How much fun will it be for Northern Kentucky high school basketball fans the next year-and-a-half with a dynamic duo like seniors-to-be Evan Ipsaro, a dynamic all-state point guard out of Covington Catholic, and Holy Cross’s Jacob Meyer, the leading scorer in the state and by one report, the nation, at 38.2 points a game last season. We were looking forward to the pair’s pairing after next June in the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Series where never have a pair of Northern Kentucky guards had a chance to be so dominant.
But it will happen sooner than that as they’ll be paired up this June a couple of times when the Junior All-Stars from each state face the Senior All-Stars twice. The Juniors vs. Seniors games are June 4 at Louisville Eastern High Sschool and June 5 at Bedford North Lawrence in Indiana with the boys games at 4 each day following the girls all-star games at 2.
Three Northern Kentucky girls selected for the Kentucky junior team are Whitney Lind – Northern Kentucky Player of the Year for state semifinalist Cooper, Ryle’s Abby Holtman, and Notre Dame’s Noelle Hubert.
The senior all-stars from both states, with Mitchell Rylee of CovCath representing Northern Kentucky for the boys, will play June 10 at the Owensboro Sportscenter and June 11 at Southport High School in Indianapolis. The Kentucky girls will feature four Northern Kentuckians: Notre Dame’s Macie Feldman, Conner’s Lauren Hawthorne, Ludlow’s Jenna Lillard, and Newport Central Catholic’s Rylee Turner. Might be worth the trip for high school basketball fans around here this year to catch one of these games with Kentucky looking like they might be more competitive than in recent years . . . JUST SAYIN’.
*** TALKING NORTHERN KENTUCKY HOOPS, that was pretty much the agenda for the Greater Cincinnati Basketball Hall of Fame last week when, after a two-year pause for Covid, they inducted 14 new members – three with strong Northern Kentucky ties – while honoring Greater Cincinnati’s top two college teams and their coaches. That would be Thomas More’s women’s NAIA national champs led by Coach Jeff Hans and the Saints’ NAIA national men’s semifinalists led by Justin Ray.
The three Northern Kentuckians:
NKU’s DENNIS BETTIS, whose four years of smart, disciplined and tough-minded point guard play out of Cincinnati’s Woodward High School in 1975, helped set the tone of excellence for the Norse program right out of the box. He led the NKU both its first win over Xavier and an NCAA tournament berth in 1978 after a 20-8 season. Dennis, who died much too young at the age of 62, also distinguished himself with the founding of the top summer basketball league in Cincinnati in his 35 years as a coach at Woodward, where the basketball court has been named in his honor.
NEWCATH’S RON DAWN led the Thoroughbreds to the state tournament in both his junior and senior seasons in 1973 and 1974 as a quick, high-scoring lefty guard and then after playing at Thomas More, came back to lead the ‘Breds boys to a Kentucky All “A” Classic championship in 2000 before also coaching the NewCath girls to regional and All “A” Classic state titles in 2010 before finishing up with a 502-212 record.
COVINGTON LATIN’S, NKU’S and SIMON KENTON’s JEFF STOWERS, recently retired as the girls basketball coach at Simon Kenton having won more than 500 games as a high school coach and four Northern Kentucky girls basketball coach of the year awards (2006, 2007, 2009, and 2014) but it’s his play as a standout at Covington Latin and then his four years leading those early NKU teams when he scored more than 1,400 points while leading NKU to its first winning season in 1976 at 17-9 that we’ll always remember . . . JUST SAYIN’.
*** IN A WORLD WHERE DIVISION I football scholarships to Power Five conference schools are few and far between for Northern Kentucky players with just two this past season – Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan out of Ryle and Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer out of CovCath, how about this. Turkeyfoot Middle School’s eight-grader Cam Thomas, a 6-foot, 190-pound edge rusher and Athlete, has received his first D-1 offer from Georgia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Cam is listed as Kentucky’s top middle school prospect – yes, they do rank the grade schoolers now – by some national recruiting services. Cam has worked very hard for this, as those who follow him, know. Heck of a job by Cam . . . JUST SAYIN’.
*** GOOD LUCK TO THE FLORENCE Y’ALLS STRATEGY of winning with defense, base-running and pitching after giving up 14 and 19 runs in two of their first five games in a 1-4 start to their nine-game homestand. Hard to play that way when you’re down 12-0 as the Y’alls were the other day and yet, they actually came back with a dozen runs to tie it at 12 before losing 19-15 to the New Jersey Jackals Tuesday. That follows a wild 14-13 loss in 10 innings Saturday to the Tri-City ValleyCats.
And then, even when they get their pitching and defense going as they did with 15 strikeouts against New Jersey Wednesday, the 1-4 Y’alls gave up a two-run home run in the ninth to lose 5-4, their second blown save of the season as the Y’alls continue to have trouble hosting the top teams from the Eastern Division of the Frontier League. It doesn’t get any easier next week with their longest trip of the season — to Canada – awaiting the Y’alls . . . JUST SAYIN’.
