BigSpikes

This game was a matchup of the two best teams in the tournament. I know I may not be the most liked poster in the eyes of some of Elliott's fans on here, but you all played a heck of a game and I applaud and thank you for making the last two days of the state tournament entertaining. You and your seniors have nothing to hang your head on, I congratulate Ethan, Evan, Jon, Jon Morgan, Jerred, and Chris for having a great four year run that culminated with the deepest run into the state tournament in your school's history. Facing an adverse situation, such as facing a team better than you and losing, is nothing to be sad or depressed about. You handled yourselves with style and grace and just know that better things await you in years to come. It is cliche to say, but your senior year of high school is really the last time you can be care free and just live in the moment, so enjoy the rest of your senior year and I wish you the best of luck in whatever endeavors you choose to pursue after high school. Also, I don't know who said it, but this is how Elliott County Basketball in the "Golden Age" will be remembered in years to come: "It isn't the final score that defines you, it is how you deal with the results of that score." Well for me boys, I will remember you as a special group of young men and will look back on you with fondness. It was truly a special run that you put on for the past 4 seasons.

Congratulations to the Bulldogs, I have really fallen in love with this team since I moved to the NKY area a couple of years back. From what I know from watching them first hand, and through discussion at games, this is a great and special group of young men. While Jamel is graduating and going on to bigger, and better things, along with Brandon Ousley, James Rice, and Dominique Johnson, they are returning their core group of players and should be able to reload and defend their state title. I also want to give a shout out to Coach David Henley, who has to be in the discussion for the best coach in the state. What he does with these boys is simply amazing and should get more statewide recognition. Now from what I saw at the game: This game was one of the best basketball games I have ever seen. College, NBA, High School, Middle School or Elementary. The game was back and forth the entire time and there wasn't a time until Jeremiah Johnson had the lay up with 5 seconds left in the second overtime that I thought the game was over. For the boys from Louisville Central: hold your heads up and be proud of your run this week, their record was definitely not indicative of your true ability and character. To Ridge Wilson and Tim Patterson, you both are outstanding athletes and hopefully you enjoy careers in the sports that you choose to pursue, whether that be football or basketball. Also, to Coach Bibby, you did a fine job overcoming an 0-8 start to win the 6th region and win 19 of your last 26 games once your team was at full strength and you had all of your players available. Congratulations to Holmes, Louisville Central and to the other 14 teams that advanced to the State Tournament. You represented your respective regions with class and grace and made for an amazing week of high school basketball.

you're right, that's why I praised Elliott and said that I rooted for them. It's time to drop this "Us against the World" crap. It gets old, your team has more exposure than any other school in Kentucky, you are playing on Saturday and you are in a position that only three other teams can say they are. A lot of what it seems that you do is cry and if something doesn't go your way there is an excuse. I said in my post that I rooted for Elliott and that I didn't mean to anger anyone or that there was anything against EC, it was just my point of View.

I am going to preface this by saying that I cheered for Elliott in this one; so that the state could see the best matchup of the season in the second game of Session 7 tomorrow-Holmes vs. Elliott County. This isn't meant to make anyone mad or take away from what either team did, it is how I saw it, and it was an entertaining game until the very end. 1. Elisha Justice was the best player on the floor, plain and simple. He may have had an off night shooting, but he is the reason that they were in the game at all. He was a 1-man press breaker, made several amazing passes, all of the key rebounds, and broke his man down off the dribble almost every single time down the floor. I thought that nothing would beat Sanford's late-game heroics from yesterday, but Justice's performance to keep Valley in the game surpasses Sanford's. 2. Elliott wasn't going to lose that game, if the officials had any thing to do about it. And they did. I don't complain about referees or their officiating ever, but a lot of the calls were questionable at best. Valley was in the bonus FOUR MINUTES INTO THE SECOND HALF. At that point, I believe Elliott had 2 team fouls. There were some very ticky-tack calls, such as Justice's foul on Christopher Knipp, Knipp had already passed the ball away and was virtually out of the play. It appeared that Justice had hand checked him and was called for the foul. At this point, I believe Valley was up 3, I don't think that Knipp hit both free-throws, but even so, I don't believe in a game of this magnitude the call should have been made. There were also several instances in which Elliott County would have a shot blocked and a whistle blown. But then at the other end, the exact same thing would happen and play would go on. Also, when Ethan Faulkner took the charge in the fourth quarter, his feet were not set and a blocking foul should have been made in my opinion. 3. I can not wait until tomorrow morning when the two best teams in the State meet up. With all due respect to Central and West Jessamine, I believe your State Champion from 2009 will be the winner of Game Two of Session 7. With all of this being said, congratulations to Elliott County. Your dreams live on for another day, all of your hard work is beginning to pay off and your goal is just two games, albeit tough games, away. And to Shelby Valley, congratulations on a great season, although it isn't ultimately what you wanted, you are All-A Champions, and I look for you all to be back in the State Tournament next year. And to Elisha Justice, your performance from this state tournament has put you into the discussion as the favorite for next year's Mr. Basketball Award. Good luck to West Jessamine, Louisville Central, Elliott County and Covington Holmes for getting this far. Congratulations on getting here, and realize that your goals are a little less than 24 hours away.

Those are just what were in my KHSAA Program, per the KABC. But I will agree with whomever said that Menifee's coach deserved COY over Jeremy, while Jeremy had a nice season, he didn't exactly play the toughest out-of-region competition. I think they played Betsy Layne, Wolfe County and Ryle. There may have been more OOR teams they played in the Raceland Derby Classic, but those are three I know for sure. While West's group of Seniors had a very nice season, they padded their schedule with some of the weaker teams in the region, and their OOR schedule was poor. That on top of a 62nd district title game beat down from Elliott, and an early exit in the region tourney isn't as impressive as Menifee's coach.

nice win for Central. They might take home the State title in Football and Basketball this year. They're only two W's away.

Here are the KABC Coach and Players of the year Awards for 2009. 1st Region P.O.Y Aaron Wilson-Fulton City C.O.Y. Brain O'Neill-Carlisle County 2nd Region P.O.Y. Jon Hood-Madisonville North Hopkins C.O.Y. Matt Bell-Hopkins County Central, Jeff Embrey-Lyon County 3rd Region P.O.Y. Tommy Oates-Muhlenberg North C.O.Y. Todd Johnston-Grayson County 4th Region P.O.Y. Byron Ellis-Russell County C.O.Y. Willie Feldhaus Russell County 5th Region P.O.Y. Darren Ballou-Adair County C.O.Y. Gary Goode-Bardstown 6th Region P.O.Y-Corey Jackson-Shawnee C.O.Y. Todd Raque-Southern 7th Region P.O.Y. Chris Dowe-Eastern C.O.Y. Larry Miller-Moore 8th Region P.O.Y CJ Penny-Anderson County C.O.Y. Glenn Drury-Anderson County 9th Region P.O.Y. Jamel Riley-Holmes C.O.Y. David Henley-Holmes 10th Region P.O.Y. Russ Middleton-Mason County C.O.Y. Chris O'Hearn-Mason County 11th Region P.O.Y. Richie Phares-Scott County C.O.Y. Allen Feldhaus Jr.-Madison Central 12th Region P.O.Y. Ethan Spurlin-Lincoln County C.O.Y. Jeff Jackson-Lincoln County 13th Region P.O.Y. James David Strange-Pineville C.O.Y. Tony Pietrowski-Corbin 14th Region P.O.Y-Andy Blank-Buckhorn C.O.Y. Jeff Honeycutt-Cordia 15th Region P.O.Y. Matt Clevenger-Pikeville C.O.Y. Jason Booher-Shelby Valley 16th Region P.O.Y. Ethan Faulkner-Elliott County C.O.Y. Jeremy Webb-West Carter

Eastern looked very solid tonight. #5 for Eastern was very good, does anyone know his name?

Tevin Hill was very good. Graves and Central both brought good sized crowds, Graves was quite vocal.

Quite a boring game to watch in person until the last minute IMO

Brian was a coach at Lawrence Co. during Jason Michel, Michael West and Gerad Parker's days. He brought the Belly from Lawrence with him West when he joined his brother, Kevin. I am not trying to be rude, but the way I feel West Carter has the best shot to improve is to maybe move in a different direction with their offensive and defensive philosophies. FWIW, I played under Kevin and Brian both for 3 years, before I move to NKY, they are both great people, but being a great person doesn't mean you'll be a great football coach.

The problem is that the WC coaching staff does not use their personnel right in either instances IMO. Take the 2005-2006 team, a team that should have won more than 5 games and made the playoffs. Daniel Barker was a smart, mobile quarterback with a decent arm. He would have been suited much more in pro-style or spread offense, Bradley Thronton was a tough runner that rarely took plays off, Adam Waggoner was a quick running back that was capable of rushing for 1,000 yards both his Junior and Senior year, in an offense that did not have the majority of its carries up the middle. Also, Justin Wolfe was an extremely good receiver, with exceptional hands a great build. Had he been an offense that was geared more towards getting the ball to its playmakers, he could have ended up playing college football somewhere-perhaps Morehead-and Lance Lykins, someone who didn't have the greatest hands in the world, I'll admit, but he had good open field speed and could have been effective with bubble screens and things of that sort. I am not saying West Carter would have won the state title, or even beaten Russell, but they were definitely better that 5-5 that season and no playoff appearance. I think the Belly has run its course at West Carter, I can respect the fact that Offensive Coordinator Brian Brown had tremendous success at Lawerence County running the Belly, what I do know is that he had the greatest recevier in Kentucky High School history in Gerad Parker, a D1 running back in Michael West and a great Quarterback in Jason Michel, who ended up winning a National Title at Western Kentucky and is now coaching in the NFL. I don't know of any player that the Browns have coached at West Carter that have come close to any of those three, and I don't forsee that happening anytime in the future. Also, I will have to disagree with you on the 3-3-5 being used as an 8 man front. It consists of 3 down lineman, three linebackers, a safety over the top, 2 corners, a stud that can be used like an extra linebacker and a rover is usually an extra safety. So to me, it is a defense that would be easily used to defend the pass. If you had the athletes, you could disguise it as being an 8 man front, but West Carter hasn't had those in the 3 or 4 years it has been used.

Congrats to all of the boys that made it. Everyone was deserving and had great seasons.

They need to find a viable replacement at quarterback for Ace Puckett, also, as an Alum of West Carter, I am extrememly fond of Kevin Brown as a person, but Kevin Brown as a coach not so much. I think perhaps an offensive philosophy change, as well as a defensive philosophy change would do wonders IMO. The Belly has run its course IMO, and the 3-3-5 is just not a very practical defense in an area of Kentucky in which 95 percent of the teams that West Carter is going to face will run the ball.

Great point, Bud Mackey was a heck of a lot better of a player than Miller, and had the poor kid not gotten in so much trouble and just focused on basketball, it would be very hard to keep Mackey out of the Mr. Basketball conversation.

I disagree, I think Mack and Hopson were better, and Arrez Henderson was either right there with him last season or maybe a step below him. I agree with what Grizzly said, signing a letter of intent to UK before the season starts will always garner a lot of support from the Kentucky supporters out there that have a vote. It is not right, but that's politics for you.

By any chance, did you see who won Mr.Basketball last season? Darius Miller, a UK signee. He was a great player last year, one of the determining factors on him receiving the Award was the school he was going to the next fall. I didn't think he was better than Hopson, Mack or Henderson but none of those boys went to UK and Miller did. I don't agree with it eithe, but it does go a long way to winning the award IMO. And there are some UK fans that think the program is just a year away from a National Title, it will take a lot for fans to come off of that cloud.

I'm going with my two roommates, we're going down Wednesday evening to catch the Corbin/Eastern game and staying until Saturday. We're staying at the Red Roof Inn right off the exit, about 2 miles from Rupp. It's kind of a dump, but for $80 a night with 2 beds and a pullout, it's not bad for three poor college kids haha

^^^ That's Billy Clyde Gillispie for you. It's a shame some of the in-state talent that has gotten away from UK and Louisville really.

I think Jon Hood has it locked up, he had it locked up before the season started IMO, the second he signed his name on the LOI to UK. Vee Sanford, Jon Ferguson, Richie Phares, Jacob Jenkins, and Russ Middleton should be the other front runners, if the award is still not wrapped up.

Ethan Faulkner is the best Point Guard in the Sweet 16 imo. Followed by Vee Sanford and Whitaker from Hazard.

My bad dale, and I wasn't trying to stir things up! I just wanted to get it out there that no one is knocking Elliott, they have a better resume over the last three years than most of the sweet 16 field.

I get tired of seeing things like this posted, Elliott has won three straight regional titles, no one is underestimating their players or their skills. Just because they have an enrollment of 593 (or whatever it is), does not automatically make them an underdog. I think that a team that is long, will cause problems for a team that is not very big outside of one player, especially when the smaller team likes the perimeter shot. Putting a long arm out to contest every shot will fluster a shooter and cause them to miss some shots. Having seen both teams play, I think Holmes plays to the style their opponents do, for those that don't think they can run watch the Largo highlights or the Scott County highlights. And Scott county, by the way, was a team a lot of people were saying had the inside track to win state all season. Thanks 5Wide for starting this thread, too many of these threads have been closed for getting off topic.

What's the name of that small private school?

Judging by Central's Stats, they must have played some lock down Defense if they won the 6th and no one averages a point for them :lol: