18 minutes ago, The_Bull44 said:

Cov Cath got no love in the tournament last year, from a team perspective nor an individual perspective.

I felt like being given the champions trophy for the tournament was plenty of love. What more were you expecting?

And as for the individual perspective, sure, there were plenty of people who felt like picking Reed Sheppard as tournament MVP instead of Evan Ipsaro was a slight. But it's not like there was zero argument to be made there. If I'm not mistaken, the livestream broadcast announcers stated that the voters for the tournament had to have their votes for tournament MVP turned in by halftime during the finals. Maybe that's a shortcoming for the KOB procedures, especially with both of the frontrunners competing in the finals. And hopefully if that was the case, they'll consider changing that process...but like I said, it's not like there was zero argument to be made for Sheppard to be voted MVP, especially at that point in the tournament.

Personally speaking, I think our team stated its case by winning the tournament via a win in the finals over North Laurel, and then we went back and beat them again a month and a half later. I'm pretty okay with that.

The King Of The Bluegrass has been around since 1981, and at that point in time, a lot of teams in NKY had existing long-term involvement in the Ashland Invitational Tournament, which had previously been the defacto "big holiday tournament" in the state. Once the KOB got itself established as a competing major inter-state tournament, I that's when you saw some teams from NKY start showing interest in competing in the KOB. I believe the first team was Holmes back in 1988 or 1989. In the 90s there was a general dry-spell of NKY teams really making a showing in the Sweet 16, and I think that contributed to the lack of NKY team appearances in the KOB, which was trying to keep their position as a tournament of elite teams.

Since the mid-2000s, and especially since 2010, there have been several King Of The Bluegrass appearances from NKY teams like New Cath, Holmes, Highlands Cooper, Beechwood, Walton-Verona, and Cov Cath. Newport may have also been in the mix, I'm not positive.

Here's a look at numbers of NKY and Greater Louisville teams from KOB field in recent years...

2012: 0 NKY; 6 Greater Louisville
2013: 1 NKY; 4 Greater Louisville
2014: 2 NKY; 4 Greater Louisville
2015: 0 NKY; 6 Greater Louisville
2016: 2 NKY; 4 Greater Louisville
2017: 3 NKY; 4 Greater Louisville
2018: 1 NKY; 4 Greater Louisville
2019: 0 NKY; 4 Greater Louisville
2020: 2 NKY; 5 Greater Louisville (Tournament Cancelled)
2021: 1 NKY; 5 Greater Louisville
2022: 0 NKY; 6 Greater Louisville

Just thinking out loud here, Cov Cath was invited to play in 2021, 2020, 2017, and 2016. Is it possible that it was Cov Cath that looked elsewhere? I don't have any inside info, but Cov Cath is playing in a different holiday tournament in Florida than they have the last few years...maybe they simply looked to switch things up this year. Or maybe they were disappointed in the lack of out-of-state competitors in the KOB this year. Who knows. But I'm okay with the fact that we're not in the tourney this year.

Is there a bracket with game times yet?

 

On 11/3/2022 at 8:23 PM, The_Bull44 said:

Cov Cath got no love in the tournament last year, from a team perspective nor an individual perspective.

What does this even mean?

50 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

What does this even mean?

They were underestimated not talked about in terms of winning, and then went on to win it while their best player showed out and played the best and he still didn’t get the MVP. But what do I know!

25 minutes ago, GoBucks97 said:

They were underestimated not talked about in terms of winning, and then went on to win it while their best player showed out and played the best and he still didn’t get the MVP. But what do I know!

Poor CovCath...

Looking forward to being back at this event for the first time in a while! Central has an odd habit of ending up against DeSales when they’re in same tournaments - this will be fifth time between LIT, KOB, and others - but I’ll take anything!

On 11/4/2022 at 8:32 AM, gchs_uk9 said:

Is there a bracket with game times yet?

Here's better look at the bracket that Jason Frakes tweeted. Saturday evening in Round 1 looks like it'll be well worth the price of admission!

Big time guard matchup between Manual and Woodford county. Damone King vs Jasper Johnson will be more than worth seeing. Two explosive crafty guards. Jasper a top recruit in the country in the sophomore class. Damone one the best scorers in the state and scrappy guard. 

On 11/4/2022 at 8:32 AM, gchs_uk9 said:

Is there a bracket with game times yet?

Yes, there is a bracket below. Before you start blasting the two errors in the bracket I must confess. I got the bracket finalized and needed to get the participating teams packets in the mail.  I had several people proof read it but with what we are going through in the Fairdale community has taken a lot out of us.

I immediately corrected the mistakes and resent but Jason Frakes always gets the first copy and I was a little late.

If you are interested Great Crossing does not have an "S' on the end of Crossing. To the far right I didn't change 2021 Champions to 2022.

On 11/16/2022 at 1:54 PM, DragonFire said:

Looking forward to being back at this event for the first time in a while! Central has an odd habit of ending up against DeSales when they’re in same tournaments - this will be fifth time between LIT, KOB, and others - but I’ll take anything!

1.      I have stayed away from who you are scrimmaging and playing before the tournament and early January. (I had to change one this morning because they found out yesterday, they were playing December 6^th.)

2.      We have three Seventh Region teams, two Sixth Region teams and three Eighth Region teams…they cannot play each other first round.

3.      I bracket on who can get here on Friday without costing another night lodging.

4.      Who can get here for a 4:30 and 6:00 game.

5.      Who is ranked where: 1-2-3-6-7-10-13-15-18-24

6.      Players 2-3-6-10-11-13-16-17-19-20-24-25

7.      Out-of-state teams are guaranteed Saturday.

8 minutes ago, King of the Bluegrass said:

1.      I have stayed away from who you are scrimmaging and playing before the tournament and early January. (I had to change one this morning because they found out yesterday, they were playing December 6^th.)

2.      We have three Seventh Region teams, two Sixth Region teams and three Eighth Region teams…they cannot play each other first round.

3.      I bracket on who can get here on Friday without costing another night lodging.

4.      Who can get here for a 4:30 and 6:00 game.

5.      Who is ranked where: 1-2-3-6-7-10-13-15-18-24

6.      Players 2-3-6-10-11-13-16-17-19-20-24-25

7.      Out-of-state teams are guaranteed Saturday.

Interesting information here. I've always wondered how teams within regions were handled. Makes perfect sense!

1 hour ago, King of the Bluegrass said:

1.      I have stayed away from who you are scrimmaging and playing before the tournament and early January. (I had to change one this morning because they found out yesterday, they were playing December 6^th.)

2.      We have three Seventh Region teams, two Sixth Region teams and three Eighth Region teams…they cannot play each other first round.

3.      I bracket on who can get here on Friday without costing another night lodging.

4.      Who can get here for a 4:30 and 6:00 game.

5.      Who is ranked where: 1-2-3-6-7-10-13-15-18-24

6.      Players 2-3-6-10-11-13-16-17-19-20-24-25

7.      Out-of-state teams are guaranteed Saturday.

Wasn’t a complaint - just an observed oddity!

2 hours ago, King of the Bluegrass said:

1.      I have stayed away from who you are scrimmaging and playing before the tournament and early January. (I had to change one this morning because they found out yesterday, they were playing December 6^th.)

2.      We have three Seventh Region teams, two Sixth Region teams and three Eighth Region teams…they cannot play each other first round.

3.      I bracket on who can get here on Friday without costing another night lodging.

4.      Who can get here for a 4:30 and 6:00 game.

5.      Who is ranked where: 1-2-3-6-7-10-13-15-18-24

6.      Players 2-3-6-10-11-13-16-17-19-20-24-25

7.      Out-of-state teams are guaranteed Saturday.

Very informative, thanks.