TIME TO BRING ALL “A” CLASSIC HOME
After a weekend trip to Corbin for the All “A” Classic, created in Northern Kentucky and this year won by a pair of Northern Kentucky schools – Newport and Holy Cross with four finalists the past two years, it’s time, we think.
Time for the All “A” Classic to return home. Time for the 32 teams – boys and girls – and their fans to spend their late January days sampling the great restaurants, the numerous hotels and attractions like the Newport Aquarium, during their time here.
The word we got from the folks at the Corbin Arena was that there wasn’t a hotel room to be had in Corbin. Newport’s Wildcats stayed in London. Holy Cross’ Indians bunked down at Williamsburg.
Hotel rooms would not be a problem here. Nor would educational opportunities like visits to the Underground Railroad Museum and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Or trips to nearby universities like NKU, Thomas More, Xavier and UC.
Nothing against Corbin. Those folks were great hosts. And you could check out Colonel Sanders’ first-ever restaurant where Kentucky Fried Chicken was born. But Northern Kentucky makes more sense. No region in the state has more Class “A” schools.
Nor does any area have the history we have here with coaches like Stan Steidel and Mike Swauger stepping up for that first decade of the tourney’s history starting in 1980. NKU also stepped up, hosting the All “A” Classic from 1983 through 1988 at Regents Hall when the Sports Arena’s Drew Lombardo became the first sponsor and Oscar Robertson came in as the luncheon guest speaker.
What a great opportunity for NKU to step in and showcase not only Truist Arena but the school and our community. Time to make it happen. Great project for Northern Kentucky – the University and the community – to start working on.
NEWPORT, HOLY CROSS BIG POLL-JUMPERS
How important small schools and the All “A” Classic are this year in Kentucky high school basketball is evident in this week’s media polls for boys and girls. The winning Newport boys (22-3) jumped from No. 6 in the state last week to No. 4 this week, ahead of a No.5 Covington Catholic team (18-5) that beat the Wildcats, 63-53, back in December. Newport benefited from its 50-48 win over previously No. 2 Lyon County, as the first Kentucky team to beat the Lions, along with a win over current No. 11 Evangel Christian.
That Newport win over Lyon County elevated Great Crossing into the unanimous No. 1 spot this week. Here’s the boys’ poll:
Great Crossing (16 first-place votes), (22-1): 2. Lexington Catholic (20-2); 3. Trinity (18-4); 4. Lyon County (20-3); 5. Newport (21-3); 6. Covington Catholic (18-5); 7. St. Xavier (18-3); 8. Harlan County (21-3); 9. Bowling Green (19-4); 10. Manual (17-2); 11. (tie) Evangel Christian (17-5); 11. (tie) George Rogers Clark (20-1); 13. North Oldham (19-2); 14. Bryan Station (18-2); 15. Woodford County (16-4). Others receiving votes: DeSales 15, Frederick Douglass 12, Cooper 6, Boyd County 1, Henry Clay 1, Male 1.
Four Northern Kentucky girls’ teams are in the Top 15 with the top two – Cooper and Holy Cross both moving up – Cooper from No. 3 to a tie for No. 2 and Holy Cross from No. 8 to No. 6 after beating current No. 4 Pikeville in the championship game. The other two ranked Northern Kentucky teams both slipped a bit – Notre Dame from No. 11 to No. 12 and Ryle from No. 10 to No. 13. Here’s the complete poll.
No. 1 Sacred Heart (all 16 first-place votes) (16-7); 2. (tie) Cooper (18-4); 2. (tie) George Rogers Clark (20-2); 4. Pikeville (16-3); 5. Anderson County (18-2); 6. Covington Holy Cross (20-5); 7. McCracken County (18-3); 8. Owensboro Catholic (16-4); 9. Franklin-Simpson (21-1); 10. Ashland Blazer (14-4); 11. Butler (16-6); 12. Notre Dame (15-5); 13. Ryle (12-7); 14. North Laurel (15-4); 15. Boyd County (17-6). Others receiving votes: Pulaski County 23, Johnson Central 18, Franklin County 12, Meade County 8, Russell 8, Bethlehem 7, Danville Christian 6, Pineville 6, Corbin 5, Frederick Douglass 5, Simon Kenton 3, Grant County 1.
TIME FOR SOME SHOUT-OUTS
Nice job by a pair of local schools. In a day when almost no one has game programs for high school sporting events, how about the media guides that both Covington Catholic and Holy Cross offer fans.
Full-color – 94-pages for CovCath’s, 74 for Holy Cross’ – with the history, records, profiles of the players and coaches and the schools – at $5 a pop, they’re a bargain and a keeper. Really good work by everybody involved from staff to volunteers.
Also we’ll send a shout-out to the schools like CovCath and Holy Cross, again, as well as Newport and Beechwood among others, who have stat people producing full high school basketball box scores with all the details, down to minutes played, and available within seconds after the final buzzer. Thanks to new computer programs that let even one person do a full box score, they’re really a plus for the players, coaches, media and fans.
BACK AMONG THE LEADERS
That didn’t take long. Playing for Jeff Hans, the winningest coach in NCAA women’s basketball history, Thomas More’s women, with national championships the past decade in both the NCAA’s Division III and the NAIA, have appeared this week in the NCAA Division II CSC Poll just out of the Top 10 in the Midwest Region. As a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, TMU stepped into a league where the resources available for basketball are permitted to be higher than in the NAIA. G-MAC members Ashland (No. 1), Kentucky Wesleyan (No. 4) and Ursuline (No. 10) are in the poll as are G-Mac teams Northwood and Trevecca Nazarene.
TMU has already beaten Kentucky Wesleyan and No. 7 Wisconsin Parkside and is coming off an 87-68 win at Cedarville Thursday. Not a surprise that the 13-7 Saints, who fell in the NAIA championship game a year ago, are back in the picture again.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.