24Rocks

Good write up. Thanks for compiling it. I’ve found that the Massey Ratings start to get better for predictive purposes about this far into the season.

Who is the kid?

The new Massey Ratings are out and there has been a little movement in 12th region teams. 1. DCA +7 #26 (#3 on defense) 2. PC. +2 #36 3. West Jessamine. -5. #64. (#30 on defense) 4. Southwestern. -17. #72 5. Lincoln. +17 #73. (#22 on defense) 6. Wayne County. +10 #78 7. Boyle. +11. #87 8. Somerset. +11 #111 Strength of Schedule: Top: Lincoln #52, PC #65 and DCA #68 Bottom: Somerset #148, Boyle #133, Southwestern #114

Thanks for the info.

How many of these teams will be in the All A tournament?

Danville Christian is improving. They lost some really good players from last year but seem to be improving from game to game. Coach Berry is doing a good job so far. They have a really tall player in the middle in Shuna Deng. She’s in the 6-9 range but is only a sophomore and hasn’t played a lot.

Boyle County 69 Russell County 67 (overtime) Seneca Driver, Collier Sexton and Ethan Milburn were not on the floor for Boyle. Anyone know why?

DCA over Dixie Heights 46 - 43

Their top shooters in terms of volume are averaging between 37% and 42% from the field. That’s good shooting, especially if they’re consistent. Does anyone familiar with the program know if they do anything special in terms of teaching shooting? I’m a firm believer that starting in middle school and teaching good form is the key but it’s surprising as to how many coaches talk about good form but don’t put the work in to teach it.

He picked up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd quarter. It was a definitely a charge. I'm not sure why they still had him in the game. PC wasn't lighting it up and they were going to need him in the second half.

Other 12th region scores: Southwestern over McCreary 65-55 Washington County over Danville 71-63

Boyd County over Lincoln 85-64 Pulaski over Somerset 56-48 West Jessamine over Garrard 51-47 Boyle over Morgan County 61-54 DCA over Bracken County 81-31

My observation on offense was that their press offense could be improved. Keep in mind that Warren Central is exceptionally quick though and can successfully press just about anyone. I'd say that better positioning and quicker passing (all things that are within their capacity to fix) would help. On defense they could improve on getting to the three point shooters. They were so focused on helping against Warren Central they got out of position some. Again, that's something that's fixable. Regarding depth, losing Jeremiah Stiefel definitely hurt their depth, especially on defense given his athleticism. They're 7 deep now but the 2 players off the bench are pretty solid. They'd probably start on a lot of teams in the 12th region. The biggest problem with their depth is that the subs are both in the 6-1 range so their size takes a hit if they have to sub for a front court player.

DCA's game with Warren Central, a 3 point loss to a Top 20 team, clearly showed them what they need to work on. Warren Central is way quicker and more athletic than any team in the 12th region. The positive thing for DCA to take away from that loss is that those things are fixable. If they can accomplish that their ceiling is definitely higher than where they are now.

Baird came back in to the game in the 4th quarter but was noticeably limping. The free throw differential was due to Lincoln choosing to foul on purpose to try to get back into the game.

I don't think so, at least on DCA's part. All of the players I've talked to were disappointed they didn't get to play. I haven't talked to Coach Busick but he has always seemed like the type who doesn't back down from a challenge. I have always gotten that impression from Coach Adams as well. If one of the two teams wasn't very good I might see that but they're arguably two of the better teams in the region.

I don’t think they’re going to make it up.

I know Driver is a high level football recruit but if he focused on basketball he could be a high level recruit there as well. He's much improved from last year. Taylor is a really good team. They're well coached, shoot well, and are unselfish.

The Massey Ratings use an algorithmic based system and rate numerous sports. Given that it's based on computer algorithms it gets better as the season goes on and more data comes in. The rankings at the start of the year are loosely based on where teams finished last year. That's one of the reasons several 12th region teams had huge jumps from last week until this. By February they'll be pretty good for predictive purposes. There are ratings for every state for high school boys and girls. They have an overall rank but also a ranking for offense, defense, and strength of schedule. They correlated pretty well to the various team's performances in the state tournament last year. https://masseyratings.com/hsbb/ky/ratings. I like the feature for college basketball where they compile every poll known to man and come up with a composite ranking. It's pretty interesting to use for a frame of reference when filling out NCAA brackets.

I agree. I don't see anything on the schedule about another game. I'll ask about a make up game.

You may be right but when I've seen them this year Tut wasn't the main factor on offense. In their big win over Somerset Murphy did the damage from the 3 point line. I think the key question is whether Lincoln's 2-3 zone can get to their shooters. Not only is Murphy a good three point shooter they've got a couple of other guys who can hit them.

If Taylor could play Warren Central to a 1 point game they are good. Warren Central is extremely quick and has a great press. Boyle will have their work cut out for themselves.

It's still too early to tell a lot from the Massey Ratings but there's been some significant upward movement in the top 12th region teams. DCA +5 to rank 28 Pulaski - +36 to rank 42 Lincoln - +48 to rank 55 Southwestern - +12 to rank 62 West Jessamine - +26 to rank 71 Boyle County - +37 to rank 89

They lost a couple of their better players but they should probably be better then they were. Their success will probably be very match up dependent. If they get hot from the outside and they're getting some open looks they could be a problem.

DCA 63 Garrard 45