Henry Steele

Mae Mae was so quick, but so little. I remember thinking he was the most "exciting" player I'd ever seen, quick and fancy with the ball.... until Dicky Beal and Phil Davis showed up.....

Where is the recruiting/offers with respect to Hawkins at this point? Other than UK being "interested" who else has offered him, and what are the possibilities as we look at it today? We know Xavier has offered Bolden, and Cincinnati has shown a lot of interest, so a couple of Top 20 D-1s for Bolden. Not being argumentative here, but asking... is there that kind of interest in Hawkins?

Bolden's handle is crazy good, and he was a steady force on the floor today, but he missed a lot of the floaters that usually go down. No worries, Dogs win and advance. Watching the live stream, two very annoying issues... 1. replay immediately after every basket, causes you to miss a lot of the game. 2. the color guy (former Fairdale coach) was incredibly down on Bolden... "doesn't shoot the ball well" and, over and over again "he can't go right. he can't go right at all. Its a proven fact". Seemed like he was so proud of himself that he of genius basketball IQ had figured out how to stop Bolden and Holmes. PRP's guards were quick and athletic defensively, cause a few problems for Bolden. Anybody know how Madison Central's guards compare?

So there are conspiracy theories all around.... come to think of it, I thought I saw a second accountant on the grassy knoll....

Best use of a wide rear end this side of Jennifer Lopez....

Enlighten those of us that don't get why the numbers would be fudged either way. Does it look better for NKU to be pulling in bigger numbers now that they're D1? Are they trying to make more off the high school gate by deflating the numbers? Who would have the motivation to inflate or deflate the numbers? FWIW, I thought the crowd at the regional final had to have been higher than that because of the ridiculous lines to get in. I figured if a crowd of 7,000 creates the kind of lines they had Monday, there is no way they would ever be able to sell it out.... game would be over before the last of the line got in.....

I hear ya, but with all due respect, I think a team with Beal, Schloemer, Jennings, and then pick any two out of Wimzie, Phil Davis, Mike Moore, Leo Foster, etc. would score. 78 team put up almost 80 a game, 1980 team put up 85 a game.... Two completely different styles across the eras, and I know its an academic discussion about who would win.... About this I am certain, though, you would never have seen the teams in the late 70s early 80s in a 32-29 regional final.

It's the new norm.... Is not Brandon Hatton already 18, or nearly so? Go to any AAU tournament, and you almost cannot compete if you don't have at least a couple of hold backs. Hatton is gonna break Scott Draud's scoring record next year, but Draud would have put up another 900 points if he'd had another year. Like it or hate it, its the way it is.

If your wife can pass for your mother, I'd say there are any number of issues goin on there....

I meant Ervin Stepp in 1980

Ervin Stepp, Phelps High School, was Mr. Basketball in 1981. Averaged 54 points a game.... then went to Eastern and washed out.....

I was another casualty of the long line... turned around and went home and listened. Figured the long line at 5:55 meant I was missing the entire first quarter and probably most of the first half. I'm glad we have a facility like BOK to handle crowds like that, but really, if you can't handle that size crowd any better than that - the line was all the way down the walkway and across the bridge and into the parking lot - you'll never be able to fill the place up...

Two additional comments that have thus far escaped mention.... 1. Dicky was good enough that DePaul made him their number 1 recruit in January of 1980. Taking recruitment by UK out of the picture for a moment, at that moment DePaul was perhaps the top program in the country... we'll see if Bolden is getting looks from Duke, North Carolina, etc. in 2 years. 2. As a "sophomore", Dicky was not nearly as important to his team or as good a shooter as Bolden. Not even close. However, a few things to consider... (a) as said before, Dicky was a sophomore on a loaded team with the only Mr. Basketball ever to hail from these parts in the 20th century as a senior, so pretty good company, and (b) for the truly observant of this thread, the Cottage AC team with Blasingame, Volpenhein, Shumate, etc. were all guys that graduated in 81.... I"m getting to the point ..... Dicky was an extremely young sophomore, only turned 17 in September of his senior year..... I don't know if any kids start that early now. And I hear that Bolden is an "old" sophomore... maybe someone can elaborate. Bottom line... the "who was better as a sophomore" comparisons probably need some qualification. One more... I have not seen Bolden dunk. Not that it makes him a better player, but I saw Dicky dunk about 30 times in high school, and a lot of those were reverses. Pretty spectacular sight for a guy who was then about 5'10". I'll take Dicky.

But they just swerved and avoided an awful big pothole....

Stats?

8 points in a quarter is "a lot"? Really?

Don't know about that, but Ron Dawn almost was the head coach at (gasp!) Holmes a few years ago.... stranger things have happened.

Layman's meaning of "socially sensitive"? Does that mean wouldn't tolerate yelling and rants? I don't necessarily disagree that that's true of Ft. Thomas, but if that's the definition, I think everywhere is more "socially sensitive" now.

Eager to see how they do to see if her coaching cred carries over to the boys. Her 5th grade girls are the defending AAU Division 1 Kentucky state champs, ranked 11th nationally and will be moving up having just beaten the No. 8 team, Cincy Finest.

Boys are a different debate entirely, the rule about not playing up doesn't come up because it is a rare player that can even make a team playing up one year, much the less 3-4 years. I was referring to girls because that's where the dilemma is, I believe, and if you look at the Highlands example, over the past 10-12 years you have had multiple 7th and 8th graders playing a lot of varsity minutes... Katie Allen, Bekah Towles, Connor, Schaefer, Abner, Adler.. that situation doesn't present itself with boys' teams. The debate, and I think the proposed rule, is limited to girls. It would change basketball, but think about what it would do to softball, if there was a preclusion of middle schoolers playing up on frosh, JV and varsity teams..... my hunch is that it would be very, very difficult to field three teams.

It is irreconciably difficult to make a rule that they can't play up, though, in my opinion, because you can't draw a line as to when you cannot play up, and even what you mean by "fill out a competitive team". A very real hypothetical is imagine you have one class that is exceptionally weak, in which probably none of the kids have any chance of playing high school basketball, followed by a class with 10 kids that play AAU basketball. What's your definition of "fill out a competitive team"? Do you keep 10 kids from the older grade to "fill out a competitive team" that doesn't really compete, and keep the 10 younger kids playing in their grade level, with decreased minutes and the strong possibility of alienating a strong future player? I know it seems like a tortured hypothetical, but (1) it illustrates the difficulty of making a blanket "kids can't play up" rule and (2) it is not a hypothetical at all, that situation actually exists.

It is still an interscholastic COMPETITIVE school sponsored activity. Big difference. If we want to give every kid that wants to learn the opportunity to learn the game of basketball, or any game, let's expand physical education classes and teach the fundamentals in a non-competitive environment. I'm all for that. But if we're going to have competitive sports, isn't winning a goal? Not saying its a win at all costs thing, but at the end of the day, aren't opposing teams trying to win? A huge problem is where do you draw your line? 8th graders can't play frosh, but frosh can play varsity? 7th grade? 10th grade? Where is your line?

Why? And until when? Can an eighth grader play up to freshman? I think players should play to their level, and exceptional talents should play up to the competition level that challenges them. If a sixth grader is going to score 30 points a game, or only play the first quarter because the competition is so far beneath him or her, why would you not have that kid playing up to a level that challenges them? I just don't get that line of thinking.

I haven't seen nearly as many 7th grade games as I have 6th- in fact, I'd like to know the names of the 7th grade Conner guards - I didn't see them play this year - but I would start with a few kids I have seen multiple times that impressed me. I'd be interested in hearing other opinions..... 7th - Perrin (Woodland), Pangallo (Holy Trinity), Miller (Woodland) 6th - Rankin (Gray), Turner (Holmes), Sergent (Twenhofel), Jolly (Campbell County), Coldiron (IHM), Thelen (St. Pius)