Casual Fan

LOL So are you saying that in the Lexington metro area of the 11th region, the private schools have a power stranglehold? That Sayre (who’s never won the region), LexCath and Lex Christian (who’s never even been to the regional tournament) are preventing Dunbar, Henry Clay, Scott County, Lafayette and Madison Central with at least 15 state championships among them from having success? Isn’t Scott County close to the winningest program in the state the last 15 years or so, and Scott Co and Madison Central both with pretty recent championships? And Dunbar and Henry Clay challenging right now? Wha……? If not Lexington, what metro area are you talking about? Every time someone knocks a coach on here, there’s a knee jerk reaction of “Whatsamatta, your little Johnny didn’t get playing time?”” I’m seeing so many attempts to vilify the private schools, my knee jerk reaction is becoming, “Whatsamatta, your little Johnny got beat by a bunch of treehuggers, rich kids, or Christians?”

Lafayette

1954 "Go, Man, Go!" Original Globetrotters supplemented by Dane Clark, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee. Significant for the story it told, the impact it had when released, and the back story of a black-listed writer and producer who put it out under fictitious names, but was still classified as communist for starring Poitier and never worked in Hollywood again. Bad news: Showing my age Good news: Showing my memory

Taveion's mom said they made a deal: If he gets a scholarship she has to quit smoking. Smoke 'em while ya got 'em Kathy!

Absolutely fun. Ross Jenkins looked good early but struggled to run with the Bulldogs. When Mendenhall rested him in the first Dunbar started their big run, taking 11-11 to 27-17, then 15 at the half. Never looked back. On another note, a friend at the game told me the injury to Station’s Dishman is a broken foot and he’s out for the year. Can anyone confirm? Hate to hear this.

Morehead assistants there tonight, have talked to him before. Still in their seats when I left and crowd had dwindled, so maybe .......

Rowan County's Adam Wing is a senior at Evansville.

Jeremiah Tisdale - Lake Land Juco Mike Smith - Pfeiffer University

From the 2014 Charlotte Court AAU team my son played with, these guys are still playing: Lance Blakley – Union College Darion Burns – Georgetown College Austin Crisp – Alice Lloyd Robert Dence – Transy Jon Helton – Transy Will Henderson – Asbury Shawn Johnson – Campbellsville Marcellous Washington – Sinclair Juco Troy Steward – Georgetown College Other Lexington area kids that come to mind: Teddy Ware – Kentucky State Trent Gilbert – Georgetown College Nick Trisko – Spalding Tyler Smith – Asbury Jordan Henry – Mt. St. Joseph Jordan Green – Georgetown College Tyler Rogers – Alice Lloyd Gerrard Newby – Union College Patrick Keller – Dennison Tamron Manning – Kentucky Wesleyan Ken-Jah Bosley – Kentucky Wesleyan Seth Beckham – Berea Tyler Smothers – St. Catharine Sure I missed a bunch. Sorry for any duplicates.

Marcellus Barksdale from Tates Creek at IUPUI

LexCath Christmas Tournament bracket now posted: http://www.lexingtoncatholic.com/images/files/Athletics/2015%20Republic%20Bank%20Brackets%20%28boys%29.pdf Maybe someone with more computer skills than me will be kind enough to publish the bracket here.

Dunbar Lafayette Henry Clay Darius Williams Taveion Hollingsworth DeAndre Dishman

Still takes coaching, congrats on a job well done. Strong evidence of value of AAU where players can pick a coach they have confidence in. Also why I'm sympathetic when a kid wants to change schools.

There are some subtleties to these statistics. There is a built-in positional bias. The overwhelming majority of high school players are guards, skewing the pool of available players that way. However, the college coaches would like to have 50% of their roster in forwards and centers, skewing the selection group in the other direction. The net result is that guards have even worse outcomes than the numbers shown by the NCAA but the forwards have results about 3 times better than indicated. The real determinant variable underlying this is height. A recent article in the ESPN Magazine used statistical info to approximate numbers of NBA-age males in the USA by height. Couldn’t find the mag for this response, but their number of NBA-age males over 6’ 10 ½ “ in the general population was about 680, with 69 currently playing in the NBA, an outcome greater than 10%. The next level, maybe 6-8 ½ thru 6-10, dropped steeply but still had a good number. By the time you got to the shorter heights there were 5 or 6 zeroes after the decimal point as a fraction of 1 percent, a function of millions of people fitting the statistical category for average heights. Another uncharted variable is aspiration level. Nearly every 5th grade player might dream of the NBA, but year by year the number that even wants to try to play in college drops dramatically. The only meaningful statistic, which is unmeasured, is the percentage that plays at the next level, relative to the number that seriously wants to do so upon high school graduation. In other words, of the ones that still have the dream, how many can have the reality? My half-hearted research indicates more than 10% of Kentucky’s graduating high-school senior basketball players will join college basketball teams (NCAA+NAIA+Juco) and the percentage for kids 6-6 and taller is much higher. This probably represents the majority of kids who really want to play. Most seniors with a burning desire to play in college can have the opportunity if they initiate contacts with the schools, and will accept NAIA-2 or D3 ball. Once they get there, the fallout the first two years is really high, with playing time, money, social issues, and academics the big torpedoes. It is a very realistic goal for a tall high school player or solid guard to focus on obtaining a fractional scholarship at the NAIA or even D2 level to contribute to their college funding. It is also a worthwhile goal to push your academics to get as much academic money as possible at a D3, and play ball just for enjoyment and the benefits it offers in terms of having a ready-made positive-impact social group of teammates when you first walk on campus.

Sorry, I’m not smart enough to import it with all the graphics and stuff, plus don’t know if it’s appropriate with copyrights and all that stuff. Maybe somebody with better computer skills can post it up here. Try typing in this address: Scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/khsaa/kybbk15/47410 Tell us what you think of it.

Preseason favorite has to be Dunbar, best group of starters in the 11th. Their schedule is a work of art, tack the 43rd district and 11th region tournaments on the end of it and you could have one of the toughest schedules ever. Hope they don’t peak too early or burn out, but glad to see how much coach Chalk believes in his team in setting this up. Sleeper has to be Lafayette. Experience and depth at every position, lots of senior leadership and hungry from lots of “almost-there” the last couple of years, very balanced – can beat you multiple ways, a quality big, a good coach. No big names also might mean better chemistry. Players: Taveion Hollingsworth had an amazing AAU season at the national level. He, Williams, and Brown will get lots of deserved headlines for Dunbar. Really liked Station’s DeAndre Dishman at KBA in May, he could break out big – hit the books, kid, someone might want to pay your way to college. Ross Jenkins from Lafayette will put up big numbers. I think Brown at Dunbar and King at LCA still have lots of upside potential. Haven’t seen the Price kid at LexCath, but having college interest before hitting the varsity floor makes me eager to check him out. jmo

Here are varsity and jv brackets for this morning's tournament at the Transy camp.

Attached is schedule for Thursday, June 11. Attachment has been edited, hope it's readable.

The attachments below shows the bracket for Tuesday’s tournament from the first 3-day session. I understand Lexington Christian Academy beat Pendleton for the championship, with Lewis Co and Fairland rounding out the Final four. By working backwards up the bracket you can figure out at least some of the other game results. Also have a schedule for today - Thursday, June 11, for the 2nd group of teams. too big to fit here, will try to post it separately below. I will try to get you a tournament bracket tomorrow morning. Depends on my son – who’s working the camp – remembering to send it. Who woulda thunk an 18 year old boy having fun with his friends might be undependable!

If the attachment works, here's the schedule for Transy high school camp for Monday, June 8. Started Sunday, 4 courts in the Beck Center and a 5th at the campus center. Should have tournaments tomorrow, then Wednesday a new group of teams for the 2nd 3-day camp.

Thursday June 4 Schedule, more or less Bueter 1 Time 1:00 Grayson V vs. Berea V. 2:00 Lafayette Fresh vs. LexCath Fresh 3:00 St Pat V vs. Grayson Co V 4:00 MadCent V vs. Dunbar V 5:00 Mason V vs. Henry Clay V 6:00 LexCath V vs. Grayson 7:00 Lafayette V vs. Lincoln V 8:00 Dunbar V vs. PRP V 9:00 LexCath vs. Henry Clay V Bueter 2 2:00 LexCath II vs. Berea 3:00 Lafayette V vs. Model V 4:00 Western Hills V vs. Bryan Stn V 5:00 Lincoln V vs. Model V 6:00 MadCent V vs. PRP V 7:00 Mason V vs. Bryan Stn V 8:00 Mason JV vs. Dunbar JV 9:00 Madison Cent JV vs. Bryan Stn JV 9:30 MadCent Fresh vs. Dunbar Fresh Alumni Gym Sorry – no times – photo sent to me was chopped off – You should be able to guesstimate within an hour Lafayette JV vs. LexCath JV Bryan Stn JV vs. LexCath JV MadCent JV vs. LexCath Fresh Lafayette Fresh vs. MadCent Fresh Henry Clay Fresh vs. Lincoln JV Lafayette JV vs. PRP JV Dunbar JV vs. Lincoln JV Mason JV vs. Lafayette Fresh Lincoln Fresh vs. Dunbar Fresh PRP JV vs. Henry Clay JV Lincoln Fresh vs. LexCath Fresh

LexCath Team Camp schedule for Monday, June 1, 2015 Sorry for any typos Big gym, Court 1 1:00 Sayre V vs. St. Patrick V 2:00 Wolfe Co V vs. Model V 3:00 LexCath II V vs. Model V 4:00 St Patrick V vs. Wolfe Co. V 5:00 Sayre vs. Lincoln Co. 6:00 LexCath V vs. Bryan Stn. V 7:00 Henry Clay JV vs. Clark Co JV 8:00 West Jess V vs. Henry Clay V 9:00 Dunbar V vs. West Jess V Big gym, Court 2 2:00 Holmes V vs. LexCath V 3:00 Bryan Stn JV vs. Dunbar Fresh 4:00 Holmes V vs. Dunbar V 5:00 Frankfort V vs. LexCath II 6:00 Frankfort V vs. Henry Clay V 7:00 Bryan Stn V vs. Clark Co V 8:00 West Jess JV vs. LexCath Fresh 9:00 Lincoln Co V vs. Clark Co V Alumni Gym, Court 3 1:00 Holmes JV vs. LexCath JV 2:00 Wolfe JV vs. LexCath Fresh 3:00 Holmes JV vs. Dunbar JV 4:00 Dunbar Fresh vs. LexCath Fresh 5:00 Lincoln JV vs. Bryan Stn JV 6:00 Lincoln Fresh vs. Frankfort JV 7:00 West Jess JV vs. Lincoln JV 8:00 Lincoln Fresh vs. Henry Clay Fresh 9:00 Clark Co JV vs. Dunbar JV

Beat 'em big! #2 is Station's Andre Dishman. Also have Pun Tisdale from Henry Clay, Jajuante Carpenter-Lafayette, Vince Clark-Dunbar, Donnie Morris-Lexcath, Darius Barksdale-Creek. Went to support them and Coach Oreese yesterday, those were only ones I recognized but they have a few more. Real grassroots program, not a put-together bunch. Go Court!

Billy Custard turned down Duke to attend Transylvania. Spoke at their Hall of Fame dinner last year.