Time for some re-evaluating boys’ hoops here.
Last week may have been just Week 2 for the 2024-25 Northern Kentucky boys’ basketball season, but it surely shook up the preseason coaches’ evaluations that had Newport the obvious pick to repeat as Ninth Region champs. And to do so despite the loss of Taylen Kinney, the region’s top player for three years if the junior-to-be had stayed through next year. But he’s off to the Overtime Elite program in Atlanta, the elite basketball/prep program for top talents on the way to big-time college programs and/or the NBA.
While Kinney, a 6-foot-1 guard is doing fine averaging 21.4 points a game (27.4 points over 40 minutes) in his first eight games with OTE, his former Newport team isn’t doing so well at 3-3 with a surprising two of those losses in Northern Kentucky – and both at home. The first was to a Ryle team, picked No. 5 by the coaches, that had lost its other four games. Anthony Coppola leads the Raiders with 18.7 points a game.
The second was a replay of Newport’s Sweet 16 loss last year to a Campbell County team with just one starter, Garyn Jackson, back, and picked No. 7 by the coaches. The 4-2 Camels, playing in the 10th region, are led by freshman Austin Davie’s 17.6 ppg with Jackson adding 14.8.
Maybe the loss of Kinney, a dynamic leader with more than 30 college offers including Kansas, Florida State, California, Arkansas, Michigan, Arizona State, LSU, Oregon, Villanova, Missouri and Auburn, who is ranked No. 1 in Kentucky’s Class of 2026, was underplayed. Especially so with the delay in Cooper transfer Jamil Rondon’s transition to the Wildcats after surgery. For Newport, 6-8 sophomore Griffin Starks (13.5 ppg) and 6-7 James Turner (12.2 ppg) are the double figure scorers for the Wildcats.
CovCath moving up: If anyone has taken the most advantage of the opening at the top, it has to be a smallish, quick Covington Catholic team – picked No. 2 by the coaches — under new coach Jake Thelen, making the transition with six football players switching over including two starters – point guard Cash Harney (15.0 ppg) and 6-5 inside player Donovan Bradshaw (13.0 ppg, 6.5 rebounds). The Colonels, with guard Athens McGillis scoring 23.0 ppg, have hammered Lexington Catholic and Scott County in a 3-1 start before falling to Great Crossing, the state’s No. 2 team behind Louisville St. Xavier, in the Billy Hicks Tournament in Georgetown Saturday, 71-60, with 7-foot UK signee Malachi Moreno scoring 25 points with 19 rebounds for Great Crossing.
No. 3 pick Cooper, with its nine football players returning from last week’s state championship game, has played just two games thus far with its one loss to downstate South Oldham as the Jags get their basketball legs under them. No need for 6-4 scorer Andy Johnson to do so, he’s hitting 33.0 ppg in his two starts.
No. 4 Lloyd Memorial is unbeaten with South Caroline-signee EJ Walker (21.2 ppg, 12.2 rebounds) and Anthony Blaackar (19.2 ppg) leading the way for the 4-0 Juggernauts as they face unbeaten St. X Wednesday in the King of the Bluegrass Tournament at Louisville Fairdale.
Conner, No. 6 in the preseason, has lost three of its opening four games with a couple of losses to Ohio schools Cincinnati Elder and Canal Winchester Harvest Prep. The Cougars are led by Landon Warner’s 18.7 ppg and Finn Louden’s 15.7.
No. 8 Holy Cross’ only loss in a 3-1 season was to Cincinnati Winton Woods and the Indians have beaten both Ryle and Campbell County with balanced scoring that has four players averaging in double figures – William McElheney (15.5), Nate Rominger (15.2), Luke Arlinghaus (12.8) and Brady Gabbard (10.8).
No. 9 Highlands is quietly off to a flying 4-0 start averaging 83.8 points a game with four double-figure scorers and two more who just miss – Finn Bouldin (14.2 ppg), Owen Ebert (13.5), Nathan Rickard (12.5), Charlie Messmer (12.2), Vince Listerman (9.8) and Cale Harris (9.3).
No. 10 Simon Kenton (2-2) has a 60-51 win over Conner and a 51-41 loss to Cooper among its first four games. Seniors Jay Biton (19.0 ppg) and Jordan Bach (12.5) lead the Pioneers.
UINDY, IU INDY, you make the call
In trying to illustrate just why NKU and Thomas More should play each other in basketball every year over the weekend, we used the fact that both local teams were playing an Indianapolis school the same week recently but not each other. Only problem, the school – or schools – they were playing were not the same one as we indicated. Our bad.
In quickly looking at the schedules and results, we mistook IU INDY and UINDY – two different universities with different basketball teams in Indianapolis these days. We say “these days” because both are the result of name changes although UINDY – formerly Indiana Central, a private liberal arts college that changed its name in 1986 – has pretty much established that brand, we’d guess. IU INDY, formerly large state school IUPU-I, made the name change this past July and is a member of the NCAA Division I Horizon League with NKU and on the conference schedule this month as the opening league game for the Norse.
UINDY is a NCAA Division II member of NKU’s old GLVC and its game last week at TMU was something of a homecoming for Covington Catholic alum Grant Disken, a grad student transfer after a career at St. Leo’s as a 1,000-point scorer and now working on his master’s in sports management at UINDY. Thanks to CovCath sports PR and stat guru David Wear for the catch on the two schools’ names.
Unfortunately for the point we were trying to make, although we think it helps make it, UINDY AND IU INDY — much like TMU and NKU — do not play each other in basketball even though they’re as close geographically in Indianapolis as TMU and NKU are here.
Might be just as well. Not sure I’d want to be the scorekeeper in that game.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.