Smallhoops

Portland Christian has hired former University of Louisville player Terrence Farley as its head coach

Steve Barker was a really nice player. A pure shooter, he scored over 1800 points at Samford, and that was before the 3-point shot. There is no telling how many more points he could have scored, both in high school and in college, if the 3-point goal had been in effect when he played. That 1978 Apollo team won the LIT on its way to an undefeated regular season.

I saw his last team at Williamstown play. I thought he did a good job with them.

I am hearing that Ballard is promoting assistant Greg Willis to the head coaching position.

Attended my first game at Hazard's Memorial Gym during this year's 54th district tournament. Hazard v. Buckhorn. Enjoyed the gym and the game very much.

The book Legacies of Kentucky Mountain Basketball by Harold Kelly, published about 10 years ago, identified a lot of old gyms still standing at that time. Last time I checked, the gym at Cuba in Western Kentucky was still standing but not in very good shape.

The Joe Fulks story would make a great book, and in fact his story has been covered in some of the histories writeen about the early days of the NBA. Originally from Birmingham (which now sits at the bottom of Kentucky Lake), Fulks transferred to Kuttawa and was the subject of a KHSAA investigation concerning the circumstances of how he ended up at Kuttawa. Cleared to play, he led Kuttawa to the state tournament in 1940. Fulks played at Murray briefly before going into the Army, where he became well known for his basketball playing ability. After his military service, he played for the Philadelpia Warriors in the pre-NBA and early NBA days. One of the first true jump shooters, Fulks was a prolific scorer. He led the BAA (the league that became the NBA) in scoring and scored 63 points in a game in 1949, a record that stood for 10 years. The Philadelphia newspaper bestowed the "Babe Ruth of Basketball" nickname upon him. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978. Following his playing career, Fulks returned to Western Kentucky and became the recreation director at the Kentucky State Reformitory. Tragically, he was shot and killed by his girlfriend's son in 1976.

It appeared that as he was walking toward the bench after the timeout was called, Dez Lindsey made an obscene gesture toward the Ballard student section. That is what resulted in the technical.

Travis Perry is for real, and Lyon County is a nice team. Will be interested to see how they do in the state tournament. While Travis Perry is on course to become the leading scorer in KHSAA history, he still might not be the best hoopster from Lyon County; Hall of Famer Joe Fulks played for Kuttawa before the formation of Lyon County High School and was dubbed the "Babe Ruth of Basketball" back in the early days of the NBA.

Yep. Whether it is GoFan or MyFan or TicketLeaf or some other app, they are here to stay. Just have to get used to it.

I am among those who very much dislike the blaring music usually played before the game and during timeouts. However, I recently attended a game at Ludlow and thought their musinc selection was outstanding.

That would be Travis Perry. He already has scored over 3000 points in his varsity career and he is only a sophomore.

This was a very competitive game, well played by both teams. Enjoyable game to watch.

I saw Lyon County play Crittenden County in the district championship. A nice looking team that gets up and down the floor very quickly. Sophomore Travis Perry is a really nice looking player.

With a win this morning over Portland Christian, Manual is now 18-5, with 2 of the losses being Covid games. Some good looking young players. Coach Coleman doing a really good job.

I am not sure I need to wade into a 10th Region discussion, but the 7th Region tournament has been played at a location outside the 7th Region for the past several years.

Back in the 1970's, Owensboro, Owensboro Catholic, and Apollo all played their home games at the Sportscenter, along with Kentucky Wesleyan. There was a LOT of basketball at the Sportscenter.

I recently attended a game at the new gym at Eminence and it is spectacular. While I liked the old gym, the new gym is quite an upgrade from the old one, as the pictures above reveal.

1000 point scorers at St. Francis High School in Louisville Sean O'Brien 1595 97-00 James Risley 1388 14-17 Ahmad Moore 1267 16-19 Darian Wade 1116 18-21 Zayd Akubar 1039 04-07

Definitely a real school. Been to many Evangel Christian basketball games through the years. It is a very small school that traditionally has played other small schools.

Yep. Played at Iroquois. He played in college at Austin Peay and then played several years with the Globetrotters.

Well deserved. Good official, good person.

Rick Wilson was a senior at Atherton in 1974. It was a good year for high school basketball in Kentucky - along with Rick Wilson (U of L), Jack Givens was at Bryan Station (UK), James Lee at Henry Clay (UK), Kenny Higgs at Owensboro (LSU), Bob Lindsay at Ballard (Florida),Robert Miller at Central (Cincinnati).

Agree that Coach Mucker did a great job. Shawnee is challenging and he did a great job focusing on the right things. He definitely will be hard to replace.

Agree with the comments on the Valley and Fairdale gyms. Generally, high school gyms in Louisville fall into three categories. A small group are newer gyms of some size. Besides Valley, this group would include Ballard, Eastern, St. X and CAL. All are very nice and comfortable. The second group includes most of the other JCPS schools and are pretty similar in size and layout. While some have unique attributes (I always enjoy seeing the large picture of Wes Unseld at Seneca, and I enjoy going to Central because of its rich basketball history), they are pretty similar. The third group consists of the smaller schools (mostly private), some of which are relatively new (Collegiate, Walden) while some are not so new. Most of them have some interesting quirks. Trinity's gym does not fit neatly into one of the three categories. It is not very new (it still has posts that you must contend with when sitting in the upper level), but I always enjoy seeing a game there.