gchs_uk9

It's never been an easy job, as evidenced by only one win in sixteen playoff appearances (a first round win over Marshall County in 2001). However, the current alignment puts them in a district with Bowling Green, Greenwood, and South Warren - absolutely brutal.

I think they miss Jakei Tarter tremendously. He was an excellent player but I think their entire roster fed off his emotion and energy. Guys like that are hard to replace.

Nice breakdown! Definitely feels like we're moving toward a very interesting DCA/Somerset championship game.

I tend to agree with you, but have most of Cooper's players been with the program for some time? Boyle has had an influx of basketball transfers the last couple of years so not only are they starting late because of football success, they've also not played a ton of basketball together at all.

When the KHSAA realigned the regions back in 2005, the All A didn't necessarily follow suit. I think it had to do with keeping a balance of the number of teams in Louisville (they didn't want one region with 10 teams and another with 2). And they've never changed it back.

Shelby Valley in 2010 is the only one. University Heights won the All "A" in 1990 and 1991 but lost to Lexington Catholic in the finals in 1992. UHA then beat Catholic in the '92 Sweet 16 finals. Paintsville won the overall state title in 1996 but lost to Harlan in the first round of the All A.

The announcer in the game at Wayland a couple of weeks ago compared them to the '95 Breckinridge County team that won the state title because of how well they pass the ball. I think this Lyon County club is more explosive offensively but that's not a bad comparison.

Top six looks about right with perhaps some slight modification of order.

Trinity Christian has only beat one team with a winning record (Leslie County at the end of a 3-day tournament) and all four losses are by sizable margins against fair-to-middling teams. I don't foresee them beating East, DCA, or Mercer.

I think so, too. However, last season they were upset by University Heights in the regional. I don't know if UHA is good enough to do it again but the Blazers are 7-3 right now and if anyone in Kentucky knows how to wins All "A" games it is University Heights.

The 1928 state championship game between Carr Creek and Ashland. Ashland won 13-11 in four overtimes in a time when basketball overtime was sudden death. The takes (and KHSAA blame!) about that overtime setup would have been apoplectic during that game!

Catholic beat Lyon by 20 last year in the semifinals when it seemed like Lyon County had hit a wall after playing 14 games over the first month of the season. That is my only concern this evening and also why I think Lexington Catholic will win, although I suspect, like @LCDAWGS19, that it will be a good game.

They are a huge sponsor of high school sports in the Lexington area. They're ads are on many scoreboards and signs. I also believe the stadium at LCA is named after them. Obviously a orthodontics company would want to appeal to middle and high school age kids (and their parents) and they do a great job of it.

Interesting. Holcomb was a loooooooong time successful coach at Breathitt County. He also spent a couple years at Letcher Central and most recently Madison Central before retiring at the end of the 2022 season.

Four exciting games, all featuring high profile players.

For clarification: McKee is the son of Scott County coach Jim McKee, was an assistant at EKU and now an assistant to his dad at Scott Counmty. Mills is an assistant at Boyle County. Chandler is an assistant at Franklin County and was at Danville before that, I believe. He also spent a couple seasons as head coach at Jenkins in eastern Kentucky. All are highly regarded and would seem to be excellent choices for Hazard.

I don't know what the Mountain Sports Hall of Fame's intentions are with the gym but I would love to see it used in a way similar to the Hoosiers gym in Knightstown, Indiana. If you don't know, teams pay a fee to play games there and the money is used to continue to keep the gym open for tours, a museum, and gift shop. Several Kentucky teams have played there in recent years.

They said on the WYMT broadcast that while the floor has been refinished and repainted just like all courts, that is the original wood from when the building opened. That's pretty neat!

He's the football quarterback, correct? Did he hurt the hand in football or basketball season?

I will say this, I like the schedule. Nice mix of conference opponents, home and away, winnable and underdog games evenly spaced. Should be fun.

I'd say 8-4 is best case scenario, but that would require two road wins against the Ole Miss, Florida, Tennessee, Texas group. Two seems reasonable but history hasn't shown UK capable of winning two roads games against quality conference opponents in a season too often.

They spilled all of these while trying to come up with the original name and have been falling over ever since.

First name that comes to mind for me is Shaka Smart. I know the Texas tenure wasn't great but he's done well everywhere else. He might be interested in staying at Marquette but I'm sure the resources at Louisville are better. Part of the problem with a "big fish" or "established coach" is there aren't a ton of those in college basketball right now. You can see by the recent hires at Carolina, Duke, Villanova, and Syracuse that the options weren't overflowing as they have been at other times in history.

If you're curious, here are the appearances, records, and number of championships for each Jefferson County team: Atherton - 36 appearances, 13-36 overall record, 0 titles Ballard - 48, 101-40, 8 titles Beth Haven - 4, 1-4, 0 titles Brown - no appearances Butler - 34, 26-33, 1 title Central - 48, 69-42, 6 titles CAL - 9, 3-9, 0 titles DeSales - 45, 20-44, 1 title Doss - 33, 24-33, 0 titles Eastern - 37, 46-33, 4 titles Evangel - no appearances Fairdale - 34, 31-31, 3 titles Fern Creek - 27, 29-26, 1 title Francis Parker - no appearances Iroquois - 33, 18-33, 0 titles Jeffersontown - 25, 22-25, 0 titles Kentucky Country Day - 5, 3-5, 0 titles Louisville Collegiate - 4, 0-4, 0 titles Louisville Holy Cross - 5, 0-5, 0 titles Male - 67, 105-53, 14 titles Manual - 58, 49-55, 4 titles Moore - 27, 23-26, 1 title PRP - 41, 71-35, 6 titles Portland Christian - 1, 0-1, 0 titles St. Xavier - 67, 48-65, 2 titles Seneca - 21, 32-19, 2 titles Shawnee - 26, 15-25, 1 title Southern - 17, 10-18, 0 titles Trinity - 44, 58-38, 6 titles Valley - 25, 26-24, 1 title Waggener - 20, 13-20, 0 titles Walden - no appearances Western - 20, 13-20, 0 titles Whitefield Academy - no appearances