Hoptown b-ball fan

County is rolling...

No. A "double foul" is called by one ref. A "blarge" is when one calls a charge and one calls a block. Does that make sense? I think there is confusion.

I've seen a blarge twice in the second region tournament in the last 4 years. Is the blarge now not allowed? I wasn't aware that a blarge no longer existed. A "blarge" is different than a double foul. In the "block/charge" scenario one is correct and one is wrong. There absolutely can be two fouls. Two guys are wrestling in the post etc... And no, the 3rd ref could easily have a good view. To imply that 1/3 never has a good view is simply not a fact. Of course he could. But there are clearly examples when he may not have a view. But I still think the 3rd ref deciding is better than a jump ball, even if he didn't have the best view it's better than a jump ball.

Gotcha. Well, they need to do as college and stick to it. I agree. Sorry for the confusion.

I didn't mean to come across to as "all refs suck". That's not true. There are good ones. But I can tell you that in the second region the game is probably more physical not less in the last few years. The team I root for, Hopkinsville, has taken full advantage of that. if you've played us, in the last 4 or 5 years you know that we are going to press, push, shove, hack... all game long. We use our athleticism to overwhelm you. To me, while that's a good set of rule for us, I don't like watching that. I like what has happened in the college game. It's more of a skill based game. And I personally think that's how Hopkinsville should be trying to play. It's why we haven't had success, despite having incredibly athletic and talented teams in Lexington. When we face teams who can deal with pressure and have the athletic ability to do so, we don't have anywhere to turn. Further, on the blarge... I can't imagine why somebody thinks it's better to have a call that is admittedly wrong over a judgement call that doesn't create the ridiculous scenario of going to a "jump ball". A ton of "block/charge" calls are already wrong. Figure out a way to never have a blarge. That's what I'm saying.

Not true. The game is far less physical now because of more fouls being called and teams adjusting how they play. It's the reason, along with a shorter shot clock that scoring is up so much.

It's all subjective anyway.

Ever heard of "group think" or an "echo chamber". You never should allow those in question to be allowed to fully monitor themselves.

Whether There is a tie breaker or a discussion a blarge should not be allowed. A blarge is admitting one call is wrong. How ridiculous is that? Perhaps the 3rd ref can determine who had the best angle?

Yep. Because the blarge is a ridiculous call.

Officiating is absolutely getting worse. I'm convinced it's because officials are watching more as fans (not necessarily one team over the other) but because they just like watching the game instead of officiating it. Technicals on players showing emotion are out of control. Too much physical play is allowed. All in all, the officiating is incredibly inconsistent. The blarge is the dumbest call in history. The 3rd official simply needs to break the tie. This cost University heights a regional semi-final win against henderson a few seasons back. It was called on hoptown a couple of years ago and cost them a game. I have a couple of friends who officiate. They both contend that KHSAA needs to adopt the same concepts the nCAA has adopted. Call games tighter for a year or two in order to get rid of the physical play. it's much easier to call a tight game than to let a game get very physical. But for some reason refs don't want to tighten things up. Look what has happened with the college game. The games flow much better now. There is more scoring. There are LESS fouls. Because the definition of a foul is much tighter.

Ware is such an interesting player. His form is bad, he's not quick, he doesn't handle the ball especially well but he's one of the most effective scorers I've ever seen.

UHA doesn't press. A big floor helps them doesn't hurt them. Again, this misconception that Hoptown's problems start with their defense is silly. Their issue is when a team can handle the press and get into a half court game. The other team doesn't just "decide" to play a halfcourt game. The point of our press is to "speed you up". When a team can beat our press that's when we struggle because we struggle to SCORE in a halfcourt game. We are fine defending in the half court. It's just that our offense is based on forcing you into turnovers. I think it's a bad misconception that we can't defend in the half court. Our issue is that we CAN'T SCORE in the halfcourt. And Stovall's county team that won it all won it because they were a complete team that had the best player from the second region since hopson and they because a terrific half court defensive team.

Again, you can try to slow down all you want. The key to "slowing it down' is your offense vs. hoptown, not your defense. If your offense can limit turnovers the game slows down... It's not how you play defense (few are silly enough to press them) it's how you play offense.

Bowling Green is a different animal... They're on another level. They've built quite a team there.

That's actually not the case. The teams that give hoptown trouble are teams that don't turn the ball over against us. Hoptown plays defense. We play very hard. It's just that our style is as such that if we don't force turnovers we have trouble scoring. When you don't turn it over against hoptown it forces us into a halfcourt game. When we have to run halfcourt offense we lose. Good teams are able to do that. There are some folks amongst us fans who wish (again, not complaining, we are in the midst of a great run) that we would focus more on a halfcourt defense early in the year in order to force us to learn to run halfcourt offense. We get in too much of a habit of relying on turnovers against non-sweet 16 teams and then when we play the best teams who are able to handle our pressure we are kind of like a lost puppy dog. The difference between us and UHA the last few years has been about a 6 or 7 minute stretch when we force them to speed up and turn the ball over. We end up winning by 20 or so in those games. Last year in 1st round of district they led for most of the first half. We went on a run in the 3rd quarter and that was the difference. The other night they "only" turned it over 13 times. that still seems like a lot. But by "only" turning it over 13 times they kept it within 4 on our floor.

I definitely think HOptown has talent. But I think expectations for some specific players may not have been accurate. Govan, the transfer from county who was to be our "shooter" this year started out super hot. He really didn't play much at county last year but was getting minutes for us and shot lights out for the first few games. He's been non-existent since. Then you look at a guy like Toliver who was supposed to be their next Matlock. He's kind of a Kelena Azabuike case. Looks terrific but doesn't play like he's a physical player. And James Nicholas hasn't lived up to the hype. Again, I love all of those kids but I'm not sure they are as good as the expectations a lot of folks put on them. So you're basically left with Cager, hennigan and Johnson. Johnson has developed in a tremendous way, but I don't think Shorty has. I think that's partially why this team seems to have regressed. We lost our best shooter and leader from last year. We haven't really replaced that guy and a couple of guys we needed to step up haven't. CJ was never gonna be an impact player. In my opinion you can't win with just one "impact" guy. Right now Jalen is that guy. We need somebody else to step up. I'm not sure we will get that from our current roster? Not to say that they can't. Tim Haworth teams need an alpha dog like Jaqualis Matlock. I think we still miss not having him. It's what lead our press, which was our signature. he's who would take over a game when we needed it. I just don't see anybody on our roster close to him. And I think that's what we need to beat the best. I'm afraid to say it, but because of matchups I think County may be a bigger favorite over us than they would be vs uha.

Thank you for doing this. I haven't been since it's been moved to Frankfort. I would come watch the UHA vs. Newport/Cordia winner. I hear the UHA vs cordia game last year was a good one. What's the story on cordia? Didn't they lose one or two key contributors?

How are Newport and cordia? Even as a hoptown fan I always enjoy seeing UHA in this tournament. This was kind of the default "title" game last year in the semis, correct? Cordia lost their best player? Newport lost a lot?

yep. This game was an example of why we struggle at state. When we play a team that can limit turnovers and run a solid offense we typically struggle. Against good teams under coach Haworth we really only know how to win one way. Turnovers.. If we don't get those turnovers against good competition we struggle. I'm not complaining because tim's probably the 2nd best coach in program history but I think with the talent we have, if we perfected a half court defense our "ceiling" would be higher than it has been under coach Haworth. Again, I'm not complaining. I guess i'm asking "what if"? In terms of the game... Bradshaw didn't do much which is weird because I couldn't imagine them beating us without him having a monster game.

I'm devastated that Jaqualis dropped out of school. I'm starting to get frustrated that our guys aren't sticking it out in college. How many have we had flunk out?

Great high school basketball game last night. A couple of things I noticed. Hoptown fan here, so i'm biased. A. Johnson saved our tail last night. he can't keep carrying us. UHA probably outplayed us the last 3 quarters and the score showed. I suspect teams are going to start shading their defense to Jalen. B. We rebounded better. CJ played the role he needs to play. He's not a primary option on offense. C. Shorty isn't developing like I hoped he would. I think he's probably peaked. I also think some teams are figuring out how to defend him. D. UHA has IMPROVED DRASTICALLY over a year ago. they play MUCH better defense. If they had a big man they'd be the best 2nd region team this year. They may still win the region. We were very lucky to escape with the win. E. In years past our Pressure defense shut down hollowell and tandy. It didn't work last night. That's worrisome to me for the rematch and the probable matchup in the 1st round of district. To me, county is the clear favorite. In terms of the Blue Paducah's comment about no defense and a track meet. That's just not true. UHA has improved a ton on defense and HOptown has always been known for our scrappy defense under Haworth. And why wouldn't you run with the athletes on the floor last night? And I'm not sure what Ryme is saying about Hollowell? Hollowell is playing much more as a true point guard. From what I've heard he's one of the leaders in the region in assists. They're getting more scoring from Tandy and the white kid, McGowan so they aren't asking him to shoot as much. Hollowell is the best senior in the region in my opinion with sebree close behind. I give hollowel the edge due to his consistency. Jalen has a tendency to disappear. But Tandy is the most talented player. he's developing greatly. Johnson is turning into a stud too. Always remarkable to me that the 3 best teams in the region are all in the city of Hopkinsville....