state that deals with a not so great last 5 or 6 games in the regular season. They need to make sure their starters are playing into the 3rd quarter to stay sharp. There are lots of great schools who do it year after year.

19 hours ago, theguru said:

Coach Orem sounds amazing but after 27 years who can fault her.

I hate to sound selfish ...but we are losing great coaches in every sport across the board. Coach Orem has done an incredible job. First class. I have a soft spot for great coaches of female athletes. Coach always seemed to get the best out of the student athletes she was responsible for.

I hope she enjoys her time away ... and I also hope she gets the itch to come back soon.

Is this serious? Completely wild to think that Coach Orem is not coming back .... what in the wide world of sports is going on?!?

14 hours ago, 9068 said:

I'd think after the run of talent and success that Holthaus has had he knows it will be a while before that happens again in a very good district. I think Sullivan may never have been a serious candidate.

Not that my thought matters ... but I hate that there are coaches that think this way. The cupboard isn't bare for the Cooper girls. This dude is a season or two away from creating a potential dynasty at Cooper. Instead of taking that step .... coaches think the better move is leaving to go somewhere else.

The hard part is over for the Cooper girls ...why not take that program to the mountaintop and finish the last step before looking for other jobs. 

that's why I love coaches like Noel Rash ... there were some not so great seasons in his tenure. But he stayed the course and took the program to the next level.

You just can't be ready to bolt after a great run of talent leaves. If a coach has faith in their abilities to coach ... departing talent isn't the end ...its another door opening. 

That thought is why I love Bowling in this job. He will take what the previous staff did and build on it. And he isn't going to jump ship for a better job once he makes great progress.

16 hours ago, theguru said:

Don't forget the DC that bolted, took some shots at the head football coach, and then deleted his X account.  Something is going on at Cooper and it is not good.  It almost has to be either the AD or the Principal (or both) running coaches off. 

Couldn't agree more.

7 hours ago, ProblemChild said:

"Ugh" means Conner hired the current 9th region coach of the year (Nate Browning) or the coach who has won multiple 9th region championships on the girls side (Holthaus), as well as boys JV championships. I would say they are both better than "Ugh". Good luck to all 3 candidates. 

Yeah ...ugh. I feel like Bowling is the best option. I think he knows Conner and Conner kids better than either of the other applicants. In my opinion ... that matters significantly to me. I think he has a great basketball mind ...I understand why you probably don't know that. And it is fine.

I understand that there are good applicants ... I just think that when you have a guy in house who understands the game, and understands the school it is hard for me to see past that in this case. 

Whats up with Cooper where both basketball coaches are looking to bail?

17 hours ago, RRW said:

Hearing it's down to N. Browning, J. Holthaus and a Conner assistant.

Hopefully the Conner assistant is John Bowling. If not .... ugh.

Bowling has lived and breathed Conner basketball since at least the late 80's.

In my top 3 of basketball minds ...and most importantly ... he has the right mentality to be an extremely successful head coach.

The name I’ve heard was Sam Elsbernd.

7 hours ago, TRPride said:

Who are the two big guns you are hearing they tried to get?

Sorry ... I am not "hearing" anything. Not to mention, why would I want to break the "I heard" game that "people in the know" always play? One is at the top of one class, the other? that's where I am stopping.

The most interesting aspect of the situation is that both of these guys, at the very least, had respect for the previous coach and are smart enough to realize the they would be out of there at the admins whim at a moments notice. Apparently there are admins who think that state championships grow on trees and any time certain coaches go places it means they will win a championship there as well. 

What I don't understand, was either of those inquiries even serious or was it just to say they tried? They had a guy that was heading in the right direction. Why not do everything you can to keep that guy first, even if he is looking at other jobs. Who doesn't do that nowadays? 

At the end of the day a lot of places have really good coaches. Administrators need to get over their selves long enough to realize that building programs takes people who are willing to do tough things - they are either part of the problem or part of the solution and most importantly are willing to check their egos at the door.If not, this is what happens.

15 minutes ago, FlyPattern said:

They have a phenomenal group of incoming 7th graders stacked with two good classes behind them who have dominated the area on the youth football scene.

Whomever takes over this job if they can hold it, by their fourth year they will be competing for hardware and by their sixth year competing for a spot at Kroger field. 

Kroger field? That's a pretty big jump considering the teams they will have to deal with. I know Carroll tried to get a big gun right off the bat (actually 2 big guns). But you aren't going to get dudes like that when you turn over your staff every few years.

14 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Some of the stuff you probably know more than I about. However to comment on a few things. Two of the years he was at Conner, the 9th region produced a state champ. Then the losses you mentioned to Holmes. If I remember correctly no team in the 9th was really beating Holmes those years. Even though I do agree they had a team capable of beating them in 2018.  
 

What I do know is like or not Stamm has produced results wherever he has been. Was taking little old Ludlow to the region in girls basketball before he went to Conner. Then it took a couple of years at Conner to break through that tough loaded district and get to the region when Boone was still good. However, during his time Conner seemed to have more success than they seemed to have since he left. Then went back to Ludlow and took Ludlow girls back to the region a couple of times and almost won the district for the first time in Ludlow girls basketball history. Then the last years he has got the Ludlow boys team playing really well. 
 

I really have no idea if he would even want to go back to Conner, as he is coaching boys at his alma mater. I’m just saying I do think he would be a good hire if he was interested. Which I know you disagree and gave your reasons why, and that’s perfectly fine. I was just throwing out his name and Nathan Browning as two guys that in my opinion would be good hires for the job. 

I think you do bring up good points. Objectively ...he has definitely gotten results with girls, boys, big schools and a smaller schools. That is a ton more impressive than most.

That isn't going to happen with an average coach.

Maybe I need to think about it a little more. I think it is a little short sided for me to think that someone who has accomplished as much as he has ... couldn't change the scheduling aspect and the adjustment aspect. In fairness ... I haven't seen him coach boys ...so maybe he deals with things differently with them .

Hard to argue with facts fc .... the book of work is above average. Status change: MIND RE-OPENED.

3 hours ago, futurecoach said:

I have no idea if either of these guys would leave their current teams. However, two guys that make sense to me that could be possibly good fits is Nathan Browning who is currently at Boone, but teachers at Conner Middle. Or Aaron Stamm who currently is the boys basketball coach at Ludlow, but coached the Conner girls team for many years before. I don’t know if either would be interested, but both would be good hires and have some ties to Conner. 

 

 

No thank you on Stamm. We have been to that movie and have seen the show. I know he is your buddy ... and he has done solid work at Ludlow and without digging deep ...a good job at Conner. Whether you agree or disagree ...I have a few reasons:

*The complete lack of discipline was never remotely dealt with ... matter of fact "inmates running the asylum" still pops into my head. It cost them every year.

*Underachievement every year. 3 Losses to Holmes in the regional (yes I know Holmes had good teams). Then you go 32-2 ...and get beat by a 22-11 Dixie team that you beat easily earlier in the season?

*Either a complete lack of making in-game and halftime adjustments or being behind a step or two always. (Still baffled by the Holmes game in 2018 ....not prepared ... zero adjustments)

*Scheduling (which may have not been him) ... but good grief .... playing great teams and losing to great teams would have done all of his teams a major service. All the tough games on his schedules were teams he had to play in the district. 

Good call On Coach Bowling. He has certainly been around Conner basketball since he was knee high to a grasshopper. I am not sure they could find a better guy to take things over. 

Where is Coach Otte heading? Surprised by this one. I really liked what he was doing with the program. 

With that said ... until a certain program there quits discouraging their athletes from playing other sports ... this job won't be what it could be. (Funny thing is ... it would help that program more than the others sports).

It will be really interesting to see what happens with this hire. 

On 3/20/2024 at 5:53 PM, Oldercoach said:

Granted I watched the game on NFHS so unable to see the attitude issues you did.  Can you be more specific about what you saw.

Lots of walking around ... I mean a lot.... and the famous "but ref I got fouled" look pretty much all the time. I have tried to keep up with Lyon County and Perry the last two years ...it wasn't much different from what I have seen. Taking the 26 footer when you could have passed to someone who had a better shot happened more than I have seen in a lot of seasons combined ... and it was more than one guy who did that. That feels more like ME than WE to me. It didn't stop either ....not a lot of good decisions ...(It felt like something they have gotten away with doing for a long time ... yet no one has ever pointed out that the shear chances aren't in their favor). Teams that win championships don't makes bad decisions like that ....and if they do ...they usually learn from them quickly. I don't think that happened today.

Maybe it has to do with being a football guy at a school that works to eliminate poor body language ... but that's what it felt and looked like to me (I guess that could be a "basketball thing" and not something specific to Lyon County). 

I grew up watching Clay County ...and there was definitely a swagger to those guys and I hoped I would feel the same way about Lyon County. I didn't. But this deal today felt different than Clay County in the late 80s. By halftime I wanted Ashland to win. They played hard, were gritty and it felt like they were selfless to me. Never got that feeling from the other team. 

Again, my opinion and I am very open to being wrong.

Very unimpressed with Lyon County. Walking around with zero sense of urgency .... until they didn't. Definitely played Moneyball when they had to. 

Ashland played well ... and it looked like they were interested in winning. I was on the fence as to who I wanted to win at the beginning ...Ashland quickly answered that question for me. I am not sure if it is just me (and I admit it could be) but I didn't care for the arrogance or entitled behavior from Lyon County. I've been going to the Sweet 16 since 1985 .... I walked away feeling like I did in 1986 when Clay County got beat way early ... meaning I felt like they lost due to attitude. Luckily they fixed that by 1987!)

59 minutes ago, theguru said:

Or it could be that the departing coach was under so much pressure/fire because what he posted was so egregious, that he decided to delete everything and jump ship.

So this is starting to get really interesting ...

With that said ... who is the next DC? 

14 minutes ago, Breds82 said:

Can you expand on that statement for those that were not there? Were they all called intentional by the officials?

No they were not intentional fouls, they did the “Hack a Shaq” philosophy on Miller, none of them were called intentional fouls. Beechwood was down 40 at the half the first time these teams played, and tonight at one point in the 4th quarter they cut it to 11, so I’d say the strategy helped keep them in the game, so it was a good coaching strategy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cooper or Newport implement some of this strategy in the regional tourney if they play them.

Struggling to understand why Conner never came back to attacking the basket like they did in the 2nd quarter (and the game a few weeks back) to get back in the game. Ryle basically made no defensive adjustments to deal with that at the half. But then again they didn't need to either.

Definitely figured there would be some adjustment after the 4 point 3rd quarter. Next thing you know its the 4th quarter with 3 minutes to go ... down by 15. And there is still no attempt to attack the basket and absolutely no urgency to close the gap. That group of players has always played hard. They deserved a better ending.

Some mysteries in the world never cease to exist ....  

1 hour ago, 9068 said:

Until one kid doesn't wear them correctly, the official allows it, the kid sustains a big time knee injury......and mom and dad's first lawsuit is filed against the official who knowingly did not enforce a rule addressing player safety.

 

I get your point, but knee pads are not stopping any type of injury to the knee that involves any ligaments or tendons, MAYBE a direct hit to the knee cap, but even then they are so thin I don’t even see that. You are correct though, someone would find a way to sue someone.

3 hours ago, Just Truth said:

Serious question - Is there any evidence that knee pads do anything to prevent injuries? I would love to see some documentation.

Knee pads are completely useless, most of the ones out there are tiny and serve basically no purpose at all. The fact that refs waste time trying to enforce it, is ridiculous. Players want their pants tight and not baggy, and in order to wear pants that actually cover the knee, then the pants are loose and not comfortable. Most good officials don’t waste time on enforcing the silliness of it. Some crews will spend all of their time worrying about that type of stuff, and not focus on actually officiating the on field play.

Just my opinion, but I think it’s silly the attention that gets paid to the knee pads on game night.

On 2/6/2024 at 2:12 PM, theguru said:

Anymore details from the game?

Significantly closer than the score suggests. Conner was down 6 with 2:47 to go. Ryle plays hard and has great talent.  Conner held tough the entire game ... brought it within 2 or 4 points more than a few times.

I am obviously not a basketball genius ... but there were a few things that happened that made me wonder about Ryle. With that said, maybe Ryle wasn't expecting too much from Conner ...but lots of "Ref .. I am getting fouled" and "Refs ... can you watch #?? ... she is holding?" The Refs let both teams play ... and were really consistent (There are few times in my life where I would say I am a fan of certain Refs ... but those two were really solid).

The game was good for Conner ... I walked out thinking they may at least have the ability to keep things interesting (even more so if the staff fine tunes similar game plans going forward).

Ryle is obviously pretty good. It will be interesting to see if they realize why Conner was able to hang in with them for as long as they did. 

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

I am thinking this is the last year for the 5 district games. They will have to shuffle the districts next year and St. Henry coming online will change the N. Ky. districts.

That is the hope. It would be nice to get a district with Beechwood, St Henry, Walton-Verona and only one of those other county teams.