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BENNETT'S MINUTES: Knights make Neese finale difficult
GREENFIELD – When the final buzzer sounded on Saturday to end the Cloverdale-Northeastern boys’ basketball regional game, so ended the record-setting high school career of Cooper Neese.
Neese and his teammates provided a season full of memorable moments to the large crowd of Clover fans who followed them everywhere. Saturday’s Cloverdale crowd at a location 90 miles away was even larger than one at the sectional finals last week just a few miles up the road.
The number of achievements and big stories seemed to just come along one after another.
• Neese finished his career as the seventh-leading boys’ scorer in state history;
• He broke the Putnam County boys’ career scoring record;
• He finished the season as the fourth-leading scorer in the state at 27.2 points per game, ironically being passed in the last game by teammate Jalen Moore (who finished in third place at 27.5);
• He recorded what is believed to be the second-highest single-game total in boys’ Putnam County history with his 53-point game at Southmont;
• Pat Rady, the coach during his first two years of high school, had a documentary film made about him;
• Al Tucker, Cooper’s dad’s high school coach, was selected for enshrinement in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame;
• Neese was named the Gary E. Fears Most Outstanding Player at the First Financial Wabash Valley Classic in Terre Haute as the Clovers won the consolation bracket championship;
• He made all 41 free throws that he attempted in the FFWVC, his total of 118 points in the four-day event tied the overall record and his total of 23 points in the third quarter against Robinson is believed to be a tournament record;
• He was one of only three players from Indiana High School Athletic Association high schools named as finalists for the McDonald’s All-American game;
• He was chosen as one of 16 players nationwide to compete in an online voting competition for a spot in the American Family 3-Point Competition, to be held in April at the Final Four in Arizona (he won the first three voting battles, and the final round concludes later this week).
Yet to me, he was not able to go out in a blaze of glory as it seemed he should have done.
And that’s a shame.
In a sport where officiating dictates outcomes more than any other, Neese was not allowed to perform to his abilities.
On the very first offensive possession of the game, Northeastern set up a lob pass to high-flying Knights’ point guard Tyler Smith. Smith caught the ball up near the ram and jammed the ball home. A nearby Neese was whistled for a foul on the play just 13 seconds into the game, one which video evidence shows was non-existent. (A link to the video is provided with this column on www.bannergraphic.com).
A little more than three minutes later, Neese drove into the lane, saw a defender in his path, and sidestepped to his left to avoid contact. A defender fell, and a second bogus foul was called.
The Clovers led 8-6 at that point, and Neese soon hit a 3-pointer to start an 8-0 run that eventually put his team up 16-6.
Coach Patrick Rady took him out briefly, a move that no one could question with a 10-point lead and his top player in foul trouble. Northeastern then went on a big run that allowed them to lead by 11 points midway through the second quarter.
Through all of that, though, the Clovers came back. Moore had a huge third quarter with 16 points and the Clovers led by one point entering the final period.
The physical style of defense employed by Northeastern became gradually more physical as the game progressed, however, and Neese found himself literally wearing two defenders as he tried to attempt shots to help his team regain the lead after losing it in the fourth period. One of the photos accompanying this column shows that being bodied was a way of life for Neese in the second half, and his only three field goals of the final two quarters came in the final minute when the outcome was already decided.
When asked about the physical nature of the defense in the game, Neese predictably did not complain.
“They played with what the referees gave them,” he said. “They did exactly what their game plan was, and they did it well.”
Perfectly logical response. If you’re playing baseball or softball, and the home plate umpire is calling pitches as strikes that are a foot outside, then you’re an idiot if you don’t throw the ball a foot outside.
Neese did show a little more displeasure toward the officials than normal, but nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders as if asking “That’s not a foul?”
Coach Rady objected to a few of the calls, but was professional in his behavior – far better than I would have been back in my coaching days.
I would have gone all-out Denzel Washington from “Remember the Titans” on those guys – “He’s lining up offsides…”
Neese also accepted blame for his inability to hit shots in the second half.
“I need to learn better how to get shots off when I’m not wide open,” he said. “That’s one thing I can learn from this game.”
But, what’s done is done.
For Neese, there are still things to be accomplished in high school. He is very appreciative of the social media campaign engineered by his mother, Lisa Roeder, to encourage friends and family to vote for him in the national 3-point contest.
“That would be huge,” he said of the chance to compete on CBS television at the Final Four. “I think it would help to put Cloverdale on the map more, and for me to help to represent Butler as well.”
He is also hopeful of becoming Putnam County’s seventh player to be chosen for the prestigious Indiana All-Star team, which will be announced next month.
Neese plans to take “about a week and a half” off from playing basketball, and will then get back at it.
He will be following his next team, the Butler Bulldogs, either in person or on television as they try to advance through the NCAA tourney.
Neese agreed with the notion that playing in college, despite having even bigger and stronger people guarding him, could in some ways be easier than in high school.
“Just being able to get my shot off quickly in high school helped, but I rarely took an open shot this year,” he added. “I think I’ll be able to get some open shots next year.”
David Woods is the Butler beat writer for the Indianapolis Star, and I was texting him during the game to keep him updated.
I expressed to him my personal displeasure about the contact that was being allowed, but Woods offered some words of encouragement.
“The Big East Conference [in which Butler plays] is physical,” he said. “But they protect the shooters.”
Glad to hear it, because that sure didn’t happen at Greenfield on Saturday.
And next year’s Clovers?
“They’ll be fine,” Neese said. “Everybody says that as soon as Cooper leaves they’re not going to win this or they’re not going to win that. Jalen is going to lead them, coach Rady is going to do what he does every single year and the others are going to keep getting better.
“It will still be fun to watch Cloverdale basketball next year.”
Rady hopes the momentum from the Neese/Moore era will continue through next year and beyond, as Moore enters his final high school season.
“It’s been a game-changer, a program-changer,” Rady said. “Kids want to be a part of this program. The sendoff that we had on Friday at our school and everything everyone did for us was amazing.
“This is what Indiana basketball is about – bringing a community together,” he added. “It’s amazing what sports can do – it can transcend a lot of things in life. A lot of times people want to knock sports, but it’s amazing what a group of kids can do when they come together for a cause like this.”
The successes of both Neese and Moore this year could in part be directly related to the presence of the other player, but with Neese’s graduation Rady knows the burden will fall solely on Moore next season.
“Jalen is the first kid in our gym shooting every morning, and we have to kick him out at night after practice is over,” Rady said. “Leadership is not what you say, but what you do. We hope Jalen’s work ethic, like Cooper’s, will form kind of a ‘Pied Piper effect’ on the younger guys.
“We’re ready for Jalen to be that leader now.”
Odds and ends
• Northeastern lost 65-50 to Heritage Christian in the Greenfield-Central regional championship game. Heritage Christian will play Crawford County in the southern semistate game at Richmond on Saturday, with the winner battling the Frankton-Marquette Catholic on March 25 in the state finals.
• Several other big name players saw their teams fall on Saturday, as 2017 Mr. Basketball favorite Kris Wilkes of Indianapolis North Central saw his team fall 47-44 to Ben Davis at Southport and 2018 Mr. Basketball favorite Romeo Langford and the New Albany Bulldogs lost 72-64 to Castle in the finals at Seymour.
• The crowds were great at Greenfield-Central on Saturday, with both Northeastern and Cloverdale bringing enough fans to fill the entire 4,620-seat gym (38th largest in the state) and making the fans for the second game have to wait until they left their seats before they could replace them. For a point of reference, Greencastle’s McAnally Center holds 660 more fans and is the 27th largest gym with a capacity of 5,280.
• I spent Saturday night at home after returning from Greenfield, and was able to watch the Carmel-Fort Wayne North game on my regular television via AppleTv while also keeping tabs on the Northeastern game on my phone.
Saturday’s Seymour Semistate (Evansville Bosse against Indianapolis Crispus Attucks and Castle going against Ben Davis) is being broadcast on ihsaatv.org. Great way to watch a game (for free).
I would go to Seymour, one of my favorite gyms, but even with a capacity of 8,110 (third largest in Indiana and the whole country) the event is expected to be a sellout.
• Olney Central College recently picked up a pair of commitments from players very familiar to Wabash Valley basketball fans. Edgewood’s Cooper Bybee and Josiah Wallace of Marshall (Ill.) are both joining the central Illinois junior college.