Final from the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at East Jessamine.

 

According to Mike Fields' twitter account,

 

Bryan Station was leading 35-25 and then Wayne County went on a 64-15 run to take a 89-50 lead.

 

Peyton Woods had 31 and Corey Stearns had 28.

Wow. That's some kind of a run. :eek:

Wow. That's some kind of a run. :eek:

 

That's pretty demoralizing.

demoralizing.

 

That's a good word for it.

What kind of size does Wayne Co have? Are they a real threat to make some noise at Sweet 16, if they get there?

What kind of size does Wayne Co have? Are they a real threat to make some noise at Sweet 16, if they get there?

 

 

Not all the way sure on the size but we all know how far a team goes in the Sweet 16 is determined more on the draw than how good a team is. I think they have decent size across the board but don't quote me on that. From what I am hearing they can all shoot the rock.

 

I think it was the year before last when Trinity and Bullitt East were #1 and #2 most of the year and they met in round 1 of the Sweet 16.

 

I'll also add that there aren't many Jarrod Polson fans outside of Nichiolasville bigger than myself but we all know West Jessamine wasn't one of the top 4 teams in the state when he led West to Final Four Saturday or when he led them the following year to the Quarterfinals. I think they were a better team when they went they lost in the Quarterfinals to who......eventual state champion Shelby Valley.

What kind of size does Wayne Co have? Are they a real threat to make some noise at Sweet 16, if they get there?

 

Here's their first seven players (starters + frontline sub and guard sub) -

 

# Player Grade Ht Wt

G 20 Trey Blevins 10 6'0" 155

G 10 Jason Perkins 12 5'9" 150

F 14 Peyton Woods 11 6'3" 165

F 23 Corey Stearns 10 6'2" 175

C 25 Nick Gillespie 10 6'6" 165

FS 33 Logan Gardner 11 6'1" 175

GS 22 Carson Staples 11 6'0" 175

 

Even though Wayne County has played and gone 18-0 thus far, two games have been played on opponent's courts, four have been played on neutral courts and the remaining 12 on WC's home court.

 

Teams some might consider worthy of top 20-30 status (in Kentucky) that WC has thus far played and defeated are:

 

67-63 Mater Academy (Miami FL)

115-103 Carter (Knoxville TN)

71-55 Shelby Valley (Pikeville KY)

78-68 Lincoln County (Stanford KY)

70-62 Clay County (Manchester KY)

84-74 Southwestern (Somerset KY)

 

Highly regarded teams remaining are Montgomery County (at MC next Saturday), Southwestern again (at SW), Knott County Central (at Lafayette) & Lexington Catholic (at home).

 

WC's strengths lie in that they have three bona fide All Regional or better players anyone of which can put 20-30 on the board any given game, every other player currently knowing and playing their roles, experience from having played together for many years and many, many games (regular season & otherwise) and that they have an extremely high basketball IQ.

 

Their weakness is most likely their lack of size and strength as compared to teams like Ballard, Scott County, etc.

 

PurplePride92 hit the nail on the head saying that the draw can determine a great deal of how much success any State Tournament team can achieve. As an on-site observer, I will be the first to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised at how much improvement this team has demonstrated during the off-season. Time will tell us how well they handle success & ink (as evidenced by how they started off on four of eight cylinders in today's game against Bryan Station after the front page coverage in this morning's LHL Sports Section).

 

I felt Southwestern would steamroll the 12th Region last season, but it didn't happen for whatever reason. We'll see how the balance of the season plays out.

Thanks OK for the breakdown

I haven't seen them play this year but have seen them some over the years. They play very well together and are very, very well coached. A few questions for Ole Kentuckian:

 

How strong is their ball handling?

 

Are there other "shooters" beyond Woods and Blevins?

 

I was unaware of a 6'6" kid on there team? How effective is he and what role does he play for them?

 

Is Blevins really 6'0" ?

Is Woods the son of the coach?

I haven't seen them play this year but have seen them some over the years. They play very well together and are very, very well coached. A few questions for Ole Kentuckian:

 

How strong is their ball handling?

 

Are there other "shooters" beyond Woods and Blevins?

 

I was unaware of a 6'6" kid on there team? How effective is he and what role does he play for them?

 

Is Blevins really 6'0" ?

 

* Ball Handling is strong, much stronger than last season. Last year WC had to use Shelton (now graduated) to bring the ball down under strong defensive duress. This season, Blevins has evolved into an excellent ball handler as have the remainder of the carry-over starters (freshman & sophomores growing up in a year's time).

* If by "shooters" you mean from the 3-range, then yes, a couple, but they're more selective in their shooting (fewer shots/lower %). Stearns & Perkins are both excellent mid-range shooters and Stearns is extremely difficult to stop close to the basket as he gets excellent elevation, especially on his turn-around jumper.

* The 6'6" kid now starts whereas I'm not sure he even lettered last year (do they still do that?). You can observe that he's learning offensively, but is a definite factor in rejecting shots around the basket. If he can improve as much over the coming off-season as much as this year's group did this past off-season then he could help take them to another level next season.

* Blevins doesn't look it, but when you see him standing next to the coaches you see that he is taller than you would think. I'm sure the 6'0" includes wearing his basketball shoes. Back in my day you were measured with your socks on, but then that was several eras ago -

 

Is Woods the son of the coach?

 

Yes, he's the second of Coach Woods' three sons.

Wow. That's some kind of a run. :eek:

 

 

That's not a run. That's a marathon.

Thanks for the info Ole Kentuckian. I think there's no question that they're much improved. And you were correct that they have some very tough games coming up - against good teams and at sites other than their own home court. At Montgomery and Knott Central (neutral site) will tell us a lot. I also think it will be interesting to see how they do at West Jess. And their game at Boyle may be harder than they expect as we saw with Lincoln Friday night.

 

Their biggest challenge in returning to Rupp is getting past Lincoln. They continue to impress as well. I think we know a little more about Lincoln at this point given their schedule to date and the fact that they've played a lot away from home. At this point, I think I'd give the edge to Wayne but I'm not terribly confident in that position. Have to wait a couple of more weeks to take a truly educated stance on that one.

Thanks for the info Ole Kentuckian. I think there's no question that they're much improved. And you were correct that they have some very tough games coming up - against good teams and at sites other than their own home court. At Montgomery and Knott Central (neutral site) will tell us a lot. I also think it will be interesting to see how they do at West Jess. And their game at Boyle may be harder than they expect as we saw with Lincoln Friday night.

 

Their biggest challenge in returning to Rupp is getting past Lincoln. They continue to impress as well. I think we know a little more about Lincoln at this point given their schedule to date and the fact that they've played a lot away from home. At this point, I think I'd give the edge to Wayne but I'm not terribly confident in that position. Have to wait a couple of more weeks to take a truly educated stance on that one.

 

Agreed on all of that. Meant to include West Jessamine on list of teams that may contend and give them trouble.

 

I have to be honest though - over the years I've noticed that all of the objectively statistically-based ratings lean hard towards teams that maintain high scoring averages. I initially disparaged that viewpoint, but then discovered over time that that outlook is much more sustainable than not.

 

Wayne County has proven against good competition that they can score spearheaded as they are by three legitimate offensive threats. But that theory will be tested as the regular season winds through its last five weeks of play.