Green guy

I watched the stream, which was pretty awful, and it didn't look like Trinity sat on the ball so much as waited for Madison Central to attack & got some breaks off that, plus a few points when they broke the press. But MC missed an awful lot of foul shots toward the end, as Coach Feldhaus lamented in the Richmond Register, while the Rocks weren't exactly distinguishing themselves at the foul line either. And who says the Rocks are #1? I bet that is not a consensus. And while Trinity's personnel, missing 2 starters & a bencher, was as inexperienced as MC's, I agree with your implicit point: the team on the floor is the team, period. If the Rocks had only 7 guys on the varsity bench, they were the Rocks. That's what Szabo & all good coaches say. I will also say that Coach Feldhaus will be teaching his crew a lot from this game. Madison Central is not going away anytime soon.

I have read a lot of the comments here, both pro & con. Valid points. BUT let's say a shot-clock rule is instituted & competent operators are available (the real issue), what would be a good limit: a minute, 50, 40, 35 secs. I lean toward a h/s shot clock but would like to hear some views about timing. I would prefer a 40-second clock. Thoughts?

Spalding has sore foot. Thieneman some other physical issues. Thieneman out for a week or more. Spalding less.

Holmes has a Feb. 7 game at Highlands. Trinity has a Feb. 8 game at Lafayette. How could Joe B. possibly be offended by their declining to play on Feb. 9? Or did he say something to you?

Maybe somebody could point out some good places nearby to get a bite during this "long day."

All kids like to compete, from the classroom to sports. The disparity in this score (& other such) makes me think it's time for the KHSAA to end the winner-take-all Sweet 16. KY is the only state, except I think for 2 little ones whose populations total less than ours, who has a 1-class system in basketball. Alaska, whose population is near that of Metro Louisville, has 4 classes (but the vast size of Alaska may be a big factor). Maybe some numbers would help. I am using the Jan. 20 Litkenhous ratings; the Litratings assign all 270 teams a rating. This week, the top team has a rating of 102.1; the bottom 4 teams have ratings of 1. CovLatin, btw, is 1 of those 4. Obviously Ballard would never schedule CovLatin, but let me give you more numbers. I divided the 270 teams into 5 groups based on a 20-point, more or less, spread in the Litratings. Teams 1-57 ranged 102.1–80. Teams 58–185 ranged 79.8–59.8. Teams 186–248 ranged 59.3–38.7. Teams 249–261 ranged 38.4–23.0. Teams 262–270 ranged 17.2–1.0. Alright, arbitrary divisions, but this is just for discussion. Somewhere as we go down the ratings, there have got to be some groupings. Wiser heads than mine would need to determine the criteria, but, assuming the Litratings have some validity (no wisecracks allowed), it would simply seem fair to put teams in appropriate divisions. The Class A tourney acknowledges that but CovLatin's mismatch shows that, if the KHSAA were serious, they would need to devise a method for who goes where. Indiana's reviewing football teams' tournament performance every 2 years & reclassifying them accordingly might be a model to discuss. All I am saying is that appropriate classifications would give teams a fairer deal & approach the goal of high school athletics: participation, competition, & life lessons.

Football, which preceded soccer, was called football in its prototypical form in the Middle Ages because it was played on foot, not, like sports for the English nobility, on horse. So its origins are proletarian, a worker's game, the people's game. Eventually in the 19th century some toffs at English public schools (which are expensive private schools) developed the no-hands version which morphed into modern soccer. Soccer, before we go any further, is an English coinage. Since in soccer you use your head, torso, butt, knees, & other parts of your body, including the hands by goalies why should it exclusively be called football? What is called worldwide American Football is the purest football, refined by generations of players & coaches. History of American Football There have been many changes to point systems & other aspects so I guess if change must come, I just hope it would serve the quality of play rather than the silly notion of some nitwit rulemaker. My view: leave everything alone. The PAT kick is an adventure in high school. Don't screw up the game. But if you want to have fun, allow only the drop kick, eliminate the placekick. Cool. And, while we're at it, why not restore the jump ball in basketball rather than use the their-turn-now-our-turn-now-their-turn system. Where is the reward for the difficult act of forcing a jump ball without fouling?

Thanks, buddy. Use a "pretty old scanner," huh? Well, from your pic, you look like a pretty old scanner yourself. Man and machine are well matched.

Point taken.

Is this what you mean? I was hoping for visual brackets. That CJ article you refer to may be the link at bottom. There isn't any LIT site and it seems not much effort at promotion this year. Or I may simply not be able to find stuff anymore. Lackadaisical promotion seems to be the rule these days, eg, the Kingdom of the Sun tourney in Ocala during the holidays. KoB was better but the scores on its brackets disappeared after 1st round. MONDAY’S GAMES (13) Western vs. (20) Holy Cross, 3:30 p.m . (14) Butler vs. (19) KCD, 5 p.m. (16) Jeffersontown vs. (17) Male, 6:30 p.m. (15) DeSales vs. (18) Seneca, 8:15 p.m.\ TUESDAY’S GAMES (7) Manual vs. (10) Iroquois, 3:30 p.m. (6) Doss vs. (11) Eastern, 5 p.m. (8) Waggener vs. (9) Fern Creek, 6:30 p.m. (5) PRP vs. (12) Fairdale, 8:15 p.m. WEDNESDAY’S GAMES (1) Bullitt East vs. Jtown-Male winner, 3:30 p.m. (4) St. Xavier vs. Western-Holy Cross winner, 5 p.m. (3) Ballard vs. Butler-KCD winner, 6:30 p.m. (2) Trinity vs. DeSales-Seneca winner, 8:15 p.m. FRIDAY’S GAMES Quarter finals, 4, 5:30, 7 and 8:30 p.m. SATURDAY’S GAMES Semifinals 10 and 11:30 a.m. Final, 8 p.m. Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20140112/SPORTS05/301120038/1031/sports/Boys-basketball-Waggener-measures-growth-return-LIT

Jokers Wild ~ In this key matter you bring up, shouldn't we talk about moving from a winner-take-all Sweet 16 to maybe 2 or 3 divisions with as many titles? I know winner-take-all sounds cool & has a venerable history of Inez or Carr Creek coming out of nowhere to beat the big boys but those days on gone. Here's the KHSAA list of total championships per school + year by year as a reference point. http://khsaa.org/records/basketball/bbk-recordbook_sweet16historyresults.pdf

Getslow ~ are you working from a bracket or do you or anyone know where the LIT bracket can be found? I've googled everything. Thanks for any help.

Pretty well, per this link, but realize that Tennessee's private schools have the option to offer "sports-related financial aid." About 50 privates do that, so they are in the special Division II, which is subdivided into II AA (larger) and II A (smaller) schools. Google such schools as Ensworth, Brentwood Academy, & Montgomery Bell Academy in II AA to check on their tuition. Be sure you are seated. Demand to Close Gap Between Public, Non-Public Schools Increases - Athletic Business

Manual is county-wide & so are a lot of other Jefferson County schools. Visit the PSJC website for details. Second, while a lot of these schools are public, you must pass an entrance exam. Details, for instance, at Manual's web site.

In NKy, if you send your child to an out-of-district school, you must pay tuition. At Beechwood, it is $3600/yr, more if student is out-of-state. Beechwood Independent School District That is nowhere near the almost $12,000/yr that is the tuition at Louisville Trinity and St. X (visit their webpages), even with the best financial aid package possible. Currently Trinity can cover 61% of a family's "demonstrated need," as determined by the Private School Aid Service. https://www.psas.org/index.aspx To do the math, assuming a family can't pay a cent of that $12,000, they would only get 61% of it from Trinity in f/a, or, $7320. The family would still be responsible for covering the other $4680 on their own. The 2014-15 PSAS application form should be available at the site soon. It's like the form you fill out for college f/a. Trinity and St. X and I'm sure all other privates guide the family through the process. In Jefferson County, a number of publics are county-wide with no fees, like DuPont Manual, though of course you arrange your own transportation. Male has 3 large feeder schools but those schools are in different parts of the county; transportation also up to you. Small towns have fewer if any choices of course.

How often does BGP come out? Last time was New Year's Eve.

For what they're worth, here are the 12-29 MaxPreps Top 25 in Kentucky. My inclination is to go with our homegrown BGP rankings. MP does not always have a team's latest games. 1 Ballard (Louisville) 2 Knott County Central (Hindman) 3 Newport Central Catholic (Newport) 4 Trinity (Louisville) 5 Covington Catholic (Park Hills) 6 Hopkinsville 7 Wayne County (Monticello) 8 Holmes (Covington) 9 Scott County (Georgetown) 10 Montgomery County (Mt. Sterling) 11 Graves County (Mayfield) 12 Pleasure Ridge Park (Louisville) 13 Lafayette (Lexington) 14 Cordia (Hazard) 15 Lincoln County (Stanford) 16 Lexington Catholic (Lexington) 17 Henderson County (Henderson) 18 Perry County Central (Hazard) 19 Southwestern (Somerset) 20 Iroquois (Louisville) 21 Bullitt East (Mt. Washington) 22 Bardstown 23 Doss (Louisville) 24 Madison Central (Richmond) 25 Warren Central (Bowling Green)

You can get some varying coverage of the games at the Kingdom site through Day 3. basketball, Kingdom of the Sun Home You can also google the Ocala Star-Banner for stories on the last days' games. The one on Berkeley Prep is extensive.

Yes, Rocks were up 36-9 at half. Led 20-5 after 1Q. At end of 3Q it was 59-35. By then almost everybody was playing for the Rocks and Spruce Creek but the SC subs started hitting a bunch of threes in the 3rd, then cooled off, then heated up again closing to the final of 70-56. I think only one or two Trinity starters were in there for the fourth quarter. Both sides showed a lot of sportsmanship. I am watching the Kingdom of the Sun games on the NFHS network, the one for the National Federation of High School Sports Associations. It's pay-per-view but games are archived for a month & the cost of watching them all is cheap. I have no stock in or nephews working for NFHS. I wish we had these guys in Kentucky.

The last BGP Top 20 I saw was Dec. 15. When will the next ratings come out statewide? Or did I miss them? If so, how do you find them? THANKS!

tcjkbt ~ It may also indicate what I have said for a long time when columnists in state & out say Kentucky is not a football state: we are loaded with talent & the first-rate players can be found throughout the state, not just the metro areas. I think what we may lack enough of is innovative or at least flexible coaches. One example is one of my favorite publics whose former coach played his stars both ways full-game when he had lots of talent; he also used some goofy defenses, like 9 on the line (if you get a seam & have some zoom, you are gone). His successor takes advantage of that rich talent & flusters opponents with shifting D formations, & he is an aggressive risk-taker, run- & pass-blitzing with fast linebackers. The success has come along with the creativity.

The last BGP Top 20 I saw was Dec. 15. When will the next ratings come out statewide? Or did I miss them? If so, how do you find them? THANKS!

Just an update to say there is no medical update yet on the effects of the collision between Trinity's Spalding and Ballard's Berry (sorry for error on name). Louisville Catholic Sports, The C-J, & The KOB site give no follow-up details. Catholic Sports Network Advertising http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20131223/SPORTS05/312230079/King-Bluegrass-Ballard-wins-65-54-defense-takes-over-4th-quarter-against-Trinity

Any updates on Ray and Cory will be much appreciated! Right now tournament site covers only the first half but maybe they'll know something. King of the Bluegrass Holiday Classic | Fairdale, KY Jason Frakes just tweeted that Ray may have had a concussion, which would be the concern with Cory too. Jason Frakes ‏@kyhighs 3m Coach Mike Szabo said Raymond Spalding had concussion symptoms after incident in 2nd quarter. That's why he didn't play 2nd half. #loubb

Clarification: this tournament is called the Cardinal Classic. This year's teams were South Laurel, North Laurel, Madison Central,Trinity, East Jessamine, George Rogers Clark.