Mojocat

So, I watched the first half of Lyon County v North Laurel yesterday and.....I'm not sure how to say this, but it was a bit underwhelming. If I didn't know who Reed Sheppard was, I'm not sure I'd have paid much attention to him. Simply didn't stand out at all. Now, that was one half - I suspect he was much better in the second half, and in the end all any of this means is that anyone can have a bad day. But, a 6'2 kid can disappear in a way that a 6'11 athletic kid won't. That's a reference to the kid from Evangel. I've seen him 3 times this summer now, and he is really raw. Maybe too nice. But even when he's not doing anything, your eyes are drawn to him - he's 6'11, smooth and athletic, and those don't come around too often. The Travis Perry kid impressed in that one half I saw against North Laurel - hit several threes right out of the shoot. Great shot, very confident, a lot of moxie. Not overly athletic and he looks like maybe in bare feet he's 6 feet, if that. He's clearly finished growing, even as a sophomore to be. Will be really interesting to watch how he develops as far as college recruiting goes. I noticed that Rick Stansbury took the time to stop him to talk yesterday.....

Randomly, I saw a picture the other day of Larry Miller, who was coaching at Meade County in the mid-1980s when I was playing in the 5th region. I had forgotten that he coached previously at Simon Kenton, and I'm pretty sure he was the coach in '81 that won the state title with McKinley and that group. It didn't seem odd at the time that a coach would win a state title and then leave a couple of years later for another school which has had as far as I know relatively modest success in basketball. Anyone know how that came to be - why he might have left Simon Kenton so soon after winning it's only state title? I think that was the first northern Kentucky school to win the state. You'd think he'd be set for life, or at least for a long time. heh. Interestingly, SK left the 9th region for the 8th at some point, just as Meade Co. eventually left the 5th region for the 3rd. I think one of Coach Miller's kids ended up being a pretty good player, and played at Marquette if I have the story right. Anyway, as I said, just random ruminations.......

The kid from Ashland, the two kids from Ballard (Sisk, Edelen) and the kid from North Oldham are the top ones that come to mind. I didn't realize that Sisk played the point - maybe that was because Edelen was out all year with the foot injury.....

The conjecture would be either the school has an oversized (and false) idea of how good it should be/is, or else it's a place where parents or politics or something (other than leadership and common sense) rule the roost.

I saw the letter from Brown. I think the two things he referenced were ability to hire the staff he wanted and “having a presence at the high school”, which is probably a recognized term that I’m just unfamiliar with. The implication - or maybe he said it outright, I don’t remember - was that the Principal and AD made certain promises to get him to take the job, then reneged after he got there. North has always had trouble with coaching stability, at least w/r/t football and basketball, and the convenient assumption is “rich, overly involved parents” is the reason. I can’t say if that’s true or not, though everyone just takes it for granted (smoke, fire?). I did talk with a couple of North parents yesterday who had zero use for the Principal and AD.

The only play I saw was the last one, from Matt Jones Twitter feed. But that was a horrible no-call, again from the one vantage point I saw. I don’t know if they were in the bonus; if not, I don’t know how much time was left so I’m not sure it made the difference. Still. Horrible swallowing of the whistle. I don’t use the choke word much - it’s way overused. But.....goodness. Had the same reaction at the end of Baylor/UConn, when the Baylor kid was assaulted by 2 different Connecticut players and the officials called nothing. Shameful.

Thanks for that, learned something today. The name Jaracz isn't real common, would have to think there's a decent chance she's somehow related to Thad who was a Rupp's Runt. If so, didn't know he lived in the area....

Pretty impressive win for the Panthers, to say the least. Proving to be a handful for anyone. Good for them. I’m originally from that area, and E-town was the rival - couldn’t imagine cheering for those uppity folks under any circumstances! Heh. Now, it’s funny, none of that matters anymore and I found myself hoping they wouldn’t cough up that lead. A function of years, I suppose. Just looked at Ballard’s roster, and they get just about everyone back, plus Jack Edelin will presumably return. They will be loaded for bear.

I'm not sure I follow? This sounds like a comment about a college team, with the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility there's a lot of talk about whether so and so might come back and play another year. For high school players, seems like either they are seniors (in which case they won't be back) or they are not seniors (in which case they will be)......?

If I remember right, in the Courier-Journal's ranking of the 16 teams, E-town was second, so I certainly think they can win it all. Short, quick team, preys on turnovers. I've not seen them live, but we've all seen teams like that - and it just comes down to matchups. What happens if they play a good team with real size? Will the shorter, quicker team make the big team look slow and lumbering, simply unable to cope with the speed of the game, giving up fast break after fast break? Or does the taller team make the opponent look diminutive, unable to rebound or get anything near the basket, relying on the perimeter to score? Have seen it work both ways.

Hard to win when 2 of your better players have 11 turnovers between them. In the end, total turnovers ended up fairly close (16 for OC, 14 for GRC) - so it wasn’t the number of TOs that killed OC, but that they coughed the ball up in some very crucial spots. Stats look fairly even - except for shooting percentage, which looks to be the difference in the game.

Kind of weird each team has a Slone. Not a real common name, and that looks like an unusual spelling to boot. OC with an uncharacteristic 9 turnovers in the half - if they’re unable to pull this out, that’ll be a big factor. I wonder of GRC is a trapping or harassing kind of D that turns people over, or if OC is just being anxious or careless.

So, I am guessing E-town is short and lightning quick. If the KHSAA website rosters are right, the top 6 kids are 6', 5'9, 5'9, 6'4, 5'10, and 6'1. Presumably, they are susceptible to a big front line/good rebounding team (also presumably, that's how CovCath handled them so easily?). I'm not sure if there are any such teams in between E-town and the state finals......

ColonelMike - how much redtape do you have to go through to be able to broadcast the State Tournament from inside Rupp Arena? I'd think the KHSAA would zealously guard that property, and have an unbearable number of hoops to jump through.....

Thanks. I’m not sure I see the point - as you say, “in most cases they have less resources...”. Seems a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

What does “independent” mean in this context?

He’s a good kid - he’s played AAU with my son the last 3 years. Big boned kid (as they used to say). I’m guessing 6’4 and 240, and been basically that size since the 7th grade. Strictly an inside player, good hands and feet. I’ve always heard his future is in football. Was averaging about 8 and 6, must have blown up a bit in this tournament. Good for him.

Funny you say that. I’m not really aware too much of local refs, and certainly don’t know the ref/story you allude to. But last night I was standing outside between games waiting for them to clean and then reopen for the second game, and next to me in a group was a guy I recognized. He’s fairly active in the sports community in Oldham, and officiates high school games. He was talking about the just ended OC game, and was using the pronoun “we”. As in, “we would have won by a lot more if not for X.” I thought that showed some questionable judgment. Then I remembered his kid played for OC in recent years, and I wondered how he’s able to call OC games (and maybe he doesn’t, I don’t know).

That's pretty good - 5 region titles in 20 years of existence. I haven't looked at North Hardin's record in those 20 years, but my sense is that when John Hardin opened, it robbed North of some of its talent base, enough so that North - which previously was an annual threat for the region title - has fallen off and isn't quite the power it used to be. Same thing we've seen with Shelby County when Collins opened - plenty of other examples I'm sure......

Good recap, ColonelMike. That turnover and layup by Miles did feel like the turning point in the game. But....I just had the feeling that was coming, that North - despite being behind the whole second half - was the aggressor and would take the lead at some point. So if that play hadn't happened, some other one would have to finally give North the lead. The thing that separates Oldham County from most teams in the region - not just this year, but in the few years I've been watching - is defense. They are simply committed on the defensive end. It's not just lip service. They are rugged and physical. I know that frustrates opposing players and coaches. It reminds me of the old Arkansas and Kentucky defenses in the 1990s - if you are physical every minute, on every play, the referees pretty much have to let it go. "They can't call everything" seems to be the philosophy. So, for tonight, Roberts is crafty, and has a nice and tight handle, but unlike when he's playing most 8th region teams, it's not simply a matter of beating the guy in front of him and then proceeding worry free to the rim - tonight, if he beats the guy in front of him, there will be another one waiting, and another one waiting after that. North shoots well enough that, left alone, they have several guys that can make threes. But I don't think they're going to have enough open shots to keep up. One thing to note is, North is coming in on a real high, they've never been to a region final before, and I have to believe their confidence level is really up there. Ordinarily, playing a team you've lost to twice already, you worry if a team even thinks they can win. But maybe right now North does. High school kids are funny - OC is the better team, and I don't think North will win. But if they believe........

That turned out to be a very good game. Dallas Roberts was especially impressive - pretty much from the start of the 4th quarter, he basically said “I’m not going to let us lose.” I believe Roberts had 25 for the game, including 23 in the second half and 17 in the 4th quarter. There was a fairly long stretch in the 4th when Roberts scored every time North had possession. He and Miller for SK were really jawing at one another early in the 4th - and while the verbal sparring seemed to energize and motivate Roberts, it had the opposite effect on Miller. Kelly Niece had his customary very nice game, but his 26 were spread pretty evenly throughout (in contrast to Roberts who scored so much in crunch time) As a disinterested observer, I really wanted to see Niece command the ball down the stretch and put his team on his back offensively, as Roberts was doing on the other end. Too often, he gave the ball up early in a possession and simply never got it back. The defense was keying on him of course, and he typically was making the smart, and unselfish, play. SK drew up a nice final play, going the full length of the court in the last 7.6 seconds, with Niece finding the young freshman (I’m forgetting his name) for a good look behind the 3 in the corner. Looked good all the way, but rimmed out. Inches - the difference between moving on to the regional title game (and a lifetime memory for the freshman), vs going home, the season, and some careers, over.

ColonelMike - or anyone really - if I were to drive over to New Castle this evening, is there a decent chance I'd get in? I'm assuming tickets are on sale to the general public, but that in limited numbers. thx

Thanks for that. Good to know - answers a lot of questions I had about him......

That class was celebrated even last year, as freshmen. And though he wasn’t as heralded as the others, I wondered if Sisk might end up being the best college prospect. Several of the others in that group are in the 5’9 to 6’ range, including his teammate Edelen. And at that height you can certainly be a great high school player, but you don’t find many D1 players. The kid at Male (Glenn) is clearly very talented, but he’s 6’6 and to this point almost exclusively an inside player. (Well, I haven’t seen him this year, maybe he’s advanced.). Sisk was 6’3 at the time, and I think he’s listed at 6’5 now, is long and plays guard. He may not be as good in high school, but I’m eager to see where he is in 4 years time.

North Laurel lost?