Time to talk of mostly basketball, NCAA basketball, right now. Here goes.
Adam Kunkel
*** GOING OUT WITH A BANG: The rest of his Xavier teammates may have been off their offensive games, but Cooper alum Adam Kunkel went out with a blast, firing in a Musketeer-high 21 points in Xavier’s 83-71 Sweet 16 NCAA loss to Texas Friday. Those 21 points came on five-of-six shooting from three-point range and eight of 10 from the field overall against the Longhorns. But it wasn’t enough for a Xavier team that ended up mostly misfiring, hitting just 28 of 64 from the field, which works out to 20 of 54 (37 percent) for the rest of the Musketeers. “This has been one of my favorite teams I’ve ever played on,” said the senior Kunkel, who exited with tears in his eyes. “What makes it so tough is we’ve had so much fun together. I don’t want it to end.”
*** HOTTEST NAME IN THE NCAA HAS A KENTUCKY CONNECTION: Interesting how UK Coach John Calipari got himself into – and then out of – some post-game criticism for referring to Kansas State’s 5-foot-8 Markquis Nowell as “the little guy” without naming him after Nowell’s 27 points and eight assists pretty much eliminated UK from the NCAA tournament. If only Calipari had realized that just 10 years earlier, when Markquis was a seventh grader, the Harlem-born Nowell, and his older brother Marcus, played for tiny Cordia High School in Hazard for former UK player Rodrick Rhodes. Nowell would return to the New York area to play for prep basketball powers — Brooklyn’s Bishop Loughlin and New Jersey’s St. Anthony and St. Patrick high schools — before going on to Arkansas-Little Rock for three years and then Kansas State the last two. So maybe you can’t blame Calipari for losing track of the “little guy,” much as the UK defenders did in the Kansas State game. Nowell did tweet later that Calipari did call him up and they were “good” now. Despite being just a seventh grader, Nowell averaged 5.5 points in 18 games playing varsity basketball on a Cordia team that won 19 games. Although there would be fallout for Rhodes’ program a year later as the KHSAA fined 74-student Cordia $25,980 for recruiting and reporting violations while forfeiting all 23 wins in the 2014 season. It wasn’t just UK to whom Nowell did damage last week. He set an NCAA Tournament record with his 19 assists against Michigan State and scored 30 points with 12 assists in an Elite Eight elimination loss to Florida Atlantic.
Jay Volker
*** TOO BAD IT WILL TAKE TWO YEARS FOR TMU: After watching the NCAA Division II championship game Saturday between West Liberty (W. Va.) and Nova Southeastern (Fla.), we wish Thomas More could compete immediately in the NCAA’s Division II tournament where the Saints will be transitioning with a move to the Great Midwest Conference next season. The NAIA’s Mid-South Conference was a pretty fast track and Justin Ray’s guys should be competitive right away in the NCAA’s Division II although it will take two years of transitioning before the Saints are allowed into the postseason Division II tournament. We like their chances.
*** WHEN YOU KNOW THEY DON’T CARE MUCH ABOUT FOOTBALL: Interesting goodbye tweet from new Beechwood High football coach Jay Volker to his old school community – Ohio’s Oxford Talawanda High School – on one of his reasons for resigning from the school system that doesn’t seem to much value football. And this was something Volker didn’t go into great detail in his introductory press conference at Beechwood last week. Talawanda didn’t give him much choice. The school system eliminated his teaching position “due to budget cuts at the end of this school year,” Volker wrote, as he moves on to become a part of the EDGE in Science program at Beechwood. “My beliefs in the importance of athletics in the development of young men and women do not align with the district’s beliefs. My resignation as the head football coach comes with a heavy heart. I love and will miss you all.”
Noel Rash
*** HOW MUCH A CHALLENGE IT WILL BE AT BEECHWOOD: Got this note from long-time Thomas More education faculty member and onetime department acting chair Judy Harris about her former student, and former Beechwood High head football coach for the last 17 years, Noel Rash on his recent resignation. Gives you an idea about the kind of person Noel has been – and will be – at Beechwood after his days at Thomas More and what the challenge will be to follow in his footsteps. “Loved your article about Noel Rash,” Harris wrote. “Wisdom has always defined him even from the EDU 101 class that I taught and met him as a student-athlete. He always had younger football players in his wake; they doted on his easy friendship and were so very much the better for associating with him through their and his four years. Always encouraging everyone to be and become their best selves. Blessings for his “retirement” as coach. He’ll still be “life-coaching” wherever he is, in and out of the classroom.”
Darrin Horn
*** HOW COOL IS THIS? Two basketball programs that impressed last week in the NCAA tournament were those of NKU and Princeton. How interesting that they are coached by former Lexington Tates Creek Middle School teammates in NKU Coach Darrin Horn and Princeton Coach Mitch Henderson. Henderson went on to high school at Indiana’s Culver Military Academy and then Princeton. Horn stayed at Tates Creek then went on to Western Kentucky. Small world for these two. Maybe it’s time for the two Tates Creek guys to get on one another’s schedule in the near future.
*** TALK ABOUT BREAKING THE SCOREBOARD: In case you don’t keep up with girls’ softball, here’s a game that folks who do, like Nate Bryan (@NateInSports) are talking about to start the season last week. Final score: St. Henry 33, Ludlow 32. But that’s hardly the end of it. Check out the game stats. Ludlow had 65 stolen base attempts and succeeded on 64 of those led by Madison Gillespie’s 11 of 11. Also impressive were the Panther’s 32 runs scored with just 39 official at-bats – in addition to 15 bases on balls. We’d like to give you the St. Henry corresponding numbers, but the official KHSAA posted score-line includes only pitching stats. Maybe the offensive numbers were so far off the charts for the Crusaders they haven’t been calculated yet.
Dan Weber is sports reporter for the NKyTribune.
