ConverseAllStar

#JCTA A lot of districts have kids that have tested positive.

Reacting to daily results in cases is like day-trading the stock market. Reacting to longer-term trends in hospitalizations and deaths is a more reasonable approach. I hope they don't overreact based on a few days of tests, especially if we don't know if all those were recent results or were accumulated over the last weeks/months. The more cases we get without a corresponding increases in deaths tells us the virus is weaker than originally thought, which may bode well for sports this fall. The teams that get it and develop antibodies / herd immunity will be well-positioned.

Fern Creek not in the field doesn't surprise me given their history in this tournament. I was surprised not to see Lexington Catholic.

If total number of people = total number of people, then the economy (and mental health) is the tie breaker!

That is an interesting point @PP1. If you look at state champions in Indiana, especially before class basketball, a majority of winners were from Indianapolis or north of Indianapolis.

I understood that the original intent of "flattening the curve" of coronavirus cases was to prevent us from overwhelming our medical system and to allow us to buy time to supply ventilators, PPE, and other materials to our hospitals. I believe the total number of cases would be similar under the "do nothing" model and the "flatten the curve" model - the difference is that the "do nothing" model would have overwhelmed the system. Can anyone confirm those comparative numbers? I know most Kentucky hospitals, including those in Louisville and Lexington, are operating well below capacity and several have furloughed workers. Of course, the major difference at this point (assuming we have shown that our healthcare system is not overrun nationally) is that the "flatten the curve" model will take longer to play out, as opposed to the "do nothing" model which would have spiked quickly then subsided. If these assumptions are accurate, I'm in favor of a limited opening of our economy while protecting our most vulnerable (who may have to quarantine for a longer period of time) but not to the point that it will overwhelm our healthcare system. The sooner we begin repairing the damage to our economy the better.

Indiana limits its HS teams to a 22-game regular season. Kentucky teams can play as many as 30. That means most of the games in Indiana are on Friday and Saturday nights, which generate larger crowds, more interest and community support especially from young kids who are learning the fundamentals and aspiring to become a high school player. Kentucky plays a large percentage of its games on on Monday - Thursday nights, generating smaller crowds and limited support from students and community. Each game in Indiana just means more. Additionally, Indiana (due to the aforementioned population difference) offers more college basketball opportunities for its high school players. Consider this: Indiana Division I: Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Butler, Indiana State, Ball State, Evansville, Valparaiso, IUPUI, Purdue Fort Wayne (10 schools) Kentucky Division I: Kentucky, Louisville, Western KY, Eastern KY, Murray State, Northern Kentucky, Morehead State (7 schools) And there are many more DII, DIII, NAIA programs in Indiana. Lastly, in addition be being a larger state in population, Indiana has bigger cities (Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Gary area, Terre Haute, Bloomington, Jeffersonville/New Albany, South Bend). Metropolitan areas tend to produce a greater number of good basketball players . . . and usually better ones.

Indiana tournament is now postponed.

KHSAA just announced a mandatory dead period through April 12. No practices, games, team events, etc.

Staff and immediate family only. No bands, cheerleaders, etc.

As of this morning, the Indiana High School Athletic Association plans to continue its basketball state championship with limited spectators (in line with CDC guidelines). Link to yesterday's press release: https://ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/news%20media/2019-20/031220.Coronavirus.pdf?ver=2020-03-12-161723-773

Butler head coach KC Goodin has resigned to take a role in school administration per Butler Athletics twitter.

The Fleming Factor has been huge for Male. The Bulldogs don't have dominant size, but it will be enough to wear down Collins.

Collins suffered through foul trouble in their loss to Oldham County a month ago. I don't see that being as large an issue tonight. Momentum and quality of play thus far at Henry County favors the Titans. They've looked strong over the last two weeks.

You can make a strong argument that this is the state championship game, just a couple of weeks early. Male hasn't lost with Fleming; I like them in this game.