Maybe Mater Dei has good news to share.

If so, Mater Dei is not interested in sharing it.

That’s the latest weirdness to come from Mater Dei.

From the locker room fight that brought on a lawsuit to Bruce Rollinson saying he plans to coach in 2023 then announcing a couple of weeks later that, nah, he is going to retire and other strangeness in between, it’s been a bizarre year-and-a-half at the Catholic school with the best-known school sports program in Orange County.

And now we have school president Mike Brennan writing to the Mater Dei community that the “climate assessment” of the school’s athletics program is overwhelmingly positive without mentioning why the report is overwhelmingly positive.

Brennan isn’t talking to the media about it. The very educated guess here is that the Diocese of Orange, the parent organization of Mater Dei, has placed duct tape over Brennan’s mouth. That leaves it up to the Diocese to present the good news, but the Diocese so far has yet to offer it.

Here is a chance for some much-needed good publicity for Mater Dei and the Diocese. Instead, they are leaving it to anonymous people on social media to provide their analysis. Of course a prominent theme there will be that Brennan is lying and that the assessment is overwhelmingly negative.

The assessment likely contains information that is not complimentary towards Mater Dei. If so, that’s OK. Whether a school has a student population of 200 or 2,000 there will be kids who had a bad experience.

There is living and breathing testimony that Mater Dei athletics is a worthwhile experience.

Former Mater Dei athletes Matt Leinart and Andy Karich have sons who are freshmen athletes at Mater Dei. Leinart, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at USC who played in the NFL and now is a college football analyst on TV, and Karich, an Orange County orthopedic surgeon, could have sent their boys anywhere. They chose Mater Dei.

That’s good news for Mater Dei. If the assessment is, too, then share it.

Go tell it on the mountain. Leaving social media trolls to tell it is a mistake.

NOTES

• Mater Dei boys basketball coach Gary McKnight got his 1,230th win Wednesday when the Monarchs defeated Servite 82-56. That puts him at No. 3 in the nation among high school boys basketball coaches for career wins, behind the 1,333 of Robert Huges (Dunbar High in Texas) and the 1,274 of Morgan Wooten (DeMatha High in Maryland). He is No. 1 among the nation’s active coaches. “I’ve had a lot of good players,”  said McKnight.

• St. John Bosco beat Santa Margarita 55-30 in Trinity League boys basketball Wednesday night to take sole possession of first place. Bosco is 5-0, Santa Margarita 4-1. Santa Margarita was scoreless in the first quarter.

• This week’s “watch list” has 26 possible teams for the elite Open Division of the CIF Southern Section boys basketball playoffs. The list includes O.C. teams Crean Lutheran, Foothill, JSerra, Mater Dei and Santa Margarita. The Open Division was an eight-team group last season. None of the county teams seem like Open Division material although that could change between now and when the regular season ends Feb. 3.

• JSerra junior guard Aidan Fowler has the best-looking jump shot in county boys basketball. Exquisite form.

• The county boys basketball player with the most “upside” and who seems most likely to have a fine future in college basketball and perhaps beyond is Sage Hill 6-8 junior Carter Bryant. He is fast and physical and does everything well.

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• Travis Paleo at Foothill and Zion Paleo at Orange Lutheran, both starting guards for their school’s basketball teams, are cousins.

• Nike Extravaganza XXVII (that’s 28 to you and me) is being held Jan. 27-28 at Mater Dei. Among the matchups on Jan. 28 are Harvard-Westlake (No. 2 in CalHiSports.com’s state rankings) vs. De La Salle of Concord (No. 9 in the state); Centennial of Corona (No. 1 in the state) vs. Liberty (No. 2 in MaxPreps’ Nevada state rankings). Also on the schedule: JSerra vs. Crean Lutheran, and Open Division watch list teams Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks and West Ranch. Tickets can be purchase online at GoFan.co.

• The National Classic baseball tournament’s 16 team-bracket includes Orange County’s Cypress, Servite, Villa Park and host school El Dorado. Villa Park senior shortstop Gavin Grahovac, who signed with Texas Tech and is a likely early first-round MLB draft pick, is the top star player in the loaded tournament that will be played April 3-6.