Hoptown Tigers

The clutch play is great, but you always like to judge a team by how good they can play without their top player. Kyky can carry us all year and he will have to, but if he has 1 bad game in region against HHS or Madville and I will be worried.

 

I still say we win the region title, because we have the best player and that's usually how it goes in this region.

 

But you can also call these 2 games poor efforts and we still won, but if these efforts keep happening it's a trend and not just a bad game. What will get us better long term are the high level teams we will play over the next month on top of good tournament experience at the All-A.

 

Hoptown and Madville have more room for growth over the next 2-3 months than we do at this time. We aren't gonna get any taller. What would be crazy is if we won the district title, but ended up having to play Madisonville in the semi-finals and then Hoptown the next game. But unless you can find a way so somehow defend Tandy and contain him to around 30 points, no one has a chance.

 

What's crazy is that Brody and Mathis at CCHS probably have the best defensive backcourt that could cause UHA problems, but they lack scoring and overall depth to even be close to them.

I have to give Shouse some credit. He sat Tandy for 4 minutes in the second quarter when he and Crump weren't moving the ball well. In those 4 minutes Quarrels and McGee did a nice job of making a little run. I think UHA cut the lead during that stretch. I was impressed with Shouse's use of the bench last night. I don't think he pulls guys the way he did last night in previous years.

UHA had no answer for Ksuan Casey (25 points/20 rebounds). They were up three when he fouled out with a minute to go.

 

Madisonville was 16/30 at the free throw line, including 5/12 in the fourth quarter.

 

HIGHLIGHT REEL – University Heights 8 Madisonville 79 | Your Sports Edge

I Think Hollowell did a good job on Casey. The problem is he missed half the game because of foul trouble. Case and White struggle at the line and that's a problem because they get there so much. Heights had some buys miss free-throws who shoot over 80%. Tandy missed two late (never happens), Hollowell missed the and-1 and they missed the front end of two one and ones.

And I agree. In years past UHA folds in that situation.

I can't say, but Derrin Boyd has been a stud for Caldwell. Right now he is no doubt the second best player behind Tandy in the district...that says a lot. They are playing with confidence, however PT and Muhlenberg are the only teams they have played that I would considered quality teams. Logan County is the only other team they play until Madisonville (Jan 8). Should be an interesting game.

 

I believe Caldwell has taken over the 4th spot in the region, but there is still a lot of bball to be played this year.

What do you make of Caldwell's loss to Lyon County? Was Caldwell just not playing well?

Based on their schedule they played in two prestigious events already this season (Zip Zone Classic & Marshall County Hoop Fest) on two different sides of the state. Not to mention they played in the Lexington Catholic Tournament last year and they are scheduled to play in the Ashland Tournament this year.

That's right. Would have been fun to see Allen against Harmon. But unfortunately we don't get to see that.

What a great game and great atmosphere. Great ceremony for Buckner.

Casey was a monster for madisonville. UHA let him get the ball way too deep. Once UHA put Hollowell on him (when he was on the floor instead of sitting out due to fouls) they slowed him down.

I'll say that the officials were dreadful. On both sides. And that's about the best crew in region 2. They were wildly inconsistent. They let it be a brawl in the first 4 minutes and then suddenly it was called tight.

The poor officiating was on full display at the end of the first half. They basically let a guy from madisonville, #23 push multiple uha players. They gave him a warning. Credit to those kids from heights for backing away. Apparently that's what led to Crump getting his technical as he was mouthing as they walked off the floor. That was a completely mismanaged situation by the refs. They let a guy for one team get away with trying to basically fight a guy, then they call a technical for a kid mouthing.

That switched the momentum coming out from halftime. Heights should have gotten the ball up 1. Instead, Madisonville got two free throws and the ball and started on a 10-0 run.

Heights didn't play well and I think Madisonville probably played about as well as they can play and Heights still won. UHA sat KJ Crump the entire second half. Bold move but probably a good one in the long run. I suspect he will learn from that.

Foul trouble ruled the day again for UHA. When Hollowell was on the floor they were able to control things. But when he was out they struggled. If he can stay out of foul trouble he can slow casey down.

And on the last call... That's a really tough one. The guy from Madisonville really hit him hard. I have no idea what he was thinking. The sad part is I don't know if UHA would have gotten a shot off. But they had no chance because the Madisonville guy hit him so hard. At the end of the day, He fouled him, and pretty hard. In the open court. If they don't call it, UHA's mad. Since they did? Madisonville is mad. My advice for the kid from Madisonville? Don't foul.

I have no doubt that one of these two teams will represent region 2 in RUPP. I still think it will be UHA. In some ways, I'm more certain now because of how they were able to overcome a poor effort and beat a very good team.

I'll say this though. I think Hoptown can give Madisonville trouble. Casey won't go off like he did against us. Without him completely dominating inside that isn't even a contest. If we can neutralize him I think we could get them in a regional tournament. Crazy thing is, they might have to play us in the first round of regionals.

Would love to see Pendleton in some of the showcase events around the state. KOB, etc... I wonder if they got invited to any of the bigger events around the state?

Unless Scott County and Trinity draw each other in the first round like they did last year.

Wouldn't that be something...

I think there will be two teams who most assume won't lose in the first round of the sweet 16. Scott County and Trinity. Besides those two I think any of the other regional champs has a "chance" in their first round game. As long as they don't draw those two. Especially Scott County. I think Trinity is closer to the pack. Much closer. Than they are to Scott County.

Game is tonight at Blazer Gym. The Blazers won in convincing fashion last year at Madisonville.

I'm picking heights 85-75. I just don't think that Madisonville has the athleticism to stay in front of the Blazers. And you can't pack a zone in against them. Really tough team to defend.

The Blazers are also honoring Greg Buckner - State Champion, Former ACC player of the year at Clemson and 13 year NBA Veteran. They will be retiring his #. He is currently an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies. For a town our size we've produced some great players. But I'd say he's the best ever. And one of the best ever from the state. I'm a Tiger but I respect what he's done and what that program has done in terms of producing great players and people.

I think it's special that he gets to have his # retired while the all time leading scorer and best player since Buckner is at Heights. (I know, hot take, I think tandy is better than Hopson).

How deep does a team need to be to survive regionals?

It depends if they can play defense without fouling. Teams typically don't get tired by that point in the season if they aren't deep. Everybody has played a ton all season anyway and the teams you play in the regional are playing on back to back nights too.

I'm looking forward to our matchup with Madisonville. Last year when we played Sharp wasn't contributing much yet and Toliver was out. I think we match up much better this year. Really similar teams in my opinion.

Heights is the top team, no doubt and they proved it last night. We got most of the breaks. Two of their key guys were in foul trouble early. Tandy was hurt and missed a minutes he otherwise wouldn't have. We played pretty well and they played poorly, for them, and still pulled away at the end.

Sounds like a great game. I'm impressed that Mayfield has such a good program.

What an electric atmosphere and night.

First of all, let me say that Coach Miller is a breath of fresh air. I'm sad that he's a little older because if he was younger I think he could build a great program at Hoptown. He's doing a great job pushing discipline and academics. Something that we were missing for a long time.

I'm proud of our boys. They played hard and fought til the end. We have two major issues that i think will keep us from contenting.

A. I think our guard play is very poor. With the fiasco with Watts (who can blame him for leaving considering what happened) we are now razor thin at guard. We really don't have a point guard.

B. I worry about our scoring. James isn't a natural "first option". And Don really isn't going to create his own shot.

IN terms of the game last night. Let's be real. We got very lucky that Kyky missed big stretches of the game because of his busted chin. He got stitches after the game but played through it. He probably sat out 7 or 8 minutes more than he usually would. That really got them out of their flow. I had seen heights play a few times and they were running better offense than they had been. .

I'll also be real, we got a great whistle in the first 5 minutes. Hollowell and tandy both in foul trouble in the first 5 minutes really hurt their defense.

At the end of the day Heights is going to be very tough to beat. They're playing much better defense than they have in the past and they play bigger than they are. I suspect they'll run Madisonville like they did last year because Madisonville doesn't have the athleticism to keep up. their 25 point loss in the scrimmage to Scott County is looking more and more impressive every day.

Great game and great night for our community. Good luck to UHA the rest of the way. And congrats to my Tigers on a hard fought game. I'm happy Coach miller is in charge.