Mojocat

I’m honestly surprised they missed 7, didn’t feel like it. Even if North Oldham we’re to go stone cold this half (not likely), I don’t think Woodford is built to come back from a big deficit.

I originally thought the technical was for excessive celebration (whatever that might mean). But Jason Frakes of the CJ later said the technical was against a specific player, Dez Lindsay of Male. From the article: “But in the celebration, Male’s Dez Lindsay was assessed a technical foul for what Haworth described as an unsportsmanlike act.”

All season, it appeared - or was obvious - that there were 4 teams above the rest in the 8th Region: Collins, Woodford County, Oldham County, North Oldham. And here we are, down to the final four, and it’s those same 4 teams. Woodford and Collins were more consistently good than the two Oldham schools, but based on the way they’ve looked last night and tonight, I don’t think anyone will be surprised if Woodford County and Collins exit the tournament Monday evening.

As per usual, extremely thorough and informative preview. This sentence about Owen County made me say “What?” out loud: “Among their wins during that stretch was an impressive 13-point victory over a 19-win Spencer County squad from the 30th district.” surely that’s not right, I had to go look. That was during a weird stretch for Spencer County when they lost 4 of 5, including a mystifying 43 point loss to OC, and the lone win was by 3 over a pretty mediocre Shelby County team. I wonder if they were battling illness or injurie… anyway, really looking forward to this tournament….

CAL yet another team that's hard to understand, wide range of very nice showings and also some weird losses. Good luck to the Centurions next week......

North Oldham is a puzzle.

hey, I saw that game too. heh. In that case, the free throw disparity is easily explained: the team that was more aggressive, often playing man to man, shot 23 free throws, and the team that often played a zone shot 1 free throw. Err, wait, maybe it doesn't make sense in hindsight. Agree with your overall point - I heard Bilas the other day just ranting about college officials, and their hesitancy to call fouls, and how it's really mucking up the college game. Same is true for the high school game. I try not to cast any stones, it's a difficult job and parents I know can be unmerciful. But if a kid gets to the rim, and goes to the ground, that's probably a foul, and yet often it's not called. I don't know what has led to this mindset.... As for North v St X, we've played both. We led St X for most of that game, and were up 5 fairly late in the 4th if I recall right, and they pulled it out. Had one kid (#2 Williams) who hit several clutch threes, and from deep, and that made the difference. The North game, meanwhile, wasn't particularly close after say midway through the 3rd. Based only on those 2 contests, I'd say North wins by between 5 and 10. But, it's at X....and more than that, as you guys are saying, North has an unpredictable element this year. It may be as simple as they show up for the perceived tough games and not for others, and that explains some of the head-scratching losses. Net of all that, if you put a gun to my head, I'd say X by 3.....

The other thing I'd say - and this is a genuine question - is, how many places would this really be a big factor? If you live in Louisville, say, where there are close to 40 high schools and many of them are close together.....you can simply transfer schools without moving. But I assume in less populated areas, that would be more difficult, and that a lot of times a player couldn't realistically transfer to School A from School B unless his family moved residences. Is that true - or no? If it's true, I can't believe that many kids would/could do it.....

Whenever this topic comes up, some folks sort of cynically think of two situations in which a kid might want to transfer: 1. The kid (or more likely his parents) think he's better than he really is, and he's not getting enough playing time - or, closely related, the kid just doesn't like hard coaching. 2. Evil coach from power school is sneaking around recruiting kids. If you frame it that way, you end up saying what many have said: kids need to learn to deal with adversity, and it should be against the rules for a coach to pilfer players. But, there are a bunch of different reasons why a kid might want to go to a different school, and some of them are actually good reasons. The problem is how do you craft a rule that governs all the situations/reasons, good and bad.

What in the world? The KHSAA site says it was 74-41 ….. but either way, it’s a score that makes no sense. Two 6th Region schools, presumably schedules are comparable, DeSales enters the game 12-12, and Bullitt East was 15-11. I’ve seen both, would consider it a tossup, or maybe have BE as a slight favorite. Yet DeSales wins by 33 (or 43, whichever). More nonsensical scores like this in the current season than I can recall before…..

29th only plays each other district team once - which struck me as very odd when I moved to Oldham County. I guess I've gotten used to it, although it seems with a 28 game schedule, you'd have room for more district games.......

Yes, you’re right, meant to type OC, just came out wrong - and as far as 83 minus 55 being 38……it was my understanding there would be no math.

Two observations about Sheppard. One, he clearly has accepted his “cult-like” status. He knows people are watching him closely - he was hacked several times last night (as were other kids on both teams, it was called verrry loosely), but he never made a face, never threw his arms in exasperation, never said a word to the officials. Impressive self control for anyone, especially a 17 year old in the spotlight. And regarding the post above about staying after to sign things, someone told me after each game in the King of the Bluegrass, he stayed, with a smile on, until the last person in line was tended to. Good stuff, he should be proud, as should mom and dad. Two, he is deceptively good. Very much controls the game. At the risk of being offensive, he doesn’t have much to work with on his team. Davidson is a decent player, and that’s about it as far as natural talent. Two of the starters show belly, which is hard to do as a teenage athlete. Anyway, looking at CCH’s roster, and then at North Laurel’s roster, you might expect a 40 point win for CCH (e.g., North Oldham is a decent team, one of the 4 best in the 8th, and lost by 38 to Cov Catholic last week). But North Laurel is competitve, they fight, they are well coached - and mostly, they have a kid at point who knows how to pull strings and control a game. He’s very good, beyond the dunks and threes that get the attention.

You can say that again. I really don’t like to see games called this way - it’s not really a competition of skills at that point.

Would be interesting to know how many on that list should be sophomores. I heard recently that Magwood got an offer from Coastal Carolina. But then someone else told me an assistant coach at that school has Louisville ties (to Collegiate, specifically) and had scoured the region, making offers to several (as in quite a few) kids. Point the person was making to me - don't be too impressed with that offer, plenty of kids got it.

As per usual, really thorough treatment here, Mike. Thanks. I had sort of got it in my head over time that there was a clear division in this Region between the top 4 (OC, North Oldham, Collins, Woodford County), and that within that top 4, there was a clear number 1 (Woodford) and then the other 3 followed in some order. I say all that even though I've not seen Woodford County even for 5 minutes. But the results this week don't point to that kind of neat delineation between the teams. Then after those 4 there are 5 more teams (6? 7?) that are pretty even, and it just depends on how they might look on a given night against a given opponent. That much is probably still true. I will say that Spencer County looked very good against South Oldham last week. Maybe we just caught them on a good night, or maybe it's a bad matchup for South, or maybe Burns knows Simpson's stuff so well since he was under him so long that he's well positioned to counter it. I don't know - whatever it was, they looked pretty good that night.

Not sure what to think of this one. Hoping for a good, close game. And that's not an unreasonable request, just based on some comparative scores (dangerous, I know). The most obvious is the OC game for each - South had the lead in that one for most of the first half and into the second, and OC had the lead against North until about 3 minutes to go in the 4th. It's a rivalry game. Both teams have had trouble keeping their lineup intact from both Covid and injury. I think both are fully weaponized at this point, but you don't know if they've had time to redevelop chemistry and if the kids that have been out have game legs, etc.

I'm familiar with about half of those kids, and based on that it's a good list. The following observation is so old-fashioned it may not only be quaint but also worthless - and that is the 2 standouts on this list, at least in terms of points per game production if not in other ways as well, are holdbacks and should be (at least) juniors this year. Someone familiar with the Spencer County team told me this weekend Erhardt won't be eligible his senior season. Who knows if that's true - my Momma always said believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. (Aside: if it is true, I really don't understand what was gained by holding him back?). As I've said elsewhere on these boards, we live in a different era now, with kids transferring and being held back routinely - it literally happens all over the place. The only thing you can go by, in this instance, is the "Soph." next to the kids name. Anyway, bunch of good players noted here. Will be interesting to watch how each develops, or does not, over the next two years. Good work Mike.

Tremendous amount of time and work involved in that review - appreciated as always Mike.

South Oldham has played both teams - and based on what I saw from each, I would have regarded a Collins/Boyle County game as a toss up. I believe Boyle County beat South by 8 (but it was really a one or two possession game until some free throws at the end) and Collins beat South by 3. I was impressed with Imfeld from Boyle.

Sorry to hear that, Mike. Prayers and condolences your way.

Did he reclassify? This is yet another kid I know from being a teammate with my kid in travel baseball or AAU basketball - several of them mentioned in 3 sports across these forums, and I’m surprised how many of them reclass. His Dad played basketball for WKU, by the way, so yes, nice gene pool. This kid is the only basketball player I’ve ever been around whose parents were hoping he’d stop growing (they’ve been told if you get taller than 6’6 or so, it would limit QB opportunities).

I think that makes roughly 100 Louisville commits in classes 2022-2025. Only a slight exaggeration….. Anyway, good for Jake. Have known him and his family thru travel ball for years.

So Rivals has it this way, in terms of national ranking: Reed Sheppard North Laurel 21 Kaleb Glenn Male 61 George Washington III 65 and 247 has it thus: Glenn 38 Washington 40 Sheppard 51 And that’s a pretty big discrepancy between the two….

I’m not sure how to think about this one. It either works out great (if he ends up at UK) or it’s a disaster. Not much in between. A recruit ranked between 30 and 50 is not a sure thing by any stretch. The guards Calipari has brought in at that range include SGA, Stacey Poole, Juzang, Herro, Charles Mathews and Jon Hood. Sheppard might be Herro. He might be Hood. Kentucky fans - because he’s from Kentucky and especially because of his Dad’s history at UK - assume he’ll be Herro (if not John Wall). If he comes in and plays better than his ranking and gets plenty of time and produces, all will be great in the world. If he merely plays to his ranking (or, heaven forbid, turns out to have been overrated), it will be a mess. Because the reaction from some (and they will be loud) won’t be that the kid was just overrated. It will be Cal is screwing the kid over, Reed should be playing more, Reed should be getting more shots, etc.