jpa2825

Any player that can't consistently make FTs (say 66.6% for shooters and 50.1% for big men) at every point (beginning of practice, middle of practice, end of practice, during games, in street clothes walking past the gym if a coach sees you, whatever) should be required to shoot them underhanded at all time (practices and games) until they can meet those benchmarks. There was an interesting analysis (Ep. 590 of This American Life podcast) of the physics behind shooting FTs this way and why most that could demonstrably improve their performance by doing so (Shaq) refused to do so because "it wasn't cool." At the HS level, coaches should have enough control over their players to say "If you can't meet this RIDICULOUSLY LOW benchmark, you're gonna shoot 'em underhanded until you do." I suspect a bunch of kids would eventually get better at shooting FTs and a few would decide to keep shooting them underhanded.

Let's not forget the failure to score to end the 1st half. Even if you only get a FG, you win the game. INT on 2nd & goal from the 3 with 22.7 seconds kept SO in the game. Too conservative with 3 & out in the 4th Q after stopping SO on 4th down (after allowing SO to convert a 4th & 17 to even keep the drive alive). 2 PT conversion on 1st TD? Failure to call timeout after SO failed to score on 1st & goal with 2:00 left in 4Q. You have 3 of them. If they don't score, you run the clock out. If they do (which you knew they would), you've got 30+ more seconds on the clock to drive to try to score a FG or TD to go ahead. 3 turnovers including the above INT and a fumble on the drive when down 1 and under 2:00 in 4Q All of the above is sub-optimal.

2nd & goal w/ 22.7 seconds and no timeouts. I think the pass call is the right play so you can have run/pass threat on 3rd & 4th down if it's incomplete. Inexperienced QB makes a bad decision and throws it right to a LB dropping in coverage. Really enjoy the coverage. Thanks @ColonelMike

Let's not get crazy. Big win and much needed after those tough losses, but it's hard (if not impossible) to get a "statement win" without a quality opponent on the other side of the field.

Odd place for this question, but I asked preseason and didn't see an answer (maybe I missed it). With the District just being CCH, DH and HHS since Grant dropped out, who does the winner of this District (CCH is the current favorite) play in WK1 of the playoffs? I assume there is a 5 team district elsewhere in the state that makes the playoffs due to the imbalance, but not sure.

How will the 4th team from the HHS district be determined for the playoffs? I assume the 5th place team from another district will be slotted to play as the #4 seed in the HHS district.

Believe his "summer ball" coaching experience has been with the Swish organization. Don't think he ever coached Ally once she was beyond "rec leagues." Echo the sentiments above that he is very smart and passionate about the game. Wish him well.

Anything new on this front?

Anyone have a box score? Q says 10 Ks for Rom in the last 5 and I'm pretty sure Dreves had at least 4 in the 1st 2 IP. That would be at least 14 of the 21 outs. Leadoff walks in the 1st 3 innings were the biggest knock on the pitching. #11 for Conner had both hits they secured.

Totally deserved it. Had great ABs every time he was up there. Hit the ball hard even when he made outs. Handled the pitching staff very well and was a wall behind the dish. Hard to believe a player that got all 3 Ws in the 9th Region (I assume he got the W on TUE even though he only had 2+ IP given it was a 5 inning affair and Birds were up big when he was pulled to allow him to come back THU), batted 5th and played RF did not win the MVP. Maybe the blown save cost him?

You think Rom starts rather than Doty?

Wow. CCH 7 outs from packing up the equipment. Baseball is a cruel game. As someone said above, survive and advance.

In a 4 team district, that is 9 regular season games. 5 team district = 12 games. I would not want to commit that many regular season games to District play.

Adell with 21 HRs and the next guy has 8. Yikes! Glad UofL has him on the way. Anyone seen Sharp at East Carter? Is he getting a "good pencil" in the scorebook or is he facing awful competition or is he a stud (or some combination of all 3)? I just think even great hitters would have a tough time going 7/10 over 90 plate appearances off a BP pitcher.

If only the District winner went to Region, this would be a very good system. With both of them going, it might negatively impact the pitching options depending on the time between GM3 of District and GM1 of Region. Would hate to see a GM3 of a District tournament end up being contested by 2 teams with Frosh or JV arms on the bump to avoid burning an arm in a "meaningless" game before Region. Assume the extra 2 potential games don't count against the max, so might be a good way to get an extra game or 2 in before Region.

Agree. There is no violation unless making contact while foot is completely out of the box. That said, if an umpire tells you 2x not to do something or he's gonna call you out, maybe not doing it for the rest of the game is a good idea? At a minimum, let your coach know what the umpire told you and let the coach have a discussion between innings about the situation.

As mentioned earlier, CCH failed to adapt to the Cooper 1-3-1 zone. Not only did they fail to attack it effectively, they were very hesitant & slow in doing so. Lots of looping passes allowing defenders to make up ground. Other than the 3 treys in a row, they had no answer. Lots of deflections (mostly kicks) and there was no rhythm because of that. Kunkel was the difference. Walters went out to guard the high screen and Cooper left his guy out there so the entire lane was wide open with no eraser back there. If you've got a 7'1" guy, he's got to take 20 shots a game from short range or you're not running your offense right. Cooper (and most HS teams) had no answer, but CCH refused to pound it in there. When they did, Walters was much too selfless and kicked it back out too easily. When he did, he did not re-post and demand the ball back.

Just a quick point of information. JOAT didn't suggest but didn't want anyone else to assume that Lynch left to go to Ohio because of the coaching situation. As I understand it, Lynch needed a few more years in the Ohio system to be able to retire with a much better benefit under that system than anything he could have achieved continuing to work in KY. I suspect that was a STRONG motivator in his moving his employment back across the river where he continued to live even when he was working at HHS.

It depends on the talent level / spread of the 90 kids. Platooning works optimally when there is a small difference in talent among the top 20-30 kids. If there is not a steep drop off, there are huge advantages from both a conditioning and practice / concentration / specialization standpoint to support platooning. It appears the drop off was pretty steep after the top 15 or so at HHS this year. As such, with this group it may have made sense to have some of those top 15 athletes playing both ways. Also, once you know your defense is as bad as it repeatedly proved it was, why wouldn't you try an onside kick EVERY time you scored? May sound silly, but if other offenses are scoring from their own 20 yd line at a VERY high % (I'd guess HHS defense gave up TDs on roughly 75% of opponent's possessions over the entire 2016 season), so what if that % creeps up to 80 or 85% starting drives from the 50? Even if you only recover 1/10 onsides kicks, you're probably better off.

Got a pair of the new wireless Bose noise cancelling headphones as a birthday present when I got the new iPhone 7+ without the headphone jack. Real nice for traveling and user interface w/ app is very nice. Obviously very expensive.

Can the punter wander over to the defensive practices after all the special teams practices are over?

If you change traditions in a program and win, you're a genius for continuing the tradition in new ways. If you keep things the same and lose, you just don't have the Jimmys & Joes. If you change traditions drastically and lose, you get blamed for breaking tradition -- and rightly so.

At some point on defense, do you just grab a guy to stop him getting past you? At least 1 DB / LB looked like he was on an ice rink in the 1st half FRI night. As you're falling, at least try and grab the guy running away from you. 15 yds. and an automatic 1st down is a lot better than 6 points.

Sounds like a great idea. Quran? Talmud? Tipitaka (Buddhism)? Bible? Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism)? Kojiki (Shinto)?

If 3 OL from an already small and not very deep group were out for this game and a starting RB played C, HHS was not going to win this game. If #2 as a SR would rather play backup QB and get 0 meaningful snaps that shows selfishness and poor leadership skills on his part. As mentioned above, it shows a coaching failure as well. While you cannot force a kid to play a position, your job is to create a program and environment where players want to do what is best for the team and others on the team influence their teammates to do the same. Case in point, I seem to recall his SR year the older Bardo kid moved to TE rather than try to play QB because that was what was best for the team. Showed his character and the character of the program.