letabrotherspeak

The margin of victory is a bit of a surprise in this game.

The Colonels are the better team, it is that simple at this stage. They have five starters that can score and they share the basketball. Having seen Ruthsatz play this year compared to last year it is very clear that he is not looking for his shot first. The VonHandorff kid had a whale of a game and made open shots. He didn't have very many that were contested but he made open looks. Just an impressive starting five for CovCath and the subs played their roles very well. I thought they got into transition and usually found the open man. Very unselfish group and will be a tough out in March. Does anyone have any idea what CovCath's shooting percentage at Holmes the last two meetings? The Bulldogs were pretty poor on defense all night particularly on rotations. Credit CovCath's passing and shooting. On offense, Holmes is in need of a 3rd person to step up and score and keep teams honest. McClendon was hurt with foul trouble early and they have to find a way to keep Hill on the court because it takes a load off of Chames in the post. Key juncture of the game which was alluded to earlier and that was Chames missing the free throws, but if I recall correctly, He missed what would have been a monster jam off the baseline and in which CovCath quickly got it up court and scored, then came the missed free throws. Bolden was OK tonight and he did get frustrated at times, but he is going to have to cut down on turnovers and maybe a few less "heat check" jump shots. Was he visibly frustrated and we have seen that a time or two but tonight he seemed to wear a little more emotion on his sleeve. Did they get into his head? Maybe to an extent but I think he was getting frustrated with the inconsistency of the hand checks or lack of calls. Case in point. Right off the bat, Bolden fires his first shot with an off the dribble three and got hit on the arm by CVH and no call. Ensuing possession the officials fall for the Ruthsatz flop and McClendon picks up his first. CVH was face guarding and was allowed to put two hands on him on cuts and dribble drives. Those are fouls. He should shoot more free throws than he does. If teams are going to be allowed to body him or steer him with hands he will struggle to an extent. Is that the reason they lost? No but could be a part of his frustration. I'm not trying to suggest that officials had a part of the outcome of the game but trying to shed light for his possible frustration. CovCath was the better team in a game they pretty much led throughout and they are an impressive team.

NCC should be above Holmes and I think they are the team to beat in the 9th Region this year. I think they have been more impressive across the board.

The 12th Region Tournament should be terrific. It appears four or five teams all have a chance to win the region this year.

I don't think that being reliant on Bolden and Chames scoring will be the key for this Holmes team. There are other factors that will make or break them. From talking to a couple of coaches in regards to the game today, the game got real physical in the second half and LIL took control. It will benefit Holmes to go outside of the state and play good competition, in the long run. Is this team better overall than last year's team? That is still to be determined. I do think this Holmes team is better overall defensively and not as good overall offensively. The flip side is that Holmes should generate more offense from their defense than they did last year through transition offense and points off turns. Bolden and Chames are their two best scorers, but keeping teams honest across the perimeter, forcing turnovers and not allowing bigger teams to run offense and rebounding will be the key to their season. In addition, Bolden is going to have to take care of the basketball and not have pointless turnovers. The knock on him coming out of summer play was his on ball defense versus equal or better talent and turnovers.

This was a pretty entertaining game and a nice crowd on hand to see it. I thought the key for Simon Kenton was Robinson and he held them in it in my opinion. Morrison got off to a hot start and other than a three pointer late in the game, I don't think he scored that much in the second half. Robinson was able to get SK in to some kind of semblance of an offense and when he was not controlling the ball, SK had real problems in the full and half court. SK didn't seem to have much depth off the bench. Kuntz is a nice player and had a nice block, but other than that, he didn't do a whole lot. Overall, I think if you are a Pioneer fan you have to be encouraged about what you have going forward. As for Holmes, they played well in spurts and didn't shoot the ball very well from the perimeter but they didn't have to. Bolden forced some shots tonight particularly in the first half, but was much more solid in the second half. There is no way that Holmes only had 6 blocks, there had to have been at least 10 for the game. Holmes had a little spurt at the end of the third quarter as they did throughout much of the first half. Holmes would jump up 8 and then SK would whittle it to 3. SK after an early 6-2 lead never tied the game or got within but two and that was at 40-38 with a few minutes left in the third quarter. The little cushion Holmes had at the end of the third quickly jumped to 19 in the 4th and it was pretty much over.

Surprised at this score considering that this is one of the worst Lloyd teams in years.

I thought that Chames and Hill's length frustrated Burns inside and Holmes was able to guard Trentman on the floor with some length. Burns resorted to a lot of flopping in the post. Not many teams are going to be able to guard Trentman on the perimeter but I thought Holmes did a nice job on Trentman and contested his shots. I agree with Clyde, Brossart is pretty right hand oriented especially Burns. As stated Holmes is able to generate a lot of ball pressure and McClendon has been the catalyst on defense for Holmes in the games I have seen them play. Tough game to officiate and it did seem to get a bit chippy early. Brossart is a rugged physical team that uses their hands to grab and hold and steer offensive players and they like to be physical with cutters and bumping in the post. Holmes is quick and likes to get into your body especially in dead ball situations and have very active hands. Bolden probably played his best game of the year and was scoring. His best move of the game was when he was on the perimeter and he gave the Brossart kid a quick ball fake left and the defender went for it and he drained a jumper. With all the accolades that will be coming his way, the most improved player for Holmes is Chames. Active on the glass and he had long arms which allows him to alter shots. Brossart will win a lot of games and Trentman is a really nice player.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No teaching certificate for the Newton, but that wasn't a problem for Happy. MC first choice was Goodin, but he was a waffling on taking the job. Thacker withdrew name because he found out he was third on the list behind Goodin and Holland. Supposedly Thacker may have jumped back in once Goodin was not all keen on the job. Looks like Holland has surfaced as the choice. Oldham County is a better job than Montgomery, easy.

Oklahoma State is notorious for recruiting KY kids offering and then pulling scholarships.

How many different schools has this kid been to since 8th grade? Are there any eligibility concerns with him? Supposedly he played two years of ball at the 8th grade level.

From what I understand, is that when Hatton left the team, it changed the complexion of the team and the Travelers felt that they could move Bolden to the two and bring the Beverly kid up from the 16U team. Now he is having to guard kids much bigger than him at the two and the physicality of it will take its toll. Bolden will be fine and more offers will probably be forthcoming.

Which UC coaches were in LA this past weekend?

Based on a few things that I have been hearing it looks like Julian Tackett is really pushing the state into a pro-football state. There are plans in place to reduce the number of games in a season basketball wise. I believe there are other reductions in other sports, with the exception of football. Everything seems to be getting cut but football. The lack of programs at the Sweet 16 is simply ridiculous. Why don't they just contract the programs out? Just because other state championships do not nearly have the demand for products like the Sweet 16, they don't offer them? There is even chatter of eliminating districts and going with a blind draw and playing on with basketball.

I believe the contract at Diddle is up in a few years, but there is some chatter that the Bank of Kentucky at NKU will make a pitch for the Girls Sweet 16.

Everybody cringed at last year's state tournament and the physical play and Julian passed down the edict to clean up the physical play. Then you have this year's Sweet 16 which was really really good. Was it because the physical play was cleaned up? IMO, I didn't see much clean up in how the game was called in the 9th Region this year. What I think happened this year at the Sweet 16 was that you had really good teams in the field and most everyone had good to great guard play. Hawkins, Bosley, Snider, Bolden and on and on. That is what made this tournament a little more wide open. I think the attendance was skewed a bit by Madison Central and Montgomery advancing as far as they did. All in all a very entertaining Sweet 16.

Many lament the lack of a program but more and more I see the trend moving away from programs in practically all sports. At least at the high school and college levels. UK has little 12-16 page programs that they use now. One of the best papers that the Lexington Hearld Leader produces is the one they sell on Wednesday (Opening Round of Sweet 16). That contains on the info you need on teams participating. If you want the record book, it is downloadable at the KHSAA site. I think they could do some form of pre-order or sell them for 15 bucks at the souvenir stand. The KHSAA stood to lose 50k on programs.