5thregionbasketball

The season has gotten off to a rocky start for pre-season #1 Central Hardin, while familiar face Elizabethtown has ascended to the top of the ratings. Taylor County is showing early on that they can play without standout Mason Guffey. Bardstown seems to have heard all the hype around Washington County and Bethlehem this year and would like people to remember that they have owned that district for the past several seasons. Week 2 brings us several district matchups in each district which should help clarify where teams might end up at the end of the season. Also, next week's review will be more in-depth with stats and such from games. My real job has demanded more time this week than usual, which necessitated a less-thorough review. Here's the ratings, heading into week 2: 1. Elizabethtown 2. Taylor County 3. Bardstown 4. Washington County 5. Bethlehem 6. Central Hardin 7. North Hardin 8. Larue County 9. Adair County 10. Hart County 11. Campbellsville 12. Green County 13. John Hardin 14. Nelson County 15. Marion County 16. Caverna 17. Thomas Nelson 18. Fort Knox 1. Elizabethtown, 2-1 The Panthers have played well to begin the season. A loss to Western to start, but nice wins against Barren County and Doss, have the Panthers sitting atop the ratings for week 1. Key Games this week: Bowling Green, @Central Hardin 2. Taylor County, 2-0 Taylor County is off to a great start, even without top player Mason Guffey. Taylor’s preseason rating may have been a bit low due to Guffey being out all season. They scored wins this week against Washington County and Green County. Key Games this week: @Campbellsville, Marion County, Adair County 3. Bardstown, 2-0 The Tigers had a pair of blowout wins to begin the season against Marion County and Thomas Nelson. Key Games this week: Trinity, @Nelson County 4. Washington County, 2-1 Expectations are high in Springfield. They faltered to begin the season with a loss to Taylor County, but rebounded against rival Marion County and closed out the week with a win against Sayre. Key Games this week: @Bethlehem, @Campbellsville 5. Bethlehem, 2-0 The Eagles also have high expectations for this season. They picked up a win against Sayre and district opponent Nelson County. Key Games this week: Washington County, @Thomas Nelson 6. Central Hardin, 0-3 The Bruins may have had higher expectations than any other team in the region. They’ve played tough competition to begin the season but so far have yet to scratch the win column. A blowout loss to North Oldham to start the season, followed by losses to Harrison County and Bracken County. Key games this week: @John Hardin, Elizabethtown 7. North Hardin, 2-1 The Michael Baffour era in Radcliff is off to a good start. A 5-point loss to Oldham County, followed by wins against Campbellsville and Paris. Key Games this week: Larue County, @Ft. Knox 8. Larue County, 2-1 The Hawks end the first week with a 2-1 record. A win against an outmatched Trailblazer Academy, followed by a loss to Collins and bookended with a win against Glasgow. Key Games this week: @North Hardin, @Hart County 9. Adair County, 3-0 The Indians are rolling out of the gates. They picked up 3 wins to start the season. A win over Boyle County, who is still missing some football players, and wins against Cumberland County and Green County. Key Games this week: Marion County, Campbellsville 10. Hart County, 2-0 Hart County takes care of business against Cumberland County and Caverna to start the season. Key games this week: Central Hardin, Larue County 11. Campbellsville, 1-2 The Eagles of Campbellsville were about a half-second away from being 2-1 instead of 1-2 to start the season. A big loss to Spencer to start the season followed up with a 2-point loss to North Hardin in a game that the Eagles could’ve won, followed by a win against Grayson County. Key Games this week: Taylor County, @Adair County, Washington County 12. Green County, 0-3 The Dragons appear, at least, early on to be a team that will be pretty good if they can figure out how to put 4 quarters together in one game. They start the season 0-3 with losses to Taylor County, a 2 point loss to Adair County and then a loss to Frankfort. Key games this week: @Marion County, Caverna, @Bardstown 13. John Hardin, 0-2 The rebuild at John Hardin is on. A 19 point loss to Bullitt East and a 30 point loss to Butler start the season for the Bulldogs. Key games this week: Central Hardin 14. Nelson County, 0-2 Nelson County is 0-2 to begin the season with losses to Edmonson County and Bethlehem. The Bethlehem loss may not have been as bad as expected. Key games this week: Bardstown 15. Marion County, 0-2 The Knights are hoping that their atrocious season a year ago doesn’t follow them into this season. So far, it’s more of the same, with losses to Bardstown and Washington County. Key Games this week: Green County, @Adair County, @Taylor County 16. Caverna, 1-1 The Colonels are the only team ranked from 12-18 to pick up a win in the first week of the season. It was however a win against Fort Knox. They dropped their other game last week to district and crosstown rival Hart County. Key Games this week: @Glasgow, @Green County 17. Thomas Nelson, 0-3 New coach Terrence Miles was hoping for a better start to the season for the Generals. They suffered blowout losses to South Oldham, Bardstown, and Ohio County. The smallest margin of loss was 34 points to Ohio County. Key games this week: Bethlehem 18. Fort Knox, 0-1 It’s always difficult to know what the Eagles might have, but with only 1 game played so far, it doesn’t look like things will be much different than they have been the past few seasons. They suffered a 34-point loss to Caverna in the only game they played this week. Key games this week: @Beth Haven, North Hardin

Yes, lost basically everything they had. Top 7 scorers all gone due to graduation. Highest returning scorer will be Jake Owens who averaged about 4 ppg.

Agreed. Outside of just a few teams I think they're should be many competitive games all season.

5th Region Pre-Season Rankings/Prediction 1. Central Hardin- Central Hardin returns potential Player of the Year in Brett Decker, who averaged over 20 points per game last season. He’ll have a strong supporting cast with Ace Jaggers and Jakob Fredrickson and Etown transfer Jett Williams, once he gets ruled eligible. 2. Washington County- If the Commanders don’t take the 19th district this year, well there is always next year as they should be strong next season as well. Beau Baker will lead the Commanders. Baker averaged 15 ppg last season and will be a force on the boards as well. Stevie Woodson’s squad will also have seasoned pg Noah Reynolds to run the offense and Kamar Phillips as a double digit scorer to lean on. Adding Riley Brown from Thomas Nelson could be the difference maker for the Commanders. 3. Elizabethtown- James Haire will return an upper classmen heavy squad, however most of the experience will be found with his juniors. Losing Alandre Murphy’s 16.9 ppg will be tough to replace, and the supporting cast of Ryan, Peeler and Hall will be a difficult rebuild. The Panthers will need Ayden Evans to show the region why he should be in the conversation for player of the year. 4. Bethlehem- The Eagles return everyone, that includes Casey Steadmon who averaged 17.9 ppg last season, Hayden Osborne who averaged 14 ppg and Nicholas Osborne who averaged 10.2 ppg. The Eagles will be eying a return to the 5th Region tournament for the first time since 2018. 5. Larue County- The Hawks have been dominating in the 18th district and they hope to continue that this season. Carson Childress and Daniel Allen return a big chunk of the Hawks offense from last season, averaging 15.3 and 11.8 ppg respectively. Of course, the noticeable missing piece will be Cutter Boley who transferred before the beginning of the school year. 6. Bardstown- The Tigers have been in the 19th district like Larue County has been in the 18th district. Boo Brewer’s team will have to replace a lot of scoring this season without Andrew Mason and Bryce Riley. They’ll look for Grant Bowling to shoulder the bulk of the load. Never count out the Bardstown Tigers. 7. Green County- The Dragons could be a sleeper team to watch in the region. They have a new coach in Jordan Gilbert, and they lost Kellen Whitlow to graduation. But the Dragons return Hayden Blakeman, who averaged 19 ppg as a Freshman. Jayden Marr, Houston Hodges and Kelson McKinney will be counted on to contribute quite a bit as well. 8. Taylor County- The Cardinals are probably underrated in this list but they’ll be without Mason Guffey, who averaged 18.6 ppg last year due to a torn ACL. Layken Lyons will have to pick up the slack, he’s certainly capable, and they’ll have Jackson Wise running the point. The Cardinals will depend heavily on the defense to make up for what they’ll miss in Guffey’s scoring. 9. North Hardin- The Trojans will have a whole new look on the sideline this year. After the way the season ended for them, they’re looking for a bit of a culture change. Michael Baffour will be the new man at the helm to lead the Trojans. He’ll have returning Taveon Smith, who could quietly be one of the best players in the region. Shaun Boykins 9.5 ppg returns this year as well. 10. Hart County- Justin Line will have the Raiders ready to go when the season gets started. Jaxson Shoulders will look to build on a solid season from a year ago, where he averaged 12.6 ppg. He’ll have Jordan Bradley and Clark Rexroat to help the Raiders make a run in the 18th district. 11. Adair County 12. John Hardin 13. Campbellsville 14. Marion County 15. Nelson County 16. Caverna 17. Thomas Nelson 18. Fort Knox 17th District 1. Central Hardin 2. Elizabethtown 3. North Hardin 4. John Hardin 5. Fort Knox 18th District 1. Larue County 2. Green County 3. Hart County 4. Caverna 19th District 1. Washington County 2. Bethlehem 3. Bardstown 4. Nelson County 5. Thomas Nelson 20th District 1. Taylor County 2. Adair County 3. Campbellsville 4. Marion County

I haven't done my background checking for my rankings for bluegrass preps yet this year, but I would agree that these do not seem that reliable. Nothing against Washington County but they'll have had to improve greatly and just about everyone else drop a notch to be pre-season #1.

Nelson County has hired Mark Evans, former head coach from Mercy.

Michael Menifee has stepped down as head coach for the Lady Cardinals citing personal reasons.

Yes.

Taylor assistant coach is accurate. Believe this will keep a couple of kids who were thinking of transferring to Green at Taylor.

Haven't seen this one posted anywhere. The current boys coach is also the AD. I wonder if there is a change there as well.

He retiring or heading somewhere else?

What happened with Willett?

Hearing that they are down to a final 3, two of which might include Bracken HC, Adam Reed and Thomas Nelson HC, Josh Kays.

All of Coach Brewer's kids have graduated. Have also heard his name rumored to this job, but recently told he might be in consideration to join Kenny Payne's staff at U of L.

Hearing that the Taylor/Green County game was called in the 6th inning due to benches either emptying or nearly emptying. Have been told multiple ejections. Anyone know what happened?

I was told yesterday, that the entire coaching staff was non-renewed. That doesn't necessarily mean that they won't be back, but just that, they've been non-renewed.

My understanding was that he was given the option to resign the day after the incident. He did resign and they were waiting to announce the job opening. Not sure why they would wait so long, but that's their decision. Cofer will land somewhere if he wants to continue to coach. He's an excellent coach, but just my opinion, he always had a few people who stirred things up and kept things contentious for him. If the next coach at North is going to be successful, then they also need to remove an assistant coach as well.

That's a great nickname for the Perry kid. Have only seen Lyon play once this year. Have seen John Hardin a few times. I'll take John Hardin in a close one.

John is a good guy, he referee's basketball in the 5th Region. Not sure what his baseball experience would be, but just as a human being, he's a quality guy. At least from the few interactions I've had with him.

Hate to go against my region team, but Bullitt East will be too much for the Banshees. Score may end up being close, but I don't feel like this game will feel close.

I don't really see anything wrong with the official either, and hope that you're right, but I don't think that will be the case.

This is a really unfortunate incident. And there will not be equal penalties. I certainly agree with the assessment that the player initiates this incident and the official escalates it. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done anything different if I were the official. In the heat of the moment, a shove to get the player away from me would seem appropriate. But here's what will bother me: the player, if he's not a senior will be suspended for 2-3 games to start next season. If the school really pushes it, they will likely get to count a scrimmage as one of those games. That official has most likely worked his last postseason game. If he is allowed to come back and in my mind that will be a big if (also why would he want to?) he will see a drastic reduction in his schedule from this year. Just my opinion.

Really surprised at how close this game was. Haven't seen stats for Larue, but missed free throws really hurt. Kudos to Larue for making this game much more competitive than it should have been and to Bethlehem for pulling out the W.

It is a high school rule that bench personnel cannot leave the vicinity of the bench to participate. I was just told that the Bowling kid will be out tonight against Washington County.

There were two Bardstown players that left the bench. I'm not saying that I blame them, but if you leave the bench area it's usually an ejection and suspension.