Mojocat

Last year, North came out hair on fire, Woodford didn’t respond and before you know it, it was over. 45-19 at the half. This year, same thing the other way. 21-5 Woodford County with 1:56 left in the half. Was not impressed with WC last week or Johnson. Tonight, totally different story

I think the development of Fisher and Neal has been crucial. North already had 4 solid, reliable players (counting Scales), but now that either Jack or Grant can be counted on in big moments, well, it just makes North that much tougher. There are no guarantees in a lose-and-go-home scenario, but they are in a good spot.

North by 16

Collins by 7.

I see Tyler Klein has 3 early threes for DeSales today. Another OC kid - transferred at Christmas of his Junior year, I believe. You wonder if he would’ve stayed had he known Z was retiring……

Well, could be, I’m not sure. One hand, we all know youth basketball is known as a cesspool for good reason. Other hand, as Falcon says above, kids moving around is just the normal thing now. I can’t speak at all about how he got from where ever he was to Seneca - at the time it was viewed as simple luck. But who knows. And going back to England was just explained as a chance to play for his national team, which seems reasonable. Again, who knows. I do know that he factored heavily into OC’s plans for this season, and since they only had 3 kids they could count on to score basically at all, he would’ve made a difference I think.

In what way?

Totally forgot until this morning OC was supposed to have Louie Tucker this year. He moved to Seneca last year from somewhere out west, his uncle is Buddy Hield, or so I hear. Played with Oldham through the summer - then moved back home to England. He played for the Great Britain U18 team in the U18 European Championship, and from this graphic I just saw, is leading the England EABL in scoring. 6'5. Pretty good. Now, he's ball dominant, and Max is ball dominant, so I don't know how that would have worked. But more players is better.....

64-28. So, exactly the same 36 point margin as the first time they played.......

Good preview, Mike. The above stat intrigues me. On one hand, the way OC plays, it's hard to envision them winning a game when they don't win the rebounding battle. And I wouldn't expect the rebounding margin to necessarily change much this time around, especially if Amburgey is hobbled. So SK wins! On the other hand, as you say, Max was held to 14, and that's unusual for him, and I wouldn't expect a repeat of that. If he scores his usual 24, that's another 10 points for OC - and as I said above, it didn't really feel like a 12 point win for SK, it was closer than that (I think) until the end. So OC wins!

I see they played once already, very early in the season, and Collins won 82-46. That feels about right. But, Gaither will likely want to give playing time in a Regional to some kids who don't play much ordinarily, and he might want to save some gas at tourney time. All of that presumes Collins gets up big, but then gives some back. I'll say Collins by 21.

I saw the first Oldham/Simon Kenton game, at Oldham County. Pretty close game, as I recall, with Simon Kenton pulling away at the end to make the score slightly deceptive. So, based on that, I won't really be surprised with an OC or SK win. I think a large margin of victory on either side would be the only surprising thing. Since Amburgey has the bad wheel, and SK won the first time, and one side has a 7'3 kid and the other does not.....I'll take Simon Kenton by 7.

I likely said something to offend. Apologies. Note, when I say the players on OC aren't very good - I mean relative to the competition last night, Woodford County. Woodford County is just way more athletic, in a way that overwhelmed the OC kids last night, save Moore. I'm seeing a lot of comments about the OC coach, and things he could have done during the season or during the career of Moore to win more games. And I can't speak to any of that. I'm only offering observations about last night, about Owen County vs Woodford County on March 1, 2023.....

I can't comment on his overall performance, as I've only seen them play last night. My comment was just about last night and what he might have done to alter the outcome (which, as I said, I'm not sure he could have).

I was impressed with Grant County last night. As I said elsewhere (I think, who can keep it straight), I saw them play once this year, first week of the season, and either I just didn't notice how well they played defense, or the defense has improved greatly since then. Because last night, it was very good. I think someone said Roberts had 6 points, and that feels about right. Utter was into and under him all game. They just played well, and smart. Kept the pace where it had to be to give them a chance - if North gets into the 60s or higher, Grant doesn't have enough options on offense to keep up. And that was the problem, essentially. Hammonds of course can score (I though Higdon battled him pretty well). And Breeden at certain times kept them in the game. And Wills made some big shots. But outside of those 3, not much - every other kid on the roster combined for 4 points. Hard to win that way.

Did the Owen coach make some mistakes last night? I'm sure he did. I don't recall the last time I saw a perfectly coached game. But did his mistakes cost his team a win? I don't think so. Frankly, he's got one player. The 6'9 player referenced above, simply put, isn't very good. No one on that team is very good, save Moore. I hate to talk about kids that way, but to characterize the coaching properly, you have to assess what he's got to work with. I thought for 3+ quarters they did about as well as an OC fan could hope for. The other team was complicit in that: not impressed with WC. But the one thing WC has is length and athleticism (is that 2 things? heh). And they deployed it. Their defense in the 4th was a frenzy. And you could tell, obviously, OC did not have the athletes or skill to contend with that. Each possession was a countdown to a turnover, almost literally. You're crossing your fingers hoping to just get a shot off. Moore had to carry them - he was the only viable alternative. Viewed that way, it was only a question of time - was their enough time for WC to catch them. And they did. I'm not sure what the OC coach could have done to ward off that outcome.

As someone who has made the point all year, I fully support Woj looking beyond mere statistics to identify the best player. Don't want to minimize that point at all. That said, with respect to these two kids - Moore and Johnson - I have to disagree. Disagree, that is, as to who is the better player right now. Right now. Right now, Moore is better. Johnson is a better athlete, and has more potential for sure. I'm not sure Moore can play at the WKU level (although, he might, and before I saw him I wouldn't have guessed that). Johnson has the athleticism, height and length to play at the D1 level (I am not convinced he has the shot to be a viable perimeter threat at the D1 level, but that's a different conversation). Last night was the first time I'd seen Johnson this year, and certainly, he's much better than he was as a frosh. And last night was the first time I'd seen Moore at all, and he was as good as advertised. He is basically everything for OC, his teammates, to be blunt, just aren't very good. I thought for 3+ quarters they played as well as you could hope for. Couple that with Woodford, who did the opposite. For 3+ quarters, I wasn't very impressed. Very disorganized. Very very casual with the ball - I wonder how many turnovers they had. Super athletic and not very skilled. Then the did the smart thing: got very aggressive on D, used their length and athleticism, and at that point you could see it was just a matter of time.

Thought someone would’ve posted the score by the time I wrote all that. North wins 51-43

Two key plays in this game. End of first quarter, it’s 12-4 North. Grant is struggling to do much of anything on offense (4 points in a quarter?) and it feels like this could get away from them. Grant calls a timeout for a last shot at quarter end. Whatever they called, Hammonds ends up shooting a 3 at the top of the key. Bang. 12-7 feels a lot different than 12-4. Grant gets possession to open the 2nd, Hammonds scores again, it’s 12-9 - now we got a ballgame. It was nip and tuck the rest of the way. second play: 1:30 or so left in the game, it’s 44-43 North - you can feel them, and especially the North bench, getting tighter. Jack Fisher gets to the rim for an old fashioned 3, now North is up 4, and Grant wouldn’t score again. only saw Grant play once, either their defense is really improved or I just missed it earlier. Good D, tough, don’t beat themselves…..

Apparently was golfing over the weekend, teed off, ball ricochets off something and comes back to hit him squarely in the face. Broken nasal bone or cavity. All according to the coach of another 8th region team. So, hearsay.

Yep, hearing the same. The dreaded golf mishap!

I'm sure that's a common way to look at it - that Woodford is much better off in the 8th region than the 11th. And maybe it's just a one year thing, but as I look at the two regions, there's not a tremendous difference between them. Both regions have 3 teams ranked in the BGP Top 20. Otherwise, for all its faults, I'm looking at the RPI rankings of teams in those regions, and the 8th compares fairly well. Teams above .60000: 11th region has 5, 8th region has 6. Bad teams, and for these purposes I'll say teams with an RPI below .50000: 11th region has 9, and the 8th region only has 7. Now you might say, well, yeah, but the three 11th region teams are all in the top 7, while the three from the 8th only have one in the top 5 and the other two are 17 and 18. So more of a chore getting through that to go to Rupp. And, like I said up top, you might say this is just one year anyway, and typically the 11th is going to be much stronger than the 8th. Maybe so. But, as I look at it today, there's not much difference between the two.

Oh, that's true. Perry averaged 22 a game, I think, as a 7th grader. Which is the kind of start you have to get off to in order to break this record - and if anyone other than his dad is coaching, I doubt that he's averaging 22 in the 7th grade, and at many places, wouldn't even have been playing varsity as a 7th grader. Still, whatever you want to say, or however you want to qualify it, it's a tremendous thing. As for Coleman, I would have guessed he only played 3 years (college freshmen couldn't play, so I was assuming high school freshmen were ineligible, too - but obviously those two things aren't the same or related). And, the kicker, he had no 3 point line! Really what Coleman did reminds me of Pete Maravich at LSU. Almost stupefying, really. So, you can't compare two guys who played 70 years apart, literally everything is different. But each is super impressive.

Anyone know if you can buy tickets for this in advance online, or is it cash at the gate?

Yep. I talked to 2 dads of kids you mention here - I asked, how are we going to do this? And they were both generous with their time and had good advice. The problem was this: both of those kids clearly had baseball #1, and basketball was the second sport. That’s do-able. You play school basketball, and as soon as that’s over, you roll into baseball for spring/summer/fall, school ball and travel ball. No conflict. The OC basketball coach didn’t hold it against them for not playing summer ball. Basketball #1 and baseball as the fun sport doesn’t work so well.