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BENNETT'S MINUTES: New Castle trip memorable for Neese
NEW CASTLE — Jerry Neese returned to New Castle Chrysler’s legendary gymnasium on Saturday for the first time in 33 years.
The gym, labeled as the “world’s largest high school gymnasium,” has a capacity of 9,325 spectators.
Not quite that many seats were necessary on Saturday for a five-game, sparsely-attended “Championship Cup” series matching teams from Indiana against teams from Kentucky.
The Bluegrass state emerged as the victor on the day with three wins.
Neese was there, of course, to watch his son Cooper and the Cloverdale Clovers pick up one of the Hoosier state’s two victories on the day.
In 1983, the elder Neese was a member of a powerful Cloverdale squad which competed in the Hall of Fame Classic.
The task at hand for the Clovers? Simple. Defeat eventual Mr. Basketball Steve Alford and the No. 7-ranked Trojans on their homecourt before thousands of screaming New Castle fans.
Or not so simple.
“They beat us by 15 points,” Neese recalled. “It was a lot different — it was pretty full that day, with three ranked teams here and us.”
Neese noted the team then played No. 9-ranked Richmond in the consolation game, and lost by two points.
He said the gym itself hadn’t changed much over the years, with the exception of 3-point lines.
Just as fellow Clover standout Jalen Moore got to play on his father’s homecourt at Southport earlier this season, Neese thought it was great that his son got to play on such a legendary floor where he had once competed.
“I told Cooper earlier how I took a charge from a big guy from Richmond,” Neese recalled. “It was the biggest guy I ever stood in front of. I had bruises everywhere.”
Cooper Neese had 18 points in the first quarter, finishing with 33 as the Clovers defeated Franklin County 88-64.
“The first quarter was unreal, really,” Jerry Neese said. “I don’t know whether he missed a shot or not.” (He didn’t, going 6 for 6 in the period.)
While that quarter was impressive, to go along with a 23-point quarter in one game and back-to-back 20-point quarters in another game in December, Neese would like to see Cooper have more balanced games.
“As a parent, and an ex-coach, I would rather see him get eight to 10 points in every quarter instead of some big quarters and others where he doesn’t score as much,” he said. “That can’t happen for us to win a sectional and go on.”
Such is life when expectations are so high.
The Clovers have responded with eight wins in their last nine games after a brief lull earlier in the season, and Jerry Neese knows that success will not come with only two contributors.
“The rest of the guys need to come up with about 15-20 points a game,” he said. “They can do it.“