KCK Preps Award Ceremony Update

by David Brox, davidbrox@shukc.com, @OdoggBrox

The final trophy count will be 33 awards we will pass out Saturday April 7th, 2012 10:00 AM at Cinemark Theater at the Legends. This is a community event and an opportunity for us at KCK Preps to give back to the young athletes we have covered the last few months in basketball and wrestling. I am working on some highlights just like before so I will be reaching out to some coaches especially on the ladies side of the house for some help with film. I will not be able to guarantee anything other than the film I have at my disposal. I will make every attempt to ask for it though.

We will be acknowledging a young athlete at Coronado Derek Sykes who was chosen the player of the year among the middle school coaches. So not only will we recognize the bright future we have ahead in our sophomore and freshman classes but go even deeper to know the crop of younger stars is also developing nicely.

The trophy order is in and I have a host of people who will be ready to help me like last time. My sisters Rachell Hill and Michelle Jones will help setup refreshments. Mrs Menissa Brox will hopefully make it. She works opposite of me and sacrifices much to allow me to broadcast games and do highlights most evenings so hopefully she will get to attend.

We have one sponsor (outside some private donations) right now which is the Black Police Officer Association. They were gracious enough to sign back up and will be presenting the Boys Player of the Year trophy at the event. We need more to keep building on this momentum. No donation is too small so please reach out if you would like to donate and get involved.

I take these events very serious and I will not cut corners as we are setting a new standard here at KCK Preps. We want the young athletes to work hard to earn these types of accolades and hopefully the exposure helps as well.

I am excited!! I have been reaching out to a number of the athletes we will be honoring so hopefully everyone can plan to attend. I hope to make it fun and not long like football. We will be efficient and respectful of everyones time.

Bring your cameras and hopefully we can create some memories in celebrating a fine season of basektball.

If you have any questions at all about the event please don't hesitate to ask.  I am hopeful we get 100% participation from the athletes we have trophies for so any word we can get out to them is appreciated.

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Piper’s King to wrestle, play football at Benedictine College

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

One of Wyandotte County’s premier two-sport star athletes has wrapped up his recruitment.

Piper Pirates wrestler and defensive lineman Caleb King will be playing both sports at Benedictine College.

King finalized his recruitment today.

King was a big cog in Piper’s defensive front seven that helped the Pirates win 14 games the past two years. 

He averaged 3.5 tackles a game for the Pirates this past season and made one of the truly great plays of the season – intercepting a screen-pass against Sumner Academy and returning it all the way for a touchdown.

King also played offensive line this past season for Piper.

For his efforts, King was named to the KCK Preps First Team and the Kaw Valley League All-League First Team. 

On the wrestling side, King finished the season 38-9 and finished fourth in the state tournament at the 285-pound weight level. During the “regular season,” 

King won several meets, including the Basehor Bobcats Classic and the Wyandotte County Invitational.

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MORE EFFICIENCY: Measuring the efficiency of Basehor, Harmon and just for fun, Semi Ojeleye

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

Following my post on Mike Carson's week for the Harmon Hawks basketball team in Topeka during the 5A state basketball tournament, I thought it would be interesting to measure the efficiency of all of Harmon's and Basehor-Linwood's top seven players. 

Oh, and it would probably be fun to measure Ottawa superstar Semi Ojeleye's efficiency, too. 

As a reminder, the formula the NBA uses is this:

((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field Goals Att. - Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. - Free Throws Made) + Turnovers))….then divide it by the number of games.

Let's start with Harmon:

1. Mike Carson - 20.67. Carson was boosted by outstanding shooting percentage, blocks and rebounding. There's nothing more that needs to be said. He was tremendous for the Hawks and when he was in the game, he was the man. 

2. Devontae Newton - 12.33. Newton was an unsung hero for Harmon last week. Good-shooting and strong interior defense were key for him. 

3. Branden Roark - 10.33. This might be a bit of a stunner, but Roark had some issues last week. Missing eight three-pointers in the final game and turning the ball over six times really hurt his efficiency last week. Still, I would go to war with Branden any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Plus, efficiency improves with great coaching overtime and if Branden gets a good college coach, look out. 

4. JaJuan Taylor - 6.00. Taylor had a nice week himself. He hit some good shots and limited his mistakes. His defense was also under-appreciated. 

5. Jordan Horn - 4.33. Horn, like Roark, was hurt by turnovers during the week. Horn also did not score too much, so his number was down a bit. Still, Horn made a difference for them on defense at times. He also had a tough week when it came to committing fouls. 

6. Sheldon Carson - 2.67. Again, foul trouble prevented Carson from having a more reliable number. He didn't play all that much. Carson, however, did limit his mistakes - he only had one turnover all week for the Hawks. 

7. Roger Wallace - 1.0. He provided Harmon some minutes off the bench. Nothing really more needs to be said. Didn't light the world on fire, but also didn't light his team on fire with turnovers and silly mistakes. 

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Now, let's go with the 4A state champions from Basehor-Linwood:

1. Ryan Murphy - 19.33. Ryan really was the stud all week for Basehor-Linwood in terms of leadership and production. Murphy came very close to averaging a double-double and shot well from the field. Murphy also did not have too many turnovers. 

2. Colin Murphy - 10.67. This number is better than it looks when you consider the following: Colin Murphy missed 20 of 26 shots. He was 6-of-26 from the field all week. Usually, a shooting percentage like that puts your efficiency well below the double-figure mark. Murphy found a way to give his team key production in assists (10) and rebounds (18). He also missed just one free throw out of 15 attempts, meaning that his self-inflicted mistakes of turnovers and free throw misses were very limited. For having such a bad week shooting the ball, Colin preserved for the Bobcats and played smart basketball and good defense to make-up for the bad shooting week. 

3. Chase Younger - 10.00. Younger, like Newton, was Basehor's second MVP of the week. Younger was truly outstanding and the number is even better when you consider he's a sophomore and the efficiency number works against guards since rebounding is in the formula. Younger also played good defense and grabbed 8 rebounds during the week. 

4. J.P. Downing - 8.00. Another sophomore playing above his head. Downing made plays on both sides of the ball and most importantly, he limited his mistakes. Downing grew up a lot this week and his efficiency rating indicates this. 

5. Ben Johnson - 7.67. It was an up and down week for Big Ben. Still, he provided timely baskets (including the game-winner of the state title game), rebounds and blocks. Johnson's stats came at a timely nature for the Bobcats. Not a great week, but not a bad one, either. 

6. Brad Waterman - 5.67. Waterman's role for Basehor-Linwood was this: Make open looks. He did just that. 

7. Tanner Garver - 3.33. Another role player for Basehor-Linwood who provided important minutes and scored some baskets when the starters were down.

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And now, Semi Ojeleye. 

Semi Ojeleye - 30.00. This would be second in the NBA right now behind LeBron James. Ojeleye shot 30-of-56 from the field, grabbed 38 rebounds during the tournament and scored 89 points. He took a lot of shots and did commit turnovers, but he did more than enough to make up for it. Ojeleye was special in Salina last week.

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Thoughts:

1. Devontae Newton was an underrated hero all week for Harmon. He was great at the tournament and did very well in preventing mistakes and chipping in offensively when it mattered. Harmon will miss Newton next year. 

2. Basehor's sophomore guards handled the pressure well and were so good. Coach Mike McBride did a nice job developing his sophomore guards this season, two of which started this season. Younger and Downing were good and if there was a major difference on why Basehor may have won the title and Harmon may have lost the title, it was guard play. Basehor may not have scored a ton at the guard position. But they played smarter than Harmon's guards did.

3. Both teams return a good core of players next year. Branden Roark is gone. Jordan Horn is gone. The Murphy Twins are gone. However, Carson, Taylor and Carson should make Harmon one of the favorites in 5A next year and Younger, Johnson and Downing should make Basehor-Linwood dangerously under the radar in 4A next year.

4. Harmon's mistakes may have cost them a state title. Whether they were cheap fouls, turnovers or missed free throws, Harmon's self-inflicted wounds were present and easy to notice when calculating these stats. Tough shooting days, foul trouble and turnovers were present in all three games. Harmon survived two of them and came close to winning the third one. 

5. Basehor had respectable depth by the end of the season. Entering the year, the Murphy Twins and Johnson were the three known commodities. As we grew late into the year, Basehor's guards turned into good, reliable basketball players who knew what they had to do.

6. Semi Ojeleye is not human.

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Mike Carson’s efficient week in Topeka

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

When looking at Harmon forward Mike Carson’s stat-line from last week’s stat tournament in Topeka, it looks pretty good.

In three games in the state tournament, Carson finished averaging 13.7 points a game, 8.3 rebounds and 2 assists a game.

That line is pretty good for a junior. It’s even better when you see that he shot well 60 percent from the field.

Still, readers will know that those stats are not my favorite.

My single favorite stat in basketball is efficiency. 

Anyone can score 25 points a game if they shoot the ball way too much and play out of control. Efficiency measures the performance, intelligence and overall effectiveness of a basketball player.

It’s not used enough at the high school level.

Off the soap box and back on to Carson’s week in Topeka.

For a reminder, here’s the formula to measure a player’s efficiency:

((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field Goals Att. - Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. - Free Throws Made) + Turnovers))….then divide it by the number of games.

Here's how "Hedo" Carson shapes up:

• When adding up points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, he totals 81 "value" points for the week.  
• After adding his missed shots, turnovers and missed free throws, it's 19, meaning the three-game number to divide is 62.  
• After doing the simple division, Carson's efficiency comes out to 20.67. 

The number may not be as good as the number the Murphy Twins registered, but it's still pretty good. In the NBA, 15 is considered the average, so Carson was well above average. 

If there's one thing worth regretting about last week's run to Topeka, it may not have been getting Carson involved enough. He had some foul trouble in the title game, but Carson played very efficiently and played pretty smart. 

His stat-line was rock solid, but the 20.67 number was most important in Harmon's success, especially when you look at the turnovers, missed shots and missed free throws in the state title game against Kapaun.

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VIDEO: Piper vs. Tonganoxie full-game

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

At the request of a few players from the Piper Pirates boys basketball team, here's video of this season's Tonganoxie Chieftain/Piper Pirates basketball game played this year at Piper High School.

A couple of notes about this game:

- For Piper, keep an eye on Calvin Johnson. Johnson played a great game and scored 26 points, which were a game-high for the Pirates.

- Also look for Luke Long in this game for Piper. The sophomore guard for Piper played a good game as well.

- For Tonganoxie, John Lean and Dane Erickson scored 21 points in the game. Erickson ended up earning All Kaw Valley League honors for the Chieftains. He ended up scoring over 1,000 career points.

Having watched some of this game, it's a pretty entertaining one.

If you're a Piper or Chieftain fan, it might be a good flash-back to your season. Piper played their hearts out, but Tonganoxie made the great comeback. 

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