QueenoftheSouth

I understand why you say that. And I’ll agree that they don’t have the number of higher level athletes they’ve had the last couple years. But I still think they’re more athletic than most teams in the region. Brown, Driver & Richards are very athletic. Smith and Best are pretty athletic as well. And all 5 are in the top 7 of their rotation.

Clearly their percentages have not been great. As far as chemistry, there were a lot of issues over the past couple of years. Even more so last year. You could see that from the stands. Shot selection, who took the shots and the player rotations in general. Those had a lot to do with the poor percentages IMO. They’ve had good enough players the past couple years to have had better percentages than that. And yes, many played football but were more than just good athletes that happened to play basketball. I know that four of their best players last year had played basketball their whole lives, and at least three of those a lot in the offseason.

I heard he was playing.

Can’t deny your comment about the results. The results are what they are. But it doesn’t change the fact that, again this year, they have the players to compete for the regional title. Also I will say that, having watched many of their games over this period, it has not been due to lack of talent or intangibles on the players’ part. They’ve had the pieces to win it each of the last 2 years and, given the talent level in the region this year, that’s true yet again.

Brown is everything to this team. With a healthy Brown, Boyle should be able to play with (and beat anyone) in the region. If he’s not full strength, they will struggle mightily. He creates offense from his defense, and creates plays/manufactures offense on the other end. They do have athletes and he helps them to score. Because of that, they can win a lot in the 12th. If he isn’t on the floor or isn’t full strength, not sure how they score enough to beat many teams. Here’s hoping he stays healthy!

He’s been sick.

Oops, I understood that this was a NYE game! Didn’t realize they played yesterday.

It always seems that away games at Eastern Kentucky venues, in general, are harder to win than most other away games. I’ll take Corbin largely for that reason. On a neutral site, it’s a toss up IMO.

This will be a tough one on the road for Mercer. But their schedule is going to help them late in the season.

Excellent analysis of a tough subject matter at this point! Well done.

I don’t understand that given the records and margins. Maybe just not enough data yet for Massey to do its thing very well.

I agree that they weren’t going to win even had they been at full strength. But Brown completely changes the game, and Gooden helps on offense. I saw where Dixie only beat Knox by 8 last night. Is there more to the story there? If not, that makes the Boyle loss feel even worse. Also, did Boyle attempt to play up tempo? That’s when Driver is the most effective. I’m just not sure they’re capable of that without Brown.

So were D Brown and K Gooden both out/suspended today? If so, that’s their best player on both sides of the ball (Brown) and best shooter (Gooden). Doesn’t fully explain a 30 point loss but certainly makes a big difference for them. If you’ve watched Boyle much the last few years, you know that most of their offense comes from (super) athletic guard play, some of which is generated from pressure D. Without that, they won’t fare well at all against average (or better) competition. Point being the lack of Brown is worth more to Boyle than most any other team’s top guard being out. They’re just going to struggle to score.

DCA has been a pleasant surprise to me. As I mentioned in another post, their role players are better than I expected and their new coach is more effectively using their size on both sides of the ball. At this point in the season, they sure appear to be the best team in the 12th. Looking forward to seeing what they can do against a top 20 team. A solid showing, even without getting the win, still cements them atop what’s looking like a pretty weak region this year.

How did Brown look? And did Driver play?

I saw on Twitter that GRC was dominating late in Q3 (51-28), and I believe had a 20 point lead to start Q4. Quite the comeback by Trinity! And to play Calloway down the wire was a nice showing as well. They’re a really nice team.

He does a nice job and they’re definitely a team that isn’t going to beat themselves. They’ll have to shoot extremely well to beat DCA.

Yep, wise. Those are vehy inexperienced guys that need developing and this is the time to do it.

DCA looked good yesterday. Their new coach seems to be using their bigs more and their supporting players seem to understand their roles. And that zone looked very good and will present big problems for 12th region teams. On the flip side, I expected more out of Russell. Looks like they have Fleming today. If they were in the 12th, they’d be a top 5 level team IMO. I expect a double digit win by DCA on their way to playing a legit top 20 team in the next round.

What is that model? That’s a 12th region team that I don’t have much familiarity with.

To my point above! On the flip side, I’m really puzzled by West. They got off to a much quicker start than I expected, only to seem to have taken a significant step backwards.

I agree. While I’m not sold on Southwest just yet, they have size and talent. And to your point, Wayne is already looking better. And SCC is surprising to the upside.

Yes, much better than points allowed. Back in the UK Pitino days, he measured defensive efficiency based on a lot of factors including FG% against, steals and deflections. Clearly, they played a pressing, up tempo style and were going to give up a lot more points per game than if they had played a halfcourt style. But they were very good defensively, better than a ton of teams that allowed less points per game. So yes, it has a whole lot to do with style of play. Given the limited stats available on the KHSAA site, effective FG% allowed would be the single best metric to determine quality of defense. Obviously, some way to factor in SOS is hugely important as well. Looking at the top 2 teams in the state, St X is allowing 52 PPG and the everage total points scored in their games has been 143. For Great Crossing, those numbers are 69 & 144. For comparison purposes, Mercer is 37 & 93; DCA 47 & 106; and Lincoln 47 & 110. I don’t believe that those 12th region teams are better defensively than the top 2 teams. And I do think the total points scored per game is critical for context.

Completely agree about Southwestern. I think the ranking are pretty solid with that one exception.