By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
It’s that time of the basketball season when you have to make a column-writing choice.
Look back to 2023 or ahead to 2024?
How about looking both ways, isn’t that what they’ve always told you? Good advice since so much of what we’ll be talking about for the rest of the season has been set into motion by what’s happened already in 2023. This is the place where the past and future meet. That’s how basketball, thanks to the calendar, works.
You just keep building and working and trying to get better. A ton of tough scheduling, especially on the road. More than any other season we can recall for the top teams in the Ninth Region. With the hope, of course, that there’s a payoff come March.
Or if you’re Newport High’s road-warrior, tourney-wise Wildcats, maybe there’s a double-dip payoff. Nex week, they’ll compete in the All “A” Classic where Rod Snapp’s guys look like something of a mismatch in the small school field. Don’t be surprised to see them down at the Corbin Arena in Corbin for the finals just as a Jacob Meyers-led Holy Cross team made it last year.
For those who are keeping track of the Wildcats’ progress, they’re getting used to this kind of competition. Just this past weekend, they won four games in two days in the Ray Furney Classic at Lawrenceburg, Ind. That’s right, back-to-back doubleheaders. Two games each day. That Sweet Sixteen Saturday should have nothing on them if they can only get there, which would start with getting out of the Ninth Region.
Newport beat four Indiana teams from North Vernon, New Palestine, Noblesville and Ft. Wayne thanks to the MVP work of 6-foot-1 sophomore guard Taylen Kinney, who is clearly coming into his own as a big-time, blue-chip national recruit. His 105 points in the four games were topped off with a 49-point championship game performance on 11-of-14 shooting with seven of 11 from three-point range.
As for the Wildcats, they will have played a total of 11 games in the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic, the John Turner Classic, the Griffin Elite Basketball Classic and the King of the Bluegrass before they get to the All “A” Jan. 9 at Beechwood against Heritage Academy. And then on Jan. 14, they’ll face Middletown, Ohio, in the Beacon Orthopaedic Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational at Kettering, Ohio’s, Trent Arena.
Out-of-state teams might want to be careful. The 12-3 Wildcats may have lost three close games to top Kentucky teams (Covington Catholic, 73-63; Great Crossing, Kentucky’s No. 1 team by 48-46 at Louisville’s King of the Bluegrass; and top-five team Louisville Trinity, 76-71 in overtime, also at KOB), but they’ve knocked off national power Huntington (W. Va.) Prep, 58-55, at the Griffin Elite and ended Ohio Division IV state champ Richmond Heights’ 49-game win streak at the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic.
While we’re at it. A shout-out to Jordan and Bob Griffin and Lauren Macke for their great work in making the Griffin Elite such a success where local teams can get great national competition without having to leave home.
COVCATH, COOPER ALONG FOR THE CHASE
Coming back from three games in Florida with a pair of wins at the Battle of the Villages, CovCath’s 9-4 Colonels are following the formula of facing tough teams away from home with seven games at the John Turner Classic, the Griffin Elite, the Queen City Holiday Classic and the Villages, beating defending Ohio State Division I state champ Archbishop Hoban of Akron, 67-64, while losing to Great Crossing on the road, 66-51, and national power La Lumiere out of Indiana, 74-60.
And on Jan. 14, CovCath heads to Xavier’s Cintas Center for a Beacon Orthopaedics Tri-Health Hoops Classic matchup with Ohio’s Lakota East. And while CovCath’s issue is figuring out how to win with a trio of sub-6-foot sophomore guards surrounding 6-9 center Caden Miller, Cooper is treading water a bit behind fiery Yamil Rondon (11.4 ppg) as its two leading scorers return to health.
Like Newport, Cooper (8-6) has already played 10 games total at the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic, the John Turner Classic, the Griffin Elite Basketball Classic, the Scott Winter Classic and Lexington Catholic’s White, Greer and Maggard Holiday Classic against teams like Delaware (Ohio) Christian, Cincinnati Elder, South Carolina’s Legacy Charter, Woodford County and Louisville De Sales. After facing Highlands and Ryle on the road the next two weeks, Cooper will head to the Holiday Hardwood Classic at Xavier’s Cintas Center, Sunday, Jan. 14. And then on to games against both CovCath (Jan. 23) and Newport (Feb. 13).
With 6-6 Shaun Pouncy (13.9 ppg, 9.1 rpg) working his way back after knee surgery rehab that’s limited him to seven games while 6-4 junior guard Andy Johnson is out with a fractured wrist until next month after just two games (with averages of 25.0 ppg and 10.0 rpg), the Jaguars of Tim Sullivan have depended on Rondon thus far.
Should be an interesting next couple of months. Because that’s just three teams and the most important matchup day in the postseason happens in the regional semifinals, which means there’s a spot for a fourth team. Who will that team be?
And in the neighboring Eighth and 10th Regions, can Walton-Verona get to the semis there? And how about the Camels in Campbell County doing the same in the 10th. Makes this an even more interesting discussion around here.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.