kyvince

Inconsistent is the word that comes to mind when discussing this team. Certain times they can look very good, others down right pititful. I know there have been some injuries, but the lack of a cohesive line up does not help. Pick your starting five, ( Thelen, Wellbrock, Connelly, Pauley, Heimbrock) pick your guard subs (Riedinger,Wilson)

pick your forward subs ( Shulte, Hudepohl, a little Robinson)

Nothing against any of the other players, but you have to get some cohesion and rythim or nothing is going to change. Those 9 or 10 players can be a solid rotation, probably can't beat Holmes, maybe not Boone. However, I think they are capable of winning 4 or 5 remaining games. Beat Beechwood in the district opener, and depending on the draw maybe win a game or two in the Region.

Dan Wagner has been the D-coordinator for quite some time. He is an alum, but presently teaches at another school. Eviston is also an Alum who had great success in College at Georgetown. He is on the staff, and works in the development departmant at the school. Not quite as much coaching experience as Wagner.

Covcath needs to stop Niederagger. If he can be contained I think the Colonels have a chance. O'Conner is a nice Defensive player, but is not a true scorer.

What Abeling, Menkhous and/or Riddle?

I think there could be a surprise name announced today!!

Would it be a current teacher at the school????

I predict Indiana for Miles. Big Ten exposure, early playing time at RB, relatively close to home, Coach doesn't appear to be in jeopardy and excellent academic Support program.

Huge Loss for Highlands! He was a tough match up for Giesler. Now should NewCath and Highlands draw each other in the District opener, I think what was a toss up game, now becomes advantage NewCath.

Similiar to their Holmes and Highlands game, the Colonels played fairly even with the Rebels out of the gate. The 1st quarter ended with Boone Co. up 13-11. There were 9 lead changes and 2 ties during the quarter. The 2nd quarter was an old fashion trip to the woodshed for the Colonels. At half Cov. Cath. was down 32-17. It got worse from there.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the logic of holding for the last shot with a minute left in the half, when you are down 15?

Seems to me you want as many posessions as possible when you are down double digits. This is not the first time they have done that either, can anyone fill me in on why they continue to do this?

Connelly too added some fire, perhaps too much fire at times but when someone is kicking your teeth in you have to show a little attitude. Schult and Connelly are a formidable press tandem for sure.

I agree when Schult and Connelly are in there together they give teams fits.

When they face teams that are able to shut down the inside game, as Boone did last night, they need to utilize those two to change the tempo of the game. With the exception of Thelen this team does not have a pure scorer. Riedinger can be effective from the outside at times, but he can not create his own shot. So if you can't get your half court game going, you need to make it a sloppy full court helter skelter game.

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that this CovCath team should always employ that type of strategy, but there are times plan A isn't going to work, you need to have a plan B. This teams plan B can not be shoot from the outside, they just don't have the shooters to do that. What they do have is a bench full of good athletes (not great but good) like Connelly, Schult, Baker, Robinson, Klein, Wilson etc. who will give 110% effort on defense. When Maschinot, Hudepohl and Evans come back it only makes this a more viable alternative against certain teams.

Basketball is a game of matchups, sometimes the matchups don't favor your team. You have to be willing to try to change something to change the match ups.

I am using the online stats.

http://preps.cincinnati.com/leaders.aspx

Perhaps someone on here can explain the How the Enquirer calculates its Statistics. I kept looking at some of the numbers they had posted, and it didn't seem to add up. So I took the top 2 scorers in NKY Bryan and Thelen.

I took the numbers posted by game for both. The PPG and Rebounds don't add up to the averages that they show for each player.

Here's the example Thelen: PPG 7,24,14,19,20,15,24,24,38,22,26,25,15,24,14,12,18 = 341

341 divided by 17 = 20.05 avg:

For Thelen they show total points as 258 and average of 15.2

For Bryan I am assuming there is a mistake because they list the Newport game twice. But if you remove one of those games the total of 313 points is correct. However 313 divided by 15 = 20.86 avg they show 19.6

I haven't taken the time to evaluate anyone else but my guess is there are some other inconsistencies.

Is there something I am missing in my calculations? Any insight would be appreciated.

What's wrong with Maschinot?

I sure hope they go in house for the new Coach. Coach Wagner would be my choice. If they decide to go outside, I think it could be a real detriment to the 2010 season. They have a very solid core of players coming back. If they go to a brand new staff and system, it could really set them back in 2010.

Does Armbruster play at all?

Was Pike sick or injured?

NewCath brings back a ton of Skill position talent. Hitchew, Kelly, Doyle, Daunt,Cain etc. The key for 2010 will be how they replenish the O and D lines.

If they can get solid o-line and D-line look out. It will be interesting to see if they keep Hitchew at QB or bring back Cain. I look for NewCath to return to the State finals next year.

Spoken like a battle weary war veteran.

I have the scars, and she has the jewelry to prove it!

A combination of Leonard and Dematteo would be very potent 1..2 punch at the WR postition. Add in Bruns out of the backfield, and your talking about a very potent receiving corp.

If Dixie can get the O and D lines to gell early, they could have a very successful season next year.

Last year's Beechwood team was better last year as they have not replaced Romes, Buettal and Snyder. CovCath is much better this year with Thelen and the guard play. There were two great games between CovCath and Beechwood last year. I expect this game to be a huge CovCath win. You think a rematch with the team that knocked CovCath out of post season play without a region appearance will come into play a little bit. And the game at CovCath on a Friday night with the crazies showing up in rare form. This could get ugly.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will be an A performance for the Crazies. NDA has their Silver Bells dance tonight. Many of the crazies will be absent. I think it is a good life test for the youngmen. Girls vs Sports. A battle they will wage time and time again through out their lives:D

St.X returns a deeper Senior class and the Rocks will be even younger next year than they were this year starting 15-17 Juniors. Plus with Kragthorpe gone, his back up at the end of this season was a Freshman. They have alot of young talent and by 2011 & 2012 they will be back.

How much of the o and d-line return for St.X. I was most impressed by those groups this year. If they are better than this year, look out KY.

I have only seen Pittman play twice this year, but the two times I saw him, I was not impressed. I really thought he would be a dominate player this year. I think he has more raw talent than the R. Johnson, but I don't think he has realized that potential yet. Don't know the young man, but it seems he lets other teams/refs distract him from playing the game he is capable of.

I saw him play AAU 2 years ago, he was an absolute stud. Played against a player (can't remember his name) who was headed to Tenn (I believe). Pittman absolutely abused him. Played strong with the ball and owned the glass. The player I have seen so far this year, does not resemble the young man I saw 2 years ago.

While I'll agree the guards didn't play great last night, however, this version of the Colonels is not guard oriented. I think the key was the number of missed shots from 5 ft and in. I bet they missed at least 6 or 7 of those in the 3rd and early in the 4th. The vast majority of the missed shots were from the big guys.

I don't have the stats, but I am guessing the shooting percentage wasn't very good for CovCath. Some of that can be attributed to Highlands D, but not all.

Unfortunately I think the team was thinking about "not Losing",instead of how to win. I know that sounds kind of trite but I really believe that was the biggest difference between the 2 teams. CovCath hoped to win, Highlands expected to win.

Does the Bruns kid play jv ball for HHS?

Not sure about JV but he started Defensive back for the Varsity. Very good player, perhaps the best athlete coming back next year. I would expect to see him be the go to WR on offense, as well as an anchor in the secondary.

He and his brother played frosh Football at Dixie, and were very good. Transferred to Highlands after 1st semester of Freshmen year.

Pike is a different type of runner than Wilson, but still very effective running as well as passing. I know Leonard will be his main target, and he is very good. Who will the other receivers be? I think their Line will be fine. It may take a couple or 3 games to get in synch, but I think they are pretty talented there.

The other big question is how will their defense be in 2010? I know late in the year they were starting Menkhaus at Safety and a Sophomore at CB. I am not sure about the LB's or the other Db's.

I think they have a chance to have a pretty good year in 2010. However, they may be a year away from their best chance at winning the district.

Is this just a random prediction, or have you heard something about a kid transferring in?

Just trying to have a little fun. I know Highlands (and others) are always accused of "getting in tranfsers". However because of their success many good players do look to play there. This past year I believe Drennen moved in from out of town, and the Bruns brothers transferred from Dixie.

This year it looks like they could use a Grubbs replacement so I look for the new addition to be a 6'5" O-lineman from Georgia:D