There wasn't much action last week as Monday wrapped up the pre-Christmas events and the post Christmas events didn't really get going until yesterday. This week, especially early on, features some interesting tournaments and showcases before New Years hits. 

There was no movement in the rankings whatsoever. However, I think the gulf between the top two and the rest of the region is growing. Danville Christian, though a weaker schedule than last year probably, is rolling through their competition. Pulaski County is not putting off juggernaut vibes, but they are winning and their scoring is incredibly balanced. They are exceptionally consistent and reliable. Teams 3 through at least 9 are capable of beating them but the Maroons have showcased a consistency that surpasses these other teams and it isn't really close if you truly look at it. Again, not saying there is a talent gap or they are unbeatable; just pointing out that they have converted effort into wins better than any team in the region other than DCA at this point.

Rankings:

1. Danville Christian (7-1) - The Warriors started the Henry County Invitational with two blowout wins over Holy Cross (Louisville) and Henry County. They face a very impressive Grayson County team in the championship game who will certainly be their toughest opponent since Warren Central, their lone loss of the year. After a few days off from game play they travel across town to face rival Danville.

2. Pulaski County (9-2) - The Maroons won both their games in the Jeremy A. Bartley Classic at Somerset. They beat Powell County by double-digits and more narrowly escaped with a win against Bullitt East. Carson Fraley and Tanner Absher both had 16 points against Bullitt East. Pulaski has just one game this week, a road contest Friday at Casey County.

3. West Jessamine (6-3) - Luk Tut had a double-double while 3 other players also scored in double figures to get the Colts the big win over Southwestern. However, the White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic has not been kind to West so far as they have lost both games: the opener to Bryan Station and the second game a blowout loss to Great Crossing. They play Paintsville today and host Scott County Friday.

4. Southwestern (7-3) - The Warriors took two losses last week as they fell to West Jessamine and lost in the opening game of Bell County's Redmond Auto Group Holiday Classic. They play host Bell County today. 

5. Lincoln County (5-4) - The Patriots are 1 and 1 in the Richmond Car and Truck Center Holiday Classic as they beat Madison Southern by 3 and fell to Hamilton (OH) in a blowout. They are still without Baird. Sawyer Robbins scored 24 in the win but was held to 7 in the loss. They play Wayne County in the tournament today and face LaRue County this weekend.

6. Boyle County (6-2) - Boyle was off last week and they are off this week until they face Wayne County in a regular game on Saturday. 

7. Wayne County (7-5) - The Cardinals blew out Lafayette in the last game at Sayre last week before the break. They are now participating in Madison Central's event where they beat Tates Creek by 3 in the opening game before being blown out by the host squad. They face Lincoln County in the final game today. They then travel to Boyle County Saturday. Those two games probably represent the two most interesting games of the week as far as the region is concerned.

8. Somerset (5-3) - Did the Briarjumpers finally turn the corner for good at their holiday event? They did go 2 and 0, defeating both Bullitt East and Powell County. Both games were thrilling to the end as Somerset won the first game by 2 and the second game by 1 in overtime. Aedyn Absher had 55 total points in the event. Somerset now travels to Adair County and Rockcastle County for standalone road contests this week. 

9. Rockcastle County (5-4) - No reports out of Florida yet for their current event, but the Rockets did get what was probably their best win of the year so far in the last game of South Laurel's event on Monday. They took down Corbin in overtime by 3 behind Kylar Goodin's 21 points. They have Somerset and Johnson Central this weekend after they return from Florida.

10. Somerset Christian School (7-4) - The Cougars lost in a competitive first game to Elizabethtown in the Bethlehem Christmas Classic. In the second game, they got a quality win over Muhlenberg County. They have no games this week.

11. Garrard County (4-6) - The Golden Lions fell at home in a close one to Nelson County. They host the 4 Banks Classic this week.

12. McCreary Central (4-5) - The Raiders were off last week. They are a participant in East Jessamine's tournament. They face Madisonville-North Hopkins this afternoon in the opening round.

13. Danville (4-5) - The Ads were off last week. They face Frankfort tonight and rival DCA on Saturday.

14. East Jessamine (5-5) - Is that signs of life from the Jaguars? This was a team that could be dwelling in the basement. However, they are now squarely in this group of teams right below the top ten that are hovering around .500. They got a quality win over Harlan last week with Carter Wolfe and Micah Anglin both scoring 21. They host their tournament starting today and face Greenup County in their opening round game.

15. Mercer County (1-9) - There are clearly 5 non-competitive teams in the 12th. It is still surprising to see the Titans among them. They are playing in the difficult tournament at Madison Central and have lost both games so far. They have Madison Southern today. This should be an easier game but if you look at the results of both squads, it may still be ugly for the Titans. 

16. Burgin (2-6) - The Bulldogs were off last week but host their own holiday tournament this week.

17. Casey County (4-5) - Casey had one game last week, a blowout loss to Model. They host Robertson County and Pulaski County this week.

18. Trinity Christian (0-9) - The Titans are still winless and I'll be honest, I don't know if I see a win on their schedule the rest of the year.

19. Kentucky School for the Deaf (0-2) - The Colonels are still off from game play. They return to action January 6th.

The new Massey Ratings are out and there has been a little movement in 12th region teams.  

1.  DCA  +7     #26  (#3 on defense)

2.  PC. +2      #36

3.  West Jessamine. -5.    #64. (#30 on defense)

4.  Southwestern. -17.      #72

5.  Lincoln. +17         #73.    (#22 on defense)

6.  Wayne County. +10        #78

7.  Boyle. +11.          #87

8.  Somerset. +11           #111

Strength of Schedule:  Top:  Lincoln #52, PC #65 and DCA #68    Bottom:  Somerset #148, Boyle #133, Southwestern #114

Also, an amendment to the games this week - I got the date of the DCA/Danville game off by 1 day. They play Friday in one of the first games of 2026. 

Lincoln 59

Wayne 55

Baird still out. Great win for Coach Jackson and the Patriots.

Wayne seems to have the talent to play with just about anyone. I'm just not sure they can put it together more than one or two games (halves?) in a row. They led most of the first half against Madison Central and was only down 1 at the half. MC made adjustments at the half and Wayne never really did. Wayne didn't have the line-up in that had the most success in the first half until they were down 10 in the second half and throw in a technical by Parmley during the MC run and the tone was set for the rest of the game. It's hard to get down double digits to a team like Madison Central.

With the Lincoln game, Wayne was down double digits in the 4th and as they were making a run, Parmley gets a technical (a trend?), but they still were able to cut it to 1. They just couldn't get over the hump. Credit to Lincoln for playing their game throughout.

 

Mercer 1-11.  What is going on with their athletics after Football going 1-11 this year?  Andrew Sparrow rarely got off the bench for them last year and is averaging 21 PPG at Anderson this year.  Reed is Danville's leading scoring and transferred from Mercer.  Collier Sexton may end up starting at Boyle or being a key player when he gets back healthy also rarely played at Mercer last year.  They might have a decent team if all those guys didn't leave. The majority of their team transferred or quit playing all together.   

3 hours ago, RVaughn said:

Mercer 1-11.  What is going on with their athletics after Football going 1-11 this year?  Andrew Sparrow rarely got off the bench for them last year and is averaging 21 PPG at Anderson this year.  Reed is Danville's leading scoring and transferred from Mercer.  Collier Sexton may end up starting at Boyle or being a key player when he gets back healthy also rarely played at Mercer last year.  They might have a decent team if all those guys didn't leave. The majority of their team transferred or quit playing all together.   

I’m going to say you compare it to Boyle football and the success they have year after year. Boyle graduated a ton from the year before but kids who were good but didn’t get much time waited their turn and learned from the older guys and shined when it was their turn and won a state championship. Mercer was a bucket away from playing in Rupp last year and would have been a contender again this year but the kids and parents got their feelings hurt because they didn’t get time and didn’t want to wait their turn so they left for personal gain. Add injury to Murray who was outstanding in region tournament last year and that’s a lot of holes to fill. I find it hard to be a coaching problem with the success the program had the last two years and the overall success Coach Adkins has had for a long career. 
 

As far as football I don’t know why kids are leaving. Don’t follow football closely but program has not been deep in playoffs for a long while. 

23 hours ago, erserg25 said:

Lincoln 59

Wayne 55

Baird still out. Great win for Coach Jackson and the Patriots.

Coach Jackson just keeps getting it done. One of the best. 

1 hour ago, BasketballFan24 said:

I’m going to say you compare it to Boyle football and the success they have year after year. Boyle graduated a ton from the year before but kids who were good but didn’t get much time waited their turn and learned from the older guys and shined when it was their turn and won a state championship. Mercer was a bucket away from playing in Rupp last year and would have been a contender again this year but the kids and parents got their feelings hurt because they didn’t get time and didn’t want to wait their turn so they left for personal gain. Add injury to Murray who was outstanding in region tournament last year and that’s a lot of holes to fill. I find it hard to be a coaching problem with the success the program had the last two years and the overall success Coach Adkins has had for a long career. 
 

As far as football I don’t know why kids are leaving. Don’t follow football closely but program has not been deep in playoffs for a long while. 

Your comparison with Boyle football isn’t quite apples to apples.  Boyle football has 13 state championships and Mercer has won region once in 20 years in basketball.    I am not saying it is a coaching issue with basketball but it is a fact Mercer is losing kids at an alarming rate and also a fact these kids are having success at other schools when they didn’t play at Mercer. At some point Mercer Admins need to stop blaming the kids/parents  and start trying to understand why everyone is leaving before they become the laughing stock of the 12th region in all sports.  

53 minutes ago, RVaughn said:

Your comparison with Boyle football isn’t quite apples to apples.  Boyle football has 13 state championships and Mercer has won region once in 20 years in basketball.    I am not saying it is a coaching issue with basketball but it is a fact Mercer is losing kids at an alarming rate and also a fact these kids are having success at other schools when they didn’t play at Mercer. At some point Mercer Admins need to stop blaming the kids/parents  and start trying to understand why everyone is leaving before they become the laughing stock of the 12th region in all sports.  

It’s exactly an apple to apple comparison. Boyle has 13 state championships because the parents and kids have been bought in to the program for years and they compete for the good of the team. Mercer doesn’t have that buy in because when they started building that way with a couple of good seasons all the sudden the next group leaves. Not saying Mercer will ever have 13 state championships or even region championships but they had turned the corner from mediocre to a contender the last two years. You mentioned kids barely played so I assume you think that is why the kids left. My question is who gets benched off last years team to get minutes for the others?

13 hours ago, BasketballFan24 said:

It’s exactly an apple to apple comparison. Boyle has 13 state championships because the parents and kids have been bought in to the program for years and they compete for the good of the team. Mercer doesn’t have that buy in because when they started building that way with a couple of good seasons all the sudden the next group leaves. Not saying Mercer will ever have 13 state championships or even region championships but they had turned the corner from mediocre to a contender the last two years. You mentioned kids barely played so I assume you think that is why the kids left. My question is who gets benched off last years team to get minutes for the others?

I think your point about the culture with Boyle football is spot on. And I think Atkins’ turnaround his first year at Mercer was phenomenal. That was an even better coaching job than what he did last year in getting them to the regional championship game.

But Mercer was playing a 5 man rotation in the regional tournament when they had Sparrow and Sexton who could’ve provided strong minutes off the bench. I checked and DCA used 9 players in the semifinal game while Mercer used 5. I don’t think anyone would argue that the players off DCA’s bench should’ve been starting, but it made sense for them to be part of the rotation. Likewise with Mercer. I think those 2 kids, specifically, should’ve gotten meaningful minutes. Maybe they’d still be at Mercer this year but regardless I think Mercer would’ve been a better team last year.

16 hours ago, BasketballFan24 said:

It’s exactly an apple to apple comparison. Boyle has 13 state championships because the parents and kids have been bought in to the program for years and they compete for the good of the team. Mercer doesn’t have that buy in because when they started building that way with a couple of good seasons all the sudden the next group leaves. Not saying Mercer will ever have 13 state championships or even region championships but they had turned the corner from mediocre to a contender the last two years. You mentioned kids barely played so I assume you think that is why the kids left. My question is who gets benched off last years team to get minutes for the others?

Buy in is a two way street between parents, kids and the school district.  It can't be all on the parents and kids to buy in.  Boyle gets buy in because they do everything the right way on and off the field.  They have good leadership within their administration.  They have a history of winning that all plays a part in buy in.  Adkins is a very good person and coach but for whatever reason he and his family looked at what was going on at Mercer and decided it wasn't the best fit for his son and transferred him out.  I think that speaks volumes for what is going on at Mercer.  Your question about who you replace in the starting lineup was answered perfectly by QueenoftheSouth above.  Out of that starting 5 which one could you have put on another team and averaged 21 a game?  The fact is there was a kid on that team that didn't play that got on a new team this year and has proved he can average 21 a game.  

Who is the kid?  

I didn’t ask who should start. I asked who do you replace of the 5 that played most of the minutes. 
 

Do you give Sparrow a lot of Ellis’ minutes? The 12th region player of the year and a very efficient offensive player for 4 years in the 12th. Not only that but was the rim protector and back line that made Adkins defensive scheme work and made them the #2 defense in the state. Not to mention grabbing 10+ boards a game every night and some huge ones in the region tournament. Sparrow had showed no sign of being able to do any of that in the minutes he played throughout the season. 
 

do you try and play him and Ellis together and take Murray out?  Murray was no doubt the best lockdown defender in the 12th and shut Phillips and Fraley down in the region tournament to get them to the championship. 
 

How about Doughty does Sparrow or Sexton shoot it from range as well as he did for the season and especially in the region tournament. How about the defensive job he did on Cook in the region semi finals?  
 

Tatum was an experienced senior who did his job that was asked of him. Handled the ball, defended well in Adkins scheme and made shots. A kid that was totally bought in to winning. Maybe Sexton could have got a few of his minutes but I assume coach trusted the senior over a sophomore. No way Sparrow can defend that position so again it comes back to defense. 
 

Preston is playing D1 ball in Tennessee so that says something about him. Do you sit him for extended minutes?  Wouldn’t make much sense. 

so it really wasn’t about who can score 21 points a game against teams that all have losing records and is the only scoring option since Beasley went down with knee injury.  It was about defense and the kids that were bought in to doing it coaches way and what fit his style.  It was about senior leadership and trusting those guys but developing the next group to take the reins next year and build off what he did the previous two years.  I think he was bought in to the program and heading in the right direction . I’m sure he moved his kid after seeing the lack of buy in from the parents and kids there and he probably will be close behind  

The administration there hired Hamlin and it was a complete joke for 6 years so they make a move and go get a good coach who comes in and wins immediately but the parents and kids leave anyway.  Sounds like the problem there rests with someone other than the administration and coach.

Edited December 31, 2025Dec 31 by theguru

Totally different discussion, but to think that Mercer will most likely be in the region tournament this year is a travesty!

No fault to Mercer, but just speaks to how flawed the system is.

Danville and Garrard will most likely not make it, both of which are considerably better than Mercer. Then there is the reality that one of the following is going to miss it;  Lincoln, Boyle and DCA. Which is absurd!  Not to even mention the 47th and the 48th!

Make a Super-regional to take care of this mess! The players deserve it!