thomashager

Great hire for Mercer! Welcome to Harrodsburg Coach Cook.

HD 16's won 75-50. Dow came back and played well. Several players played well. Very unselfish play by all.

Perry played very well as well. HD was able to get the victory while being short handed. Dow's mother says he's stitched up and we will be back and ready for the 6:00 game.

According to Bluegrass Basketball, they are the #4 team in the 12th (preseason). If they can get healthy, I think they are one of about six teams with a chance to win the the 12th. Add to that he fact that the most talented team in the 12th apparently lost a couple of their top players to transfers(Southwest), and all of the sudden there's even more balance. They shouldn't have problems scoring. Their effectiveness on the defensive end and their team chemistry will be the keys to their success overall. And, as I said earlier, whether they can get healthy. Coach Britt has taken the program from 9 to 17 wins over the past 2 seasons. I think they still have to be viewed as on the outside looking in this year, but the good news for the program is that they should get better each year over the next 3+ Years.

Nah, it doesn't bother me. Like the other person that commented, it was just a little different for a non-scholarship entity. I guess I've always thought that "offer" implied that the player was getting something (like their schooling paid for). Again, no big deal. Thanks for the info.

I get that. Same way it works with D3 schools. Just never heard it referred to in that way (offered). Regardless, as I said, kudos to him. It's an honor to have the opportunity to go to / play for an Ivy institution.

Not sure what "offered" means given that they don't do scholarships. I would assume that means they've communicated, to him, that they want him to play there. Bigger than that, what I get from this is that he must be a heck of a student. Takes a lot just to get admitted to a school like that. That's often not the case with players of his caliber. Kudos to him!

Definitely need to add Woods from Wayne County. Pretty good list otherwise. I'm really interested to see quick kids from class of '16 step up this year. Wiil, Stearns and Elkins are only 3 mentioned, and Elkins' mention is based on potential at this point (and I agree he has it). Couple of kids in that class that come to mind are Drew Davis (Mercer). He missed last year due to injury. Another is Slade Crutchfield from Garrard. Played well last year, a lot too unselfish at times. Smart and long for a 12th region guard. Treyvon will surprise some people this year but I think will be a major contributor his freshman year. Complete player, very unselfish, plays intelligently. Really like this kid. Needs more strength and to get better defensively. Coach Britt is working on that.

Yes, lots of talent. Also lots of balance when it comes to the (best) players and teams. Several l teams with a reasonable shot at winning it this year. I think there could be 5 or 6 that one could reasonably argue could win it. We shall see!

You did a great job covering and analyzing all things 12th region last year, so I look forward to seeing both your team and player rankings for the upcoming year. I'm expecting no Boyle bias, of course! :lol2:

Wow, if you thinkTimmy is top 5, and Jacob is above him, you are saying that you think Lincoln has two top 5 players in the region (this coming year)?

I dont think that we are really disagreeing here. I wasn't necessarily commentimg on best PLAYER in the area, per se. I'm talking PG. IMO Timmy was the best PG in the area last year. Jones wasnt a true PG but did a nice job in that position nonetheless. He was a senior that led the team with the highest power ranking in the area, so Im not going to dispute him winning that vote. I'm just saying that if Im picking a PG in our area to start a team, it'd be Timmy (this year or last).There are a couple of very good 2 guards and/or combo guards around here, but no others that are a top player in our area that are "pure" PG's (though one or two of those combo or 2's can and do play PG some).

Tough call on that one. Depends on what you need. Timmy, at a very minimum, is a top PG in this area. Agree with earlier statements about his basketball IQ. Such a good all around game. He's a true PG. Creates for his teammates as well as anyone. Deceptively quick and a threat from outside as well. Jacob is a very good shooter and can put up a lot of points. He has good height too. Both are good and have "college potential," but they are very different players. Unfortunately, like many kids in this area, they don't get a lot of exposure, thus the reason so few folks on here are familiar with them. If they were seen more, they'd be in the conversation for sure IMO.

Very, very well said in many regards. Kids should know that the college "experience" is what it's all about. Unless you play at a major D1, meaning a top 10 type program, no one remembers or cares in 10 years. It's about having fun in a good program with a good coach and, hopefully, matching that with a school that offers a degree in a field in which the kid has an interest (if they know) -and having it paid for! D1, D2 or NAIA - the fit and experience are the most important things, by far, in the long run.

THIS!

Doubletake, I believe you're the fellow that said in a post last week that you'd heard that Hoop Dreams 15's were breaking up - which is completely false. And that my son (Will Hager) would be better off if that happened because he wouldn't be on the bench and would thus get the looks from college coaches that he deserves. As was stated then, he was a starter for the team all year and probably logged top 3 minutes on the team (even true in Orlando last week when he couldn't raise his right arm over shoulder level). My point is that, if you didn't even know enough about the dynamics of Hoop Dreams' team to know that he logged nearly as many minutes as any player on the team, you obvioulsy either didn't see us play very often or weren't paying attention. And being a Western KY guy, I'm pretty sure you didn't see us any in high school this year either. I'm not arguing his place in the rankings, but I'm not sure your basis for evaluation of him, whether good or bad. Why you'd call him out a couple of times over the last 2 weeks is a little perplexing, to say the least. And then your comments on Ayers - even more questionable given the tenor of them. When Manimal beat us this year at state, he killed us. And your previous comment that you'd love to see Manimals' guards with bigs from other teams - not taking anything away from their guards, but without Ayers and Farris, how would that team have fared??? I don't believe that's giving them the credit they deserve the team's success. That you wold say top 50 is even more perplexing. Just saying...

Spoke with one of their parents who said thy (15U) had three players rated in Top 150. Don't know that to be true, but that's what he said. 2/3 I could believe.

HD lost in OT. Really missed Dow in this one. They were very long and athletic. Also, they had a left handed guard that was an athletic specimen and was extremely talented. Don't know name but he was one of the better players I've seen in 15U. He's special. Hope we see them again next year when we have everyone healthy. Would make for a fun game to watch. Interested to see the outcome of their next game.

Just talked to King James' coach and he said they posted it wrong initially. Score was correct but winner/loser was backwards. King James did win.

Nothing that I'm aware of that provides player information/stats, just brackets.

Dixson is one of the kids I was talking about that has stepped up to fill the void created by the injuries. I'm a fan. He's getting better and better. Had a 21/10 performance in one of the pool games. Very long and such a quick leaper. We didnt see Forrest play but, looking at the scores, there's something strange going on there. Have to wonder if they were missing someone vs Gamespeed. The other 2 wins were double digits against quality teams. And Gamespeed lost by a large margin to one of those two in pool play as well. Doesn't add up at all. Also, King James lost (large margin) last night to E1T1 Flash.

Hoop Dreams 15U finished the day in Orlando by advancing to the Elite Eight of the gold bracket. Gritty performance so far as they are still playing without 1 starter due to a foot injury (Dow) and another starter (Hager) has been limited due to a neck/shoulder injury. Lots of kids stepping up and playing well. Tough road tomorrow, even at full strength.

Hmm. I was under the impression that since only 4 teams were vying for 9th place, the worst we could've been was 12th. Then they came out with their rankings and we were 13th, which was perplexing - but close to 12th. Thanks for the explanation. They make it way more complicated than it needs to be!

Still a great job by Derby. A top 20 national finish is excellent. They are a very, very good team.