When: Wednesday, March 1, 8:00 pm
Where: Henry County High School 

There is no doubt that the first night of the region is the better of the 2 quarterfinal nights. Along with the game before, this is another good one. This game is by far going to have the most talent on the floor in the tournament. With John McCrear back, there will be 3 D1 basketball players on the court with McCrear, Jasper Johnson, and Teagan Moore.

This will be the 3rd time ever that the 2 schools have met each other, and the 1st time since 2017. They have split the 2 games.

Woodford County has found their groove as of late, and thanks with the return of McCrear they defeated Collins to win the 30th District Tournament. The Yellow Jackets are led by Jasper Johnson, averaging 21.7 ppg and shooting over 40% from 3.

Owen County is led by region POTY Teagan Moore. He has had one of the best high school careers in regional history. This year he is averaging 31.7 ppg, 11.1 rpg, and is shooting 63.1% from the field, 41.1% from 3, and 83.5% from the line.

I see Owen County struggling against all of Woodford’s athleticism in this game. Give me the Yellow Jackets by 10 or so.

Another big key in this game is the usage of Woodford County forward John McCrear. If he is fully healthy and playing majority of the game, I don't see Owen County being able to keep up in the scoring column. If he is limited, it might allow Owen to go on some runs and keep it a tight contest. Interested to see how this one pans out, also intrigued to watch all of this top-notch talent collide! 

Okay, here goes.  First and foremost, I know I will get hammered, but it won't be the first time.  With Woodford's athletic ability and speed this game will get ugly early.  I'm also thinking Johnson will outshine Moore in this one.

Looking forward to this one - I've seen Johnson play once (and that was last year) and haven't seen Moore at all (hard to believe, since he's played in this Region since 1997, give or take).  Taking into account all the things I've heard, and some knowledge of other players in this game, I'm inclined to believe 4 Quarters is right.  

2 other of the Woodford starters are D1 Athletes. Nelson has signed with WVU for football. Smith has offers from UK, Louisville, EKU, & WVU and is a Sophomore. 
It’s a pretty rare feat. They are a school that encourages kids to play multiple sports. 

Imagine that…kids can still do that!!!

This is an issue I’m passionate about. Kids should be just that (kids). Play different sports. Let different muscle groups come into play. Have a different set of teammates and friends.

Parents don’t be so dang pushy to create the next star. College coaches PREFER multi sport kids!!!

It helps when the AD was a multi sport guy, Johnson was football, basketball, and track. 
Kids need to play them all as long as their academics hold up.  

I tend to agree that WC has much better athletes, and I still think they win by 10-15, but it should be close until 4th quarter.  OC has beaten Spencer, Grant, WV, and SK all soundly this year, so I don’t see them rolling over.

Soccer drives me crazy.  Those kids seem to play only soccer year round and get burned out by the time they are in high school.  They could excel at other sports and be mediocre in soccer too.

2 hours ago, Falcon Pride said:

Imagine that…kids can still do that!!!

This is an issue I’m passionate about. Kids should be just that (kids). Play different sports. Let different muscle groups come into play. Have a different set of teammates and friends.

Parents don’t be so dang pushy to create the next star. College coaches PREFER multi sport kids!!!

Like a lot of other families, we struggled with this mightily.  My youngest kid was pretty good at both basketball and baseball - nationally ranked travel teams for both in middle school and all of that.  The problem - at least with those two sports - isn't really the occasional coach who doesn't want you to play the other sport.  Although that can come into play.  The problem is the calendars just collide too much.  It is virtually impossible to play both travel baseball and AAU basketball.  It is virtually impossible to play AAU and school baseball as far as that goes.  What you can do is say, well, I'll focus on one and play the other for fun.  Even that is a chore - while you're playing the main sport most of the time, other kids are devoting all of their time to the sport you play for fun, so you get behind in that 'second' sport.  If you're a kid who is the best or among the best, you're likely at some point to not be as good as other kids who are dedicated to a sport, and frankly it's less fun once you start falling in the pecking order, for lack of a better way to say it.  Playing multiple sports is healthy for total body development, more healthy mentally than focusing on a single sport, guards against burnout - there are plenty of reasons to do it.  But even if you have parents that encourage it, and coaches that encourage it, the current system we have set up makes it really hard.

2 hours ago, Down4theblue said:

2 other of the Woodford starters are D1 Athletes. Nelson has signed with WVU for football. Smith has offers from UK, Louisville, EKU, & WVU and is a Sophomore. 
It’s a pretty rare feat. They are a school that encourages kids to play multiple sports. 

Novel theory building a basketball program around athletes…

22 minutes ago, Mojocat said:

Like a lot of other families, we struggled with this mightily.  My youngest kid was pretty good at both basketball and baseball - nationally ranked travel teams for both in middle school and all of that.  The problem - at least with those two sports - isn't really the occasional coach who doesn't want you to play the other sport.  Although that can come into play.  The problem is the calendars just collide too much.  It is virtually impossible to play both travel baseball and AAU basketball.  It is virtually impossible to play AAU and school baseball as far as that goes.  What you can do is say, well, I'll focus on one and play the other for fun.  Even that is a chore - while you're playing the main sport most of the time, other kids are devoting all of their time to the sport you play for fun, so you get behind in that 'second' sport.  If you're a kid who is the best or among the best, you're likely at some point to not be as good as other kids who are dedicated to a sport, and frankly it's less fun once you start falling in the pecking order, for lack of a better way to say it.  Playing multiple sports is healthy for total body development, more healthy mentally than focusing on a single sport, guards against burnout - there are plenty of reasons to do it.  But even if you have parents that encourage it, and coaches that encourage it, the current system we have set up makes it really hard.

All very true.  Aau basketball and baseball do conflict big time. I think by combo of luck and system OC has had a long stretch of key basketball contributors playing baseball- oak, bates, mcclartys, Teague, Amburgey, - I’m sure I am missing others.  outside of oak, most of these guys relied on being super physical, aggressive kids who attacked the rim primarily and that didn’t require as much year round focus since OC played a style that emphasized aggression and physicality more than skill…not saying all those guys weren’t skilled. If you are a skill based program, kids near to play year round. 

4 hours ago, Hoopstars said:

All very true.  Aau basketball and baseball do conflict big time. I think by combo of luck and system OC has had a long stretch of key basketball contributors playing baseball- oak, bates, mcclartys, Teague, Amburgey, - I’m sure I am missing others.  outside of oak, most of these guys relied on being super physical, aggressive kids who attacked the rim primarily and that didn’t require as much year round focus since OC played a style that emphasized aggression and physicality more than skill…not saying all those guys weren’t skilled. If you are a skill based program, kids near to play year round. 

Yep.  I talked to 2 dads of kids you mention here - I asked, how are we going to do this?  And they were both generous with their time and had good advice.  The problem was this:  both of those kids clearly had baseball #1, and basketball was the second sport.  That’s do-able.  You play school basketball, and as soon as that’s over, you roll into baseball for spring/summer/fall, school ball and travel ball.  No conflict.  The OC basketball coach didn’t hold it against them for not playing summer ball.  Basketball #1 and baseball as the fun sport doesn’t work so well.

That’s interesting because Oldham County Basketball >>>>>>>Oldham County Baseball, specifically at OCHS.

Although I am a big Moore/OC fan, as long as MCcrear is playing, I see Woodford winning by 15+. 

Will anyone be providing updates on this game? If not, I will attempt to keep the feed updated, however service can sometimes be patchy in the gym and I catch myself getting to zoned in on the game and forget. 

Moore got hammered on that dunk attempt, no call.