Not to be outdone by the summer college offers for the young guys from Newport, Lloyd Memorial’s 6-foot-8 junior-to-be EJ Walker could not be enjoying a busier summer of playing, visiting and recruiting.
Schools most involved with Walker right now are a Who’s Who of college basketball. Here’s the list: Purdue, Minnesota, Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri, Texas A&M, Arizona State and Georgia State. New schools that have talked to Walker, he told StockRisers.com, include Memphis, Clemson, Wake Forest, St. John’s (with new coach Rick Pitino) and Kansas State plus an offer from California.
After a recent team camp at Xavier, EJ was quoted as to how he’s improved his game. “I have been really aggressive this AAU season. Since I have gained nine pounds of muscle, I can take contact more. My ability to shoot off the bounce. Working out with my strength coach Jordan Nevels twice a week. His workouts are hard but have improved my vertical, the way I move, and my strength.”
After recent visits to Minnesota, Purdue and Indiana, Walker goes to Ohio State, Wisconsin and Notre Dame while working on a date to get to Wake Forest. Not a bad summer.
But you have to give Newport’s sophomore-to-be Taylen Kinney credit for getting into the recruiting game at an early age with his recent basketball offer from Xavier joining his May offers from Cincinnati and Illinois and at a time when college programs are cutting back on their high school recruiting to first check out the transfer portal. A really big accomplishment for Kinney, a 6-foot guard whose offers now total 11 with Louisville, Texas A&M, Radford, Jackson State, Stony Brook, Charleston, UT-Rio Grande Valley, IUPUI and Morgan State offering.
Joining him on the recruiting trail is fellow Newport sophomore-to-be James Turner, a 6-9 forward, who was just offered by Mid-American power Kent State.
• BRAD ARLINGHAUS WILL BE MISSED: After 16 years as a head baseball coach in Northern Kentucky, Conner High’s Brad Arlinghaus said it’s time for him “to step down and be a dad,” he says. “I became a head coach at 23,” he said, after a couple of stints as assistant. The interview went like this, the AP European History teacher says: “Do you want the job?” he was asked. He did, “even though I couldn’t balance a checkbook.” But now, with sons ages seven and five, the man who won 329 games in his 16 seasons at Conner, is going to focus on their games. A good guy and a very good coach and mentor, he will be missed. And not just by the Conner community.
• ALL-STAR GAMES’ TOUGH DECISIONS: With three of the top talents in Kentucky boys’ high school basketball choosing to pass on the recent Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Series – two of them from Northern Kentucky – it may be time for a re-thinking of the historic series.
With Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball Reed Sheppard skipping last week’s series because of UK summer workouts and Holy Cross’ Jacob Meyer doing the same after reporting to Coastal Carolina and Covington Catholic’s Evan Ipsaro taking time off before reporting in at Miami of Ohio, and one top Indiana All-Star also missing the games, it might be time to see if they’d better be scheduled in the spring while schools are still in session.
From Northern Kentucky, only Lloyd Memorial’s Jeremiah Israel, an NKU commit, played for Kentucky and that was just in one game, a Kentucky win last Friday in Owensboro, where Israel scored three points in 9:17 of action. He didn’t play in the second game in Indianapolis, a 95-74 Kentucky loss.
Luckily for Kentucky, which ended a seven-year losing streak Friday in Owensboro, near Northern Kentuckian Teagan Moore of Owen County, a Western Kentucky signee, did show up with 31 points to lead Kentucky to a 94-90 win.
• N. KY. DUO DOES SHOW UP FOR KY. GIRLS ALL-STARS: In contrast to the showing of local boys’ all-stars, the two Northern Kentucky Girls’ All-Stars did show up and helped Kentucky split with Indiana. In Game 1, Cooper’s Whitney Lind, who is headed to Lehigh, scored 15 points with 11 rebounds in 26:47 of action in Friday’s 72-63 Kentucky win while following up with eight points in 30:19 in Saturday’s 74-67 loss in Indianapolis.
Her Boone County mate, Ryle’s Abby Holtman, head to Cincinnati, scored three points in 12:43 of action in the Friday win and another six in 12:34 of play Saturday.
• MAXWELL MAKES IT HAPPEN: One of the special joys of watching the Northern Kentucky All-Star Baseball Coaches games at Dixie Heights each summer is the care Dixie Heights’ host coach Chris Maxwell takes in making sure his field is ready to go. He’s on the tractor dragging the field, something he does every day during the season. And manicuring the mound and batters’ boxes and basepaths. It’s clearly a labor of love for the veteran Colonels’ coach whose 752-202 record in 39 seasons has him No. 4 on the list of active Kentucky high school baseball coaches. Harrison County’s Mac Whitaker 1,221-379 in 45 seasons is No. 1. Next comes CovCath’s Bill Krumpelbeck (1,097-469-3 in 46 seasons) with Owensboro Catholic’s Jody Hamilton’s 986-390-1 in 38 seasons No. 3 on the active list.
Dan Weber writes a sports column for the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Contact him at dweber3440@aol.com and follow him on twitter @dweber3440.