letabrotherspeak

I liked the fight and toughness Holmes showed in the paint tonight. I thought that Arnold did a heck of a job on McDonald and he worked his butt off doing it. I thought we saw some flashes out of Jaiden Greene who had a nice little turnaround bank shot. Without Avery, Holmes was a bit limited in scoring options and struggled to get clean looks from the perimeter. Other times they would drive into the meat of the defense and force up contested shots. If Bolden was sick he really didn't show too many effects. The kid should be POY in the region. He gets double-teamed night after night and still produces. Weyer for NCC is a heck of a player. He may be the best player NCC has. Pangallo is really solid and probably look to score more than he does. You can see that he has really developed his body over the last few years. Going forward, NCC better cut down on their turnovers. NCC has the best combination of talent heading into the region, but can they string some games together and win it?

When did the school district purchase the field? From what I understand it was only within the last two years. The prior upkeep was left to the city. They were concerned about spending their money elsewhere and that is their prerogative. Meinken has been in decline for years and with it sitting on an old landfill it didn't help matters. The field deteriorated to a point that was probably too expensive for individual upkeep and one had to rely on volunteers to take care of it. I do believe the district has maintained the field in certain respects, cutting grass and continuing to do so in the offseason, and manning the maintenance of the restrooms and so forth. I would imagine that those at Holy Cross did their fair share of work and did what they could to make the field as playable as possible. The bottom line is that the field was in serious need of overhaul and fortunately the school district was able to get this grant or whatever you want to call it and it should be a pretty nice facility when completed. The baseball fields at the FOPA complex use to be in pretty good shape. Have they deteriorated over the last few years?

How did they get the shaft? If it wasn't for the money from Holmes and the district back in the early 80's the present Meinken Field would never have been built. As time wore on original agreements between the school district and the city faded away or were chosen to be ignored, both schools seemingly became dual tenants which was not part of the original agreement. Since the school district now owns the field, and will be providing upkeep to the facility, then I would say they should get first rights for varsity, b-team, and freshman games plus practice on off days at Meinken. If time is open outside of those parameters, I would imagine Holy Cross could use the field.

In regards to my earlier comments regarding CovCath's defense, it is a credit to Ruthsatz and company for making them a more physical team on defense. I do think in the games that I have seen them especially when they are face guarding, they do get away with a lot grabbing and holding. If they are not going to call it, then why stop? I thought Bolden was getting held a lot off the ball when he was making cuts, moves off baseline out to the top. Bolden has been pretty solid overall this year. For the most part he has faced doubles every game and still finds ways to produce. He is in a bit of a funk shooting right now, but he will come out of it eventually. Does Holmes have talent? Yes they have some but not 4 of the top 15 in the region. Outside of Bolden, each of the other three are limited in areas. CovCath collectively has all of the ingredients. Experience, size, ball handlers, scoring at different levels, accepting role players and a very tough mindset. Add a solid staff and you have a really strong team.

Are they not clearing the gym for this event? If not, what a disaster of logistics.

In general it was an ugly game. It didn't seem to have the emotion and energy that this game normally brings, it was just a dull game. Maybe the Conner/Ryle marathon snoozer had something to do with it. I don't think either team played very well and when they did, they both seemed to happen together. I didn't notice a lot of yapping either way, the only thing out of the norm that I saw was Schuh's chuck of the Holmes kid from behind during a dead ball. There was a double foul called later, but I didn't see what precipitated it. In regards to the CCH coaches killing the "overrated" chant by the students, no one on the bench stood up and quelled the cheer and I was sitting near the CovCath bench. On the flip side, who cares what they cheer. They are kids. Anyone with knowledge knows that Bolden is a D1 player and so be it and it just makes them look silly. I do believe there was one chant regarding bull poop, but may be wrong, but in general their cheers are kids just being kids. As for the game, Bolden didn't shoot very well against their zone and only forced a couple of shots. Someone mentioned he had 8 turnovers, but that does seem high. He has not really shot the ball well lately, but is a streaky shooter. I thought Arnold played well for Holmes and was really solid on defense. I thought Moore off the bench showed some promise and that will help going forward. McClendon played well in spurts and really dogged Theobald most of the night. I thought his ball pressure really created some issues for CovCath in the halfcourt. Last point for Holmes is that Mullins has to look to pass more. He tends to overdribble and doesn't find open shooters on drives. Schuh was in foul trouble, but that is the norm for him, isn't it? Romes was solid as usual, grabbing rebounds, keeping balls alive, making the extra pass. I have no idea about the reputation that CovCath is getting and it is probably a little overblown, but what they do get away with and its a credit to them because it hasn't been called in games I have seen them play and that is being allowed to use their hands and hold off of the ball. They have had some success with their face-guarding and in regards last night Flood was allowed to reach out and grab Bolden when he would work from the baseline out to the top. I have no problems with putting an arm bar on a player, especially in the post or stepping up to bump a cutter with your chest. By allowing teams the ability to reach out and hold grab and stick arms in the way through screens is a foul. It takes away from the freedom of movement of the offense. If I'm standing on baseline and I look to make a move to the top and the defender has both his arms around me as I make a move and grabs me with a hand or impedes my path, it is simply a foul. It is a hold. I understand that their is body checking and the sort in the paint and some hacking but on the perimeter and going through screens, when an arm/hand is outstretched on a body, it is and should be called a foul. In general, I think this is what most of the coaches complain about in regards to freedom of movement. Similar to the hand check on defense. Use of a forearm is and can be legal, but to allow one or two hands on an offensive body, the defender can control movement of a player. Off of my soapbox. I believe the district is at Holmes this year, isn't it and if so it should probably be a better environment?

Aside from the games at NKU last week, I would say this game had the largest crowd for any high school game this year, including boys games. The game was a tale of two halves and Holmes just dug themselves too big of a hole. They had a couple of great looks to tie but they rolled out. Credit Holy Cross for hanging in there. I thought the "big game" feel had Holmes really tight early and Holy Cross's experience in the region and playing on the big stage helped them early and they were able to establish an early lead by burying some perimeter shots plus their zone forced Holmes into some rushed shots and careless turnovers. Going forward I think Holmes had a lot of success with their 2-2-1 press in the second half and became more and more aggressive with it as Holy Cross started making longer passes. I would also think that they should look to pullup and shoot some 10 footers rather than going right into the teeth of the Holy Cross defense. Holy Cross has 3 guards that can handle the ball plus a couple of big girls to help with pressure release. A very entertaining game and I am still very surprised at the size of the crowd. I figured that there would be a lot of fans in attendance, but never thought it would be that full.

It sounds like the Bulldogs just got taken to the woodshed tonight. It will be interesting to see the final shooting percentages. Holmes will have to regroup quickly, because they are in a tough stretch of games right now. Mason making a statement for the the 10th Region folks?

Weird game with the two big runs each team had, until midpoint third quarter. I thought Coach Listerman and staff's decision to go to a 1-2-2 three quarter court trap bothered Cooper and took them out of what they had success with in the second quarter. That defense effectively changed the course of the game. Holmes was able to get some turnovers and and converted them into points. James Bolden is so much fun to watch and he had a really solid game. He had some really nifty passes including a handful or very nice passes in tight quarters in transition. Rod Avery played well as well. He's a spindly kid but has good hands and was to handle some tough passes in transition to convert. Andrew Arnold does the dirty work and played really solid all night long. Holmes's offense has been starting to come together over the last few weeks and they will need their defense to progress if they want to challenge for the region.

NCC is tight as a drum when they play CovCath. They opened the game tight taking quick rushed shots and not handling the ball very well. NCC's bigs do not do a good job of posting or re-posting or simply screening away when there is denial. It is like they have self-created pressure and don't take the time on offense to feed it to McDonald. Credit CovCath's guards for applying ball pressure, but NCC simply doesn't pound the ball to the post enough. McDonald spends too much time on the key reversing the ball and not effectively diving to the post. I think the loss of Pangallo limits them in the halfcourt taking away a potential driver to the basket and and effective post feeder. CCH scraps and Theobald and Flood are solid players. To me the turning point in the game was after the basket and one, plus the taunting, NCC missed 2 straight free throws and I don't think they scored on the ensuing possession. They played catch up the rest of the way.

#23 Louisville Male is 6-6 this year. No real big wins of note for them on their resume.

There was a huge charge call on Corey Pouncy, in transition that negated a basket late in that game. Jerry Marshall also had his full court desperation heave at horn hit the front of the rim. Holmes had beaten Cross by 32 and 27 earlier that year. Some felt the 1991 Holmes team was better than the 90 team that went to the finals. Cross was no slouch that year, they made it to the state semifinals. There were some monster battles between Cross and Holmes in late 80's early 90's. In 1988, Holmes upset Cross in semis and then upset Campbell in their own gym to claim region. The 1989 region semi had Cross winning 96-95.

The Holmes/NCC regular season game from two years ago was a whale of a game. NCC controlled the game and then Bolden went crazy in the 4th quarter and hit a deep bomb to put Holmes up and then Pangallo drilled a pull-up jumper to send it to OT. NCC won in OT. As for the 1979 Region Final, if I recall correctly, Holmes had a lead into the 4th quarter and Reynolds Flynn decided to start stalling. Highlands got some momentum and it carried to the end of the game. 1989 Region Semis at Holmes. Holy Cross beat Holmes something like 96-94 and that game may have taken a lot of starch out of Holy Cross, because they were upset the next night by the upstart Scott Eagles. I do recall a game, from like 1979 and Holmes played Bryan Station with Mel Turpin and company and Bryan Station won something like 104-102. Someone out there may recall some of these older games, but there has been a lot of good ones over the years. This time of the year, makes me miss the old Famous Recipe Classic.

Bulldogs get some consolation...Ballard. What factored into the BE comeback?

What defense is BE playing? Man or zone?

Is the big kid still out for Madison Central?

Nice win for the Pioneers. Are the football players finding their rhythm?

This is crazy. Is this the same Boone team that lost to Newport by 26?

Good win for the Pioneers. It will be interesting to see how the Pioneers fare at the Oldham County tournament. It looks like a pretty competitive field.

Ashland could very well be 0-9 when they return home to play Covington Holy Cross in the AIT. What is the issue at Blazer? Is it a major dip in talent?

Who is Dixie getting back from the football team?

Impressive defensive performance from Ryle. I have a feeling Cooper is going to lay in the weeds for a while and cause some problems for people come tournament time.

Holy Cross is definitely turning some heads. It is hard to see Holmes ahead of them at this stage. This region is between Covington Catholic and NCC. Dixie will be in the next group and I think Cooper will be heard from as well. You can throw the rest into a hat.

Holmes is the third best team in the district right now and at this stage they really shouldn't be in the region discussion, but it is only mid-December. Two things that they are struggling with right now is half court defense and perimeter shooting. That is not a good combination. Teams are focusing on Bolden and forcing him to pass the ball to teammates and at this point they are not making shots from the perimeter with any sort of consistency and not getting many second chance points. Lloyd is average at best and there point guard is pretty good, but very average elsewhere. Holmes has to get way better in transition defense and in the half court. They are letting way too many drives to the basket. The Bulldogs 1-2-2 got them back into the game forcing Lloyd into turnovers and turning them into points. I liked the play of Commodore off the bench for Holmes, he does a really good job of distributing the basketball. Holmes has plenty of time to get things corrected. In a sense that is to be expected, especially when you lose the size they lost with Hill and Chames which converted missed shots into points and were there to protect the basket.

55 points is a lot of points if one team held the ball for over 10 minutes of the game. If I were guessing, Holmes had the lead and GRC sat back in a zone. From what I understand, GRC is a really big team. Holmes on the other hand is a pretty quick team. Hence, Holmes has the lead or at least tied. GRC packs in the zone, so Holmes pulls it out to force GRC to play man to man or at least come out of the zone?