BOD by a trey over Berkeley

Jimmy Durkin was on press row for the Bishop O'Dowd - Berkeley High matchup as the latter got Rabb-ed despite 30 points from Henry Cornelius.

Lou Richie leading Bishop O'Dowd

The headline could be from 1989 when Lou Richie was on the court as a Dragon senior but it's actually referring to the 2012-13 season because Richie will lead the Bishop O'Dowd (BOD) program as the head coach. He, Tony Freccero and Dante Patterson will be the braintrust on the sidelines.

As an 11-year assistant, Richie is obviously familiar with the BOD history and lore. But there is no Richard Longrus, no Terence Daniel, no Kendall Jackson and no Josh Crum. In fact, eight Dragon seniors have graduated and exactly zero starters return.

But none of this concerns Richie.

"I wouldn't want to coach any other team," he said, adding, "I'm excited about this one because we have incredible kids."

His particular stamp on the program will be connected to the characteristics he wants his kids to display: "very confident, very professional, very articulate and be the best prepared as a whole person for college."

Regarding outcomes, he added, "Our emphasis is on educating and growing the whole person with a particular focus on the kids coming back when they are older and helping the Oakland/Bishop O'Dowd community. We are using basketball as a vehicle to teach life skills."

There are big designs.

"I am a proud alum of BOD (1989) and while I was there we attended two state championships under the guidance of Coach Phelps," Richie recalled. "In 1988, I took (widely considered the most controversial shot in state history) the last second shot that was overturned by Ken Zink's offensive goaltending call. We came back from 10 down in the last 90 seconds. I went coast-to-coast with six seconds left and the Oakland Coliseum was rocking. That shot still fuels me in teaching the life lessons that I learned: success = hard work + opportunity/focus. I am hoping that every student-athlete will obtain an academic scholarship or have the opportunity to play basketball in college if they so desire."

In taking the position, Richie made three promises to the parents of his protégés. "I said their children would be safe with me, I would never lie to them and no one will spend more time working with the kids than me."

The Dragons have shifted to the new West Alameda County Conference (WACC 12) and the Foothill League in particular, which will also consist of Berkeley, Castro Valley, Mt. Eden, San Leandro and San Lorenzo.

The other teams will make up the Shoreline League and they are Alameda, Arroyo, Encinal, Hayward, Piedmont and Tennyson.

BOD also will participate in the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas during December 19-23 in a tournament also featuring Bishop Gorman, Mater Dei, Sheldon, Compton and Fairfax, among others.

Richie, who holds a master's degree in education from the University of California and is working on a doctoral degree in educational leadership at San Francisco State, majored and minored in unusual-for-athletes subjects at Clemson University. Try history and political science. The reasons? "I liked reading biographies of successful people, especially African-Americans and I always loved government."

He earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference on the court and in the classroom but persistence and fortitude was necessary, especially as an undergraduate. Richie began at UCLA, then earned credits at Merritt College, Laney College and College of Alameda before heading to South Carolina. Once there, it was classes at Tri County Technical College before graduating from Clemson.

He's done, witnessed and experienced a lot,  all of which will be applied for the benefit of his Bishop O'Dowd.

His Dragons has a nice ring to it.

BOD over SL

Jimmy Durkin has the details of Bishop O'Dowd's convincing win over San Leandro High.

Jesuit wins tourney, Sheldon third

From Bill Paterson:

Parker Uu scored 22 points, Akachi Okugo 15 and Bryce Pressley 13 in leading Jesuit past Strake Jesuit of Houston 68-55 in tonight's Father Barry Christmas Classic basketball tournament championship game at Jesuit ...

... Sheldon defeated Bishop O'Dowd of Oakland 73-65 in the third place game. D'Erryl Williams and Armani Hampton each had 21 points for the Huskies.

Jesuit over BOD

Jesuit 74, Bishop O'Dowd 64

Jesuit

Parker Uu 8 4-5 25 (five treys)
Bryce Pressley 7 2-2 18
Akachi Okugo 4 2-3 11

Bishop O'Dowd 

Kendall Jackson 7 0-0 18 (four treys)
Joshua Crum 5 1-1 11
Richard Longrus 4 2-7 10 (seven boards)

Brandon Ashley is leaving

Bishop O'Dowd frontcourter Brandon Ashley is heading to Findlay Prep -- this per Alex Kline/The Recruit Scoop.

We wrote about this possibility on June 10, weighing the pros and cons.

We wish Brandon well in his new surroundings.

Longrus coming on

Here's Jeff Borzello on Bishop O'Dowd and Oakland Soldier Richard Longrus after the senior-to-be's play this weekend back in Virginia.

March 27 -- your northern California high school basketball report

Douglas Benton has all the boys game reports from yesterday as well as individual spotlights.

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Mitch Stephens reports on yesterday's DLS and BOD games -- aka Black Saturday --  up in Sacramento.

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Mitch is here with Salesian's loss.

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Jimmy Durkin also covered the BOD loss.

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Bill Paterson has the details on two of the championship games for the boys.

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From the southern California perspective, Eric Sondheimer has more on the MD - DLS matchup.

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Eric and Steve Galluzzo collaborate on the game reports for the LaVerne win over BOD and Windward triumph over Salesian.

Two losses for NorCal so far

So far, it's Windward over Salesian 63-57 and Lutheran topping BOD 64-59, despite a 26/8 by Brandon Ashley in the latter.

Jimmy Durkin and Doug Benton are both tweeting.

Meet Brian Shaw

Brian Shaw is a Laker assistant coach (and most likely the next head coach) but his roots are in northern California, Oakland in particular. An alumnus of Bishop O'Dowd, Shaw was recently interviewed by David Aldridge and it's must-watch video. Go here.

BOD crushes Berkeley

Jimmy Durkins provides the details on Bishop O'Dowd's 67-35 crushing of Berkeley High. Richard Longrus posted a double-double.