Ignatius Basketball

clevelandcane said:
Sounds like the Cats are just overmatched tonight. Down by 14 w/ 4 minutes left.
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Total collapse in the second half. But the offense was hanging by a thread through this full playoff run, and just couldn’t get it done tonight. Still a great season to get to the final four for the first time in 20 years.

The future is bright for this program. Very good talent returning and coming up from the JV team. The 2024 class is a special group.
 
While Ignatius fell short tonight, they accomplished more this year than most expected and their future is bright. This should make them eager to put the work in for next season.

Boy I love how they shoot foul shots. Smooth
 
Game stats:


The difference tonight:
  • Tasos Cook carrying Central on his back with 16 points during the 1st half
  • Central’s on-ball defense, especially in the 2nd half when the Wildcats committed 11 turnovers
  • Cats’ 16 turnovers for the game = leading to 18 Central points, whereas Central committed only 5 turnovers = leading to 5 Ignatius points
Turnovers have been the Cats' 'Achilles heel' of its offense for much of the season. Tonight, it was lethal.
 
Disappointing end for the season but overall, the Ignatius basketball program took a big step forward in a number of ways. Despite losing, tonight was a good experience for the underclassmen. Coach Joyce has installed a strong defense work ethic amongst the players in the program. Improvement of the offensive part of the game is the obvious ‘next step’. Turnovers have been a cause for the offensive challenges much of the season. That has to be addressed going into next season. The Cats need additional, accurate 3-point shooters to supplement Effertz.

Most (8) of the varsity players shall be returning for next year - Effertz, Yarian, Green, Little (‘24), Jackson (‘24), Szczepaniak (’23), Fletcher, Ruddy. However, Raynor, Yontek and Garcia’s size will be missed. There are some really good freshmen (’24) + sophomore talent coming up from the 19-2 JV team that had both size (and still growing) + athleticism. Coming to mind are 6-5 Marshall, 6-5 Maruca, 6-5 Starck, 6-3 Goodman, 6-4 Springer (‘24), Webster, Martin (‘24), Curry (‘24), Ellis (‘24) + some others. It’ll be interesting to see the composition of the varsity squad next season.

The future is much brighter for the Wildcat basketball program to compete at the elite level of Ohio HS basketball.
 
bluengold said:
Tonight at 7:00 pm: re-broadcast of March 24, 2001 State Championship game - St. Ignatius Wildcats vs. Elder Panthers

Saint Ignatius Broadcast Network - Watch Live and On Demand Video

www.ignatiuswildcats.com www.ignatiuswildcats.com

Seven weeks earlier Elder had beaten Ignatius by 15 in Cincinnati. The Wildcats win the rematch when it really counted
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Love this idea. The school should do some of these retrospectives with the football program. Plenty to choose from and lots of folks they could bring in for interviews.
 
CJ Little getting some high praise for his play with All-Ohio Red. Jon Effertz and Carter Jackson have also gotten some attention for their play with C2K Elite.


Calvin Little Jr, 6'2 PG Saint Ignatius 2024 All Ohio Red 15U

Little is a special PG prospect, he just moves differently than other guards his age. Little does a little stutter step before exploding into a move often that leaves defenders in the dust. Little has excellent vision and throws his passes with a lot of velocity. Little will be one of the most highly sought after players in the 2024 class when it's all said and done.
 
Rising sophomore guards Little, Jackson, and Buckner all pick up their first D-1 offers from Cleveland State. More to come.

Ignatius hasn’t had that level of talent in a single class in a very long time, if ever.
 
arizonawildcat said:
Height and position?
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6’1” point guard. Guard positions are absolutely loaded in that class between these 3, Martin, Ellis, and Lawless. There is good height in the lower classes as well with the sophomore Springer and some tall incoming freshman (including the 6’7” DE on the freshman football team).
 
Yes, and will probably play with 4 perimeter players at times. They can potentially play some lineups with 4-5 3 point shooters this year, especially against smaller teams. Yarian, Green and Maruca are all at least somewhat capable 3 point shooters among the bigs. Can’t see many teams effectively guarding CJ Little with 4 capable 3 point shooters on the floor.
 
There's a lot of talent in the bball program - add Bryson Curry (soph) and Brandon Webster (Jr) to the list of guards + Tristan Marshall (Jr) and Bobby Starck (Jr) to the list of bigs

Those 6'1" and 6'2" freshmen are likely to grow several inches over the next 2-3 years.
Also for example, Maruca (a Jr) was listed as 6'5" on last season's JV basketball roster and he's now listed at 6'6" on the soccer team roster this fall. Hope he's ok after getting hurt near the end of the soccer match vs. St X on Sunday.

Looks like Buckner played only 2 games last year as a freshman at Independence HS (in the state tournament). His father Greg was hired as an Asst Coach by the Cavs last fall and so it appears the family moved to the Cleveland area then. Greg Buckner was 6'4" when he played at Clemson and during his 10 years in the NBA. So, I imagine Ace has some growth to come. The thing with being a son of an NBA coach is how long will he be around? Greg Buckner is close with JB Bickerstaff and so his tenure will depend on Bickerstaff's - hopefully 3 more years!

I imagine that there will be a lot of height in the program as kids grow. What is exciting is their athleticism and bball skills.
Coach Cam will ensure their focus on defense. Exciting times ahead!
 
bluengold said:
There's a lot of talent in the bball program - add Bryson Curry (soph) and Brandon Webster (Jr) to the list of guards + Tristan Marshall (Jr) and Bobby Starck (Jr) to the list of bigs

Those 6'1" and 6'2" freshmen are likely to grow several inches over the next 2-3 years.
Also for example, Maruca (a Jr) was listed as 6'5" on last season's JV basketball roster and he's now listed at 6'6" on the soccer team roster this fall. Hope he's ok after getting hurt near the end of the soccer match vs. St X on Sunday.

Looks like Buckner played only 2 games last year as a freshman at Independence HS (in the state tournament). His father Greg was hired as an Asst Coach by the Cavs last fall and so it appears the family moved to the Cleveland area then. Greg Buckner was 6'4" when he played at Clemson and during his 10 years in the NBA. So, I imagine Ace has some growth to come. The thing with being a son of an NBA coach is how long will he be around? Greg Buckner is close with JB Bickerstaff and so his tenure will depend on Bickerstaff's - hopefully 3 more years!

I imagine that there will be a lot of height in the program as kids grow. What is exciting is their athleticism and bball skills.
Coach Cam will ensure their focus on defense. Exciting times ahead!
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BnG, agree with all your points above, although I believe Curry is no longer at the school.

A lot of talent in the program, exciting times ahead.
 
bluengold said:
There's a lot of talent in the bball program - add Bryson Curry (soph) and Brandon Webster (Jr) to the list of guards + Tristan Marshall (Jr) and Bobby Starck (Jr) to the list of bigs

Those 6'1" and 6'2" freshmen are likely to grow several inches over the next 2-3 years.
Also for example, Maruca (a Jr) was listed as 6'5" on last season's JV basketball roster and he's now listed at 6'6" on the soccer team roster this fall. Hope he's ok after getting hurt near the end of the soccer match vs. St X on Sunday.

Looks like Buckner played only 2 games last year as a freshman at Independence HS (in the state tournament). His father Greg was hired as an Asst Coach by the Cavs last fall and so it appears the family moved to the Cleveland area then. Greg Buckner was 6'4" when he played at Clemson and during his 10 years in the NBA. So, I imagine Ace has some growth to come. The thing with being a son of an NBA coach is how long will he be around? Greg Buckner is close with JB Bickerstaff and so his tenure will depend on Bickerstaff's - hopefully 3 more years!

I imagine that there will be a lot of height in the program as kids grow. What is exciting is their athleticism and bball skills.
Coach Cam will ensure their focus on defense. Exciting times ahead!
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I thought St. Ignatius doesn't allow transfers after freshman year, with the exception being if its from a Jesuit school. Does Bucker fall under that scenario?
 
Ignatius has always allowed transfers after Freshman year (for the boys that quickly realize they made a mistake ?). Buckner is a sophomore now. No transfers after sophomore year except from Jesuit schools.
 
Are all these guards coming from AAU teams or Cleveland muni league teams? I'm asking because I used to ride Ed's for doing these types of things?
 
Andre Wolford ‘15 has signed to play professionally in Ireland. Andre had a great breakout senior season for the Cats under Sean O’Toole, and at one point was leading all Div 1 players in 3pt % at St. Francis.
 
Does anyone know what the schedule looks like? I’m surprised it’s not up on the athletics site already with the season starting in 2 months.
 
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