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First

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  1. First
    Thanks for the info Ole Kentuckian. I think there's no question that they're much improved. And you were correct that they have some very tough games coming up - against good teams and at sites other than their own home court. At Montgomery and Knott Central (neutral site) will tell us a lot. I also think it will be interesting to see how they do at West Jess. And their game at Boyle may be harder than they expect as we saw with Lincoln Friday night. Their biggest challenge in returning to Rupp is getting past Lincoln. They continue to impress as well. I think we know a little more about Lincoln at this point given their schedule to date and the fact that they've played a lot away from home. At this point, I think I'd give the edge to Wayne but I'm not terribly confident in that position. Have to wait a couple of more weeks to take a truly educated stance on that one.
  2. First
    I haven't seen them play this year but have seen them some over the years. They play very well together and are very, very well coached. A few questions for Ole Kentuckian: How strong is their ball handling? Are there other "shooters" beyond Woods and Blevins? I was unaware of a 6'6" kid on there team? How effective is he and what role does he play for them? Is Blevins really 6'0" ?
  3. First
    Lincoln was led by Taylor with 18 and Conway with 14. Boyle led by Ray and Tyler with 12 each. Lincoln shot 35% from the field; 15% from deep; and 55% from the line. Didn't catch the Boyle FG % (it wasn't good) but believe they said 23% from deep and 66% from the line. Close game but an ugly one to be sure. Both teams can shoot much, much better across the board than they did tonight.
  4. First
    Exactly. Keep in mind this whole thing was started by disparaging comments about Carson as compared to Woods. I didn't do the whole season bc, quite frankly, I didn't want to take that much time to calculate it! As you said, as the season progresses it's even more relevant. So, I picked a big enough sample to be meaningful, and chose to use the 5 most recent games. No agenda and no other reason, just using numbers to back up my position. And I agree with you that MOST fans are more concerned about wins than gaudy stats. You'll notice that I was focusing on FG attempts per game, not PPG, to prove my point that Carson isn't a ball hog. I wasn't celebrating his individual stats!
  5. First
    Keep in mind that I was just comparing the two players' last 5 games listed on the scoreboard.
  6. First
    Try a combined 5 shots from the 2 of them. And no, Sims did not play.
  7. First
    To say that's why Wayne is undefeated (relative to East) is not a fair statement. Wayne has way, way more talent than East and that's the biggest reason for the difference, not one of these players being more selfish than the other. BOTH of these guys put up a LOT of shots. You simply can't average upper 20's PPG and not. Carson had a game early in the season where he shot 31 times!! As for Woods, he's attempted at least upper teens FG's in 6 out of their 14 games, including 2 games with over 20 attempts. Looking at stats from their last 5 games: Carson averaging 1.8 more FG attempts per game than Woods; Carson shooting 57% & Woods at 43% (Woods 34% from deep). Given the amount of talent around Carson relative to around Woods, I would argue that there should be more of a disparity in attempts per game. While assists aren't on that site, just based on stats I've seen to go along with the few games I've seen him play, Id say Carson has a nice APG number as well. When his attitude is right, he can dominate a game more than any other player in the region, period - and in multiple ways.
  8. First
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  9. First
    I hear ya and I'm not sure that I think Lincoln is better than Wayne. They are marginally ahead in the computer ranking. I just don't give any one game that much weight - head to head or otherwise. If it were a series, I might feel differently. Then there's the fact that it was at Wayne and that it was about a week before Lincoln really started to gel. Also, think about this. Miss State beat UK to win the SEC title 2 years ago. Cats go on to win the national championship without facing Miss State again. Cats won it all and ended the year rated #1 in the polls yet did so without facing/beating Miss St.
  10. First
    I still think West is a solid #3, at worst #4. Looking at Pulaski's resume, I'm not sold on them just yet. East, on the other hand, appears to be legit. I also think we'll learn a lot about Boyle this week as they play 2 district games against a very good Lincoln team and a better than expected Danville team. I expect them to go 1-1 in those two games but neither 2-0 nor 0-2 would shock me. At this point, I think Wayne and Lincoln are easily top tier, then Southwest and West. Depending on what Boyle does this week, they could be added to that second tier (or not). Then there's East. If they continue their trajectory over the next week, they rise above the rest as well. Then you have Danville, Pulaski, Somerset and Mercer, each of which I see fighting for 7th place right now. Some have better records than others, but strength of schedules are very different as well. A lot can change between now and the end of the season. The only thing I'm sold on at this point is Wayne and Lincoln are the top 2 teams, I'm just not sure in what order. The latest Cantrall ratings have Lincoln #1. I know some aren't fans of computer rankings but I actually like them. They fully account for both results and strength of schedule (other than out of state games). And, the deeper into the season we get, and the more info that is fed into the system, the more accurate they become.
  11. First
    Garrard made a run to cut it to around 8 then Tyler hit a couple of deep threes. Garrard sat back on D and Boyle shot lights out from deep. Tyler hit 4 threes and had 28 including 14 in the final period. Hinkle was 6/8 from deep and had 18. The Rebels shoot like that and they will be very tough to beat.
  12. First
    I would say this is definitely an upset. West is a much better team though Carson can be a one man show at times.
  13. First
    Yes, very much so. Only when it became up-tempo did Mercer make their run. Seemed to give them energy they had lacked for the first 3 quarters. I learned two things about Danville - they can shoot the ball both from the field and the line, and they seem to struggle against pressure. I would assume Coach McKinney knows that and that's why his game plan was to be very deliberate on offense.
  14. First
    Mercer was missing Price and Craig. Danville was missing Grey. Wooldridge still played the lion's share of the game but did sit some in the second half and ended up fouling out. Hager for Mercer also was in foul trouble as he had 3 in the first half. Danville played a very, very deliberate style and Mercer sat back in a zone most of the first 3 quarters and had only 23 points after 3. They didn't shoot well but also didn't have a ton of attempts. They went full court man a couple of minutes into the 4th and cut a 20 point lead to 1 with about 2 minutes left. Too little, too late for the Titans. Danville is very patient and has some good perimeter shooters. Wooldridge is clearly their go-to guy and is a nice player but he's not all they have. Very balanced team. They've come a long, long way as compared to last year. Box: Mercer County 6 12 23 56 Danville 12 23 40 61 MERCER (6-6) - Alijah Mink 2, Chris Crawley-Goodman 2, Trevon Faulkner 5, Russell Sims 14, Will Hager 22, Austin Sparrow 2, Marcus Warren 9. DANVILLE (5-8) - Trenton Johnson 8, Anrique Ellery 2, Jakobi Turner 10, Katon Emerson 10, Cody Woolridge 9, Trevon Washington 4, Spencer McKinney 10, Jaylin Hendren 8.
  15. First
    Not sure how much to read into any Cordia results. They've been very inconsistent. To me, beating E'town means much more. Should be an interesting game. Although Taylor obviously has a couple of really nice players, I'm taking Lincoln in a close one.
  16. First
    Pulaski beat East in their first game (I believe). East has been playing pretty well of late, starting with that Mercer win. The only other common opponent of Pulaski and Mercer is Doss. Doss beat Pulaski by 28, yet only beat Mercer by 8. Pulaski's best win, other than East early on, is an 8 point victory over Somerset. They have played some very good teams in Collins, St X and Doss, but have lost all by a minimum of 14 points. Danville beat Mcreary by 39 and Casey by 42. Those aren't great teams, but no one else, including some we're ranking above them, have come close to dominating those teams like that. They also led at half at West and played them close, and that's not easy to do there! Overall, they have a decent resume. Rock lost to Powell, which is a really, really bad loss. Lost by 19 to North Laurel and 15 to Adair, neither of which are great teams. They also lost to Estill at home I believe. Their wins include Beechwood, Middlesboro, Pineville, Eminence & Madison Southern, with Madison Southern (at 4-8) maybe being the strongest of those teams. I agree that we will know a lot more about 2 weeks from now, and that it's a crap shoot at this point.
  17. First
    I don't know if anyone has looked at MaxPreps' rankings. They rank every team within the state as well as nationally. I've followed theirs for a couple of years and think they are pretty good. Obviously, like Cantrall's, it would have to be a mathematical calculation based on strength of schedule and results. (As an aside, Ballard is #1 in the state and #53 nationally. Sounds about right). Here's their 12th region ranking, along with where each team falls in the state: 1. Wayne (7) 2. Lincoln (15) 3.Southwest ((19) 4. West Jessamine (28) 5. Boyle (60) 6. Mercer (78) 7. Danville (88) 8. Pulaski (92) 9. Somerset (105) 10. East Jessamine (108) 11. Casey (137) 12. Garrard (165) 13. Rockcastle (174) 14. Burgin (259) 15. KSD (278) PP - I like your top 5 better, which is not far off from theirs. I think their second 5 is about right. Based on resumes to date: I don't think Pulaski should be at 6th, at least not yet; I think Danville should be around 7th/8th; and I think Mercer is still in the 6 range. Danville has a bad loss at Anderson by 18 early on, and Mercer has a "bad" loss at East by 15, but the rest of those two's performances compare well against the other teams in the 5 to 10 range. I'll say what I've said previously - after the top 4, there's not a lot of difference in the next 5 or 6! Thanks for the analysis and good job, as usual.
  18. First
    I had asked that question previously but never heard. Good to hear! Hope he gets there.
  19. First
    I believe Woods is listed as 6'3." Not sure of Stearns' listed height but he appears to be 6'2" or perhaps a little shy of that. But, he plays bigger than that as he's very strong and a good leaper. That's certainly big enough for a "3" in the 12th, especially given his strength.
  20. First
    Even if GRC isn't a top 2 or 3 team in their region this year, it's still a very solid win. If you look at Cantrall's ratings, GRC is 6th in their region. Although he has Somerset at the 10 spot in the 12th, they've demonstrated that they are for real. Outside of the top 3, no head to head result would surprise me between any of the top 10 teams. And Somerset is definitely in that mix.
  21. First
    If you do the math on the power rankings, looking at the top 5 and the top 10 teams - either way - the 12th comes out as the 5th strongest region (per the power rankings). The 7th region barely edges out the 6th for the toughest. Then there's some distance to get to third strongest and that's the 11th region. Then the 9th and 12th regions are a very close 4th/5th. After that, there's a significant drop to get to the 6th toughest region which shakes out to be the 8th.
  22. First
    Close one between two top 25 teams 12/29/2013 West Jessamine 58 Southwestern 55 West Jessamine 10 14 18 16 58 Southwestern 21 13 13 8 55 At Southwestern West Jessamine -- E. Brooks 3, Holifield 7, Henderson 15, Peters 23, Dalton 4, L. Brooks 6. Southwestern -- Isaacs 15, Fitzgerald 6, Butt 10, Edwards 15, Gaskin 8, Miller 1. Read more here: Latest high school boys' basketball scores | High school basketball | Kentucky.com
  23. First
    The new Cantrell ratings had Montgomery at 9 and Lincoln at 20. Looks like Lincoln lived up to that ranking tonight losing by a bucket to a top 10 team on their home floor.
  24. First
    Interesting that this is LC's only double digit win in their last 7 games (all victories) - and it comes against Knott Central. I didn't see this one but I gotta think that the 30 point turnaround from the first time they met has a lot to do with the first one being played at KCC.
  25. First
    12th region teams occupying 4 spots in top 25: #14, 16, 20 & 24. Not sure of regional alignments. What other regions have 4 or more? Ballard, Trinity rated 1-2 by Cantrall | Fields Notes
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