HDE

Not on the KHSAA roster or the one I got last summer at the KBA when Cordia played. The KHSAA roster has 13 players, including seven seniors and another one or two who left. Just four back, I think.

I'm missing Nowell on my roster. Do you have grade, height and position and first name?

Cunningham and Tagoloa did 75 percent of the scoring in the games I saw. Perhaps I caught him on a bad night.

I'd rank Perry second in the 14th behind Knott. They were better than Hazard at the AAU tourney. Didn't Cordia lose just about everybody? They had Beverly, Matt Turner and Tobler starting. Blair, Neace, Hill and Pray were the other key guys, but I'm not sure which of them started. Whitmore wasn't with them in Lexington. I think Lee was mainly a JV player last year. Perry had quite a few seniors, plus Beverly.

Harlan County's freshman team was 19-2 this summer against a junior varsity schedule. They made it to the AAU state tourney semifinals before losing to Madison Central. They have several guys who will be among the top 10 freshmen in the 13th Region - Paul Stapleton, Drew Nolan and Lamar Burkhart. Austin Adams, Andrew Creech and Tyrese Simmons are also good players. I'd agree with Taylor being No. 1 in the 13th at this point. He will be among the top 10 players in the region as a whole.

I didn't get to see Cordia play this summer. Did they play anywhere? If not, I don't see how any of their players will be ranked in the top 10.

So, you don't qualify as a prep school until you get really good and have four or five Division I recruits? That's like saying you don't really qualify as a thief until you can collect $1 million. In the process of getting really good and bringing in those Division I players, the odds are pretty good, at least to me, that you're breaking the rules along the way.

It's about 75 minutes. It should be about 25 if we actually had a road connecting the two towns, but that's another story. I'd be surprised if anyone in this half of the state had a nicer gym/football field/baseball field combination.

Yeah, I'm there. I know who is and isn't there, at least in the 13th and 14th regions. The football players are usually there in June, unless they are just looking for an excuse not to play basketball. It's only three weeks.

Thanks. I love summer basketball. I usually spend part of my vacation at the AAU tourney at the KBA and go to camps at LMU, Hazard etc... I always think it's funny when people start with the line "you can't tell anything from summer basketball." I pick my top 10 every year after watching teams and talking to coaches in the summer. There are always some surprises, both good and bad, but you can always get a good idea.

I'm curious about your thoughts now after your earlier comments about Wolfe and Breathitt being ranked too high in the preseason.

Cats Pause preseason rankings: 1. Knott County Central 2. Perry County Central 3. Hazard 4. Cordia 5. Letcher County Central 6. Wolfe County 7. Buckhorn 8. Breathitt County 9. Estill County 10. Leslie County

The same 10 teams at the top that the Cats Pause had in the summer - pretty amazing.

Wolfe is pretty good, and so is Breathitt. Maybe they were picked a little too low.

Very true. The difference is they are truly there to be students, not hand picked for basketball.

Going across town is "about the same" as moving from halfway across the country or from another country?

Is Harlan County not considered a mountain school?

The coaches vote in the 14th Region, like they have every year. The votes are taken in the summer. Owsley was 12-17 last year, so they haven't done a lot to earn a top 10 ranking yet.

Allen missed the first game. Everyone was there in the second game, which was very close until HCHS pulled away a little in the final couple of minutes.

I don't think the name should change either. It was for schools with 1A football numbers though when it started.

I don't think that's ever been the case. I think they take the smallest 125 schools now. When the tournament went statewide in 1990, the Class A football numbers were used.

Apparently they're worried about someone being mad. They just asked the Region 1 schools from what I can tell. It's SHOCKING they wouldn't want to bring in another team. It has to be a STATEWIDE project. The KHSAA is supposed to realign the state for next season, but it appears they have decided against it.

Probably It doesn't change what I said though.

Look and see which schools do best academically. It has everything to do with money and the more affluent communities. It's not a coincidence that the areas with more money do well academically and the areas with a high percentage of poor kids struggle.

The rich get richer because they are richer. Follow the money.