Henry Steele

Okay I got no dog in this hunt, but the player selected by the NKAC is NOT the one that is announced at the state tournament, is it? The player announced at the state tournament is the Ninth Region player of the year, which is not the same as the NKAC player of the year. I think you need Mustang in here to tell you the difference between the NKAC (the "old" Ninth Region) and the Ninth Region. I would still like to hear from someone about who votes on the regional player of the year award, though.

I think I saw a second blogger on the grassy knoll.....

I've never noticed a particularly negative bias of cshs81 or Conner alums in general to Holmes threads (actually I would say 81's comments are more positive re: Holmes) - scratchin' my head too re: "typical alum"

I think there were actually a few other guys in the state that I thought were more deserving for Mr. Basketball than Stepp in 1980, but you're correct about Dicky Beal. I think it was Al Miller from Ballard and Higgs from Owensboro that I thought were worthy candidates. I still haven't seen the story about Clark Stepp that started this thread, but the subject matter is ironic because I remember reading about Ervin Stepp back in 1979-80, the "kid from the mountains that was averaging over 50 points a game" but the article went on to say that he was also averaging like 8 assists, he was a good defensive player, yada, yada, yada. I thought at the time either he was unbelievable or someone was padding some statistics.

My bad. BGP fatigue caused that, I think.

Ervin Stepp was Mr. Basketball in 1980; he averaged over 50 PPG his junior and senior years in high school. He went to EKU where his brother Jimmy Stepp was already a starting guard - between the two of them, I think everyone would agree that Jimmy was the more talented player. I think he lasted 1-2 years at Eastern and then transferred to Alice Lloyd, I think. I was told that Jimmy Stepp is Clark's father, and I also was told that there was another Stepp playing at June Buchanon - anybody got confirmation of that?

If either Holmes or CovCath is looking past Highlands, that is a SERIOUS mistake - they took Holmes to overtime without Nic Simpson, and McGraw put up some big numbers on Holmes. Arrez missed part of that game, but still he did not shut down McGraw like he did Sorrell.

I have always thought Ryan Ernst has had an unusual fascination with Holmes' athletes - wait that doesn't sound quite right. I have always thought Ryan was higher on Holmes than the average fan. As for a blowout of Beechwood, I would point out that not only did the media not cover it, but it took a long time before the score was posted on Riherd's, and there were no updates posted on BGP. Am I the only one that didn't make it?

I think this has been covered, but yes, there's a difference. There is only one regional POY award given covering the entire Ninth Region, and there are (3) POY awards given within the conference, one for each division. So I think that rather than stating that Romes and Vories "tied", it is more appropriate to say that each won the award in their respective divisions. There is, of course, the possibility that Romes and Vories did receive exactly the same number of votes (Romes in Div 1 and Vories in Div 2), but that would really be just a coincidence and not really a "tie" because it isn't like they were competing against one another.

I remember when the conference championship was a big deal - for a long time back in the 60's/70's/early 80's weren't most or all of the parochial schools excluded? Back then, however, there were no divisions, and I am still fuzzy about when the 3 divisions started. Also, what are the qualifications? They do not appear to go strictly on enrollment, since Holmes and CovCath find themselves in Division 3 while Highlands is in Division 2 - I think there are other examples of schools with lower enrollments than their counterparts in the same division. Is it a situation where some schools have opted to "play up" like Highlands does in football? I am quite certain the championships by Silver Grove and Beechwood have meaning to them, to address your point. I am just philosophically opposed to classification, and hope that the Sweet Sixteen is never abandoned as determining the one true state champion. The move from 4 to 6 classes in football this year helps my argument because crowning six state champions obviously dilutes the meaning of being a "state champion", but the silliness is most evident because of the number of 0-10 teams that made the playoffs.

Hill got it in 07; who was it in 06?

Just to add a little spice to the conversation, and a third party candidate to the field, I will point out that McGraw was not even the recently announced Division 2 POY - that went to Sorrell. And obviously that vote did not discount the amount of games that McGraw has missed, because Nic was on the all-conference team despite missing half the season. Is there anybody that can square those selections?

Is this strictly a coaches' vote, and when were the votes taken? Either way it is obvious that the votes were taken before the tournament, so I would say that, especially this year, the value of these awards can be a little diluted. I congratulate all of the kids honored, and I am glad that both Sorrell and Henderson were POY's (that's one debate that can now be put to rest), but if Highlands goes on to win the district and region and goes deep into the state tournament, Greg McGraw will score 25-30 a night. And wouldn't that make his non-selection as Division 2 POY look a little bit silly in hindsight? To show I am not an HHS homer, on the other side of the coin, if HHS had lost last night to NCC I think it would have (still maybe is) a tough sell for Nic Simpson to be on the all-conference team, not because he's not a tremendous player, but because he missed so much of the season. There are some players out there who must have just missed being selected, adn I am sure they are left scratching their heads thinking they had better years than Nic did. Again, not a knock on his ability in any way - he got terribly unlucky to suffer a serious injury that kept him out for a very large part of the season. Obviously these awards shouldn't be based on reputation or last year's performance, right? If anyone has the list of these awards from last year, I would be curious to see who was on it. Were Hill, Henderson and Rice from Holmes all on the All-Conference team?

I disagree with your assessment of the officiating, but I will limit my opinion to my vantage point. I did not perceive a great partiality, BUT I was not personally in a position to see the Lipscomb call. B-ball fan I have read enough of your posts and don't believe you have an agenda, so I'll respectfully disagree with your opinion about some blown calls. I do not, however, think it was going to make the difference in the game, even if every single call had gone the Breds way. I understand your point about momentum shift and critical timing of the calls and all, but if the timing was really that critical to the outcome, NCC has to look at themselves and realize that they missed the opportunity to put Highlands in a deep, deep hole early on by not converting second chance opportunities and not defending McGraw better in the first quarter. Instead of playing neck and neck with Highlands the first half, NCC could easily have had an 8-10 point lead. Again, I have always respected your input, but in this case the officiating wasn't going to make the difference. Moreover, I will always give the officials the benefit of the doubt - it is a truly tough and thankless job and I have never met one that does it for the money or because they have an agenda.

McGraw lit it up and passed the ball well, but it seemed like the rest of Highlands offense was out of sync. In the first quarter, if not for McGraw (and I know that's a big if, but stay with me) Highlands doesn't score and they are outrebounded by a ridiculous margin. NCC had an awful lot of second, third and fourth chances early on, and just did not convert. McGraw is a big time playmaker, and he was the man tonight, but I thought it was kind of an unfortunate matchup that Pangallo defended McGraw. Actually, I was surprised early on that Highlands didn't take more advantage of that matchup and post McGraw up - Grant Pangallo is a nice player, and he's got good years ahead of him, but it was asking too much of him to give up 7-8 inches and 50 pounds to one of the most athletic guys in NKY. The final margin is indicative of a second half that got away from NCC. In the first half, I thought they were pretty even, the difference being McGraw. But Highlands didn't rebound the ball well, and I think that will spell problems against Holmes or CovCath.

Pretty impressive off the top of your head. But, with Cuba and North Marshall no longer in existence, doesn't that leave the 1st Region without anybody right now? Same for the 8th (since Scott Co. is gone) and 9th (since Simon Kenton is gone).

As we get near the Sweet Sixteen week, and the inevitable talk about how the Ninth Region is title-less with the exodus of Simon Kenton, I wanted to find out if anyone had a breakdown on state titles by region. At the KHSAA website, it looks like 55 different schools have won state titles, and 16 of those are no longer in existance. Thus, only 39 different existing schools can claim to own a state title. Other than the Ninth, do all the other regions have a state title to their credit? For those that don't, is/are there a story behind it (like there is in the Ninth) about coming close?

Stats?

Another vote for CovCath. Even when they have to be spontaneous, they're creative (When a girl-girl fight broke out during a game - one of the girls was a cheerleader I think - and security broke it up, the CovCath guys didn't miss a beat with "let them fight" clap "let them fight" - classic!)

My guess would be O'Conner would have been 77 or 78. I vaguely remember him playing in the District at Holmes when that District was made up of Holmes, CovCath, Holy Cross, Ludlow, CovLatin, and I think Beechwood (I'm pretty sure that Beechwood was still in it then because I remember seeing Bailey Morlidge and Pohlgeers play at Holmes). Dave Justice's senior year (82) was the last decent team they had, I think; they were about .500 I think with Justice, who was a quick, good shooting lefty (averaged about 24 or 25 a game) and some other decent guys, including Scott Draud's older brother Jon. Justice obviously didn't play baseball in high school, because Latin didn't have a team, so he took an offer from Thomas More to play basketball there. He also went out for the baseball team, and that's where a major league scout saw him.

And future MLB all-star David Justice

No, egg on my face! Sorry - I think I made a bad post worse.

Egg --> face. Good example of why you should think something through before you submit reply.

Okay, maybe a stretch. But give me a year when any two of the of the four teams in that district fielded strong squads worthy of getting to the regional. Dixie, Lloyd, Ludlow, Villa - you can come up with good teams at those schools here and there, more obviously for Dixie than the other three, but when, for example, should two of those teams gotten to the regional ahead of either CovCath, Holmes or Holy Cross, because one of them gets shut out every year.

I agree with you, but there is a POY awarded by the Enquirer in each of the three divisions. Chances are Henderson and Sorrell will both get that "POY". Here's the real question: when is the Sweet Sixteen POY voted on? After regionals? Before districts? I don't see any way Henderson doesn't get it, but it will be a closer race if Holmes doesn't win the region, and the voting takes place after the regional.