letabrotherspeak

Let's see.... The kid's brother plays college ball for a really good team in the area and he and family were documented in a book about basketball? Thank you I will accept my free home Jeopardy game and Rice A Roni treats at the door.

The game was close for about a quarter and a half. Newport was able to hang around until Holmes turned up the pressure with some trapping all over the floor and forcing some turnovers and quick shots. Snapp probably got half of his scoring in the first quarter and will be a nice little player once he gets a little thicker but he has a nice all around game. I'm not sure what Bolden's shooting numbers were but he did not take a lot of shots. In the first half Newport pretty much ran doubles at him in the half court and he found Hill or Chames in the paint who scored easily. I would imagine we will see a lot of that but Holmes shot the ball decently from the perimeter, but really didn't take a lot of threes. McClendon is quick and ran some point tonight. Once they got Newport rushing shots and turning it over, it was pretty much over.

And that's a wrap. This whole season has been about gaining experience and being able to hold onto their recruiting class. We knew it was going to be bad and it was, but that is what you get for hanging on to Joker Phillips an extra year. Jalen got the bulk of the work at QB because Max can't move and the OL was bad. In all with the exception of the Georgia game at times, I think they laid it on the line each week. I just don't think the staff has any confidence in Towles reading defenses. I heard Lorenzen on a pregame show talking about how Towles coming out of Highlands is coming from a passing system where you simply throw it to a spot. No pretreat of the defense, you just heave it to a spot. He feels that the learning curve for Towles has been steep or more steep than other QB's that have come out of Highlands to D-1 schools. I think the Phillips kid will give them a run a QB for next year. I thought he looked the best of all the QB's at the spring game, definitely threw the best ball. Hang on to the recruiting class and finish it strong and go into next year looking to make some progress on offense. It was an ugly season but I think most knew it would be.

Internally, sure they are squashing it but if someone digs and the only one at the C-J that has ever even approached that has been Tim Sullivan. You think you are going to get investigative journalism out of Crawford now. The one to watch is Prisbell from the USAToday. If he starts looking then its not good and have heard, no not Matt Jones, that he is particularly interested in the Behanan piece. Remember, UNC tried to bury the whole Hairston deal. In regards to Ware he does have a bit of a checkered past all the way back to his recruitment.

Behanan failed to appear in court after being cited in Kenton County this past summer. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Prisbell from USA Today seems very interested in this story. He doesn't have a bench warrant but likely has a suspended license as well. It is a little head scratching to see the Case fellow go to Brandenberg and cancel his registration with the vehicle that Ware was driving, one day after all of this hit the news? He is connected to UL and did some work with Gorky Dieng and tried to set up some appearances for Dieng...one particular was with Jeff Ruby. I believe the Behanan deal is still connected to the Washington fellow from Nelligan.

Newman is the name I heard. Cal an Antigua visited with him last night.

Behanan is a multiple multiple multiple drug offender. It takes quite a few dirty tests to get suspended and it takes a bunch more to get what he got. What was surprising is that it took the media two or three days to catch on that he was booted and only then it was in the press release. He had been booted a few days before. Ware was also suspended for having a dirty drug test as well, but no way they would release and ruin the national story that he became. Easier to hide it through him doing rehab and so forth. At some point enough is enough and you got to move on. I guess he will have to have some clean tests all the way through the end of the semester and if he does, he will be back.

UL's schedule is really hurting Bridgewater's chances at a Heisman and it seems as more as the season wears on the bigger the slide his hopes take. There are 4-5 other QB's getting heat and Bridgewater is not one of them.

This game was not much fun to watch. Even though the scoring suggests it may have been, but the game just wore on and on and on. Roughly three hours to finish this one. The officials were wretched. Sure there may have been some missed calls, but they wouldn't give signals, conferenced too much and didn't hustle IMO. Holmes was in control the entire game, even though Bellevue got within a TD in the last minute. How about the antics of the Bellevue coach in the second half? He ran down to the 10 yard line arguing about a call, threw his hat and the official right there didn't say a word. Then he calls timeout and the officials let him rant and rave on the field for the entire timeout and he runs and throws his hat again. I would have been embarrassed if I were a Bellevue fan seeing that display. It was something you would see at a peewee football game. Bellevue didn't lie down and kept fighting and they have some decent players. Scruggs is really good but looked like he was gassed. Holmes was sloppy but probably expected with all the young players logging major minutes. I was told they were missing 6 starters and most if not all play both ways.

Jocketty is not without blame. The Marlon Byrd deal or lack thereof blocking him to the Pirates turned out to be a big deal. Standing idle at AS break when team needed a spark. Dusty kind of took a shot at Jocketty in presser over Byrd being with Pirates and how he helped them.

That sound you hear, is their window of opportunity closing. Last year was their best chance. One of the favorites this year and simply didn't get the job done. Many will point to injuries, but the Cardinals and Pirates pretty much lost 2/5 of their starting rotation for the year. The Pirates used 12 different pitchers...all three teams had injuries. What to do? You move Chapman to the rotation or you trade him. I think you shop Phillips and see what you can get for him. You let Arroyo walk. You try to re-sign Choo, but if he balks you try and lock up Bailey. Free Agent OF and 3B are underwhelming. Dusty Baker. One year left. He will not get an extension. Does he come back, retire or get fired? Jacoby falls on the sword. Hire a hitting coach who emphasizes hitting middle to opposite. One thing is for sure, there has to be changes to the everyday eight in some form or fashion.

Holmes is a very average team right now. People away from the program probably don't realize the negative impact that the previous coaching staff had on the program going forward. Last year the Bulldogs had a solid core of playmakers and thumped the Tigers pretty soundly last year, but the previous staff neglected the feeder programs. It is going to take Coach Nevels a few years to develop those numbers going forward but with Coach Nevels they have a clear vision of where they want to go from the middle school program forward. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs Jon Scruggs is a senior. He is a special special player despite his size. I would venture to say he is one of the best RB's if not the best RB in NKY. Beechwood's plan was to bottle him up and key on him and he still went for over 100 yards rushing despite 11 white jerseys keying on him every play. To start the game it looked like Holmes wanted to spread the field and force Beechwood to defend sideline to sideline. Once the starting QB for Holmes went out with an injury, Fred Vickers, any threat of a passing game went with it. Holmes did show some grit to start the second half and had a chance to get right back into it, but an INT for Beechwood dashed any hopes of a comeback. I was impressed with Fiegler. He throws a nice ball and makes good decisions. The RB's for Beechwood run hard and the receivers are solid. I liked what I saw from Hayden. Beechwood is really really solidly coached and had a solid game plan after the first couple of series were duds. From formations to execution Beechwood looked really good for a stretch there in the late 1st quarter til halftime. Congrats to the Tigers.

Ulis and Booker both told Cal they were coming this weekend. Both will announce on their own time.

Holmes scored 13 points in the final 3 minutes to get the win. Fred Vickers replaced an injured Brumfield kid in the third quarter. Vickers hit a long pass to Mincy for a TD, but Holmes elected to go for two with about three minutes to go and was stopped. Lloyd had a RB break down the sideline for an apparent long TD run, but Jon Scruggs ran him down and poked the ball loose from behind from inside the ten which led top a scramble in end zone for the ball. Holmes recovered and got ball on 20 w about 2 minutes to go. Holmes moved it to midfield with under a minute to go. Vickers threw a pass down the middle for Mincy but it was a little under thrown and Mincy and defender went for it and ball got knocked into air and Mincy caught I and raced 15 yards or so into he end zone. PAT was good. Lloyd tried the hook and ladder on their last play but Holmes stopped it around midfield to preserve the win.

You can scheme all you want but UK doesn't have any depth on the lines and LB and DB's are really thin. We will learn a little more about WKU when they play Tennessee in two weeks. The one fault I find with Stoops was not getting Smith in there two start the second half. You can lose to a SunBelt team when your overall talent level is not as good as the other team. You got some true freshman who have some talent but will take some time to develop. If you can't settle on a QB, you don't have a quarterback. The biggest victory for Stoops this year will be to keep his recruiting class in tact and Im sure they are aware of the situation that UK is in. Again the damage that Joker did to this program, and the additional year he was given set this program back even further.

Why is everyone surprised at the score? Sure losing to WKU is not good going forward but this team is not going to win 6 games this year and 3-4 is pretty much the expectation. WKU has better talent from top to bottom. WKU is the better team. Petrino is a damn good coach who will be back in a major conference within 2 years. The damage done by Joker in his years will be far reaching at least into next season. Until Stoops can build some depth they are going to really struggle. Im anxious to see how they progress through the year.

I would also say there is a correlation to those schools that have abundant and strong feeder programs and those who do not or are in the developmental phase of them.

I believe beginning this year that the state has really restricted how money can be used in athletics, via the changes to the "Redbook". I wonder if this will impact this fundraising/spending.

Lord have mercy that was one heckuva block. Is there any video of that out there. The kid that got hit is a decent size kid himself. Too his credit he got up after a few minutes. Only one game in and you can tell a difference in this Holmes team than that of the last two years. This team is not as overall talented as last year's group but infinitely more disciplined. No wild looking socks and attire or ridiculous number of procedure penalties that we saw in abundance from last year's team. Congratulations to Coach Nevels and his staff. The team is really young in spots and is having to address the lack of development of the middle school, freshman and JV program the last two years. Hopefully, they will continue on the uptick. Beal is a really nice player and the QB for HC shows promise, but they looked gassed as a team midway through the second quarter. Holmes began to slowly take control of the LOS from mid second quarter on. Scruggs is a shifty kid who can scoot and he finds crevices. I believe he is getting interest from Indiana State and Central Michigan is sniffing around. The QB Brumfield did a decent job and I was told he would probably split time with Fred Vickers who is out with an injury right now.

Not sure what you can really do. They faced two pitchers with 5+ ERA's and only scratched out 3 runs. Maybe you move the lineup one spot? Now Choo is hurting. Frazier is a mess at the plate. I say he will sit tomorrow as well as Choo. Hannahan at 3b and Paul in LF. Hopefully, they can salvage a game versus the Padres. Unfortunately, the pitching has been fantastic but to no avail.

The "Trade Market" is too thin and the Reds don't have a whole lot to barter. They are just going to have to ride it out and hope they can hang on for a wild card berth. The door opened for them to gain some ground and they have not taken advantage of it.

I would just assume the Baseball Gods are not smiling on the Reds this year. Last year they shone brightly especially after Votto went down and everything went right for them when they ran off a 22-3 run in July. We can talk about their inability to hit with RISP, but the bottom line is that they don't hit. Frazier and Cozart are killing me. Cozart constantly diving at the plate. Just watch him. after all of his swings he is falling over the plate. If it is not a pitch inside it is a two hopper to the shortstop. Zero balance and without it he will not drive the ball. Frazier. He is just sloppy up there. Zero pitch awareness. Will get himself out more often than not by swinging at bad pitches. Chapman has to pitch and get consistent work. He sat for three games. I know it may not be by the "book" but he needs work even during road games in non save situations to stay sharp. Wasn't even close on any of the three sliders he threw. Don't look now but Dbacks are only 4 back.

I can't see Walt doing anything drastic. The bullpen has stabilized but the offense has not gotten any better. They have holes in 4 of their 8 lineup spots...LF, SS, 3B and C. There isn't a whole lot you can do to fix that. By the end of July the Reds may be a possible seller.

The Reds need their cages rattled. Something to shake them from this fog. I really don't know what you can do, maybe sending Frazier down and calling someone up? Rodriguez could be one but he is a lefty. Shake the batting order up? Sitting back and just accepting it can not continue. Their body language is awful, but may be a byproduct of the rut they are in.

I'd say that we all have some of these traits. He tends to be aloof in the field at times.