SpeedyGonzales

1st Paducah Tilghman 2nd Christian County 3rd Muhlenberg North 4th Warren Central 5th North Hardin 6th Butler 7th Manual 8th Shelby County 9th Holmes 10th GRC 11th Franklin County 12th Wayne Co 13th Corbin 14th Hazard 15th Shelby Valley 16th Elliott County TB Fifth Region

And its a coaches' vote and you will see the same things in Lexington Herald Leader on Friday. There was 100 or so coaches voting in this from all over the state.

Coaches' Top 25 Kentucky High School Players: (Listed in order of votes; first-place votes in parentheses) Player school Ht. Yr. PPG College choice 1. Jon Hood Madisonville-N. Hopkins (73) 6-6 Sr. 23.8 Kentucky 2. Jacob Jenkins Manual (12) 6-4 Sr. 17.0 N/A 3. Vee Sanford Lexington Catholic (3) 6-3 Sr. 13.4 N/A 4. Richie Phares Scott County (1) 6-8 Sr. 17.3 N/A 5. C.J. Penny Anderson County (1) 6-5 Sr. 21.5 N/A 6. Chad Jackson Scott County (1) 6-4 Jr. 20.0^ N/A 7. Ricardo Johnson Holmes (3) 6-4 Jr. 11.6 N/A 8. Dakotah Euton Scott County (2) 6-8 Jr. 20.0^ Kentucky 9. Aaron Cosby Jeffersontown 6-2 Jr. N/A* N/A 10. Darren Ballou Adair County 6-7 Sr. 18.0 Morehead State http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081123/SPORTS0502/811230382?GID=pWbVplrcmmpdTNkXTm7cKpInSujlD/ayaMvzv72bKWM%3D

Here are this year's Coaches' Top 25 High School Basketball teams per the Courier-Journal: (First-place votes in parentheses) Rank Team Region '07-'08 1. Scott Co. (97) 11th 20-12 2. Holmes (7) Ninth 34-3 3. J'town Seventh 26-6 4. Elliott Co. (1) 16th 26-4 5. Manual Seventh 23-9 6. Clark County (1) 10th 22-8 7. Lex. Catholic (1) 11th 32-4 8. Mason County 10th 34-4 9. Ballard Seventh 20-11 10. Male Seventh 22-7 11. North Hardin Fifth 21-8 12. Hazard 14th 31-5 13. Warren Central Fourth 11-17 14. Paul Dunbar 11th 21-8 15. Christian Co. (1) Second 12-19 16. Bryan Station 11th 30-3 17. Madisonville-N. Hopkins Second 22-10 18. Fairdale (1) Sixth 22-11 19. Franklin Co. 11th 20-10 20. Shelby Valley 15th 24-5 21. Eastern Seventh 28-6 22. PRP Sixth 25-5 23. Corbin 13th 25-8 24. Adair County Fifth 27-6 25. Bardstown Fifth 23-8 http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081123/SPORTS0502/811230383

I was talking about the first half. Euton struggled defensively and offensively, but did better in the 2nd half. Scott County is the state's #1 team until proven otherwise. Saying that, you cannot say Male wouldn't be a different team if they had their starting center and leading rebounder and post presence.

OJ Bell is 6'6 and the starting center and is still playing football. They had another player at 6'5, but when he's out Male is small with two guards at 5'10 and 5'11 with Hayes and Glenn.

Male missing football players, 1 o2 starters including Bell. Scott County got down to business. Won 4th quarter 28 to 16. Guyn was the top player in this one.

Scott County is all there. Male is missing their best post player and starter OJ Bell. Scott County won the third quarter 23 to 11. Euton struggled in the firsthalf, but hit a couple of 3s the 2nd. Guyn playing well.

No, Male won the second quarter 22 to 9. Now the 3rd quarter is going on. True, coaches do use this for a learning tool, but this is #14 team in the country going against the #3 team in the 7th. They are getting after it.

Scott County wins 1st quarter by 10. Then they reset and Male won 2nd quarter by 13, 22 to 9.

North Harding scrimmages this weekend. Opens season @ Manual December 4th. This was the PRP Super Shootout. Trinity over Tilghman. Seneca over Trimble Manual over Lex Cath PRP and Lincoln County

Manual's 88 to 72 win was impressive and this was the marquee game at the PRP Shootout. It had all the intensity of a regular season game and the substitution pattern showed it. Even before the game got started there was some intensity with Sanford and Jenkins doing some sort of dunk contest. Sanford had a few crowd pleasing jams before Jenkins decided to bring one way back and then throw it down and got the crowd going. The PRP folks did a really nice job of getting this event together.

Seneca was very impressive tonight. A great deal of athletism and some talent. It is preseason as you posted on the other thread.

It is scrimmage, but the intensity was there and both teams were playing to win judging by substitution patterns.

Preseason final.

Manual did struggle some with the press. I thought Manual had some nice guards. Jenkins also played some point guard tonight and did a nice job. They will improve as the season goes on.

I would say Jenkins was the much more impressive and complete player. Really seemed to flow with the game. It was a fast paced game that had a bunch of turnovers. Both teams pressed and I think LC pressed nearly the entire game. Jenkins finished with around 22. Shot the ball well and had at least 10 or more assists. Couple of other players on Manual were knocking down some shots including #30 and #21 I believe. A nice athletic team. They were missing their big kid tonight. Not sure why. Sanford struggled early. He connected on his first shot then misses several after that. Really likes to go one-on-one a lot. Jenkins seemed to have forced him into some bad shots. As the game went on, Sanford became much more effective. Lexington Catholic has a really nice player in Botkins who played guard. They also have another nifty point guard who really excelled in the lanes. They also had a center who rebounded, played D, scored on some nice moves. Lexington Catholic will be a very good team down the road.

Final at PRP.

Manual plays Adair here, Bardstown in the KOB, and North Hardin at their place. That's the top 3 teams in the 5th region on top of playing a 7th region schedule. Meanwhile, the Hood v Jenkins matchup seems unlikely and Manual and Madisonville play in some 6 or 7 events together. I would say that's very interesting too.

Adair County is in it too. Any idea who they matched up with?

North Hardin vs Grayson County on the 22nd.

Its going to be one heckuva season chocked full of surprises. Let the games begin.

Its a rare year when Ballard is picked 5th in the 7th region.

Outside of traditional rivalries, what games will feature the most intense matches between teams?

Thanks for the correction. Ari Stewart is going to Wake Forest and I had thought he played for ACD. Scott County did play them and it was with Matt Walls and Bud Mackey. At that time, I'm almost certain Stewart was there and SC lost in a game that was close throughout. Or maybe it was a different Stewart. Whatever the case, ACD is another strong team in the BBC this year. The Fayette team Manual defeated last year to win 3rd in the KOB had 3 DI players including Noel Johnson. They should be strong again this year. Johnson had 46 in that game against Ballard. Against Manual and Jenkins he finished with 17. It should be interesting to see how Scott County fares against Dunvansville in a couple of weeks. The Beach Ball tourney is loaded and should be a lot of fun.