Lion Mania

CONGRATS ET FALK--100 MILE DRIVE SO I CAN SEE YOU LEADING THE POINT IN THE NEW BANK OF KENTUCKY CENTER!!!!

Are you thinking the BOK Center?? Haven't seen it yet, but must be a 900% improvement over EKU's Alumni Coliseum. Would be a 60 minute extra drive for me, but that would be just fine with me. Have heard it is a great facility.

Beside the players mentioned previously here are some more top players in the Beach Ball Classic. It is loaded with talent: 6'3" Sr. Dexter Strickland, St. Patrick (NJ) is going to North Carolina 6'5" Sr. Dalton Pepper, Pennsbury (PA) is going to West Virginia 6'8" Sr. Richard Howell, Wheeler (GA) is going to NC State 6'6" Sr. Kawhi Leonard, MLK (CA) is going to San Diego State 6'1" Jr. Eric Smith, Mullins (SC) has committed to Horn and South Carolina 6'4" Sr. Robbie Dreher, Southside (SC) is going to Winthrop 6'5" Sr. Quinton Thomas, Southside (SC) is going to Wyoming 6'7" Sr. Emari Bailey, ACD (FL) is going to Florida International Univ. 6'3" Sr. Stacy Bailey, Mullins (SC) is being recruited by Radford & Coastal Carolina 6'7" Soph Michael Gilchrist, St. Patrick (NJ) is a top 100 player in his class and ESPN calls him an NBA player in waiting 6'3" Soph Michael Taylor, Boy's & Girl's (NY) is a top 100 player in his class and has offers from schools in the Big East, SEC, Big 12, and Conf USA 5'8" PG Myles Mack, Paterson Catholic (NJ) is being recruited by Syracuse and Georgetown. 6'2" Sr. Anton Dickerson, Boy's & Girl's (NY) has several D-1 offers 6'4" Sr. Lamont Samuels, Boy's & Girl's (NY) has seven D-1 offers 6'1" Sr. Evan Faulkner, Elliott County, going to Radford. And there are some players on Pickering Canada that are D-1 prospects including Jon Hull. Probably left 6-8 others off, but you can see that it is loaded with talent. Boy's & Girl's (NY) had five players sign D-1 scholarships and three sign D-2 scholarships. Southside (SC) won the 2A State Championship last year and Myrtle Beach (SC) won the 3A State Championship last year. Mullins (SC) lost a close game in the 2A Semi-finals or what they call the Lower State Championship game.

Yes it will be a fun day with some talent on the court. Montgomery County has a large beautiful facility, but I still liked the days when they held it in the Frankfort Civic Center. 11th Region tourney used to be played a lot in the Frankfort Civic Center. Seems anymore that the Frankfort Civic Center doesn't get used for much of anything and especially no HS Basketball. Frankfort Civic Center is much better than EKU Alumni Coliseum where the acoustics are terrible. Heck even Memorial Coliseum is much better than EKU's gym. I wish the All A was played in Memorial or FKT Civic Center vs. EKU. Maybe just me, but many of my friends feel the same way. A terrible basketball facility. They also used to have the KY-IND All-Star series in the Frankfort Civic Center. I know--off subject some how so I'll stop.........

Of course not. Said it would be my first time. I am a long distance fan (30 miles west of Lexington) who started following them and attending games last year. After attending about 20 games last year they have adopted me into the Lion Fold. I plan on breaking that record this year with attendance of over 30 games both home, away, Myrtle Beach, All A, district, regional, and state tournament. And through it all I have made a bunch of great new friends in Sandy Hook and Isonville.

Eta Rho: At the UK Elite Camp I was there when they measured every player in bare feet. Faulkner twins are both 6'1" and Ferg is 6'1.5". Depending on whether you round up or down the starting five is 6'1", 6'1', 6'1", 6'7" and 6'1" or 6'2" (Ferg). Any way you round Elliott is not TALL with the lone exception being Timmy Knipp. :ylsuper:

Speedy, ACD features 6'8" senior Wallace Judge who is the #32 rated player nationally in ESPN's Top 100. He has verbally committed to Kansas State. Wheeler (GA) has #48 rated 6'6" Sr. Ari Stewart and #60 rated 6'8" Sr. Richard Howell. 6'7' Noel Johnson from Fayetteville (GA) is the #39 rated player nationally and played in the KOB last year. He had 40 points against Ballard in that tourney and has committed to USC (as pointed out before). Some other tidbits about Cedar Hills (TX): They are in Class 5A (1200+students) as compared to Elliott with 325 students. Nickname is Longhorns (Imagine that being in Texas). Colors are Red, Black, & White (like Texas Tech).

Brackets for the Beach Ball Classic are out: Friday December 26th: 3:30PM Arlington Country Day (FL) vs. Southside (SC) 5:15PM Fayette County (GA) vs. Pennsbury (PA) 7:00PM St. Patrick (NJ) vs. Mullins (SC) 8:45PM Paterson Catholic (NJ) vs. Socastee (SC) Saturday December 27th: 1:45PM Pickering (Canada) vs. Wheeler (GA) 3:30PM Boys & Girls (NY) vs. J.L. Mann (SC) 5:15PM Elliott County (KY) vs. Cedar Hill (TX) 7:00PM Martin Luther King (CA) vs. Myrtle Beach (SC) Elliott will play on Monday December 29th at 3:30 if they lose or 7:00 if they win. They will play the winner or loser of the 7PM Saturday game. (No games on Sunday December 28th) Cedar Hills, TX is a suburb of Dallas and right next to Duncanville, Texas. They finished 20-13 last year and lost to district rival Duncanville by 11 and 5 There only problem is that they have the #1 team in Texas and #1 in some national polls in their own district. Duncanville has a D-1 starting line-up that goes 6'11", 6'7", 6'7", 6'5", and 6'1". Cedar Hills features 6'6" Senior Shawn Glover who has committed to Utah. Other all district players include 6'6" Sophomore Thomas Gipson and 6'1" Junior Tanner Milson (Coach's son). Coach David Milson has coached at Cedar Hills for 29 years and they have averaged 28 wins per season from 2000-2008 with a 82.5% winning percentage during that span. A big challenge in the first round for the Lions of Elliott County.

Elliott County on December 16th should be able to hang with the pace. Look forward to my first trip to Boyd County High School. Actually understand the gym is not located with the HS??

Here is the height of Elliott's top seven players: Timmy Knipp 6'7" Sophomore, Jon Morgan 6'3" Senior, Jonathan Ferguson 6'2" Senior, Ethan Faulkner 6'1" Senior, Evan Faulkner 6'1" Senior, Chris Knipp 6'1" Senior, and Jared Flannery 5'10" Senior. Others on the roster: Jacob Ison 6'5" Sophomore, Cody Nickels 5'9" Sophomore, and Nick Lewis 5"7" Sophomore. Note: Jacob Ison has height but verdict is out on how much varsity he will play. Ison, Nickels, and Lewis will probably all play Junior Varsity.

Every team (even the top ranked teams) has some weaknesses. Most of the time they play away from those weaknesses. For Elliott it is size and depth. We don't need a lot of big men the way we play, but if we could borrow 6'6" Ricardo Johnson and put him along with 6'7" Timmy Knipp along with the twins and Ferguson that would be great. We will send him back after the state tournament (smile)!!! Nice try anyway!!! Look forward to seeing two teams loaded with talent, size, and athleticism when Holmes takes on Scott County.

If you had a quarter draw with Regions 1, 8, 12, and 16 then Elliott has a real good shot at getting to Saturday morning. What if you had a quarter draw of 9, 10, 11, and 16?? That would be criminal in nature for all 4 regions, but would make regions like the 5th and 7th very happy. I agree. A lot depends on how those little balls drop out on January 30th, 2009 in Lexington.

Two of these teams are in the Myrtle Beach Ball Classic: #3 Wheeler, GA who has ESPN #48 ranked player in 6'6" Ari Stewart and #60 ranked player in 6'8" Richard Howell. #6 St. Patrick's NJ who has the ESPN #10 ranked player in 6'3" Dexter Strickland who has verballed to North Carolina. Other top players include ESPN #39 player Noel Johnson of Fayetteville, GA #53 ranked player Dalton Pepper of Pennsbury, PA who has verballed to West Virginia. Also 6'8" Wallace Judge of Arlington Country Day, FL who has verballed to Kansas State. Elliott County will see some top talent and teams in this big tourney.

Elliott County's front line is 6'2", 6'1", and 6'1". OUCH!! Well that would be tall in the 1940s!!! Bigger they are the harder they fall or something like that!! Well like I said before, if you were judging by warm-ups and never had saw the Elliott boy's play you would say that other team may cream them. East Carter being a good example. They are tall and are dunking every which way in warm-ups and Elliott is short and shooting normal layups. But we know how those scores turned out x 4 last year. Those style points in warm-ups don't count during the game!!!

Jody Demling giving the Lion's some hugs and loves with his highlighted quote above from the CJ Blogs. You go Jody Boy!!!

Add Elliott County vs. South Charleston, WVA on Saturday December 20th at 7:45PM in the KY BANK CLASSIC at Bourbon County. Not getting much attention because folks don't know much about South Charleston. South Charleston will be ranked #1 in some polls in West Virginia preps pre-season voting. Granted Elliott doesn't play the schedule that Holmes, GRC, Scott County, and Manual play. This game along with the Myrtle Beach Tournament and possibly some games against the likes of Shelby Valley, Bardstown, and Hazard in the All A in Richmond will be Elliott's toughest games and the one stick to measure them. They will also (possibly) have one or two tough games with East Carter in the 16th. Most don't know much about East outside the 16th and won't count that as tough tests.

Field has been set for the November 29th (Sat) Fast Lane Classic at Sheldon Clark HS in Inez: 11:00 Johnson Central vs. Dunbar 12:30 Knott County Central vs. Mason County 2:00P Perry County Central vs. Manual 3:30P Sheldon Clark Girl's vs. Lexington Christian Girl's 5:00P Sheldon Clark vs. Phelps 6:30P Logan WVA vs. Scott County 8:00P Elliott County vs. Madisonville A great day with some good matchups and plenty of top teams.

D-dawg thanks for the good words about the Lions. In fact, thanks to all of you for the healthy respect that they are now getting. It wasn't long ago that they were getting beat up for mention as a Top 25 team after Mason beat our brains out in Maysville in late February. That was a bleak time and a double digit lose in the first round of the state against Mason would have solidified everyone's case that they didn't belong in the Top 25. Again, thanks for the votes of confidence. Now the kids have to prove it on the court. I think they will give it a real good shot over the course of the season. My hope is that they can be competitive at Myrtle Beach against some national heavyweights. There are about 15 D-I players that will be playing in that tourney and about 10 that are in the ESPN Top 100.

Jody Demling does his checking in blog on Elliott County yesterday. One of the top teams in the state will be from the 16th Region where Elliott County is an overwhelming favorite for a third straight region championship. Ethan and Evan Faulkner are twins considered among the best guards in the state, while senior wing Jonathan Ferguson (photo)is a sensational shooter and athlete. Timmy Knipp is one of the top players from the class of 2011. The Lions will run and gun and are fun to watch. Speedy, can you put the link up. Once I turn the computer on that is the end of my technology on computers. If it gets past a simple click I am lost.

Wow. Here is my philosophy. I would like to just enjoy the upcoming season and not dwell in the future. You have heard the song and verse from the Bible that says, "One Day at a Time". In this case "One Season at a Time." The 09/10 season is a long ways away and the 08/09 season has enough challenges of its own without thinking 2-4 years down the road. Heck many of us may not even be here that far down the road. Let us just enjoy today and the next game. Elliott has so many variables after this season to say they will be bad, average, or good is liking throwing darts into the ocean and hoping to hit a whale. Not trying to demean anybody for the conversation just saying any speculation is futile at best.

Does anyone have the matchups and game times yet for the November 29th Fast Lane Classic at Sheldon Clark High School?? If so, please share with us with an update. Thanks...... We are a month out and I would think they have the matchups and times set??

I will make the long distance ride up for some games. I have got addicted and have a fond affection for Sandy Hook and Isonville. Plus I have made some great friends who I would love to see time & time again. The Prodigal Son always returns back to the nest..........................Heck I might even move up there and become a permanent citizen. God's Country!!!!

Oh yes, I plan on riding the wave through an exciting season. We believe (or at least I do) that these guys can compete with anyone and have a great chance at playing in Rupp on Saturday and winning the All A also. Could they draw a Holmes or Scott County in the first round and lose in an exciting fashion like the Mason game last year. They could---BUT WE BELIEVE!!! I think they will be the darling of the small towns and schools this year and would win over all those neutral fans in Rupp. Everybody likes the little guy and roots the Milan's when they do good. Some think they can't compete with Scott County or Holmes. I like the underdog role. Just like everybody said they would get wiped out by Mason in the first round last year. Keep saying they are too short, have no depth, and must shoot 60% to win against a top 10 team. We all love the challenge and especially the kids on the court love the challenge.............

Watched Elliott beat East four times last year including the district and regional championships. Made a lot of notes, but didn't have this one on the Top 10 list. In reality don't remember either one being dominating factors in those games. Steady factors maybe, one outplaying the other--NOT. You must have been watching some different games than the ones I saw.