Mojocat

Yep, that would make sense (so they’ll no doubt do something else!)……

It's seemed to me that Christian Academy is the obvious candidate to move to the 29th district. But if they were to do so, it would only leave 3 teams (KCD, Eastern, Ballard) in the 28th, which wouldn't solve anything. Shelby County, Collins or Spencer from the 30th might make geographic sense, but I suspect none of them would want to leave where they've been - rivalries, etc.

Impact at the high school level vs college potential. Interesting topic, always. I am guessing in this region these are the guys who most would rank highest (not in any order): Teagan Moore Dallas Roberts Max Green Jasper Johnson Dylan Hammonds There are a couple of others that come to mind, but this is likely a near consensus view of the top 5. After all this time (didn't he start varsity in the 2nd grade? heh), I still haven't seen Moore play. Saw Johnson last year a couple of times, and to be honest he did not stand out to me, certainly not a kid I looked at and thought "nationally ranked". But I hear he improves almost daily, and is a different player now. In terms of high school vs college, Hammonds stands out. Wonderful high school player, but at 6'4 and nearly exclusively an interior player, doesn't figure to translate to college. You can never measure things like heart, ambition, etc., tho. There may well be a kid out there who goes the other way - wouldn't appear on anyone's best player list in high school, but translates well to the college game.

In another thread, Runcible Owl made reference to the Massey Ratings - a name I'd not heard in years and had forgotten about, honestly. I just looked up the KY High School Boys ratings - here: https://masseyratings.com/hsbb/ky/ratings Some surprising results for 8th region teams, relative to the typical "non-metric" view: 1. Collins (#5 in the state) 2. North Oldham (#7) 3. Simon Kenton (#20) 4. Grant County (#33) 5. Woodford County (#35) 6. Oldham County (#46) 7. Spencer County (#61) 8. South Oldham (#72) 9. Owen County (#74) 10. Anderson County (#89) Woodford County, Owen County and Anderson County stick out as the contrarian picks. in each case strength of schedule looks to factor heavily. Woodford's is, per these metrics anyway, the #11 schedule in the state. Owen is at #115, and Anderson at #165.

Boy. That’s a hard one to figure. In the span of 6 days, Lexington Christian loses to CAL by 30 and beats OC by 25.

Ah, I see - if he made it to the Sweet 16 last year, then he very much got off to a good start, and I suspect the folks there will be patient while he rebuilds. I remember being very surprised probably 20 years ago to read that the two largest public schools in Kentucky were in Hardin County - North and Central. Which is why it was necessary to build JH presumably. Not sure if the lines are drawn weirdly just because that's the way the county and demographics dictate, or if there's something else going on. We have a similar situation in Oldham: North is 3A, South is 5A and OC is 6A (I think that's right).

I'm pretty sure they were both in foul trouble. I remember thinking at the end of regulation they had between them 2 points and 8 fouls. A key point to the game - and maybe the key in my mind - was how things would go on the interior. Amburgey is an athletic kid who fights and scraps for everything, really like him. But, he's maybe 6'4, and there's only one of him. Higdon and Anderson are 6'5 and 6'6, both long and athletic, and I really thought they'd make life hard for Amburgey, who is pretty much strictly an inside player. And the exact opposite happened - he got both of them in foul trouble, he produced and they largely did not, and now you're trying to settle things on the perimeter - and that's a game where the odds are much more balanced. I say "he" got them in foul trouble - that's not really it, it's not like he just took them both on and they kept fouling. Rather, as I said above the defense collapsed to a good deal into the paint, and neither of Higdon or Anderson could find room to operate. So they ran through and jumped over - and both got in foul trouble....

Is this the first year, or second, for John Hardin's coach? I'm used to them being among the region favorites. He's not off to a great start!

The thing I noticed about Simon Kenton that made them a little unique is the big kid in the middle takes up so much ground in the back of that zone that it allows the guards out front to extend the defense to an unusual degree. Meaning, the other team is starting its offense closer to half court than is typical. That does leave some room in the gap around the free throw line, but not as much as you'd think. I, too, think the Region is North's to lose. But the game Friday against OC makes me less certain about that than I was previously. Scales extends the defense - with him out, the opponent can simply crowd the paint. North's 2 bigs - Higdon and Anderson - had 2 points between them in regulation. Levitch has time to figure things out. But not too much......

Yes, they do, and he must be a pretty fair coach. At one point I thought he might get the Ballard job in the spring. Out of curiosity I just looked up the Goodin kid’s stats, and honestly he’s putting together a really impressive season. 20 points a game, 58% from the field, 54% from 3 and 82% from the free throw line. That’s as impressive to me as a kid averaging 25 or 30 and putting up a ton of shots and shooting a lower percentage. Still, I don’t think of him as a kid who’ll get you 5 or 6 buckets in a row during crunch time to settle the thing. Again, not that he couldn’t……

All of that is a reasonable basis to form an opinion, won’t argue with it. Regarding having someone to take over a game, of course Green, Roberts, Hammonds and Moore can do that, and in fact have pretty often. The kid at Collins is a good athlete and fine player, but has never struck me as the kind of offensive force (and Collins is arguably as good or better than any of those teams). Is that a function of his personality? The head coach’s philosophy? Not sure. Splitting hairs here…..

I’ve not seen a box score yet, but South hit a bunch of threes yesterday, and naturally they’ll look a lot better when that happens. Henry County, God love ‘em, is pretty bad, and yet it was a 10 point game in the 3rd. South’s point guard was out, and when he’s out they sometimes have trouble getting into their offense. But then the 3s parade started, and it went from 10 to 30 in no time.

All reasonable responses…..

Point 1: watching Grant County yesterday, these two scores stood out in my mind, under the heading of "how in the world"? Grant County 85 South Oldham 62 and Grant County 88 Oldham County 53 I saw the South game, and the brief explanation is, South came out looking good and was up I think 7 after a quarter. Grant overtook them to lead by half, and was up 8-12 most of the 3rd quarter. At some point (my interpretation) the coach was a bit ticked off by the, umm, action, and benched most of his starters for the 4th - and Grant ballooned the lead to 23 by game's end. For the OC game, I recall hearing Hammonds (wonderful player, but was shooting 17% on threes entering the game, on very few attempts) made something like 6 of 7 treys. Point 2: I'm a little surprised at the way South Oldham is viewed on this board relative to OC. Meaning, I'm not surprised at the lack of respect for South - two bad seasons and this one is mediocre and you get respect when you earn it. More so I'm surprised at the respect given Oldham County. South is 10-9, Oldham County is 10-8. They played - at Oldham - to a two point game. Oldham lost to an 0-10 Doss team, lost to Grant by 35. Again, not complaining about South being slighted, just surprised at the benefit of the doubt given our rival in Buckner......

Well, that's a sad tale. Didn't these boys used to play for Augusta? One of them is in my kid's grade (a junior now), so I remember him. Good player, but not worth all of that. I presume the coach and his kids arrived as a package deal (maybe totally erroneous assumption), so reigning them in may be difficult. Promises made, etc.....

Not familiar with this story - what’s the nutshell summary?

I assume it’s been a while since Reed Sheppard finished a game with 4 points on 1/9 shooting.

The two younger refs are - I’ve thought this for several years - the best and most consistent officials in this region. But I thought in both the South/OC game and the North/OC game they had poor nights. I haven’t seen a box score yet, and while both Anderson and Higdon scored in the extra period, I’m pretty sure at the end of regulation they had 2 points and 8 fouls between them. Is that simply a matter of Scales not being on the perimeter, allowing OC to collapse things and crowd the paint? That’s probably part of it.

Well, that’s sound advice - but I didn’t do anything with my heart. That was just a big old miss. We know plenty of kids and parents at both schools. I know both head coaches personally. I didn’t think North would win big because I wanted them to win or wanted OC to lose. I have thought this North team is the best team I’ve seen in the 8th Region in several years, and this is not a vintage OC team (losing to 0-10 Doss affirmed that). Plus I just thought this was a bad matchup for OC. Now, the team I saw tonight is not one anyone would call “the best 8th region team in several years.” Contra, say, the Lyon County game. Does Scales make that much difference? Did they just have a bad night? Just a rivalry thing? Don’t know. But it wasn’t the same team….

Roberts hits a 3 to put North up 44-40 with 6:55 left to play. North’s bigs really struggling - Higdon and Anderson have between them 2 points and 7 fouls.

North only up 2 (27-25) at the break. My prediction of a 20 point win for the Mustangs is right on track - they’ve got ‘em just where they want ‘em! Heh North is a bit out of sync on offense. Either they miss Scales more than I anticipated or OC is doing a good job on the defensive end. Likely both.

Regarding the Max/Dallas debate, I'm the contrarian I guess. I'll take Roberts, certainly at the high school level. At 6'1 he may not have a D-1 future, and at 6'6, Max might. But I'll give North the nod at the 1. And I don't mean that Roberts will necessarily outscore Green, in fact I'd be shocked if that happens. I mean he'll do more to put his team in position to win the game. Point guard: Dallas Roberts - Max Green: advantage North Oldham Two guard: Jack Fisher - Cam Roush: advantage North Oldham Wing: Grant Neal - Abram Stinebruner: advantage OC Four: Ian Higdon - Luke Amburgey: advantage North Oldham Big: Luke Anderson - Henry Marcum: advantage North Oldham And it's certainly possible that Neal outplays Stinebruner in a given game (although to be fair some of the other matchups are close enough that they could likewise, in a given game, swing to OC's favor). There is a chance, being a rivalry game, that this is closer than expected. I think there's a better chance it gets out of hand. OC is easier to game plan for - they only have 3 guys that can score with much consistency. I'll go with the clearly stronger team playing at home. North Oldham - 78 Oldham County - 58

which is curious/funny, as Mom and Dad aren't exactly giants. Reminds me of Tyler Herro, who is close to (if not actually) 6'6. Dad is maybe 6'1 and Mom is 5'6. Just a case of God saying, I have something a little different in mind for you. ?

Yes, I hear that. A kid I know pretty well (happens to live in my house ?) plays point, and leads his team in assists, rebounds, minutes, shots blocked, charges, floor burns, field goal percentage, and three-point percentage. He is very much a pass-first kind of player, so he doesn’t lead his team in scoring. The vast majority of the time someone comments on his team (traditional media, social media, in person, whatever), if an individual player is named, it’s the kid who does lead them in scoring. Which is fine, and understood. That’s how we all think - you hear the final score of a game, the obvious first question everyone asks is who led them in scoring? No one thinks to ask “who led them in assists?” heh. It’s the way the world works. He doesn’t care about that, he just wants to win. But most kids, they naturally want the hype (I don't mean that as a negative, it's human nature), and the only way to get it is to score in bunches. So, yeah, you don’t see many “traditional point guards” anymore……. in 16 games, Green has taken 293 shots, the next most on the team is 143. in 20 games (one fewer than others), Roberts has taken 268 shots, next most is 168.

All true - if you accept the premise that Green is truly a point. I don’t think he is. All the things he does well point to him being a 2, and the weaknesses in his game all involve being a 1. Just my opinion of course.