Swishenator

McCracken 7 to 0 early 1st

I'm not arguing the validity of Litkenhous. I'm just trying to explain the result. Fact is McCracken, Mayfield, Tilghman, and Graves have all played each other and they obviously have some results that has lifted all of their Litkenhous ratings. Time will tell....

Graves 101.4, Bullit 81.0, Fort Campbell 98.9 plus 1 point loss to Tilghman 116.4 and 1 point road loss to Mayfield 116.5. Solid computer teams. Do I think McCracken is 3rd best team in 6A? Maybe not. But the computer ranking is what it is..... By the way Simon Kenton is 115.9.

The thing about most computer rankings is you are penalized for playing at home. McCracken lost at Mayfield by 1 point. Generally speaking computer rankings basically treat that as a win. McCracken also has other big wins over solidly computer ranked teams. On the other hand is McCracken 4th in the state right now? Probably not but a fair judgment of them should also include the fact that the opening 2 losses were the first games in the history of the school. The arc points upward I would say...

McCracken 35 to 14

If, and it's a big if at this point, McCracken makes it to that point it won't be an easy road game for Simon Kenton. I would assume it would be a huge crowd awaiting them. Big stadium and huge school in first playoffs. Just saying....

I would say a schools first two games in it's history are as good a reason, excuse or whatever you want to call it for starting slow. Litkenhouse gets more accurate as the season progresses though so will be interesting to see how the rating adjusts. With the first district having home field throughout the Henderson-McCracken game will have a lot on the line. My guess is McCracken is underrated in the AP at this point. We'll see.

These player rankings are MUCH more representative of 1st Region Basketball than the rankings I saw a couple of months ago. I might quibble with the order a little but this is pre-season and everyone has an opinion. Probably the most noticeable omission is Jake Williams from Graves. I would say he is at least number 10 if not higher. I keep hearing that Hunter from Calloway had a big summer so I am excited to watch. Hasn't quite gotten there in high school action yet although nearly averaged a double-double last year. The team rankings are interesting. I kind of think Calloway, Graves and McCracken should be 1, 1A and 1B but I understand McCracken has to prove it since they are a new school. St. Mary is going to be good but they have been weakened by graduation and transfers, especially inside. I still think McCracken will be the team to beat by the end of the season. They have inside depth and 4 very good guards including Sergio Vega as well as the three that are ranked. Will also be interesting to watch Calloway this season. They have a lot of talent and put it together at the end of last season to reach the Regional finals. The question is how do they handle expectations and manage individual goals with the team. Graves has 3 very good players left over from the Regional champs and will also be very good. And don't forget Marshall. Still have a deep well to pull from and a really good big guy in Rentfrow. Should be interesting.

Sindelar is a good player but the answer is no they won't win region with him. The gulf between Hoptown and Henderson and then the rest of the region is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

I have said it in other strings but I believe McCracken will battle Calloway and Graves for the Regional top spot all season long. The combination of experienced players from 3 very competitive teams in the Region last year will make this the deepest team in the Region. Kam Chumbler from Lone Oak is likely the top point guard in the Region and based on last year's All-Region voting Caleb Stonecipher from Heath was the 11th ranked player in the Region and Jared Burnett from Reidland was 13th. All three are guards and so the question is can they co-exist? They will also have some solid big men returning. Bryce Rodgers and Jason Armstrong were the starting inside guys for a solid Heath team last year and both are very strong and aggressive. It should be interesting to see how they mesh as the season progresses.

No 1st Region team has lost more than Marshall the last two seasons. Chase Clark was the best player in the region last year and he will be sorely missed. They still have a strong inside presence in Austin Rentfrow and some good younger players, but this will most likely be a little different season for Marshall. They have been the 4th District favorite for years but Calloway will carry that honor for the next two seasons. How will they respond to being an underdog? As far as the region goes they have been thought of as one of the top teams for a while. This year they would most likely be ranked in pre-season somewhere around 4th or 5th. They have a lot of tradition and because of that will probably still be a very difficult team to beat. Will be an interesting year in Region 1.

Interesting matchup. Tilghman is more athletic. Mayfield better coached and more fundamentally sound. Mayfield's defense will have a hard time stopping Tilghman though so this may be a 42 to 38 game. Mayfield looked as unathletic as I have seen them in a long time and yet they are still a very good team. I'll take Mayfield in a fairly close one also. On another note it sounds like Coach Wyatt is already ducking future games with McCracken after next year as they already lose to Mayfield every year as it stands. That's a shame because that was some atmosphere at the first one.

As with every other sport McCracken is being underrated in Basketball. I believe they will win region 1. Deepest team in the region.

I am sorry but this is just insanely stupid. Haskins has won at places in his career that NOBODY else has won at. Ballard, Calloway, Lone Oak. Tilghman's best stretch of the last 40 years was with Haskins as Offensive Coordinator. He never had a losing season at Heath. Saying he can't coach is just not correct. And for this McCracken team to be this good this early is a testament to Haskins and his staff's ability to coach. Do they have talent? Yes, but there is no sport where coaching matters more than football and they have done a great job getting this team ready. All that being said, time management in the last minute last night was not good but that is something NFL coaches screw up on a regular basis. And I am still amazed how much all of the McCracken sports teams are being underrated. Mind boggling when that big of a student body is put together.

Again I am sure McCracken will be underrated in this game as they were before the Tilghman game. Mayfield is better than Tilghman so McCracken will have to clean some stuff up this week in order to be just as competitive. After McCracken lost Sayner and then Moreland on Saturday against Tilghman their running game shut completely down so that is a real problem for them. McCracken also needs to make sure Jones is returning all punts and kickoffs. Ousley returned the kickoffs Saturday and while he is a really good athlete he doesn't have the breakaway speed that Jones has. McCracken also needs to clear up their kicker situation. Cannot miss two extra points against good teams. They have 2,000 students so maybe open tryouts should occur this week? I will take Mayfield here but again closer than people expect and if the Tilghman and Mayfield games had been later in the season I think things would possibly have been different.

I saw this in the Paducah Sun this morning. If I'm Wyatt I probably don't want to play that game anymore either. He already can't beat Mayfield and after seeing what kind of battle McCracken put up in the first year he likely realizes McCracken is going to be a tall mountain to climb in the future also. They will play every year though because the crowds and money will be too big to pass up.

One other thing. The kicker for McCracken missed 2 extra points. I don't understand how that happens in that big of a school although I guess it happens in college sometimes. McCracken never really adjusted to Tilghman's blitzes in the 2nd half although they did hit on a few long passes. Great game.

The officiating was a total embarrassment. Whoever assigned that crew sent lambs to the slaughter. Totally overmatched. The game was very exciting. And a close game is not what was being predicted by most of the experts I saw. Tilghman was expected to roll, but this never made sense to me. Jack Haskins is one hell of a football coach and he has a 2,000 student pool to draw from now. Tilghman looked very good also. Hughes looked like he wore down in the second half to me. Maybe too much is being asked of him as a sophomore and Evan Sayner who has signed with WKU got ejected early. This was 2 very evenly matched teams and the beginning of what will be a huge rivalry for years to come.

Coach Q, I agree with you Hunter is underrated. I got to watch Calloway several times and on a list of players with the most potential he is number 1. I happen to think Arnett is the best of the 3 on Calloway currently though. Maybe the most effective in the Region. They are definitely the Regional favorites at this point. I looked at some schedules the other day and they play McCracken the second week of the season. Will be interesting.

So true about Fosko. There is no replacement for him in Region 1. I would like to think whoever did these rankings would have called him and they wouldn't have been so screwy.

Just simply trying to make my original point. All the McCracken kids were underrated in this ranking. Chumbler will be the best point guard in the region and yet is ranked below McEwen for whatever reason. Stonecipher may be a top 5 player but at least 6 or 7. Burnett and Bryce Rodgers from Heath are unranked. I have no angst against any of these kids as you seem to have. Just looking for an accurate assessment. I also think Skyler Hunter was underrated. He is a Top 10 player period. I noticed in the Paducah Sun that he nearly averaged a double double last year.

Thought about this some more. On two consecutive nights last year Mayfield played Heath and Reidland (both supposedly weak teams where Stonecipher and Burnett were the big fish). From what I saw of Mayfield last year Love was the number 4 option. The first night Heath beat Mayfield 63-62 with Stonecipher leading his team in scoring with 16. The second night Mayfield beat Reidland in a close game 66-61 with Burnett leading his team with 22 points. Reidland played Mayfield one other time with Mayfield again winning close. Sounds like pretty even teams. So the 4th option on Mayfield last year is now a top 10 player and the number 1 option on Heath and Reidland aren't. Your logic as well as the rankers seems strange. These were two really good players on two good teams last year. One other thing I looked up. Stats for last year in region 1 disregarding last year seniors (from Paducah Sun). Scoring 1. Hubert 20.5 2. Stonecipher 20.1 3. Burnett 17.1 4. Arnett 14.8 Assists 1. Burnett 5.1 (this doesn't seem like a selfish player) 2. Hubert 3.4 3. Adams 3.2 4. Chumbler 3.1 Conclusion: Leaving Caleb Stonecipher or Jared Burnett out of any preseason Top 10 invalidates the rankings in total. Now they both have to prove it and they have to prove they can play together but just assuming they can't is foolish.

Love and McEwen are not Top 10 players. They're just not. Defense or not. I don't want to start disparaging them like you are Burnett but they aren't. Williams is not the 5th best player in the region. He just isn't. This is why I would like to know who provided the info for this list to BlugrassBball or FatNate or whoever.

One interesting thing about Region 1 this year. Not sure the gap between the top and bottom has ever been wider. Calloway, McCracken, Graves will be top echelon. St Mary, Marshall, and maybe Tilghman will be next. Murray might could push toward the second tier and then it drops off significantly. The chore for the small schools, other than St Mary, to get to the Regional semifinals will be nearly impossible. With these big schools continuing to sprout it's time for Kentucky to have a serious discussion about Classes. The Carlisle's, Ballard's and Hickman's of the world have no shot. Kind of sad. That being said a Regional semifinal of Calloway vs. St Mary and Graves vs. McCracken sounds pretty fun to watch. Lastly when is the last time Tilghman didn't make it to the Regionals? A very distinct possibility this year.

Your statement is the same as mine, an opinion. I would say the coaches of Region 1 disagree with you on Stonecipher and Burnett based on All-Region voting last year. I am sure the McCracken kids are seeing this stuff so they will have their opportunity to prove or disprove on the court. One thing I do agree with you on as I think about it. The Boone kid probably is underrated but he has a few years to change that.