Jeff Johnson

Here are boys’ basketball standings from schools and conferences from The Gazette area.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels announced Monday that CEO Doug Nelson will be retiring after serving the ballclub for 21 years. He plans to step down in June.

Cedar Rapids Xavier’s boys’ basketball team lost for the first time this season when Waterloo West beat it in overtime Tuesday night. There was no hangover from that loss Friday night, as the Saints beat up Cedar Rapids Washington.

Cedar Rapids Xavier girls’ basketball coach Tom Lilly has worn a Grinch tie for games just prior to the Christmas break for the last decade or so. Grinch, make that Lilly, picked up his 630th career victory Friday night when his Class 4A ninth-ranked Saints beat up Cedar Rapids Washington, 61-36.

Iowa football defensive end Ethan Hurkett is a Cedar Rapids Xavier graduate who is getting married in the summer to a Linn-Mar graduate. Beyond around family one more year and seeking to improve himself for a possible NFL career were reasons why he has decided to return to the Hawkeyes for a sixth season next season.

Pairings were set Thursday for the 14-team, 7-game crossover event, which will be held January 4th at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse. Matchups include Cedar Falls and West Des Moines Valley, Dubuque Senior and Waukee Northwest, and Cedar Rapids Kennedy versus Johnston.

The Cedar Falls boys’ basketball team already has posted three significant wins in the very early portion of the season. Probably its best came Tuesday night when the Tigers knocked off Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 79-73, ending Kennedy’s regular-season win streak at 46.

An agreement between the parties allows the IHSSN to livesteam and telecast boys’ state tournaments through this school year, with the Iowa High School Athletic Association then gaining all rights. A dispute arose in 2023 over IHSSN’s decision to livestream events on a pay-per-view basis.

The United States Hockey League takes a week and a half off every Christmas, giving everyone a chance to get a break and recharge. The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders go into their break fresh off a pair of weekend wins against the Chicago Steel.

Six-foot-9 senior forward Davis Kern is a returning first-team all-state boys’ basketball player who has signed to play collegiately at South Dakota State. It was his Linn-Mar teammates, especially Payson Nietert and Trey Wright, who drove the offensive bus Friday night in a 69-59 win at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The Vinton-Shellsburg boys’ basketball team went 1-21 last season. It won just three games each thre two seasons before that. But despite having no seniors on the roster, these Vikings are off to a 4-0 start.

Andrew McLean hopped in his car and drove 16 hours to the Corridor when he found out earlier this ECHL season that he’d been traded from Norfolk to the Iowa Heartlanders. He was that excited. The Heartlanders are excited to have the defenseman.

It’s believed that North Linn’s boys’ basketball team hasn’t lost a home game since 2014, a streak that was in jeopardy throughout Tuesday night’s game against Alburnett. But the Lynx rallied from 13 points back and pulled out a 54-50 victory.

The Iowa Heartlanders are on a five-game win streak going into a pair of big games this week at home against the Toledo Walleye. Iowa is four points back of Toledo for first place in the ECHL’s Central Division.

Former Iowa Hawkeyes tight end Scott Chandler came back to the state after a career in the National Football League. His first season as head coach at Iowa City Liberty saw the Lightning finish 10-2 and advance to the Class 5A state playoff semifinals.