Ignatius Basketball

How can Iggy beat the tires off Ed's one night and then need a last second shot to beat Beachwood. Beachwood has a respectable program but we can all agree they are far from being at the level of Ed's.
 
In addition to the emotional letdown, also because:

Bielek (who scored 24 vs St. Edward) sat out almost all of the Beachwood game because of injured right forearm. He only played a couple of minutes at the beginning and then sat with an ice pack on his arm

The roster is being depleted somewhat with injuries - Bielek out last night, Griffin Hanna (who started at the beginning of the season, but is still out with a wrist injury) and Moss (a substitute who is out with a leg injury)

Becker rested his starters most of the game with liberal use of the bench for the first 3 quarters. Most of the starters (except Bielek) played in the 4th quarter when the Cats outscored the Bison 20-10
 
eaglepride said:
I’m wondering how the eagles have theee juniors that have been starting since they were all freshmen on the varsity with surprisingly little improvements and cohesive play. Starting as freshmen is unheard of. Not Geno Bartelone, Steve Logan, Sam Clancy, Jay Jackson, Steve Lepore, Samario Clancy, Tom Pritchard and on and in...The only two freshmen that come to mind who started as freshmen were Jawad Williams (North Carolina and all American and Delvone Roe (Michigan State, career ending injury at NC) who made significant improvements as Freshmen and raised their level of play over time.
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The Eagles’ athleticism is still apparent. I really like Huffman, but he does not seem to have any confidence in taking an outside shot, and when he does shoot from outside, his mechanics look really odd and out of synch. Ogle can be a good shooter and I don’t think he played vs. Ignatius.

The Eagles seem a bit tentative right now.
I also wonder if the Spire game had a negative impact on their psyche?

The Eagles will have to right the ship for when they play SVSM on Friday
 
eaglepride said:
I’m wondering how the eagles have theee juniors that have been starting since they were all freshmen on the varsity with surprisingly little improvements and cohesive play. Starting as freshmen is unheard of. Not Geno Bartelone, Steve Logan, Sam Clancy, Jay Jackson, Steve Lepore, Samario Clancy, Tom Pritchard and on and in...The only two freshmen that come to mind who started as freshmen were Jawad Williams (North Carolina and all American and Delvone Roe (Michigan State, career ending injury at NC) who made significant improvements as Freshmen and raised their level of play over time.
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Neither Blanton nor Foster started as freshman, but your point remains. They haven’t developed as I thought they would. Perhaps the expectations were too high.
 
Any insight into what's going on with Chase Toppin? He played last night at Ignatius and seemed healthy, but wasn't at their game this afternoon at Stow. It was kind of a bad loss right before the tournament.
 
dking1108 said:
Any insight into what's going on with Chase Toppin? He played last night at Ignatius and seemed healthy, but wasn't at their game this afternoon at Stow. It was kind of a bad loss right before the tournament.
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Ignatius athletic website's game report indicated Toppin was out with sickness.

Cats were quite flat vs Stow. Lot of standing around and lack of defensive intensity. The Cats missed Toppin's floor leadership, ability to manage game tempo, as well as his ability to slash/drive to the basket with creative shot-making. Bielek still looks pretty rusty after sitting out the last 2 weeks due to his forearm injury. The Cats need to get healthy as the tournament opens up
 
Yeah Bielik hasn't returned to form. Usually he's pretty consistent around the rim and he couldn't finish anything. I know Eds has struggled but they're still really good, and Ignatius doesn't stand much of a chance without Bielik being 100%.
 
dking1108 said:
Yeah Bielik hasn't returned to form. Usually he's pretty consistent around the rim and he couldn't finish anything. I know Eds has struggled but they're still really good, and Ignatius doesn't stand much of a chance without Bielik being 100%.
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Agree on all your points
 
It appears that wrist never got right after the second Eds game. What an awful way for the season to end for the Wildcats especially given how well they played down the stretch. They're young and will be pretty good the next few years, but I feel for the seniors.

Not sure what the final stat line was, but Ignatius missed at least 15 free throws including every free throw in the clutch. Also, I couldn't believe they were giving up some of the 3s they did in OT. They were up 6 with under a minute left in the 3rd OT, the one thing you couldn't do was give up a 3 and cut it to a one possession game. They immediately gave up a 3 that kept BBHS in the game.

Lastly, shout out to the BBHS players. They earned it.
 
I graduated in '65 and it was a tradition that the basketball season ended with a loss to East Tech. Let me know if you ever heard of the Bolden boys at Tech.
 
Yes, I remember the Bolden boys from those great East Tech teams from the late 50s to the mid 70s.
Ignatius had some really good teams during that time, but are under-recognized because the Cats were knocked out of the state tournament by the Scarabs 10x in that period. Could not get past East Tech in the districts.

The Cats’ ’71 team under Gallagher (pictured in the article) were really good and at 16-0, played vs. East Tech in the city championship game. The Cats played well but lost 73-80. I went to see the re-match in the regionals at Canton, thinking the Cats had a shot at winning. The Scarabs came out onto the floor for warm-ups with “Sweet Georgia Brown” playing and they proceeded to do an awesome dunking exhibition. They had about 8 guys who were all a muscular, 6’4” or 6’5” – Freddie Beamon, James Abrams, Robert Lucas, Nate Washington, Mike St. Clair and some others + super quick guards Van Glenn Neal, Lawrence Bolden and Antonio Bolden. They were men amongst boys. The Scarabs overwhelmed the Wildcats by 42 that night! One of Ignatius’ best teams, the ’71 Cats were 21-2 with both losses to East Tech.
 
The Bolden boys that formed the backcourt for Tech in the early 60's were not brothers. Nor were they cousins. They were uncle and nephew, with the nephew being older than the uncle. Ignatius fans were not at thier best with chants directed toward those two.
 
I remember Ignatius finishing the '64-65 regular season at 16-0. They entered the city title game as big underdogs against Eash High which had handles Tech fairly easily. Thanks to whom else, Brian Dowling, the Cats pulled off the big upset. The Cats easily won the secitonals and districts, and thenfaced East Tech in the regionals. Every one at Ignatius thought this was the year to break the jinx. The Scarabs then proceded to blow the Cats out of the gym.
 
Larry Bolden was a staring PG on Fred Taylor’s final (bad) teams at Ohio State. I recall him walking the ball up court in one game and getting a ten-second call against him.
 
arizonawildcat said:
I remember Ignatius finishing the '64-65 regular season at 16-0. They entered the city title game as big underdogs against Eash High which had handles Tech fairly easily. Thanks to whom else, Brian Dowling, the Cats pulled off the big upset. The Cats easily won the secitonals and districts, and thenfaced East Tech in the regionals. Every one at Ignatius thought this was the year to break the jinx. The Scarabs then proceded to blow the Cats out of the gym.
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With all due respect to one of the older Wildcat statesmen, I must disagree. I recall that we were 15-1 during the 64-65 regular season, losing to John Marshall late in the season. We were 16-0 in 62-63, before falling to the Scarabs down at the old Cleveland Arena, as we had done the year before as well. The East Tech blowout in 65 at Bedford was ugly, with the Scarabs using a number of JV players too. Once we were down by a few, Wirtz threw away any game plan and just let Dowling and Grace fire away.
 
Any thoughts on how the team looked? Surprised Bodamer is not on the roster after playing Varsity as a freshman.
 
Wildcats1886 said:
Any thoughts on how the team looked? Surprised Bodamer is not on the roster after playing Varsity as a freshman.
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It’s early in the season and from observing the first 2 games on SIBN, I like the team’s energy level. There seems to be better ball movement than in more recent times. Coach Joyce is starting his first role as a head coach and surely there’s a learning process for both he and the players.

It’s a young team with 7 juniors and 3 sophomores. Also surprised the sophomore Bodamer is not on the varsity roster. There’s good size on the squad with 6-7 Raynor, 6-6 Yontek, 6-4 Green (soph), 6-4 Hubbard, 6-5 Lamirand, 6-3 Emmett Hanna and the 6-8 CJ Yarian (soph), all being underclassmen. Thus far, coach Cam has been rotating 12 players throughout the games and that has not included sophomore Jon Effertz, the squad’s best outside shooter, who has been out with an injury.

Being a young squad, they’ve had their peaks and valleys during the first 2 games versus quality opponents. Toppin has had early foul trouble in both games, which seemed to limit the Cats offensively at times. Nunez has been the one consistently making 3 pointers. Effertz’s return will benefit greatly and I would expect Griffin Hanna to also be a good 3-point shooter once he gets his basketball legs. Raynor has really stepped up his game this year, scoring 21 and 25 points thus far. He’s a long and lengthy 6-7 with good agility and offensive moves around the basket.

Thinking optimistically, the Wildcats have some real upside, especially as they grow in experience
 
www.ignatiuswildcats.com

Wildcats Extend Winning Streak to 3 Before Finals Break

The Basketball Cats now have a 10-day break from games to study for final exams.
www.ignatiuswildcats.com www.ignatiuswildcats.com

Henry Raynor continues to excel, averaging 22 ppg
It's becoming clear that the Cats need Jon Effertz back from his injury to complement Raynor with his outside shooting.
Outside shooting in the last 2 games has been somewhat inconsistent.
 
I understand you are excited that Ignatius is 3-1 but they played 4 really bad teams, when they start playing better teams they need to shorten the rotation they are playing 12 deep and this team is not that deep to be playing 12. The next 7 or 8 games will tell a lot about where this team is going this year.
 
Raynor is very good, probably their best player, Toppin has been in foul trouble a few games but he needs to play a lot better his talent is thru the roof, he needs to be more selfish and look to score more. They need to play Griffin Hanna and Daniel Nunez more, those 2 played a lot last year and both are not playing much this year. Coach needs to give them more time and I am sure they will be more productive. It is hard to play 2 minutes a half and be productive. As a first year coach I am sure he is figuring things out but the schedule gets much tougher now so your best players should be playing more.
 
Agree that Marshall and Maple are not that good, but Thomas Worthington and Richmond Heights are pretty decent teams. Richmond Heights returns 4 starters from a Div IV final four team and the Cleveland.com reporters stated TW is one of the Columbus area’s better teams.

Agree re Toppin. He needs to play like he did vs. Brecksville in last season’s district semifinals – he was outstanding, scoring 30 pts. Griffin Hanna only played the first 4 games last year, then was out for the season with a wrist injury. He was a good outside shooter then, but this season has been a struggle, perhaps due to not playing competitive basketball for a year. Lack of playing time has probably hindered outside shooters like Hanna and Nunez from finding the right rhythm

The Cats are not at the level of SVSM and the team from Detroit Ave. It’ll be interesting to see how they fare vs. McKinley, Heights and Warren Harding. Don’t know what kind of competition they’ll face in south Florida at the start of the new year. They are not top 5 in this area. Time will tell if they could be in the top 10. I do think the Cats are better than last year’s squad
 
We will find out more about this Ignatius team in the next couple of weeks, they play Canton McKinley, Cleveland Heights, St. V, then head to Miami to play in the Jesuit tourney, don't know there schedule down there but I am sure they will be playing some good competition. If they go 3-3 in the next 6 games I would consider that a success. I think last year's team was better than this year's squad but it is still early. Last year that Beliek? Kid was really good and Davet raw but big. I don't see this year's team being anywhere near that team, this year's team has no Beliek that can score and no big that can play D against some of the bigger studs in the area, Just my thoughts we will see soon what this team is made of.
 
Any Ignatius fans want to translate this? Tony is an Ignatius alum. I wondered if he was going to get the job that Cam Joyce ultimately got. At first due to his Ignatius roots I wasn’t sure if this Tweet was sarcastic or not...maybe he had a relative on the team?

But the more I thought about it, it definitely seems passive aggressive. Keep up the recruiting trail, Cam. Solon MS has lost some good ones over the years. He must have his eye on someone.
 

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Tony I believe was offered the job and turned it down, this was totally him making a point about Cam being at a Solon game, heard one of the best players in the area is from Solon and Cam has been there a couple of times and Tony was not happy. Don't know exactly the OHSAA rules but how you deal with CYO kids is different than public school kids if you are a private high school. Heard same kid was at the Ignatius practice being wined and dined. Once again this all could be fine under the OHSAA rules just seems like Tony and Cam are not seeing eye to eye on what is going on. Don't know who is right or wrong. Who knows they both could be right. I wish they played each other this year would be interesting.
 
I don't believe Tony ever had any true interest in the job. I'm sure he'd love to coach at his alma mater but his real job is at Solon Schools and he's not leaving that district. Definitely about recruiting his middle schoolers.
 
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