Lion Mania

Good top win for the Redhounds. Wish Corbin was an All A team because I think a Elliott-Corbin matchup in Richmond would be a great game for the fans. They are 2A in football and I have never understood how they are not in the All A Basketball tournament?? Will have to settle for an EC-SV or EC-Hazard matchup (s). Heck, there are even some 3A Football teams in the All A Basketball tournament??

My graduating class at BHS was 26 and every graduating class is between 20-30 students. K-12 is all in one building with something like 350 students in those 13 grades. Burgin off to a good start with a record of 8-1. Long live the little school where you know all your classmates and you are a person and not just a number.

Yes, see them in Olive Hill on Tuesday. Hope they lose the mentality of turning it into a football game without pads or starting a WWE Wrestling match. We don't need to win a game at the expense of getting players hurt and out for the rest of the season.

Don't like it. Blow-outs if nothing else give the bench players some minutes and playing time. Besides a HS game doesn't last but about 75-85 minutes anyway which is a short amount of time. Maybe inside two minutes left in the game if the score is over 30 points.

Congrats to Menifee County on now winning 5 more games than they won last year. Six weeks ago the All A Region at Menifee looked like blow outs for Elliott in the 1st two games. Now a first round match-up with Fairview on Saturday Jan. 17th and possible SF with Menifee County on Tues. Jan. 20th looks much more interesting and intriguing. Not saying EC will win by 40, by 1point, or even lose a game. Just saying before they looked like dark games, but now a few rays of sunshine are breaking through the clouds. It is encouraging even to EC fans like myself who are wanting to be challenged.

Congrads to my tiny little alma mater on a big win!!! Go Bulldogs!! Tidbit Note: Burgin's only appearance in the Sweet Sixteen occured in 1938 behind 6'8" Jack Coleman, Sr. He later played at the University of Louisville and the NBA for Rochester and St. Louis winning 2 NBA title rings. Mr. Coleman's jersey is retired and hangs from the rafters in Freedom Hall. After his NBA career he returned to Burgin and lived there until his death several years ago. The Burgin gym is named after him.

Just got an e-mail back from the Touchtone Energy webmaster who said the brackets will be drawn and/or announced on WYMT in Hazard on Saturday January 10th. Many of us, including me, don't get that channel. Hope someone in that area posts the brackets on BGP. Won't be on the website until sometime after the television announcement. Many B-Ball fans, including myself, will be at Montgomery County most of the day for the KY PREPS CLASSIC.

Ram--None of those 3A Football 16th region schools are in the All A Basketball equation and the lowest number is Russell with 664. Bath County at 2A is in the equation at 591. Tells me the All A Basketball enrollment number must not exceed somewhere between 600-650?? Is the logic correct??

Correct--Sweet Sixteen draw is on January 30th and shown live on WKYT 27 in Lexington at either Noon or 12:30PM. All A State Brackets--I e-mailed them about 2 weeks ago and they said the brackets would be out shortly. Well we are 25 days away from the start and still no brackets on the website. I expect them to be out first part of next week.

Guess true blue and gold is correct. The All A Basketball teams must go much deeper into the 3A football schools by sheer numbers being over 100. I don't off the top of my head know the enrollment criteria for 2A vs. 3A football and then the criteria for All A Basketball. Guessing the All A Basketball number would be somwhere around 700 or less?? 2A football number being 600 tops and 3A number being 800 tops?? Again, just guesses maybe someone knows the exact numbers??

You are correct> Sorry, I was thinking back in the not so distant past when we had 5 classes vs. 6 classes. My point being that I was surprised that somewhere around 40% of the HS are in the All A Basketball Tourney. If guessing before hand I would have thought it to be somewhere around 25%.

This is one of the problems with signing all these kids early. He probably wishes now he waited on some of these early offers. Euton is a OK player, but Pittman right now has moved way past him and plays in another stratsosphere (sp). He is nasty (in the good sense) and no one in KY can guard him individually. Saw him twice at the BS tourney and he can shoot outside beyond three or get a rebound and cram in back in. He probably can tip out about 12 feet on those tip out machines. If he gets close to the rim he will dunk on you at 5"10" or 6'10" (doesn't matter). He is the best player in the class of 2010 and I have seen all the top 10 players or so.

I counted 109 schools on the All A Basketball listing. I believe there are somewhere around 270 HS in the state that compete in basketball. That would be 40% of the teams in KY are in the All A tournament. Tells me that 109 teams includes both Class A and Class AA football schools. 2 of 5 football classes is exactly 40% and I just passed the math test.

Eta Rho: Thanks for the love for Ferg. I have seen Holmes twice at BS and left impressed with the team and high caliber athletes. Think a Holmes-EC matchup would be a great game. Also, agree with those on the other side of the view: Depends on how well or how bad Elliott shoots and to what degree the length causes degradation of shooting as to the outcome. Maybe the two will meet, but if its OK with you how about Saturday morning or Saturday night March 21st??

Ferg was 12-19 from the field and 9-12 from trey land. He had 38 points at the end of the 3d quarter, didn't take a shot in the first 2 minutes of the 4th quarter, then left the game not to return. He also set out most of the 2d quarter. Had 15 points in the first 4 minutes of the game and then 20 points in the 3d quarter. Was 5-6 in the third quarter from trey land. I believe Ferg played somewhere between 21-22 minutes of action. Another Note: Rick played a lot of subs in the 2d quarter and mostly all subs in the 4th quarter. Seems content on not getting 100 points and getting experience for the younger players which is a good thing from one perspective. Others I know don't like subbing extensively so early in the game. Case in point: EC scored 26 pts. in quarter one and only 12 in quarter two. Lead got down to 17 points in the 2d quarter at one time and you would have thought Rowan cut it down to 2 points. Not saying this is good or bad just stating facts. Understand both arguments...........

Congrads to the whole team on a great tourney and performance. Standing outside the convention area during halftime and breaks between games I can tell you the buzz was about this team (you know that area where many gather, talk, and pollute the air and lungs). Many older local residents who have attended the tournament since its inception in 1981 said this was a fun bunch to watch and they will remember them for a long time. Said they have never seen a school this small (and short with the exception of T. Knipp) come down to this tournament and play the trees like they did. Many of them fell in love with them and were pulling for them each game. They had hundreds of questions about location, size, rankings, Sandy Hook, etc. Most agreed that if we would have shot anything better than 4-30 from 3 point range we would have beat Cedar Hills. Most found it simply amazing that we were within 2 points under 2 minutes left. They said that team, "just hung in there on sheer grit, hustle, and determination". Many said they had never seen a bunch play harder of with more intensity. LIONS--Conrads again you won the hearts of many in the Palmetto State!!

Maybe Mike is setting up an interesting game next Saturday in the KY Prep Classic at Montomery County?? Anderson vs. Elliott in the 5:45PM second game that evening!! He notes they lost close to J-Town and Scott County, but says nothing about their 5 pt. loss to Bullitt East. My bet is that Cantrell has them between 15-20 on Monday. LIT has them rated what would be #28 if they went past the Top 20. Have seen them play and their biggest problem is guard play which is a strength for Elliott County.

BGP has Holmes #1, LIT has Elliott #1, another poll has so and so #1, fans have their own #1 team. It doesn't matter and just creates a bunch of fruitless debates (arguments) that take up a lot of space and time and tend to heighten everyone's blood pressure. Breaking News--No. 1 will be decided about 9:30PM on Saturday March 21st in Rupp Arena. May not be any of these top ranked teams?? What was Lafayette ranked a few years ago when they beat Male in the finals before post season play started?? I bet they were not even a Top 10 team going into post season play?? Never happen this year you say!! It's happened plenty of times before so why would this year or any year be any different?? Several of the region favorites will not even make Rupp Arena!! Again, it happens every year and this year will be no different. By the way, I don't think Elliott should be #1 right now. My top 5 would include: 1) Holmes 2) Scott County 3) Elliott County 4) Bryan Station 5) J-Town (more of a guess as I haven't seen them play). Any of these five could win the title or it could be a team not in anyone's top 5 right now?? Maybe the high tech computer programmers in Sandy Hook went down and sabotaged the computers in the Courier offices in Louisville??

By the way, congrads Lions on a great showing in South Carolina. Talking to many local Myrtle Beach residents and they fell in love with you and had 100 questions to ask about the team. Most said they had never seen such swarming defense and a team that plays any harder from start to finish. They also commented that they are a fun bunch to watch play. They are right--I have never seen a team play harder or with more grit and desire. Whoever beats you down the stretch will have to do it on more than physical ability. They will have to bring their mental will, grit, and determination over yours inside the final minutes. That in itself will be a tough task for any team to do and I would never bet against this bunch!!!

EC just won 3 of 4 games in one of the premier holiday tournaments in the country. They beat two of South Carolina's defending state champions and one of the premier teams in Canada. If not for a 31% shooting and unbelievable 4-30 three point game (13.3%) vs. Cedar Hills, TX they would have beat the #1 ranked 15-0 (CLASS 5A) team in Texas. Still with the worst shooting in some time it was a 2 pt. game inside 2 minutes. Having watched this tournament for 5 days there are 15 teams that could easily be in the Top 10 in Kentucky. All the teams (with the exception of Socastee) have the athletic talent, size, speed, quickness, and jumping ability of a Scott County or Holmes. And yes, I have seen Scott County 3 times this year and Holmes twice in Lexington. What does the Cedar Hill game tell me?? That even if Elliott shoots 31% from the field and 13% from trey land the game against a top opponent the game is still decided in the last two minutes. There will be no 29 point games like at Mason last year. It also tells me that if they shoot anywhere between that terrible % and their average of 50% from the field and 40% from trey land that teams in the state of KY are in real trouble. And if they shoot their % than they are in for something worse than real trouble. These kids may lose in the first round of the state again and so may any top 5 team, but they are so gritty, seasoned, and determined it will take them shooting very poorly for a top flight KY team to put them away in the last 2 minutes. You wanted a up front honest evaluation after me watching about 20 games in this tournament and there it is. These kids will not go away easily come March. And yes, they will be a factor in Rupp in March.

Myrtle Beach's record looks bad. Well the first 4 games of the season (all loses) they were playing their JV as starters. The entire team was competing for and winning a 3A Football Championship. That same team also won the 3A State Basketball Championship last year. Just setting the record straight in case someone missed the information before. Another interesting tidbit on MB: Their starting point guard (Gholson) led the state in passing as a freshman, then led them to a state title just a few weeks ago as a sophomore. They are loaded with athletes and one starter was 6'6", another 6'5", and several 6'3" players.

Boyd is not a bad team. And I am not saying that just to build Elliott up. Although Elliott beat them badly I knew this team would win some games. New coach has them playing up tempo and they have some very good shooters. They will continue to improve this year and next. Wireman was not running BC down. His comparision scores of 16th vs. 15th region teams speaks for itself. Except for Shelby Valley and maybe one or two other teams the 15th is weaker than the 16th which is by admission weak in itself. Ashland, West Carter, and Fairview are playing really well in the early games of the season.

I was in attendance at this game last night. They did not dismantle a very solid HS team. TC played awful, scared, and nervous. There are a handful of teams in the state that will not play this way against them. South Charleston, whom I saw Sat Nite, would beat TC by 20 points. TC at best is the 5th best team in the city of Lexington.

Cosby is back. I'll take J-Town 78 Manual 63.

Elliott County 94 East Carter 71 6-0 heading to the Myrtle Beach on Friday. This will drop their scoring average from 107ppg to 104.8ppg.