Hoptown b-ball fan

Yep. I mentioned this earlier in the thread. It’s absurd that they let them work 4 or 5 times a week and have other full time jobs. It’s absurd considering how much money is in the game.

The nba is officiated beautifully. There is no reason why major college basketball can’t be the same

Tray Hollowell from University Heights is at Wofford in the socon and helped them beat UNC and is averaging around 6 points per game as a freshman. He’s getting more and more minutes for a team that could make the NCAA.

I’ve heard he said considering shutting it down and getting his knee fixed and doing a post grad year. That might not be the worst idea.

The article was about that and the opinion of the author that officiating is no worse now than it used to be. He’s wrong about officiating on the college level. It’s much worse on the college level

I hate the situation for Johnson. Such a wonderful kid and he’s limited this way.

Is this addressed at my comment? If so, please explain.

It makes perfect sense. And no, I don't care about John Higgins. the issue isn't with the officials. It's with the ncaa trying to treat this like it's the 1950's still where there wasn't enough money to have full time and well trained officials. I don't blame the refs. They're put in a system that rewards working yourself to death. The reason refereeing sucks is because their asked to do too much for not enough money. Make them full time, train them, and treat them right and have a credible accountability system and the quality will improve and you'll get more people willing to do the job.

The issue isn't talent with hoptown. They've been talented without Cager. The issue is the turmoil going on because of this situation along with others. Their game at Madisonville was a great illustration of this. They had everybody in that game. They looked awful. Adding cager to an already toxic environment may not help things. There are parents who are NOT happy with how Coach Haworth handled this... How he handles him coming back into the team will be VERY important... The kids and parents are watching.

Of course it isn't easy. But it's getting worse. It's an epidemic. College officiating is a joke. There is a consensus. You have guys who are supposed to be part time making it a full time job with their other full time jobs. THey drive through the night/fly through the night so they don't have to pay for hotel rooms and call games sometimes 3 time-zones away 4 or 5 nights in a row. John Higgins is the perfect example. The guy has a huge roofing company, tries to run that and officiate full time all over the country. He admits to intentionally getting games on other sides of the country late in the week so he can take the red-eye flight and not have to pay for a hotel room.

yeah. That's not true. The block charge rule is out of control and officials making the games about themselves is a new phenomenon too. The issue isn't in professional sports. The NBA has full time officials that do a tremendous job. The NFL guys aren't full time but they are very good too. But college and high school officiating is MISERABLE. it's awful. to argue otherwise is ignoring reality. And it's getting worse.

KJ Crump at University Heights is listed on several top 5/10 lists in KY and Elijah Watts at Hopkinsville is a very good player too.

Nice win for PT.

Wow. Usually don't see Hall held to just 10 points.

No doubt. And it's not a dumb strategy. I would never do it because I just hate that style of play. It works quite often. And for deep and athletic teams it's a risk worth taking if you have bodies to bring in off of the bench. Haworth at Hopkinsville has done it for years.

Yeah. I thought he was a touch "tough" but he was put in a tough situation. He handled it as well as he could. I don't blame him a bit for wanting everybody to be quiet when he had to announce that.

I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you

I understand. That's why I said "stop fouling". Lex Cath has FOR YEARS employed the Rick Pitino, "we're going to foul 40 times a half knowing that only 10-15 will get called" strategy. Refs so often convince themselves that in games like that, they can't call all of the fouls. But the fact is, once they start calling them, the game opens up because the team that is employing that strategy can't foul their entire team out. That's why I always laugh at people who care about how many fouls have been called on each team.

If they were fouls, call them. If you don't want to be called for fouls, don't commit them. Good for the refs if they were legit calls.

Anyway. As far as the game goes. Stovall, as he always does, had a wrinkle. He came out in a creative "2-1-2" halfcourt zone. It forced the ball out of tandy's hands. Coupled with the officials letting the guys brawl in the first 6 or 7 minutes, it really stifled UHA. It was an incredibly physical game, which benefited us. With about 2 minutes left in the first quarter we had 0 fouls and heights had 2 or 3. Everybody I was with was amazed at how physical the refs allowed the game to get. In one sequence you had a break away for Trice that I thought for sure would be called an intentional foul when Taquan hollowel fouled him hard to prevent the layup/dunk and then back the other way you had us basically body slam tandy to the ground with no call. IN another sequence we had Trice and Jaquan Long bump heads, lay around on the grown rithing in pain and UHA got a bucket. The very next trip down we elbowed the big guy for heights "Kwun" in the head, with no call... He starts spilling blood all over the floor and the refs don't stop the game until we get a bucket. They had no control over the game early. Tim Haworth would have LOVED these guys. Then.... With two minutes left they tightened things up. Over the next 10 minutes we were whistled with 10 fouls (good calls) and UHA had another 4 or 5 on them. (good calls) That's when things started to open up. UHA also made a wise adjustment to move Tandy off of the ball and to get him the ball in other spots. He lit us up for 14 in the second quarter. McGowan also got a ton of open looks and I think he missed them all. Which is also worrisome. We are going to have to come out of this zone because they scorched us pretty good in the second quarter. As far as County goes... Ware did have 11. As I've mentioned on here previously, T -Ware is a guy that you can game-plan for and "stop" if you are willing to risk other people going off. And I think that's what heights did. They face guarded him for a big chunk of the first half and he got basically no good looks from outside. Because Lovan for Heights got 3 fouls they switched to some zone which got T-Ware one relatively open look, but he missed that. The good news that Trice is back and he was very good. The reason we are within 3 is because we have about 10-14 points off of offensive rebounds. so... When the game resumes you will have a situation where Heights leads 3 with 16 minutes to play. The game will boil down to this. Can Christian County keep the game "mucked up" and continue to control the offensive glass or will Heights be able to keep the flow they built in the second quarter? I worry about Christian County. Once we get past Ware and Trice we just don't have much. Heights is getting some really good play out of Tray Hollowel's little brother, Taquan and I worry that it's a matter of time before McGowan gets hot. Malik Lovan is doing things down low that I never dreamed was possible. Those who know him understand what I'm saying. Great kid. But I never dreamed I'd see him pulling boards out of the sky and not looking like he's on skates out there. it was an amazing environment and both teams should be proud at how they handled a REALLY weird first half. Especially the first 5 or 6 minutes when a TON of physical play was allowed. The part that sucks is that I think the floor was getting better as the gym/floor cooled off. But they couldn't continue... Too much risk considering how the floor was early in the game.

Yeah... I have a different take than region 2 hype man. I'll get it out there when I have time today. I'm worried about when this game gets resumed... My eyes were opened during the second quarter... And yeah... the floor thing was silly. They turned the air conditioner on after the girls game and that caused the floor to get slick...

I'll say this... Scotty HOpson absolutely had a higher ceiling at this point than Kyky does. But I actually think Kyky is a more effective high school player right now than Scotty ever was. He has become a better defender, he's a better ball handler, he's more athletic and he's a beter shooter. He's just shorter. But in the high school game, all of that height doesn't get you as much as it does on the next level. Scotty got/gets a bad wrap. He was a great kid. But I don't think he "love it" like Kyky Tandy does. All that to say. Yes, UHA accomplished a lot that season. But in my opinion Christian County is better this year than they were that year. I also think Hoptown is better than the were that year. And I think this UHA team has the ability to be better than that UHA team. That team was two guys. And in many ways. It was just scotty. Edmonson had a bum foot the entire second half the year and it really hurt them. After those two they had nobody nearly as good as McGowan and Hollowell. Heck, they started two average freshmen. Anyway. Back to the game tonight. I predict an epic battle. Could be very similar to last year's game at Heights.

Yeah... Hot take. This UHA team is better than that one. Basketball was down in district 8 and the region that year. And Edmonson was hurt that entire season... I've got faith in stovall. I just worry that pressing them gets them into the flow too quickly. And UHA getting off to fast starts is the key for them. I think a grinder is how we win this game. The great news is, we will be in crunch time of this game in 12 hours.

I hope you're right. I just don't think you gain enough pressing UHA by giving up all of the easy baskets they will get. I've heard some coaches say that double teaming Tandy in the backcourt is a REALLY bad mistake as he can dribble out of anything and it creates a 5 on 3. Hoptown found that out quickly and backed off. I"m very excited about tonight. The last few years when the 8th district wasn't quite as competitive hasn't been as fun. It's really fun knowing that each of these Hoptown/County/UHA games is a a HUGE deal to try and avoid the 2/3 game.

I think the other issue with Trice is that he can’t guard Kyky for 20+ minutes. He will be dead. If we try to put Cory on him for extended periods he won’t be able to finish the game due to fatigue.