Boys’ Sweet Sixteen star returning to Rupp Arena to face Kentucky
For one Georgetown College player, Sunday’s exhibition game against Kentucky is a return to the scene of the sublime.
Jake Ohmer led Scott High School to the semifinals of the 2017 Sweet Sixteen in Rupp Arena. He scored 106 points in three Sweet Sixteen games. That tied Mike Redd of Seneca for the 13th most points scored in the event.
Ohmer has not been back to Rupp Arena since. “I’m excited,” he said on Thursday.
When asked what he remembered about that Sweet Sixteen (maybe the 41-point performance against Harlan County in the first round?), Ohmer said, “I don’t really remember anything besides playing the best I’ve ever played in my life.”
An older brother, Pete Ohmer, was an assistant coach for Scott. Another brother, Chad Ohmer, was a teammate and joined Jake on the all-tournament team. A third brother, Evan Ohmer, worked the event as a video cameraman.
“It was a true family affair,” the brothers’ father, also named Pete Ohmer, said.
The three brothers and their parents plan to be in Rupp Arena to watch Georgetown play UK.
Going into the 2017 Sweet Sixteen, Jake Ohmer had long been a big scorer. He averaged 27.8 points as a high school senior and scored a school-record 2,705 points in his high school career.
Because he concentrated on baseball in summers, Jake was a relative basketball unknown going into the Sweet Sixteen. His father thought Jake’s immediate athletics future would be playing baseball for Kent State. But Jake committed to Western Kentucky’s basketball program the day after the state tournament.
As a freshman for Western Kentucky, Jake played in every game and averaged 5.6 points. When his playing time and scoring average (1.6 points per game) diminished as a sophomore, he decided to transfer to Georgetown.
Georgetown Coach Chris Briggs said Jake, a 6-foot-1 junior, is expected to be “a nice contributor” this coming season.
“He’s a tough kid,” Briggs said. “He’s not the biggest shooting guard, but he can really get hot. He and (senior guard) Jacob Conway play well on the wing. Both are dangerous shooters.”
Jake’s father, who was an All-American player for Bluefield College in the mid-1980s, saw a difference in his son after the move to Georgetown.
“I told him it was nice seeing him out there with a smile,” the father said before adding, “I don’t know how much fun it’s going to be having UK dunk on him. But it should be a fun and great experience.”
Where was everyone?
Looking back on the Blue-White Game raises a question: Where was everyone? The Big Blue Nation didn’t seem so big in a half-filled Rupp Arena.
The announced attendance of 13,574 seemed like a case of rounding upward. According to Rupp Arena, the number of ticket-holders coming through turnstiles was 10,424. Rupp’s new capacity for basketball with upper level chairback seats is 20,545.
When asked about the empty seats, UK Coach John Calipari accentuated the positive. “About 250 programs” would be Blue with envy to have that many fans attend a game, let alone a preseason scrimmage, he said.
To put 10,424 in perspective, three conferences averaged more fans at its games last season: the Big Ten (12,691), the SEC (11,527) and the ACC (10,912). Then again, a UK scrimmage drew more fans than all but 37 Division I schools averaged at home games last season.
For those who need Kentucky to be No. 1 in all basketball categories, there’s this: Although Syracuse averaged more fans at home games last season (21,992 to UK’s 21,695), UK had more fans at all its games — home, “true” road and neutral — than anyone. That number was 664,559.
Virginia, which had the advantage of advancement to the Final Four and winning the national championship in front of an announced crowd of 72,062, was second at 647,934.
Voting irregularities?
Coaches at the recent SEC Media Day shrugged off being voted to finish near the bottom of the league in balloting by reporters.
But two coaches voiced objection to one of their players failing to make a preseason all-SEC first or second team.
Auburn Bruce Pearl wasn’t pleased by senior center Austin Wiley’s absence. “I find it hard to believe there are 12 guys better than him,” Pearl said. “For him not to be recognized all-SEC is kind of curious. None of our guys (were). We’re used to that.”
South Carolina Coach Frank Martin voiced a similar complaint about sophomore guard A.J. Lawson. “I was disappointed he was omitted,” Martin said. “I would have wished he got a little more publicity and respect. We’ve earned some respect.”
A check of past voting results showed that Auburn has not had a player on the first team since Doc Robinson going into the 1999-2000 season. Jared Harper and Bryce Brown made the second team last year. DeWayne Reed made the second team going into the 2009-10 season.
As for South Carolina, Chris Silva made the first team last year. He was the Gamecocks’ first representative since Devan Downey made the first team going into 2009-10.
Winning ticket
For the ninth straight year (and the 10th time in John Calipari’s 11 seasons as coach), the media vote predicted Kentucky would win the SEC regular-season championship. The exception came going into the 2010-11 season when the media correctly predicted UK would finish second to Florida in the then-SEC Eastern Division.
Of the previous eight straight votes to finish first, the media was correct four times: 2016-17, 2015-16, 2014-15 and 2011-12.
Take sign
When jokingly asked if allowing pitcher Ben Jordan to join the UK basketball team meant John Calipari would be obligated to give him prime tickets to games in Rupp Arena, UK baseball coach Nick Mingione quipped, “Cal doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to look down at the end of the bench. I’m going to be sitting there.”
Who?
An attempt to clean out notebooks from the 2018-19 season included this note about UNC Greensboro, which lost 78-61 at Kentucky on Dec. 1.
In its fourth game of last season, UNC Greensboro beat Johnson & Wales 105-57.
A question came immediately to mind: Johnson & Wales?
A candid UNC Greensboro Coach Wes Miller said, “I don’t know much about it, to be honest. I know for places like Kentucky and the SEC, it’s pretty strange. But it’s pretty common in a mid-major conference to have a couple non-Division I (teams) on the schedule every year.”
Johnson & Wales is a private school in Charlotte, N.C. Its teams are in Division II of the National Small College Association. It has an enrollment of 1,815.
Happy birthday
To Stacey Poole. He turned 28 on Thursday. … To Dan Issel. He turned 71 on Friday. … To Transylvania Coach Brian Lane. He turned 52 on Friday. … To former Indiana coach Bob Knight. He turned 79 on Friday. … To former Georgia coach Hugh Durham. He turned 82 on Saturday. … To Aaron Harrison. He turns 25 on Monday. … To Andrew Harrison. He turns 25 on Monday. … To Michael Parks. He turns 49 on Wednesday. … To Devin Booker. He turns 23 on Wednesday. … To former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer. He turns 90 on Wednesday.
Sunday
Georgetown College at No. 2 Kentucky
What: Preseason exhibition game
When: 5 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WBUL-98.1; WLAP-630
This story was originally published October 27, 2019 at 10:21 AM.
