Patveep

Three of us attended the game together and were were very impressed with the way Holmes played. they shoot better than most Holmes teams have over the year and they played extremely hard. They do a great job of finishing inside and they ran the floor under control. Hill, henderson and Rice were great. I have seen Jefferson play better. He has developed a habit of picking up his dribble too soon and throwing long, high passes over the zone. Several were intercepted. Once he got into the half court game, he did a fine job of getting the ball inside. Edmonson would play about 5 seconds, if I were coaching. It is one thing to have a bad game and another to mope around and sit on the bench during TO's when the other players are huddling around the coach. At one point, one of the coaches saw him sitting there and said "you had better get up here if you want to play" and he did. But he sat down again on the very next time out. Henderson was not a bad team at all, and that made the win all the better.

I saw the game and CCH made a boat load of TO's and few were forced. Bovard made 3 in the first minute of the 2nd. half, but everyone else probably had as many as he did before the game was over. Three of us went to the game and we all thought that CCH over passed. They tried to throw bounce passes through seas of arm's and legs during the first half. They played better during the 3rd. quarter and began hitting some shots. Then in the 4th quarter they played as poor a quarter as I have ever seen a CCH team play. I don't think this game can be explained in terms of logic. These things happen to every team and CCH will be back. I expect that the return of Tierney will be a huge shot in the arm.

Big Stud...I want to be kind because it is Christmas. I think it is a phenomena that the players in the 9th region who played so very long ago were better than today's players. I don't believe that is true everywhere and in fact the reverse is true most places. On the other hand, the game has changed less than you think. Many of those on my list went on to play for 20 more years at one place or another and the game did not pass them by. We did spend much time just shooting or playing shooting games. We did not lift and we did not play as hard as they do today and the drop off after the starters was far more dramatic back then, but we did put the ball in the basket as anyone who ever saw players like the Tieman brothers, Bob Barton who was the equal of Scott Draud or Dick Vories shoot the ball from anywhere on the floor will attest. Your comment on McHale says far too much about you. You are too young to have seen McHale, but perfectly willing to judge him. You need to think a bit deeper before you post. I do know where you are coming from because when I was 21, I knew all there was to know about everything. When you look back on this exchange with Equus, Firebird and me, you will be a bit embarassed, if you are as smart as I think you are. By the way, I had lunch with Ken Shields the other day. Why don't you call him and get his opinion.

I can attest to the fact that Highlands was referred to as the "Cake eaters" as far back as the 40's. I can remember all of us shouting that to Tom Rohrer as he passed us on the way to the end zone. It was an inner city thing as we thought everyone in Ft. Thomas was rich. And compared to most of us, they were. I think the term goes back to Marie Antionette who, when told the populus had no bread, said "let them eat cake". I don't know the origin as in who first applied the term to Highlands, but my brother used the term in 1948 when he took me to a game.

I will put a plug in for Bucky Steffen of St. Henry's.

I agree with ColonelFan......When we go down state, the play is rougher and it is difficult to adjust. I don't like the rough style, but as a realist, you have to be able to match it or you will end up on the short end of the rebounding and shooting percentages. Smith and Lorenzen et al were able to do more than hold their own. Ryle was pressed hard and bumped often and lost a game to a team that they would have beaten had the game been called the way a game is called in No. Ky. There have been others.

Zig .. Barton was good enough to have Adolph Rupp come to his home and offer him a grant. Had Gary seen him, he would be in the first 5. Leo Foster made the greatest play I ever saw on a basketball court. The ball bounced off a Holmes player and was heading for out of bounds at mid-court when Foster decided to try to save it. Everyone thought it was just wasted effort, buy Foster put it in a gear that only he and Beal had and picked the ball up inches before it went out of bounds. He did not have time to turn around so he threw the ball backward and underhand to a streaking teammate some 40 feet away who laid it in. The place went crazy! Later we realized that he did not know where the teammate was locatated and much luck was involved. On the other hand, it was those wrists that allowed Leo to spend many, many years in the majors He would certainly be the expert I would turn to for this list.

Dick Maile would have been on my list had I picked 15 players. He is another example of outside shooting. I think Dick is still in the top 10 scorers of all time at LSU. He could flat out shoot. You are also correct about comparing players who went to lower level d-1 or d-2 schools with the list I submitted. Big Stud goes from the specific to the whole when comparing speed. Because Beal was very fast does not make others fast. Schloemer was flat told by top teams that he was a tweener and that proved correct when he signed at UC, yet he was one of the very best of the players on the recent top 25 list. Citing speed as the saving grace of today's Northern Kentucky players is dangerous. We are not famous for producing quick players in any era.Neither are we famous for producing tall players, but my team towers over the more recent picks with Cowens at 6' 9" and Thobe at 6' 8" and Staverman and Stone at 6' 7". Maile and Turner were 6' 4 and Crigler was tall enough to foul out Elgin Baylor who could play some. Crigler, of course ,started on a National Championship team.

I agree with you on Beal, but I picked a team of players who played more than 25 years ago. The players today are generally quicker and stronger, but there is no way that the newer players could shoot with us. We practiced shooting and not dunking and weight lifting. Only John Brannen and Scott Draud could shoot with the team I picked. My team also accomplished more. Cowens, needless to say, is on the top 50 who ever played the game list. Tieman started for 3 years for Louisville and played on a team that killed UK. He guarded West and Robertson (he will tell you without success). Barton and Draud were virtually the same player, but Barton went on to play major league baseball for many years. John Turner played for the Chicago Bulls after starting for a Louisville team that went to the final four (along with Tieman). George Stone was a very good player in the ABA. Jack Thobe was a star at Xavier and had Redmond not been drafted, he would have been a great player for Eastern. The defensive intensity is much better today and the players are quicker, but not enough to make up for the fact that they don't shoot well. The benches are much deeper today as the second teams are made up of future players rather than football players who were used to play "toughen up" the first team. This is a phenomena of our region. It can't be explained in terms of logic and/ or generalities, but the players I picked were better and I inadvertently left Larry Staverman off my team who used to guard Pettit and Baylor on ocassion when he played for the Royals. It does not necessarily hold true in other parts of the state and country. In fact the reverse is probably true in most areas with the newer players being better.

Just for fun, I will pick a team that goes back beyond 25 years that would beat any team picked so far. 1 Dave Cowens 2 George Stone 3 John Turner 4 Tom Thacker 5 Dick Vories 6 Roger Tieman 7 Bucky Steffen 8 Bob Barton 9 John Crigler 10 Larry Redmond 11 Jack Thobe..so he didn't play in the 9th! It's my team and I get to pick and he lived in the 9th. 12 Jerry Rump The guards would have to rotate because all were great and brought different things. One thru 4 would start every night. Barton would be my designated shooter. Tieman would start at point because he could do it all, but the remainder of the guards were just as good, but could not play d with Roger and he evolved from a scorer to a pass first olayer in college. I feel sorry for those of you who did not get to see Bucky Steffen play. Cornelius Freeman said it best when asked by a friend of mine how his Deporres team had fared against St. Henry. He said " some little fat guy beat us by himself. That dude just ran up the walls." Vories was the state's all time college college scoring leader until Travis Grant came along. Redmond took his team to the State finals and was All bluegrass Tournamnet his freshman year at Eastern and then got drafted into the service. Rump accepted a scholarship to UK., but developed health problems. Thobe was a big scorer on a very good Xavier U. team. John Crigler's drives to the basket fouled out Elgin baylor and led UK to an NCAA championship that night. i went to a 3 point shooting contest at the YMCA and we all argued about who would win. No one mentioned Crigler because he played center in HS. He won by a wide margin. he almost made the Royals and Tom Marshal told a friend of mine he would have made the team, had he played guard at UK. Tom thacker is the answer to a trivia question. Who played on an NCAA champion, an AbA champion and an NBA Championship team? Few know this. Sorry for the long post, but basketball started more than 25 years ago and while the players are generally better conditioned now, shooting has become a lost art.

I too was looking for Castenada on the first team.

It was nice to ee Marcus Davis on the list. someone has to be opening some nice holes for Faris and OLmen seldom get much credit. I want to put ina good word for Chase Cesil. Frankly I thought he was just average earlier in the year. He has looked great the past several games and deserves some credit for peaking at just the right time. His long passing game is great and he does ok at avoiding the rush and throwing on the run. I look for both Cecil and Burke to put up big numers this week. Highlands DB's are not up to the usual high standard.

If Rose Hill lied willingly and knowingly, what kind of message does that send to young minds. It does not take rocket science to figure out that the answer is "get in a tight spot, tell a lie" Later, of course, you will have to tell several more to try to get out of the situation created by the first lie. There are answers to questions that avoid telling the whole story, but that fall short of just plain telling a lie.