Overall it was a fairly quiet week in the 12th outside of the All A Classic. Weather dampened basketball activity across the state and this region was no exception. DCA was able to achieve an All A Regional Championship in which they beat each of their opponents by double digits. 

Other than DCA's run through the All A, the Southwestern versus Wayne County game was probably the most intriguing event as it paired two teams playing pretty much at the same level mid-season. We are also starting to see a gulf of competitiveness open up below those teams as we continue to inch towards the post-season.

Rankings:

1. Danville Christian Academy - As stated, the Warriors are again regional champions for the All A Classic and will hope to build off of their one win last time they went to the state tournament. They play the winner of the 16th regional, a team that they should stack up well against no matter who it turns out to be. This week they have a pair of top ten opponents, Pulaski County at home and district foe Boyle County on the road.

2. Pulaski County - The Maroons had just one game last week, a dominant win over Casey County. They have a much tougher week this week as they start with DCA on the road before playing Caverna at Somerset Christian.

3. Mercer County - The Titans had a dominant win over Garrard and a win over Lexington Catholic at home. Mercer goes on the road this week to face East Jessamine before hosting the mighty Ashland Tomcats in what is sure to be a very fun game. They end the week with another tough one against Lincoln County. Mercer is clearly a contender alongside DCA and Pulaski and all three of those contenders get to play some high level games this week.

4. Lincoln County - The Patriots defeated Rockcastle handily behind Braden Fugate's 18 points. They travel to play Danville before hosting LCA and Mercer County. The game against the Titans will definitely test the Patriots on both sides of the ball and should be a nice simulation of what a regional tournament game will be like.

5. Southwestern - The Warriors continue to crawl back up in the rankings as they took down Wayne County by 16 behind 20 points by Zachary Hutchinson and 16 points from both Antajuan Dumphord and Wyatt Stevenson. A stat that sticks out - the Warriors shot only 6 three pointers, 2 by Stevenson (he made both) and 4 by Hutchinson (he missed them all). They also held Kendall Phillips to just 12.

6. Wayne County - The loss to Southwestern was their only game last week. They look to recover with home games this week against Rockcastle County and McCreary County.

7. West Jessamine - The Colts defeated Burgin in their lone game last week. They face Madison Central and arch-rival East Jessamine this week.

8. Garrard County - The Golden Lions lost the opening game of the 2A sectionals to Mercer County. They look to rebound this week against Boyle County followed by Somerset and Dunbar. All three of these games could go either way.

9. Somerset - A quick exit from the All A at the hands of DCA extends the Briar Jumpers losing streak to 4. Fortunately they have reeling Casey County this week before playing Garrard County.

10. Boyle County - The Rebels were off last week. They host three district foes this week - Garrard County, Danville and DCA. They have yet to face a district rival yet this year and this stretch could show us if Boyle is on their way up or if they will continue to flounder inconsistently.

11. McCreary Central - The Raiders were ran over by a tune of 101 to 77 by Harlan County in the opening game of the 2A Sectionals. Somerset Christian and Wayne are on the schedule for this week, the first game of the two game district series for both of those matchups.

12. East Jessamine - The Jaguars' lone game last week was a loss to Russell County by 13. They host district rivals Mercer County and West Jessamine this week. 

13. Danville - There isn't a game on the schedule until February 10th for the Ads that isn't a district game. And their last two games were losses against DCA, the most recent being a non-district match in the All A. They continue this district opponent only stretch with Lincoln at home and Boyle on the road this week.

14. Rockcastle County - The Rockets weren't able to stay close with Lincoln County in their lone game last week. They look to bounce back this week against Red Bird, Wayne County, and Casey County.

15. Somerset Christian - The Cougars made it to the title game of the All A Regional where they ultimately fell to DCA. They face McCreary County and Betsy Layne this week.

16. Trinity Christian - The Titans defeated Burgin in the All A before falling to Somerset Christian in the semifinals. They then picked up a win over Willa Madonna. Bryce Thompson had 29. They have four games this week starting with a trip to Harrison County. 

17. Burgin - Burgin lost to Trinity Christian and West Jessamine. They host Taylor County Saturday. 

18. Casey County - The Colonels are still winless and will look to get in the winning column against Somerset, Rockcastle, and Lee County this week.

19. Kentucky School for the Deaf - KSD has been off and is still off this week.

1 hour ago, se7ens said:

3. Mercer County - The Titans had a dominant win over Garrard and a win over Lexington Catholic at home. Mercer goes on the road this week to face East Jessamine before hosting the mighty Ashland Tomcats in what is sure to be a very fun game. They end the week with another tough one against Lincoln County. Mercer is clearly a contender alongside DCA and Pulaski and all three of those contenders get to play some high level games this week.

I was impressed with Mercer's performance against Garrard this week. However, by winning the 2A sectional, I'm curious how that will affect their schedule. They are slated to play either Bell County or Harlan County in Owensboro on Friday night so I'm guessing that game against Ashland either gets canceled or rescheduled.

Lincoln will now play Ashland on Friday night, the game against Mercer has been canceled.

 

41 minutes ago, gchs_uk9 said:

I was impressed with Mercer's performance against Garrard this week. However, by winning the 2A sectional, I'm curious how that will affect their schedule. They are slated to play either Bell County or Harlan County in Owensboro on Friday night so I'm guessing that game against Ashland either gets canceled or rescheduled.

 

21 minutes ago, erserg25 said:

Lincoln will now play Ashland on Friday night, the game against Mercer has been canceled.

Glad that worked out. I noticed Ashland is playing at Bardstown on Saturday so I'm guessing they already had the hotel rooms booked!

First RPI ranking is out for the 12th. What are the thoughts?   

Josh Lewis should be making his season debut for Somerset this week.  Excited to see this bunch with the fire power added.  They can push into contender category IMO. 

29 minutes ago, BasketballFan24 said:

First RPI ranking is out for the 12th. What are the thoughts?   

That it’s mainly about Win total and not SOS.  

6 minutes ago, LethalPG said:

That it’s mainly about Win total and not SOS.  

Good point.  In the Massey Ratings Garrard is 13th in SOS @ #177.  Wayne is 64th, DCA 76, PC 87, Rockcastle 97, West J 99, East J 109, Lincoln 111, Mercer 115, Danville 122, Boyle 124, Southwestern 125, Somerset 143 and Garrard 177.  

52 minutes ago, LethalPG said:

That it’s mainly about Win total and not SOS.  

Much like in football it tends to work itself out in the end. Unlike football, there really isn't anything riding on basketball RPIs except the occasional district that uses it to break ties.

Not only does SOS need to be factored in but sometimes you need to take into account the flow of a game.  For example, in DCA's 2 losses they played good opponents evenly right until the end and the other team hit their free throws when DCA had to foul on purpose which made the margin look worse.  Against Ashland, DCA was up 1 going into the 4th quarter and Ashland came out and hit a couple of 3's while DCA didn't convert.  Ashland is an excellent team and held the ball with no problem so after putting them on the line, which they hit, the final margin was 11.  It definitely felt like a closer game than that and a couple of breaks here and there might have come down to the wire.

There are other games in which it's pretty obvious one team is 10 or 15 points better and it would take a miracle for the underdog to pull and upset.

1 hour ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Much like in football it tends to work itself out in the end. Unlike football, there really isn't anything riding on basketball RPIs except the occasional district that uses it to break ties.

Khsaa mandated as the tiebreaker over anything random I.E. coin flips.  I prefer coin flips over a flawed system.

53 minutes ago, LethalPG said:

Khsaa mandated as the tiebreaker over anything random I.E. coin flips.  I prefer coin flips over a flawed system.

Kind of where I was going with it when I posted. Seems fairly skewed but will be used for tie breakers. 

8 minutes ago, BasketballFan24 said:

Kind of where I was going with it when I posted. Seems fairly skewed but will be used for tie breakers. 

47th almost came down to it last year.  (The tiebreaker had always been a coin flip).  Pulaski realized they were up in RPI, and pursued the option (as they should’ve for advantage).  Pulaski ended up losing their 2nd game to Rockcastle Co. so it was a moot point.  Many districts either do not realize it or haven’t enforced it correctly, but it is mandated by KHSAA to break ties. 

Where will the 12th region tournament be played this year?

9 minutes ago, 24Rocks said:

Where will the 12th region tournament be played this year?

Should be at Lincoln County, since it was at Pulaski County last year.