South Oldham and Shelby County renew their rivalry tonight; this game has often given us all a look at two of the region 8 contenders.

 

This year's South and Shelby teams look A LOT different from the past few years...gone are Rachele Gray of Shelby, last year's 8th region POY, and South's Lauren Jones, the leading scorer in the 8th last year, and the all-time leading scorer at South...

 

Shelby is unusually small - starting four guards. But I hear that, despite this, they are already showing an ability to hit the boards hard...

 

South graduated 4 of 5 starters from 07-08...this year's squad looks to be a quicker team than Frank Wright has had in a while...

 

Both still figure heavily into the 8th Region equation...last year, the Rockets won by 4 in December and South won by one in the region...who will win tonight?

This should be an interesting game as both teams have new looks this year. South played fairly well against CAL for their season opener which was a loss and Shelby needed a terrific 4th quarter to put Carroll Co away. Shelby will be looking for revenge from the loss last year at Region so they may have the emotional edge.

 

I am picking South on their home floor tonight though - by 8.

I think Shelby will pull this one out. South lost too many horses off of last year's squad.

Reasonable pick, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's very, very close.

 

These are two of my favorite 8th Region coaches... Frank Wright is one of the best defensive minds in the high school game...and I think his team this year is going to be an exciting one, after talking with him. Time will only tell if this South squad can be as successful as last year's - they're awfully young - but I think they are more athletic and perhaps deeper.

 

Regardless of how well South does in 08-09, it appears from looking at the huge number of freshmen that Frank is set up for another extended run with the same group of girls...

 

Sally Zimmerman will be sorely missed in the 8th Region if - as I'm hearing will happen - Shelby County requires her to step down as head coach now that she's A.D. there. She's been a fabulously successful coach and a class act.

 

The Lady Rockets are also very inexperienced, but they also appear to - perhaps - be more athletic from top to bottom. Tonight may be a horse race...