Mojocat

I’m fairly sure he’ll be 18 in August.

Oh, my memory isn’t that good. I shouldn’t have made it sound like I was affirming the point - just acknowledging it. People always say that - that committing to Kentucky gives a kid an unfair advantage when it comes to Mr. Basketball/Football. That may be true, I’d have to go back thru the winners lists and see who else of note was in each class. The point I’m making is, however true that might be generally, I don’t think it is this year respecting Sheppard. He’s a McDonald’s AA, a top 25 player in the class - he’s the best player in the state and presumably would’ve won this award no matter where he committed…..

Yep, very much agreed. He's legit, me thinks, as opposed to the Kentucky high school star that may or may not be a high D1 player and the fans pressure the coach into taking him at UK. Also, there are years where a kid commits to UK and sows up the Mr. Basketball race, and you can legitimately claim he's not the best player, he only got it because he's going to Kentucky. That's not the case this year, at least in my opinion.

I hadn't seen this thread, and it's interesting to me how the tone changed. in the beginning, when folks were assuming he simply decommitted to better think through his options, that was met with favor. but when the story changed and people realized Kentucky pulled his offer, that was met (at least most of the time) with scorn.

As someone who's worked the game clock many, many times, I always say it's both the easiest and hardest thing to do, at the same time. It's super easy - you literally have one job, and that's to flip a toggle to start the clock or to stop it. A monkey could do it. It's also super hard - it's very easy to just become engrossed in what's happening on the court and forget to flip the button. Egg on face, I've done it plenty of times. Once, had an opposing AAU coach literally want to fight me, he was so convinced I was trying to cheat his team (by not starting the clock when my team inbounded the ball with only a handful of seconds left - reasonable assumption I guess, but it was kind of out in the open. If I was going to cheat, I'd try to be a little more slick!). Anyway, point is, I can't imagine trying to manually re-start a shot clock every possession. But then, maybe most folks don't daydream like I apparently do.......

https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/top-high-school-basketball-scorers-all-time-a5af7d7396864c40 interesting list here. Who knows what’s accurate, when you’re trying to understand all time scoring leaders across the country, I’m sure it’s hard to get good precise info. If this list is accurate, Perry could conceivably finish as high as number 2 all time, if he scores an amount in his senior year similar to his junior year. The number 1 guy has 6,700+ points, which I suspect is out of reach. 😊 two interesting things I’m reading. One, the “national federation of high school” (whatever that is), doesn’t recognize points scored before 9th grade. And two, of the top 100 scorers, 30 are from one state - Louisiana. Apparently, the smallest schools in that state, class b and c, don’t play football. Which means basketball starts in October, so they’ll have 70 or 80 game seasons.

Recruiting misses happen all the time. Devin Askew anyone? We could make a list a mile long. But, I want to appreciate Perry for the amazing high school player he’s been. The college stuff will come later, and I hope the several posts in this thread making the point that if he goes to the right place and right situation he’ll succeed end up being exactly right.

North Oldham was ranked in the top 5 most of the year, and is much better than J-town (or anyone else, possibly excepting Evangel, in the 6th in my opinion). I didn’t see Western, so have to allow for that. Brings up a larger topic - the relative strengths of the Regions. I grew up in the 5th, and have lived in metro Louisville for 25+ years, so I’m reasonably familiar with the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th. I guess overtime I’ve conditioned myself to think the 6th and 7th, and I’ll presume the 11th, are just head and shoulders above the other 13. But as I’ve focused on it lately, I’m not sure that’s true. The 6th and 7th will typically be top heavy, and have one or two teams that other regions just can’t hope to compete with most nights. First, that’s not always true, for example North Oldham this year or CCH most years can compete with those teams. Once you get past Male/Ballard or Evangel/PRP (or whomever in a given year), there’s not a lot of difference between the next 6 or 8 teams in the 6th or 7th vs the 8th (my frame of reference). And the teams at the bottom are just as bad if not worse. There are some bad teams in the 8th - but I think Valley is worse than any of them. Anyway, would require a little bit of research to confirm or refute all of that. ……

Me, too - will be pulling for him for sure!

I’ll be really interested to see how Perry’s game translates to the high D1 level. He’s a tremendous shooter, has great feel, can play point (though his natural inclination and position is scorer). He’s not very athletic, not very long, and has trouble against length. The “comfort” factor can’t be discounted. Meaning: he is completely comfortable and confident in his current environment. He is the man, and has been since the 7th grade. Small community. Dad is coach. Gets up over 20 shots a game. Now, take that same kid, put him in a large university, undersized with mediocre athleticism, decidedly not the man, gets limited time and limited shots. Comfort factor goes way down. Very easy to go thru a shooting slump and lose confidence. We’ve all seen some variation of this story multiple times. Some make it, most don’t. He’s had a special special career so far. We’ll see.

Is Duvall a good coach? Hard to say. Is Roger Harden a good coach? Owen County and Carroll County are almost exactly the same in enrollment. Main difference is lightning remarkably struck twice in short order for OC in Carson Williams and Teagan Moore. A kid that good obviously makes a difference - hence OC won 24 games and Carroll County won 7 this year. A kid like Moore makes OC a lot better than CC - but that doesn’t mean OC can or should beat the best teams in the region. I saw the Owen County v Woodford County game, and I’m not sure what the OC coach could have done differently. OC was up big in that game, and while that was due in part to their play, it was much more due to Woodford’s casual indifferent play. Once Woodford cranked up the defensive intensity, it was like watching a good varsity team play a freshman team, and the outcome was pretty easy to see coming. Duvall might be good, mediocre or bad. It’s hard to say.

Thanks for the link, coach. I watched the last 5 minutes. DeSales is up 54-48 with 68 seconds left, and really from that point just about everything that had to happen for them to lose happened. Your two best ball handlers turn the ball over on successive possessions, and then on the third possessions the two bigs miscommunicate for another turnover. And J-town makes good on those opportunities - a three, a layup and another layup. On that last J-town possession, they got 3 shots, all right at the rim. So turnovers and not getting a rebound doomed DeSales. They got a good look at the end, just didn’t go down. Maybe I’d like to see a ball fake and then go into the defender there, rather than a slight fadeaway, to try to get a foul. But that’s risky, a lot of officials will absolutely swallow the whistle there. Just an unfortunate ending……

Yep, the defense they’ve played the last two games distinguishes WC, and would keep them in the game against just about anyone. Again, they are young, and I worry about a no-show. Surely in the State tournament that shouldn’t be an issue…..

Male coach must be pretty fair.

44-21 final. Lopsided second half. Be interested to see Collins final shooting stats…