Ole Kentuckian

Since the beginning of the season Lincoln DEFINITELY has had a meeting of the minds (between some of their players and the coach) and certainly are now displaying the kind of potential expected of them by their supporters. Meanwhile Wayne continues to impress. As opponents are making it more difficult for Woods to maintain a 28-30 point average, their other players are picking up slack (while Woods still keeps his high shooting %). Now, opponents have three potential 20 ppg players (Woods, Stearns & Blevins) to stop and if you focus too much on any one of them, the others will make it up. Plus Perkins is undoubtedly the best "fourth player" in the region and the balance of the team is contributing on top of that. The interesting thing about Wayne is that they only graduate one of their top four players.

If you look at Wayne County's "size" (actual height & weight), they have trouble matching up with a lot of teams. However once you observe them play against teams against whom you would think they would be overmatched, you discover it doesn't play out that way. Their hustle & rebounding may startle you, even against "big teams". And of course they can flat shoot it from the perimeter. So long as they come prepared to play most opponents will have their hands full. That being said, from my one observation of Southwestern (plus reading line scores), it appears to me that Coach Wright is getting a better effort out this year's squad despite having lost two elite players (Kapinga & Collier). Right now Lincoln, West Jessamine & Boyle + SW look to be the biggest challengers to Wayne and who has the best shot at dethroning them will have to play out over the next two months. Lots of things can happen when these teams get another 20 games under their belt.

Glad to see Jumpers rebounding from graduation losses plus late arrival of football players. Their youth could help them go a ways. I am a bit dubious about the point guard having zero turnovers after six games though.

At the Smoky Mountain Classic Christmas Tournament (hosted by Gatlinburg-Pittman HS) Wayne County plays Beech High School (Hendersonville TN) at 5:30 PM in the semi-finals of the winner's bracket. Beech defeated Corbin 70-50 in their first round game. The winner will play the championship is at 5:30 tomorrow evening, the loser plays at 1:00 PM.

I was at the game but did not see what brought the confrontation about (primarily some pushing & shoving I think), but the KC player who was ejected had already fouled out and was ejected for coming off the bench and inserting himself into the thing. His bad luck that it occurred on KC's end of the floor or he might have otherwise kept his butt on the bench and wouldn't be sitting out the next two games. WC was up by 25 at halftime, but KC came roaring back and got it down to ten at one time. WC was led by Stearns w/25 and Woods w/23.

The Cards' out-jumped and out-hustled the huge Southwestern front line. At one point they were up by 18, but SW fought back gamely and got it back down to 10. Woods, Blevins & Stearns led the Cards in scoring.

Yeah, he is. He was averaging 34.5 PPG coming into the game, but we all knew opponents would double & triple team him until the rest of the team got its game into gear - which happened in the Lincoln game with Blevins scoring 25 & Stearns 23. But there wasn't any need for the physicality displayed. He was knocked to the floor twice - the player who did it the first time is the same player who has already been ejected once this season (from a scrimmage of all things!!!). Coach Jackson can do better than that. There is a difference between playing hard or even rough, but deliberately assaulting another player with apparent intent to injure is out of bounds.

I just watched Lincoln County exhibit some of the worst sportsmanship I've seen in many seasons. To stop Peyton Woods from scoring they hounded him all night which is fine, but late in the fourth quarter they started hitting him really hard and incurred two consecutive intentional fouls in doing so, the last one resulting in an ejection because their player fouled him and then threw him to the floor. Lincoln's coach should be ashamed of such tactics - there's no place for that on the basketball floor.

I agree with "First" and "SHS Future", while WC would have to be considered the favorite after Southwestern's off-season personnel losses, there has to be a question as to who can supply the strength, toughness and leadership that Dagan Shelton provided? Plus, Kyle Gehring gave them good depth off of the bench and he's gone. The plus for the Cardinals is that their kids were young last year so improvement is very likely for all of their four returning starters. The question is how much? Peyton Woods averaged 17+ last year (with a high of 44) and Corey Stearns 15+ (plus 7 RPG) and both are expected by most to be the most likely to improve their game the most. Trey Blevins averaged 12+ but needs to play stronger and Jason Perkins averaged 7+. If those two can up their game and the team controls the tempo of the game, making their opponents play at their tempo they should do well. I'm interested to especially see what Perkins does once he gets into basketball shape - he's certainly been impressive on the football field (second in the state in receiving yardage). They are relatively small, but Stearns and Perkins sky and all do a good job of rebounding for their size. Bottom line is what was said above. Coach Woods does usually get the most of his players. WC won the Region last year because they played their best when it counted. They will be hard to beat if they are allowed to control the tempo. We'll see how mentally tough they are with Shelton departed.

Word on the street is that before Kapinga & Collier left this year yet another player was scheduled to transfer in but it got vetoed by the powers that be. One can only speculate that what with Southwestern and PC both under the same school administration that enough PC parents brought pressure to bear that SW cease & desist on the "transfers" which is a bit ironic when you think about it. Strictly a personal opinion but I don't picture Coach Wright hanging around for long if he's forced to draw his players only from the local student base. Time will tell.

Consolidation seems to have killed off a lot of the more heated rivalries in the 12th Region. Of those that remain like Danville/Boyle, Pulaski/Somerset, etc. have lost their impact due to one or more of the programs not doing as well or the fan support dying out in one or both of the schools to where there's nothing there. Southwestern looks to have briefly established a strong program (I anticipate Coach Wright will be gone after this season) which makes for good games against in-county rivals PC & Somerset and in-District foe Wayne County, but still not the standing room-only crowds we used to see. If PC has their program in high gear and a good regional/district foe comes into their gym then you have a great show (like last year's PC-Southwestern game), but generally I don't see too many rivalries remaining that give the fans something to anticipate & fill the gym. Would love to see it come back. Perhaps the dwindling crowds are due to the Great Recession and once we truly recover (jobs, not stock market) the fans will return. Lord knows the superintendents, principals, ADs & Coaches would welcome it as it is killing their budgets.

So now it is October 5th. Has Kapinga ever returned to class? If not, he's missed four weeks of school. If this thing is still up in the air, but the student-athlete hasn't attended school for such a long period it would seem that he might run into some serious eligibility problems. At least for a while (until he gets caught up, if that's possible).

Well, at least nobody has to play the District at Monticello.

Twenty, huh. I wouldn't be taking too many bets using that number. It might end up being painful.

Of that I have no doubt. According to the ratings there are only two teams in the state they shouldn't beat, right? Or is that one since I think Ballard & Trinity were rated #1 & #2 and both won't be there since Ballard beat them in their Region.

Don't know if "they can shoot like they did last night" (or what that is meant to infer), but Wayne County has shot well throughout the season. Well enough to be 27-7 at this point against some excellent competition. Through 34 games they've shot 52.4% from the field, 36.0% from three range and 75.2% from the FT line. Their first eight players (starters & three primary subs) all shoot the three and the team is one of the top ranked FT shooting teams in the state. Don't know how they'll do at Rupp, especially against the #3 ranked team in the state (Madison Central), but hope that they'll have a good game - one indicative of their level of play over the course of the season.

XXXXXX

Now the question is, can Wayne County stop Somerset's "bigs". They weren't able to for most of the game last time and when they did Dishman lit them up. Wayne is small & scrappy, but not sure they can handle the Jumpers. Gonna be an interesting game.

Steve Wright: 8 Total Regional Championships (1) Laurel County: '91 (3) South Laurel (12th Region): '01, '03, '05 (3) South Laurel (13th Region): '06, '07, '08 (1) Southwestern: '12 Rodney Woods: 7 Total Regional Championships (8) Wayne County: '89, '94, '95, '97, '02, '04, '11 I like that Woods has done it at one place and accomplishes it by developing his players to the max. Also like Jesse James, I won't mention why South (& North) Laurel got moved out of the 12th Region and into the 13th.

Dang, I don't believe that. SW certainly overlooked Mercer. Not saying Mercer doesn't have a good team, but I would have lost a bundle on that game. Now, the question is, will Somerset look ahead and Boyle County take them down?!?

Tough for Coach Gover and his seniors. I feel for them. At the start of this year I would not have figured that Wayne County would be this good. With one senior, one junior, one sophomore and two frosh in their lineup you have to think they lack the necessary experience, but they keep digging hard. It will be interesting to see how far they can make it. They'll be playing West Jessamine next and Fain will be giving his team a full 32 minutes (last time when WC beat them, he started on the bench and gave no effort the first half, but then scored 16 the second half). Personally I'd love for Southwestern and Wayne to meet in the finals and play for the fourth time this season. That'd be a heck of a matchup in many ways, but there are four more games to be played between now and then and could be neither will make it to the finals (but I wouldn't bet against it).

You're correct. Typically whichever (boys or girls) plays their State Tournament first their regions will play their first rounds the week prior to their State Tournament on Monday/Tuesday, semis Friday & finals Saturday while the other will play their first rounds Wednesday/Thurday, semis the following Monday & finals on Tuesday. The the following year it will be reversed (except occasionally it isn't for whatever reason). However, there have been regions that will play a slightly different schedule for whatever reason. The twelfth region has traditionally followed the format given herein. This year the boys State is first being played March 6-7-8-9-10 (which is the earliest I can EVER remember it being played in the 50+ years I have attended or followed it - does anyone know why it is being played so early?).

Sure doesn't appear as if the defensive player gained any advantage by running into the blind screen. Which player fell to the floor? Who remained standing? I would have thought that a no-call would have been a strong consideration by the official, past that I sure don't see that the defensive player committed a foul.

This season: Boys at Lincoln Girls at Pulaski It alternates every season and don't worry, it happens to all of us. I end up having to ask coach almost every season to remind me of where it is "this year".

It is a 180 mile one-way trip, most of it Interestate. I assume their bus can average 60 to 70 MPH which makes it a 3 hour trip at most. And I don't believe Male's first District Game is until Wednesday night, four days later (whereas Wayne County plays Monday night).