24Rocks

West Jessamine 47 Boyle County 44 Boyle with a slow start. 5 points in the first quarter and 8 in the second.

I don’t know anything about Pendygraft.

I understand what you’re saying but I didn’t think he was particularly fast to begin with. A torn ACL and a year of rehab along with a pretty significant weight gain is not going to help with his speed. At 6-6 his best long term move might be to make the transition to offensive tackle.

Ateny, Absher, Phillips If you judge based on their value to their team it’s a toss up. They’re all three crucial to their team’s success. If you based it on offense AND defense it would make Ateny the front runner. And, if you based it on offense, defense, and rebounding he’d be the clear front runner.

I'm a DCA fan and was disappointed that we didn't go back this year but Somerset simply outplayed us. I have to give credit where credit is due. Somerset has a good chance, especially if they're hitting their threes.

Injuries have played a big role in the records of the 12th region teams this year and it's difficult to get a handle on things. Injuries are always an issue but this year they've hit some of the better players as well as some good teams who already have short benches. Some examples: Lincoln was without Cash Baird for awhile, one of their two best players. Danville has had injuries to a couple of their better players. Singleton, for one, has been out. DCA had a starter out against Somerset, Southwestern, Pulaski and Boyle. Against Boyle they were missing a starter and 3 players were dealing with injuries. Wayne has had 3 of their double figures scorers who've missed games. Somerset - I'm pretty sure I heard that some of their guys were playing despite injuries. I'm sure there are plenty more. It's tough to make any good predictions based simply on their records given the number of key players who've been out. It might be a useful exercise to answer the question "who's the best team IF they're playing up to their potential?" or maybe divide it up to "who has the best defense?" "the best size?", "the best shooting?", "the best guard play?" and see if anyone checks several of those boxes.

Another option would be to move Hager to offensive tackle. He’s a very large young man and with his height might be a good prospect.

If Hager's rehab goes well they'll have more tight ends than they will know what to do with.

Have there been any significant transfers taking place this semester? It's usually a good time to swap schools if you're going to do that given that it's the start of a new semester. Plus, from a football perspective they can participate in off season training with their new team. Clay Pendygraft, from Lincoln County, was hanging with the Boyle basketball team and sitting on the bench at the DCA/Boyle game last night and word was that he's going to Boyle to play football. Is there anything to that?

DCA over Boyle County 64 - 57 Leek Ateny from DCA and Seneca Driver from Boyle each with excellent games.

Leek Ateny with 30 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 blocks.

They were missing a starter who was out sick and only played 6 the entire game.

DCA over Pulaski 62-43 (At Pulaski)

This team has a bigger range in their performance than last year’s team. They can be better on offense when things are clicking but they can also be worse on defense. Titus and Lual kind of evened their defense out from game to game. Coach Busick has been experimenting with different defenses and some of them just haven’t been that good. Not to take anything away from their opponents. Somerset, for example, shot the lights out. Having Eli Perez back helped a lot given their short bench.

Danville Christian Academy 63 Spencer County 40 @ Spencer County. DCA was up 34 - 9 at halftime.

It would probably help if he could put on some weight because he’s really slim. Durant has proven that there can be a place for a tall, skinny shooter but he’d need to be on a team with some physical big guys because he’d have trouble defending the post against some of the post men you see these days who’d outweigh him by a lot.

He has had interest from Marshall but I’m not sure about an offer yet. He played AAU for a team out of Indiana. He played in the KY/Indiana junior all star game in the summer and did well despite being slowed down with an ankle injury.

How many points did Leek have?

59-49 Somerset. 4:05 left

I asked today and was told 500.

They're about the same on the top as on the bottom.

Just based on the number of bleachers I’d say it would be about the same as Burgin.

I'm firmly convinced that many (maybe most....) coaches overtrain their players. They schedule too many games and practices and don't back off in intensity as the season wears on. I find the Massey Ratings to be a really useful way to track that kind of thing. When I see a 157th ranked Danville (missing two starters....) come back from a 20-2 deficit on 26th ranked DCA (missing 1 starter) to go in to half time down 22-21 I suspect dead legs on the part of the higher ranked team. That's not to take anything away from Danville, they played tails off and didn't pack it in when they got down that far. There are other signs that are evident if you know what you're looking for but the Massey Ratings can help.

I'm more familiar with the 12th region than the others so I'll limit my comments to there. Carson Fraley from Pulaski has been seriously limited due to knee problems. He's a solid high school player but his lack of speed will limit his college opportunities. Phillips from Wayne is another very good high school player and having a good year so far. He's a good shooter and you'd better not leave him open. However, I don't think he's athletic enough to play higher than DIII. Either of the two would be an asset to any team in the 12th region but I don't think they stack up against the best in the state.

DCA plays Danville tonight (1/2) at Danville at 6 PM as part of a boy/girl double header.