Ole Kentuckian

1. Nothing I said in any way placed "blame" on the officials, yet you continued to make an issue of it. I don't think anyone who knows the game would disagree with anything I said. 2. Depending on the opponent and WC's style of play a lot fouls may be called. As I said after the Dunbar game, the coach was saying very little regarding the fouls when Dunbar was up for all of the first half and into the third quarter. Only after WC made it into a game and the fouls mattered did he (and the Dunbar fans) complain. FYI, the single biggest problem Dunbar had in fouling was they couldn't keep both hands off of whomever they were guarding. 3. WC's fans are loud & proud. In fact we outnumber our opponent's crowds often when we go on the road much to their distaste. At least we continue to support our team. It seems as most gyms are nowhere near as full as they used to be. The "physicality" of a game differs in the viewers' eyes. Bodying up is one thing while hacking across the arms and over the back is another, but I'm not concerned about that because WC has played four games with 6th/7th Region officiating, two with 11th Region officiating, two with 14th Region officiating and one with Indiana officiating.

Gee, I don't see where I said anything about the officiating being "poor". My insinuation is that: (1) home teams (which Scott County was in the first game they played) typically do better as any point spread will prove out; and (2) teams playing within their home region vs. out-of-region teams will generally receive the benefit of the doubt on some calls (and vice versa). My saying this doesn't infer that any region's officials are homers (although some certainly are), rather that they're human, PLUS the style of play allowed in one region is often different than what you see in another. Bring Scott County down to Lincoln County to play Wayne County where we'll have 12th Region officials (and the game will be called as it is usually played in the 12th Region) and let's see how that goes. Okay bring on the smart-aleck remarks now.

According to BC's numbers game-by-game Tyler's rebound totals have been: 5, 9, 14, 7, 6, 9, 10, 8, 13, 4, 6, 2, 7, 4, 9, 8, *, 10, 10, 10, 10, 6, & 11 totaling 188 for an average of 8.55 rebounds per game if you divide the 188 by 22. If you divide by 24 you get 7.8 RPG. For some reason no rebounds are listed for him in the first game BC played and an "*" is listed for the game against Lincoln played at Lincoln. The first game BC had 44 team rebounds and the individual totals come to 38. That leaves another 6 rebounds unaccounted for that could be anybody's, team rebounds or Tyler's. The Lincoln game BC had 31 team rebounds and the individual totals are 24 leaving 7 rebounds unaccounted for. There should be a rebound for every missed shot including free throws, but I'm not going to begin to clarify all the particularities involving all of that other than to say that there will most likely be a certain number of "team rebounds" and "dead ball rebounds" in each game. Having said all that (because I'm a stats geek), both Tyler and Elkins are indeed a force around the goal, in rebounding and shot blocking.

Final. I got back from Lexington too late to care about checking BGP (and watched end of UK game on DVR) but why wasn't this posted by someone?

First game played at Scott County with 11th Region officials. Scott wins by 2. Second game played at Lafayette with 11th Region officials (semi-neutral conditions). Wayne wins by 1. Draw your own conclusions.

They're comin' so watch out of the way.

The last couple of games I've watched SW play I felt Coach Wright was doing a whole lot of ranting at officials & players and not much actual coaching. I don't know if ky playermaker was insinuating that the coach was "holding back" on running offensive or defensive schemes to avoid allowing his opposition to better learn how to play SW, but maybe that's what he's doing. if so, I question the end result of last night's contest on his players.

Going to be a VERY INTERESTING REGION.

At the beginning of the season I was very concerned about losing Jason Perkins to graduation because he was the glue guy for the team, but it is now appearing that each WC player is stepping up their game, broadening their contributions and skills which is making it more difficult for opponents to beat them by simply choosing one or two players on which to focus most of their attention. Woods, Blevins and Stearns can play with anyone in the Region while Gillespie has made himself into a much more versatile contributor (& intimidator) and the freshman Baker shows signs of being a force at times. Plus WC is now developing some depth off the bench which will be a huge help down the stretch. The Cards have a shot at achieving something only one other 12th Region team has ever achieved - winning three Regional Titles in a row (and four in five years). The great Monticello teams of 1958-59-60 were the first & thus far only team to win three in a row.

SW shadowed Woods tight so Stearns ripped SW for 21 the first half making mid-range jumpers (ended up with 29 for game) and WC led 40-28 at the end of the half. SW had a brief flurry early in the third, but then starting late in that quarter Woods went to work and since SW choose to play him tight on the perimeter he dribbled, drove and drew fouls ending up scoring 30 points as SW couldn't catch up for WC making their free throws. At this point it doesn't much matter who has to play McCreary County (they'll likely be tied and have to flip for the bye) because the District is at Wayne and SW certainly can't be happy about having to go back there.

WC's "big three" were averaging roughly 62 ppg entering the Scott County game. They totaled 63 in this game which indicates that Scott County placed a premium on keeping Woods from getting shots which led to Stearns & Blevins getting more opportunities which they made good use of. However, WC obviously was subpar on keeping Scott County off the offensive boards which killed them. And then at the end of the game they didn't make their free throws and that's a must. And I agree that Scott County likely played one of their better games of the season but I would expect no less as I'm sure that Coach Hicks did not want Coach Woods to get the best of him in this face-off.

During the late seventies Coach Woods & Coach Hicks played on the same slow pitch softball team called the Pineville (or "Doc's") Raiders - Rodney as SS and Billy as P. Billy's brother, Herschel, also played on the team along with some of the best athletes in Southeastern Kentucky. They won a couple of state championships and you could see in them back then that they both were leaders & winners. Since becoming coaches they would never schedule each other intentionally, but now here they are playing in the finals of the Toyota and then they'll play again in two weeks at the Jock Sutherland Classic at Lafayette. Two great coaches who are among the very best in the state.

1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 18 12 13 16 = 59 Rockcastle Co 17 31 34 12 = 94 Wayne Co Wayne got off to a slow start, down one and with two fouls each on Woods & Blevins at the end of the first quarter, but they kicked it in gear the second quarter and by the end of the third quarter it had been a record setting night for Cardinal basketball. Thru the first three quarters Peyton Woods drilled 11 threes, 2 twos and 3 free throws for 40 points. The 11 threes were a new WC record and he also now holds the record for most threes made in a season. Also making strong contributions were the Cards other 12th Region stand-outs, Blevins with 17 and Stearns with 20. Blevins added 5 threes, Stearns 2 and Bertram 2 for a game total of 20 for WC. The starters sat out all of the fourth quarter. Wayne is now 12-4 and appear to be gelling into form approaching their effort of last season.

Actually you do come off as a sore loser.

I grow tired of reading the ranting & raving about "getting screwed on the road". I have news for you - when you go on the road out of the region (or even in region) you are NOT going to get the benefit of the doubt. The list of times that WC has gone on the road (out of region) and "gotten screwed" is long but I typically don't get all that bent out of shape over it (nor does our coach). You know that it is going to be that way because the officials are graded by the home team coaches, not the visiting coaches. So you "up your game" and do whatever is necessary to overcome such home court advantages. SIDE NOTE: Coach Woods used to have it in all of his contracts that the officials for games with out-of-region teams would use the officials from the visiting team. Why? Because that tended to level the playing field a great deal. But because the officials didn't like the extra travel and some of the teams didn't like having to pay for the additional cost Coach Woods wasn't able to continue it. Plus from observing last night's game I suppose that in the 11th Region they allow placement of two hands on the opponent (w/o calling a foul) because Dunbar did that a lot and it was called (as the rulebook dictates). So the 12th Region officials called it when Dunbar put the second hand on the offensive player. Dunbar continued to foul both halves and paid it no heed because their bench is deep (& talented) and they were comfortably ahead much of the time. Then Wayne County began playing stiffer defense and Dunbar started committing turnovers and taking bad shots and suddenly all of the fouls mattered. Also in the first half and early part of the third quarter Dunbar was shooting easy & comfortable, feeling no pressure and making an extremely high percentage of their shots. Then the game got tight and the shots quit falling as frequently. I was greatly impressed by the Dunbar team. Williams is indeed a player and had he not had to make an emergency exit (to visit the rest room) for a brief period or had that last second shot by Dunbar fallen, the result could have been different. Wayne County was extremely fortunate to play so poorly early and manage to pull out a win. Hopefully they will learn a lesson from it. POSTNOTE: I find it hilarious that anyone would mention Clay County regarding this topic (the 'home team' having an edge with the officials). For as long as I have followed the game (going on six decades) it has been legendary that you do not go to Clay County and win. When Bobby Keith was coach and in his prime, the very best teams from Lexington, Louisville & elsewhere would foolishly make the trip to Manchester and come away having sustained a loss and promising themselves they would never return.