gchs_uk9

It will all depend on how the impending statewide basketball realignment shakes out. I can't help but think both the 9th and 11th Regions will lose some teams to balance the load. Depending on who leaves the 11th and where they go, it could have major ramifications on the 12th Region.

Nice win for Garrard County over Danville tonight. Golden Lions led the entire way, coasting to a 69-52 win. Nice performance from junior guard Jay Noe who scored 33 points. Danville never seemed to get into any offensive flow while Garrard shot it well most of the evening. Golden Lions will definitely have their hands full on Thursday against DCA.

Guest scored 28 in the first meeting and 22 in the second, hitting 8 three-pointers in 17 attempts across both games. Garrard will have to defend, control the pace, and make shots. This should be a good game - it usually is when these two get together.

I believe there were multiple fan ejections from their district tournament matchup last season.

Lots of fascinating stats here about the Ballard program. I know they aren't as good as usual, but something in me says the Bruins get a first round win this evening.

4-29 postseason record. First rounds wins in 2000, 2010, 2012, and 2013.

I’ll add, I don’t think 10 teams can win three games in a row (that number is smaller), but a couple first round upsets could put the entire tournament in disarray.

Down year for Madison Central but they have an extremely young roster. Three leading scorers are juniors and seniors but almost everyone else is a sophomore. I suspect they'll be back near the top of the 11th Region in a year or two.

Estill County has wins over Perry Central and now Breathitt County on consecutive Fridays. The Engineers were routed by Hazard a few weeks ago, but they look capable of winning a couple games in the region and if Hazard gets upset, who knows...

Not sure you can eliminate anyone in the 12th Region this year. DCA is definitely the team to beat, but they've have had close games with Lincoln, Boyle, Somerset, even Garrard in the last month. There's a list of about nine schools in the region capable of beating any of the others in the region on any given night.

I haven't been in a few years but a friend went last fall and said the exact same thing. For those who might not know, Russell County had a combined football/baseball field. The football field stretched across the baseball outfield from foul pole to foul pole. A new football field has been built beyond the right field line of the baseball field. Below is an in-progress picture from Google Maps.

They aren't exactly a traditional power, but they've had some good teams and good coaches over the years. Ron Finley was there from 1976-86, winning two district titles, before starting the football program at Campbellsville University. Rodney Johnson was there 13 years in the 1990s-early 2000s and had nine winning seasons. Bill Sharp won 9, 11, and 10 games a season between 2010-12. Russell County has traditionally had excellent baseball teams and solid basketball teams, although the move from the 12th Region to the 4th Region slowed some of their basketball success. Football has always seemed like their third interest, but as you can see above, it isn't an impossible place to have success.

This will be interesting to follow. There has been a number of Jefferson County Public School teams in Class 4A and 5A over the last 20 years that had one winning season and then immediately fell back. Only Fairdale has sustained much success within that group. If Jeffersontown can continue its forward progress, I believe it would be beneficial for the school and school district.

2024? The schedules are already made since its year two of most contracts. I do think it would behoove them to add a couple teams like that in 2025-26, maybe someone like Bowling Green or Owensboro that are in the western part of the state and therefore a little closer to Tilghman.

What's the old saying? "He can take his and beat yours or he can take yours and beat his." That pretty much sums up Jeff Jackson at Lincoln County. Terrific coach for many, many years.

I'm a year behind. Grace Berger from Sacred Heart in Louisville was there last year, but she's in the WNBA now.

I don't think so. Week 1 should be August 23, Week 11 is November 1. Thanksgiving is November 28/29 so that will be the state semifinals, with the championship games December 6/7. https://khsaa.org/2024-2025-corresponding-calendar-planning-dates/

Isn't one of Indiana's best players a girl from Kentucky?

I'll add: not every message board post is worthy of changing rules, but I do wonder if the people from the schools and the people at the KHSAA ever seek out any other opinions on things like classification or is it vacuum/cocoon thinking? I know they did a survey of other state associations and how often they realign, but did they actually look at how they align? These aren't exactly life and death situations but it would be interesting to see some out-of-the-box thinking from time to time.

Indiana does something like this. It is called the "success quotient" and the more success you have you move up in class. There are some restrictions on it, however. I also like the Florida plan, which in part divides schools into classes based on population density (rural, urban, metropolitan) which could work in Kentucky. I've also heard several proposals than include things like free and reduced lunch in the school and other demographic calculators. Bottom line, we continue to do things the same exact way and the same schools win everything. I like your mention of a school like Henry Clay, who would benefit from a drop down. What about a school like Ohio County or Muhlenberg County? Large enrollment, but very rural. They'd be much better served in Class 2A or 3A than having to get routed by Bowling Green and Owensboro every year.

That's wild! Ten years without a winning record at a school that size and one that has a decent history of success.

Definitely thought the whistle got a little tight in the second half. Three straight fouls on Reeves there but they never showed a replay; I assumed it was some type of hold the way you described it. Then the announcer said Reeves had four fouls, which was incorrect. This all happened during the Caitlin Clark diatribe so I forgive them for choosing to discuss the more important issues.

I've posted my proposed plan on here a few times but in a nutshell, I think teams should be "districted" within their basketball regions. Essentially, the 5 biggest schools in the region are one district, the next five are a second, and the smallest five a third. Obviously that would have to be adjusted some based on the number of teams in a region and the size of the schools. Then use some type of rating system (not the RPI but maybe something Calpreps-ish?) to pick the 192 best teams. Divide those by their enrollment for that year into 6 groups of 32, seed them, and those are your classes. You might not be in the same class every season , but you would always be placed with 31 other schools that are close to you in enrollment. That would keep teams from being placed into districts that stretch halfway across the state and it would assure schools of 4-5 games (2-3 at home) against local opponents that are traditional rivals you play every year in basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, etc.

Great question. There have always been just 32 teams in Class 1A and 6A since going to six classes in 2007. The reason given was the smallest schools in 1A are very small so you limit the numbers so they don't have to compete against so many big schools and the biggest in 6A are very large so you limit the numbers so there aren't as many smaller schools in the class. For instance, using the 2019-22 alignment (since Covid did a number on 23-24), the smallest school in Class 1A (Fulton City) had 43 boys, the largest (Fort Knox) had 191. That's over 4x larger. In Class 6A, the smallest was Marshall County with 727 boys, the largest was St. Xavier with 1344. That's 2x larger. Even if you only look at the largest 6A public school for that cycle (Henry Clay), they had 1187 boys, which is still 450 more kids - a gap twice as wide as that of any school in Classes 2A-5A. So to answer the question, the gap between largest and smallest in Class 1A and 6A is extremely wide. By only placing 32 teams in the class, the KHSAA has attempted to at least shrink that gap just a bit.

Weekday road games halfway across the country at the 15th ranked team in America can make things tough. I still think UConn is the team to beat and I have little faith in Creighton, who seem to bust my bracket every year.