Spencer County has grown quite a bit in recent years, I assume because of growth coming from the direction of Louisville.

 

Exactly. And land is cheaper there, than it is in the other counties neighboring Louisville (Shelby, Oldham, and Bullitt).

Exactly. And land is cheaper there, than it is in the other counties neighboring Louisville (Shelby, Oldham, and Bullitt).

 

Has Spencer ever been to the sweet 16?

Pretty cool. The Spencer 8 point win over North made up most of those 13 points!

 

Spencer rallied from a double-digit halftime deficit. Hats off to the Bears, who defeated North for the second time this season. It's a "magic carpet ride" for the Bears...

 

Kudos also to the North Oldham Mustangs; David Henley did an awesome job building this team for the end-of-the-year push, and few teams were playing as well as North at the end. The Mustangs did it without much size up front (other than Devon Rowan) and without a true point guard.

 

Should be a huge crowd in New Castle tomorrow night for the final. An "all-blue" final between two district champs, and the only two teams in the tournament to record over 20 wins in the season this year in the 8th region.

 

For Spencer - the region player of the year (Logan Dunbar), coach of the year (Jacob Barmore), and another all-region performer (Trey Wyatt) vs. Oldham County's three all-region players: Kerry Smith, Tyler Wesley, and Nolan Denise. Should be a barn-burner. Before the tournament, I predicted that the winner of the finals would be lucky to reach 50 points, and I'm sticking with that prediction, especially now that the defensive-minded Colonels are in the finals.

 

This will be a knock-down, drag-out battle, but it will be interesting to see how Spencer's huge emotional surge helps or hurts them... They have to be on a HUGE high right now. A school that has for so long lived in the shadows of Shelby and Anderson in the 30th is living the dream - and one game away from the Sweet 16.

 

But Oldham is also on a bit of an emotional ride...Oldham's rather significant successes in the first part of this century (Oldham won the region in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2007) makes everyone forget that none of these kids have ever even played in the region tournament. Oldham has been as absent from the region tourney the last three seasons as Spencer has...

 

Kudos to both teams and best of luck tomorrow night.

 

For all the fans - if you can, GO TO THE ROY AND ENJOY THIS SPECTACLE. The 8th Region tournament, held in the old, tradition-laden Roy L. Winchester gymnasium, is like no other region in the state. This is the 49th consecutive year that the 8th region has held its tournament here - longer than any other region has been in one venue. It's unlike any other region tournament in that it 1) is a clearly a HS environment, with wood bleachers, what's left of a stage at one end (the renovations basically eliminated its use as a stage), 2) it's larger than 90% of the HS gyms in the state, and when full has nearly 6,000 people packed into it, and 3) it doesn't have the "modern" - almost antiseptic - feel that the college and other non-HS venues have such as Bellarmine, BOK, Murray State, WKU, etc. At Henry County, the fans are right on the edge of the court... Come out and see what should be an exciting, tight battle.

 

If you cannot attend, listen to the game live on the internet at www.pegasussportsky.com Click on any of the school logos, then click on the game listing under "Upcoming / Live Broadcasts" (OR...you can listen after the game to the broadcast as an archive for at least a year...)

 

Talk like that over here in the 10th will get you into deep, deep trouble.

 

 

 

 

Talk like that over here in the 10th will get you into deep, deep trouble.

 

Mcpapa - not sure if you are being tongue-in-cheek or not (I suspect so, based on your emoticon), but I do know that many folks love the atmosphere of the university gyms, and the big arenas like BOK. That's cool. Certainly, at the Sweet 16 level, there's no substitute for the large arenas. But for myself, I love the HS-feel in the region, when your opponent is someone you may know personally, who you see year after year. I love the wood bleachers, the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, and the fans right on the edge of the court. And Henry County's cavernous HS gym is the perfect place for a region tourney. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I don't know a single fan in the 1st Region that wouldn't want to move the regional tournament back to Racer Arena, Murray State's old arena. The fewer seats would be more than offset by the upturn in atmosphere. It's a classic case of an old-school arena having a much better feel than a modern facility.

Mcpapa - not sure if you are being tongue-in-cheek or not (I suspect so, based on your emoticon), but I do know that many folks love the atmosphere of the university gyms, and the big arenas like BOK. That's cool. Certainly, at the Sweet 16 level, there's no substitute for the large arenas. But for myself, I love the HS-feel in the region, when your opponent is someone you may know personally, who you see year after year. I love the wood bleachers, the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, and the fans right on the edge of the court. And Henry County's cavernous HS gym is the perfect place for a region tourney. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

Not really. Every year that the 10th is held at the Mason County Fieldhouse (very similar to Henry County's facility), we get a lot of crying, usually starting in February. Almost always from one or two schools. Folks appear to be divided over "tradition vs. progress". I love the Fieldhouse for the same reasons that you love Henry County's venue; but I'm not absolutely dead-set against allowing each individual district to rotate according to their wishes.

 

However, I strongly suspect that much of the weeping and wailing that we hear over here in the 10th when the regional tourney is at the Mason County Fieldhouse would not occur if Mason County had won the same number of regional titles over the years as say, Henry County.