magicfan217

Ballard is talented and much improved from a year ago. That being said, Manuel should beat them. Very disapointing for Manuel.

wow. shocker. :eek:

I should clarify. I dont think Walton has to win this game to prove anything, but I think it's extremely important that they play with Simon.

I disagree. With all the beating Walton has taken from Simon over the last few years I think this goes to the head of Walton. If they go in and lose by double digits it could be a major blow to their mental state. It's extremely important that a team think it's the better team when the game starts (whether they are or not). A win by Walton and all of the sudden the whole mindset within the program is changing. Right now Walton is HOPING they can play with/beat Simon. If they were to knock them off then they would KNOW they could beat them. How could that not be a huge advantage when they most likely meet for the district championship?

In watching the game I felt like South was on the brink of a 10-12 point spurt at any minute. It just didn't happen. I still think South will eventually emerge from the pack as the team to beat....maybe. haha.

The Jury is still out on Walton. Their impending game with Simon is just huge.

I like Walton. Probably in the 8-10 point range.

wasn't aware Lape was out. Certainly think Oldham has the chance to be a factor before the year is out as well. Im sure adjusting to yet another coach is hard.

I didn't call them the clear cut favorite. The poster was saying he thought Anderson and Simon were the favorites this year but that South would be the dominant team a year from now. I just pointed out that it would be hard to call Anderson a better team then South this year and then say that South would be a better team then Anderson next year. The Lady Bearcats only have two upper classmen on their entire roster. As far as which class as better, Im sure only time will tell. The Anderson 8th and 9th grade group is really really talented. I would put them up against any in the state.

I think Owen may have something to say about that.....althought I really like Walton. I think their game with Simon Kenton coming up is just HUGE for them.

obviously rankings are just my opinion. I felt Simon was a clear number one at this point, after that I really had to think about some of the other teams. Expect this to shuffle on a weekly basis.

Thought I would provide a look at the 8th region after 1 week of action... the updated 8 of 8. 1. Simon Kenton (2-0): Win(s)- Grant and George Rogers Clark. No Losses. Gotta love the win over GRC as they were either 1 or 2 in the 10th region coming into this season. Big game looming against Walton-Verona. 2. Anderson County (2-0): Win(s)- Lafayette and Ballard. No Losses. Nice start for a young lady bearcat team re-loading after the loss of so many quality players the last two years. Relatively light week with only a district game vs Spencer on saturday. 3. South Oldham (0-2): Win(s)- None Losses: CAL and Shelby County. Not off to an ideal start but a very respectable game against one of the states top teams to open the year. A stumble in Shelby drops them from the top spot in my rankings, but look for them to bounce back soon. Big out of region matchup with Highlands highlights the coming week. 4. Walton-Verona (4-0): Win(s)- Conner, Holy Cross, Dixie Heights, Gallatin. No Losses. Busy week for the lady bearcats. Great start although questions about the competition level are present. Big game against Carroll at Carroll this week. 5. Owen County (2-0): Win(s)- Grant and Williamstown. No Losses. A good start to the year but the question still has to remain, how does Owen stack up against some better competition? Games will Carroll and Trimble this week. 6. Shelby County (1-1): Win(s)- South Oldham. Loss- Carroll County. What a week for the Lady Rockets. A disapointing loss to Carroll County followed by an inspired win over the preseason pick to win the regoin. The jury is still out on a very interesting Shelby County team. Huge out of region games with Butler and Rockcastle this week. 7. Carroll County (2-0): Win(s)- Shelby and Trimble. No losses. Not sure what to think about Carroll just yet. Nice win over Shelby to open the year. Probably should have them a little higher but they'll have a chance this week with games against Walton and Owen. 8. Oldham County (2-2): Win(s)- Western Hills and Taylor County. Losses- Edmonson and Dunbar. A lot of action in the first week for the Lady Colonels. Non competitive in two losses drops them a little. Another busy week with 3 more games on the schedule

possibly. Or maybe Lafayette isn't as good as advertised. They are 0-2 with loses to Station and Anderson.

If you think Anderson is the favorite (or one of) this year, It's hard to see South Oldham or anybody leaping them in the coming years. Anderson is starting two 8th graders, 1 soph, 1 junior, 1 senior and brings 7th, 8th and 9th graders off the bench. IF (and it's a big if for a reason) Anderson is one of the best teams in the 8th this year it's hard to see anybody taking that title from them for 4-5 more years.

Another nice win for the Lady Bearcats. The "elder" lady cats led the way today with yeaste and brown scoring 18 and 17 points between them.

If fan reaction was any indication, they were not too pleased with the officials. As an unbiased spectator, I thought Shelby got the benifit of a few more questionable calls but I wouldn't say that it was the reason Shelby won the game.

What a shocker! Shelby overcomes a 6-8 point deficit to start the 4th and force overtime, where they score 5 points to South Oldhams 2. Rasior and Whitfield both fouled out in regulation. Very well played game by the Rockets. I thought they executed their game plan as well as could be expected. They kept south out of the lane and forced them to make jumpshots, which they didn't do enough of to win the game. A lot of questions coming into the year about how South would handle a good zone, and if tonight is any indication they still have a ways to go. South never seemed to get into much of a rythem. They had several key players in foul trouble and had a lot of different lineups out there at times. The South press was effective, but while south would often force Shelby into turnovers they weren't scoring off of those turnovers. Wells was the best player on the floor tonight. She had 16 points and 12 rebounds and played a key role in breaking the South press. Also very impressed with Whitfield. She led south in scoring I believe. Hard not to rout for Shelby tonight. It was a bittersweet night for them as the honored a fallen teammate before the game. They were obviously inspired from the start. What does this say about the region? It's even MORE wide open then we thought. Just a few nights ago, Carroll defeats Shelby and then Shelby turns around and beats South Oldham. I still like South Oldham but it would be hard at this point not to have Simon Kenton as the current favorite. Current favorite may be a very fluid position this year, however.

Some nice early season games for the young 8th region.... Anderson beats Lafayette Walton beats Conner South Oldham plays with (but loses) to CAL (maybe the top team in the state) plus plenty of great action within the region as well. The 8th might be young, but calling it "down" may not be correct....

http://www.theandersonnews.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?003+article+Sports+20091201233842003003001 By John Herndon Anderson County did not take long to answer the question about whether its youth would be able to compete with older girls' basketball teams. Eighth-grader Makenzie Cann swished a 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime then buried four free throws in the final 1:17 of the second overtime to send Anderson to a 52-48 win over visiting Lafayette in the season-opener for both team on Tuesday night. With Anderson's two most experienced players, Kara Yeaste and Sydney Brown, on the bench with five fouls, the Anderson lineup in the final minutes of overtime consisted of a junior, a freshman and three eighth-graders against a team that returned all five starters from a squad that won 20 games last year. They never flinched. Another eighth-grader, Eriel McKee, led Anderson with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while junior Caroline McDowell scored 12 points, including a pair of big baskets down the stretch in regulation that helped Anderson overcome a 9-point deficit. Cann finished with nine points. “This was a good win for us,” said Anderson coach Tony Kays, “But it is still early. We have a lot of growing to do.” For a complete report, see the Dec. 9 edition of The Anderson News.

Nice win for the young Lady Bearcats!

Has anyone heard anything on Shomari Kendrick at Lafayette? Is she sitting the year out because of the transfer?

I heard it was stucker, not shaw who had been hurt...not sure of the severity.

All the high school do play under the same rules...it's the middle schools that differ so much. Middle schools are not under the KHSAA umbrella, therefore they can do whatever they want and that's where the huge difference is.

and actually the lexington/louisville schools are putting their kids at a huge disadvantage. Most all other schools have kids playing middle school and then again at the freshman, JV, and sometimes even Varsity levels. The rural area schools simply take advantage of a great opportunity to let their kids get multiple games and seasons in at an early age (and yes I know many are opposed to middle school kids playing high school sports but the fact is it is going to continue to happen as long as the KHSAA allows it). I wish somebody would do something to better the experience for the kids in Lex/Lou. They have major restrictions on games that don't allow for their teams to play hardly any out of city games. There are so many good athletes that fall through the cracks for all sorts of reasons. The Lexington kids will only play 12-15 games in a year. Some teams do that in a 2 week span. When Lexington and to a lesser degree Louisville starts to put more into their middle school athletics they will get much greater returns.

Unfortunately there is no good solution to this problem. Most of the schools outside the Lou/Lex area play fall ball. Some of the teams there hadn't played in over a month, so it goes both ways. As for the game, I thought Crosby really let the officials get to them. Whether or not you thought the game was called well or not is moot. If you let one or two calls get you out of your game and you put Anderson on the line they are going to beat you.