Any of the District Finals streaming tonight? 

The bracket for the regional tournament has just been drawn and teams will now be scrambling to gameplan for their opening round games at Pulaski County. With two of the top teams in the region already knocked out in their district semifinals, this should be a wide open tournament.

Let's start with a recap of the district tournaments and then take a look ahead at the regional tournament.

45th District Tournament

With as competitive and exciting as this district has been throughout the year, the results came out pretty much as expected. All lower seeds won, resulting in DCA, the 1 seed, pulling it out in the fourth quarter of the title game against Boyle, the 2 seed, after Boyle had taken a late lead. We got there by Lincoln County beating Danville in the 4/5 game and DCA beating Lincoln (already speculation that the loss may be the last game in Coach Jeff Jackson's illustrious career). Garrard County defeated the Kentucky School for the Deaf before falling to Boyle County, a team they had defeated in the regular season. Still got to think it was a successful year for the Golden Lions.

46th District Tournament

This was by far the most exciting district final, a rock fight between arch-rivals East Jessamine and West Jessamine. The Colts pulled it out 43 to 42. This was the rubbermatch between the two teams and really these games have been extremely tight given that on paper there should be a talent disparity in favor of West. West really hasn't met expectations this year but they still have a chance to change that in the regional tournament. We got to that title game by way of West dispatching Burgin with ease after Burgin defeated Trinity Christian in the 4/5 game and East winning their rubbermatch game with Mercer County.

47th District Tournament

The semifinals of the 47th featured one of the two significant upsets in the 12th this week as Rockcastle County defeated Pulaski County. To be fair, this totally wasn't unexpected as Pulaski had already defeated Rockcastle twice, and it was always going to be tough to beat as solid of a team a third time. In the other semifinal, Somerset blew out Casey County. Somerset took care of business in the title game and will enter the regional tournament as one of the two favorites to win the whole thing alongside DCA

48th District Tournament

And ths was the upset heard 'round the state. The Cougars of Somerset Christian School took down Wayne County, the most recent number 1 in our regional rankings and the hottest team in the region. Jack Baker had 21 points in the 49 to 46 victory. Southwestern took care of business against McCreary Central and then proceeded to defeat Somerset Christian by double digits.

Regional Tournament Preview

Starting at the top of the bracket, the West Jessamine Colts will face the upstart Cougars of Somerset Christian. These teams did not meet in the regular season. West has underperformed this year based on the preseason hype. The Cougars have had mixed success with definitely a rougher second half of the season. However, they of course pulled off the biggest upset in the region so far. 

The other quarterfinal on the top is Somerset against Boyle County. Just a couple weeks ago the Briar Jumpers breezed past the Rebels. However, Boyle should never be overlooked with Owen Wheeler, Seneca Driver, and a whole lot of physicality.

On the bottom, Southwestern takes on Rockcastle County. These two teams are extremely close in talent with Southwestern starting out the year well but falling off towards the end while the Rockets built up through the year into good enough form to take down Pulaski to get here. With all that said, the Rockets did crush the Warriors by 26 at the start of February.

And the finale of the first round features mighty Danville Christian against East Jessamine. These two teams didn't meet this year. DCA should control this one but East has shown a tendency to be bothersome.

 

Nice write-up!  DCA probably won the initial draw.  I like West Jessamine matchup against SCS as well.  SCS will struggle with the size West Jessamine presents.  I think the other openers will be battles between Somerset and Boyle Co., and Southwestern and Rockcastle Co.

I compiled some numbers on the teams including their records, RPI, and various Massey Ratings.

 

 

Edited February 28Feb 28 by 24Rocks
To make it easier to read

Massey is very jaded for Somerset and West Jessamine because of Casey Co, Burgin and Trinity Christian games. 

3 hours ago, 24Rocks said:

I compiled some numbers on the teams including their records, RPI, and various Massey Ratings.

 

 

If lower number is better, I just see no way Southwestern offense is that much better than Somerset’s. My eyes tell me that Somerset is one of the better offensive teams in the region and these numbers say the opposite. Maybe my eyes just don’t know ball. 

1 hour ago, 12th Region Fan said:

If lower number is better, I just see no way Southwestern offense is that much better than Somerset’s. My eyes tell me that Somerset is one of the better offensive teams in the region and these numbers say the opposite. Maybe my eyes just don’t know ball. 

A lower number means a higher ranking.  I see what you mean with Somerset and Southwestern.  I checked the Massey Rankings again to see if I made a mistake and that's what they are.  I'm not sure how Professor Massey's algorithms work. Southwestern averages 65.6 ppg versus Somerset's average of 62.  That implies that there are a lot of teams in the state that average in the low 60's to go from 70 to 146.  

It might be a perception thing because Somerset took more threes and hit them at a higher percentage.  I haven't dug into the numbers for the two teams that much but my perception is that Somerset is a pretty consistent team when it comes to shooting.  The West Jessamine loss early in the season was definitely an outlier.  They could play them 10 more times and not shoot that poorly.  I'm not sure if Massey's algorithm throws out outliers but it probably should.

I wish the 12th Region would adopt the same format at the 11th.  Have all the first round games at the same time at the district winner's place. Then play the semifinals and finals at the neutral site. That way playing on back to back nights could be avoided.  

1 hour ago, Carl Spackler said:

I wish the 12th Region would adopt the same format at the 11th.  Have all the first round games at the same time at the district winner's place. Then play the semifinals and finals at the neutral site. That way playing on back to back nights could be avoided.  

I can see the argument. However, the crowds and the excitement of having all these games in one place is unmatched. 

4 hours ago, 24Rocks said:

A lower number means a higher ranking.  I see what you mean with Somerset and Southwestern.  I checked the Massey Rankings again to see if I made a mistake and that's what they are.  I'm not sure how Professor Massey's algorithms work. Southwestern averages 65.6 ppg versus Somerset's average of 62.  That implies that there are a lot of teams in the state that average in the low 60's to go from 70 to 146.  

It might be a perception thing because Somerset took more threes and hit them at a higher percentage.  I haven't dug into the numbers for the two teams that much but my perception is that Somerset is a pretty consistent team when it comes to shooting.  The West Jessamine loss early in the season was definitely an outlier.  They could play them 10 more times and not shoot that poorly.  I'm not sure if Massey's algorithm throws out outliers but it probably should.

Massey ?‍♂️.

I think all of the teams played a game this year at PCHS except for Boyle. Do you think that is intentional by these coaches wanting to get a game at the region site each year or just luck of how the schedule plays out? Interesting to see Boyle didn’t play Pulaski this year. I feel like they typically play year in and year out. 

20 minutes ago, 12th Region Fan said:

I think all of the teams played a game this year at PCHS except for Boyle. Do you think that is intentional by these coaches wanting to get a game at the region site each year or just luck of how the schedule plays out? Interesting to see Boyle didn’t play Pulaski this year. I feel like they typically play year in and year out. 

Did all those teams play Lincoln at home this year? 

Somerset / SCS.

Rock / DCA.

Somerset / DCA.

DCA.

2 hours ago, catfan09 said:

Somerset / SCS.

Rock / DCA.

Somerset / DCA.

DCA.

IF that’s the finals, it’ll be a true road game for DCA.  The purple and gold will flood it out.  I agree with you that Rock is a dangerous runner-up just like Boyle Co. is. 

15 hours ago, se7ens said:

Did all those teams play Lincoln at home this year? 

By a quick glance- West, Southwestern, and Rock did. SCS, East, and Somerset didn’t play them. DCA and Boyle were the only two to travel to Stanford this year (district opponents).