TheSteelCat

First round match-up at Rupp Arena, 8th region champions vs. 13 region champions. Looking at schedules, both teams are going into this playing some good basketball. Anyone know the type of game that Knox Central plays? More fast paced, pressing defense or slow it down half court man to man? Anyone seen both of these teams play this year and have any input?

Pardee and Miles will be playing in the 8th region championship tonight.

Head says Oldham by 5-10, heart says GC by 4. Monday was the first time I have watched Oldham in a while and they look much improved from the beginning of the year and have a much stingier defense that what Gallatin has played against recently.

From what I could find, WV has never even been to the 8th region semis. I believe 86' was the last time and they were in the 9th region then if I recall.

This has been and will continue to be an ago old debate, Henry is the largest gym and that's where it needs to be held. Why do you think some of the other regions go to the college gyms? Unless you are in the 6th,7th,9th, or 11th regions there will always be travel involved.

Fair enough. Then do it like the Louisville and Lexington regions do, 1st round games are played at the home school site.

Where would you seat everyone at any other gym in the 8th?

Is Gallatin not big enough to hold it? It seems like that would be a good trade off. 32nd district has to travel 1 hour or more to play at Henry while the Oldham district travels 20-25 minutes.

Guess I am just old school, I believe you earn you spot as a starter, as a captain and as team member, we are obviously living in different times. I mean how many Mr. Basketball Candidates has WV had? I am sure very few if any at all, just seems odd. Sorry it upset some of you so much, I can not imagine why.

And that is the great thing about Dieonte Miles, Mr. Basketball Candidate, I can assure you he didn't bat an eye when he was told those guys would start in his place. He knows the importance of being a great teammate is far more important than starting on senior night. He is one of the most humble and respectful D1 players you will find, would not surprise me one bit if he encouraged coach to start the others over him. Glad Coach Brannen is not stuck in the old days, being a "new school" coach has worked out well over his career.

This is the facts of the senior night, plain and simple. Every senior had started a game this year besides #24 and #5, who from what I have been told work their tail end off in practice every day and deserve some recognition. Coach decided on the other 3 to start with those 2 by choosing the 3 seniors who have been with the program since Kindergarten. Hats off to coach Brannen for allowing every senior to start a game this year and throwing a bone to the 3 guys who have been in the program since Kindergarten.

I believe his first bucket ended the third period. WV played him tight, he ended up in double digits but the game was well over before he got it going.

WV's game plan was to double Niece any time he had it, they were not going to let him beat them. Great game plan and well executed.

I've never believed that the size of the school is as big a factor in basketball. It's my five players against your five players.

That sounds great and all but how many public all A schools consistently win their district/region/state? There is a reason for that. I can't recall the last time a small all A school has won the 8th region, I think someone on here the other day may have said no small all A school has ever won the 8th region. Having a larger school adds to the depth of a team and definitely makes a difference.

WV played incredible defense and utilized Pardee and Miles better than I have seen all year!

Great game plan by WV coaching staff, well executed by the players. Hopefully people wise up and give the WV coaching staff credit after this one. Brannen has beaten Steiner in the district tournament 3 years in a row now with a school a third of the size of SK. Congrats to the Bearcats and the staff on a hard fought, well executed game plan.

Out, as in forced out? Or are you saying he has chosen to walk away?

Great write up, you can always nit pick here and there but overall this is a great piece of work. Just for note, Walton-Verona beat South Oldham last year at Walton-Verona so they did not hold a 5 game winning streak against WV.

Solid win on the road for the Bearcats. SO shot 46% from 3 but could not stop Miles, Pardee and Jones who all had over 20 points each.

In response to your 1st question about game plan, here is what I have observed: 1st, Miles is not getting enough touches in position, which should be the low block. Why you would have him on the perimeter defies basketball logic. He commands 2-3 defenders which leaves a wing or opposite block open, it works. To your point, they were left wide open on the perimeter, there was a reason for that, they played the game MC wanted them to play. 2nd, They had already beaten MC, just as they had beaten S Oldham last year before Regionals. Those teams adjusted and WV did not. 3rd, You boast of his record, but he was handed a group of boys that had played together under great coaches that were committed, I guess you never got the chance to see these boys play in the summer, they were tough and exciting and now they are like watching paint dry! And finally, if you are there to build a program, Why would you keep 9 Sr's? It looks like he wont be around to clean up the mess.

I'll go ahead and leave the thread at this point, anyone who thinks AAU is any comparison to high school ball clearly has no clue the amount of time there is put into prepping for a game. Defense in AAU is comical to say the least. I know the amount of hours and depth of scouting reports WV does for every game, nothing in AAU compares but to each his own. Then to say they were tough and exciting but now like watching paint? They mix it up with full court run and jump, trap all over in half court, turn teams over with pressure and trapping defense every game yet they are boring? Sorry but it is hard to even comment on that. Best of luck to the team you support.

Tough sledding for Coach Brannen. WV is 20-6, playing easily one of the best schedules you will find for an all A school. Only losses to KY teams are Ballard, Scott County, LCA, Madison Central (split 1-1 on year) and Simon Kenton. This is his 3rd 20 win season in a row after adopting a team that went 4-23 his first year. You would think they were underachieving and losing multiple games to teams they should beat. They have beat the #1 team in the 10th and 14th region and beat nearly everyone they played in the 8th region. Some people are just so quick to jump when a team of 16-18 year olds have a rough game, blame it on the coach and his game plan. Why not, this team is having a great year for a small public all A school and had an off night?

If MC wants you to shoot the 3 when you are not a 3 point shooting team, it is a bad game plan.

I have watched this group play against our boys for years, this is not their game. They have always been a hard pressing squad that moves the ball, not sure what offense they are running but when you have the biggest guy in the region it should center around him. I am just glad they do not have Coach Jones because a Regional Championship would be guaranteed.

Did you forget that MC has Cozart (Mr. Basketball Candidate) the Leading Shot blocker in the history of KY basketball in the middle of the zone? He neutralized Miles the entire night. As I mentioned, Pardee and Miles were around 20% from the floor. So the inside/middle was not working and the outside was not working, care to give a better game plan?

Defense definitely ruled. Updates I got had it tied at 15 at halftime and Madison Central leading 24-21 after the third quarter.

And MC defense was pack it in and make WV hit a shot. WV shot 8/35 from 3 and 30 of those 35 were with someone 3-5 feet off the shooter. Sad part is WV actually shot better from 3 than from 15 feet and in where Pardee/Miles were about 20%. At some point you have to make a wide open uncontested shot to make the defense respect you and free up the middle. Madison Central played 5 guys within a step or 2 of the paint the entire night, literally allowing WV to walk up to the top of the key and no one within 5 feet of them.

Whe does Moreno return?

WV shot 22% from field and 0/16 from 3, hard to win games like that. Bonne may be back but noticeably not full strength.

Top bracket favorites would be LCA, Mayfield, WV and KCC. Bottom bracket favorites should be UHA, Newport, Shelby Valley with one of the better 1st round games Danville vs Elliott. After that I would rank those 8 like this:

1. UHA

2. Mayfield

3. WV

4. LCA

5. Newport

6. Danville

7. Shelby Valley

8. KCC

I could see 5-6 different teams win this thing, should be an exciting tournament. Maybe some of the best talent we have seen top to bottom in this tournament in years.

Any stats or details of the game?

Tight game throughout, probably within 6 points all game either way. Lawrence had foul trouble first half for Campbell, Miles and Brook were in foul trouble all game for WV with Brook fouling out in 4th and Miles sitting for about 5 minutes in 2nd half with 4. Jolly dominated and probably had close to 20/10 and Wilson shot the 3 ball extremely well. WV was just steady, Miles had 18/5 and Pardee had around 15. Just an all around great high school game between 2 top notch teams.

Another solid win, still without Trey Bonne which makes this even more impressive.

I agree it is not a good matchup for them. All that size is too much especially when you do not have a bench. Hornback for Spencer had three fouls at the beginning of second quarter. That pretty much ended things there. I would have to say that Spencer had a lot of open looks. Just not shooting well. Conley sprained ankle in first quarter and sat half the first so you can imagine what their bigs did then. Spencer is missing their sixth man who will be back. But no excuses WV is better. How many seniors do they have? I heard at least 6??

WV has 9 seniors, 7 that contribute and their most dynamic and best scoring guard did not play tonight.

My goodness to win that bad without him they must have played well but also Spencer had to have played bad as well.

Spencer just does not match up well with WV if they are not hitting 3's, which they were not. WV defense was the main reason they shot poorly, they contested a majority of the shots.