Henry Steele

Good catch LABS. I stand corrected.

O'Connor occurred to me, and I was aware of his success at Thomas More, but Justice's numbers at Cov. Latin (about 27PPG) on a team that was almost .500 are decent credentials to be the "face of the program", whatever that means. Still, having said that, I think the argument for O'Connor is there, too. (I find it almost unbelievable that I am debating who the face of the Cov. Latin program is)

Somebody has to throw Dicky Beal's name in the mix for Holmes. For most people around the state, he is the one guy identified with Holmes basketball, probably mostly because of his career at UK. He still spends a lot of time signing autographs and having his picture taken when he's at a game. Plus, I thought he was the most entertaining high school basketball player I have ever seen. With respect to coaches at Holmes, I think Dave Henley is well on his way to establishing his as the "face of the program", but with all due respect to Reynolds Flynn, for anyone over 50 the face of Holmes athletics will always be Tom Ellis, who the Fieldhouse is named after. And, for what its worth, I admire Fr. Heile as the proposed "face of the program" at Cov. Latin, but if you travel around the state (or country), for those few that are even aware of Covington Latin, the one guy they will know is David Justice, all star outfielder and ex of Halle Berry. (Of course, using this criteria, George Clooney probably becomes the face of Augusta, and that is just wrong on so many levels).

A. It DOES help to play a tough schedule; I would hope we could agree on that, for the same reason that when kids are small you want them to play against good competition. It makes you a better player to play against good competition. B. JUST playing a tough schedule, without success, is obviously not enough. A tiny "A" school gettting drilled by big schools every night isn't going to make a run in March. Again, I would have thought that to be obvious. C. Scott County had a tough schedule and high expectations last year and didn't achieve them. But I would submit it would have been different if they had had a Mr. Basketball in their lineup - which is what they were counting on until Bud Mackey's problems surfaced. Using the fact that Scott Co. played a tough schedule "and didn't even get to the state tourney" as some sort of justification to not play a tough schedule seems a little disconnected to me.

I am, and actually saw a couple of games that year. And I love the historical reference and the significance of that Edmondson County team. But if we're gonna go apples to apples, then I gotta say that the Male team that year, with Darrell Griffith and Bobby Turner was probably ranked number 1 all season, deservedly so, until they were shocked by Ballard and never got out of the district. Even with hindsight, if Edmondson County and Male were lined up against each other, I am still always going to take Male as the team I would have ranked #1 in the state. Look, I'm not saying EC can't win the state; if the Ninth Region doesn't win it, I am jumping on the EC bandwagon because I like the way they play. I just want to know if there is some defensible argument as to why they should be ranked #1. I suppose the argument could go the other way, i.e. are they clearly better than Holmes, Bryan Station, Scott Co? Since there are so few common quality opponents, it's difficult to make the comparison.

I was just curious about what constitutes a "strong enough schedule" or what it takes to say a team is "clearly good enough to beat any team in the state on any given night". That's all.

EC appears to have a nice team; I know they got to the Sweet Sixteen last year; and it appears they played some quality opponents in Myrtle Beach. But all I know about their in state games - last year or this year - is they lost in the first round of the Sweet Sixteen and lost to CovCath last year. What is the the objective case about how they should be ranked ahead of Holmes, Scott County or Bryan Station.

I followed the Myrtle Beach tournament, and watched the entire Pickering game, and I think the EC boys had a great run in going 3-1, including at least one and maybe two quality wins. Kudos. But having read this entire thread, I think EVERYONE acknowledges that the tournament was a success for EC and a quality showing for a Kentucky team, including those that EC supporters think are being negative. The problem, it seems, is how the thread got started with EC faithful pounding their chests about "winning the championship" and "bringing home the trophy". If the first few posts had said simply "Way to go EC, great showing against high caliber opponents", most of the rest of this thread wouldn't have existed. The first few posts about "championships" and "trophies" are misleading. THAT was the problem, not the caliber of the opponents or, however this happened, the comparison to the Lloyd tournament. It seems to me that maybe some of EC faithful are looking for a fight - the "Way to bring home the championship" thing sounds like bait to me, intended to elicit the response that it got. In any event, I like watching EC and enjoy the way they play. And that is coming from a loyal Holmes alum and Ninth Region guy. I'll be cheering for EC as soon as the Ninth Region is done at the Sweet Sixteen (Love the whole small school David-Goliath thing). That's when this thing is gonna get settled. Maybe we should just look forward to seeing you guys in Lexington - since there is no chance any of us in NoKy see EC up here until then - and tone down the rhetoric a notch.

Not arguing that 3 pointers aren't great momentum shifters, but I gotta tell ya I don't know that I've ever seen a team hit 7 or 8 in a row. That would be a pretty great bunch of shooters and some pretty bad perimeter defense, wouldn't it?

I think Henley has done a good job of getting his guys to buy into good defense as a way to win games when the shots aren't falling. Those forty years include, by the way, three state runners-up and some pretty fair players named Green, Riley, Schloemer, Wimzie, Beal, Jennings, Pouncy, Hayes, Hill, Rice, Henderson, ..... and none of those teams played defense the way they have the last two years.

Besides all of the other reasons that the number of dunks is worth mentioning, I will offer this as an additional reason they are valuable: they are the highest percentage shot on the floor. If there is some implicit meaning that having a lot of dunks is somehow a bad thing because you infer that solid fundamentals are sacrificed, have you seen Holmes play the last two years? They are easily the most intense and effective defensive teams of the last forty years from Holmes.

Final.

Rico?

Just heard Holmes leads 36-27. Two dunks by Pittman, one each by JJ and Housely.

Now 28-11 in the third. Any details TRice?

But wasn't that the issue with Jaime Walz' point total, i.e. if you included her 7th and 8th grade numbers she set the state scoring record, and didn't she prevail in her argument that those points counted?

Even if you've played varsity as a 7th/8th grader?

I'm sure this has been covered before, but is McClendon any relation of Andre or Eddie, both of whom played at Holy Cross (Ed - late 70's, Andre - early 90's). If so, does his participation on a varsity level affect his ability to change schools? Not trying to start any rumors, just wondering if the Holmes braintrust thinks it is in their interest to get him some varsity time for reasons other than just "seasoning"?

Anybody got stats?

Big win by a big margin - a rather emphatic statement by the Dogs. It did seem like Bryan Station lacked any semblence of an inside offense - is that typical for BS?

A lot of team fouls both ways - anybody besides Adams in trouble?

Old fashioned 3 point play by Pittman - Holmes leads by 2

45-44 end of third quarter - turnover + technical foul on Arnold took wind out of Holmes sail.

So after the 9-0 start, Holmes outscores BS 29-18 the remainder of the half - I am having trouble understanding the radio guys making a big deal out about how much the BS press bothered Holmes and how BS dictated tempo??

The radio guys just said Housely had a jam at the end of the first quarter - what was he talking about?