Jim Schue

Bardstown takes on Washington Co. in Friday's finals. The Commanders are in their first district final since 2003.

Bardstown — more specifically, JJ Traynor — dominated in this game. Traynor had 26 points and 18 rebounds, and had I don't know how many blocks. It felt like 8 or 9, and he altered probably twice that many shots. Also had 4 dunks, including a beautiful oop play. Packed gym at Bethlehem tonight. Great crowd. Tough loss for Thomas Nelson, who had played Bardstown close in two losses in the regular season. Their senior bunch leaves having set the new school record for wins at 18, and an amazing job done by coach Chris Tolliver and his team in turning around a program that had won a grand total of 9 games the four previous seasons. They have a lot to be proud of. If Bardstown plays like they did tonight, they can make some noise in the region.

This.

Heard some interesting stuff went on at halftime of this game.

Those ones that bumped up to $2.05 dropped back to $1.93 same day.

By matchup R13 — Middlesboro 43.2 R9 — Cov. Holy Cross 77.4 R6 — Lou. Holy Cross 49.6 R4 — Metcalfe Co. 60.1 R12 — Danville 79.3 R1 — Murray 75.2 R7 — Brown 42.6 R3 — Owensboro Catholic 79.5 (overall state #25 this week) R5 — Bethlehem 74.8 R10 — Bishop Brossart 61.5 R8 — Walton-Verona 75.4 R2 — University Heights 46.6 R14 — Wolfe Co. 51.8 R11 — Berea 51.8 R15 — Paintsville 55.3 R16 — West Carter 75.6

http://allaclassic.org/State%20Brackets/2019%20Girls%20State%20Brackets.pdf Here's the bracket.

According to this week's Cantrall Ratings, however much stock you put in them, here's how the field rates. Girls R3 — Owensboro Catholic 79.5 (overall state #25 this week) R12 — Danville 79.3 R9 — Cov. Holy Cross 77.4 R16 — West Carter 75.6 R8 — Walton-Verona 75.4 R1 — Murray 75.2 R5 — Bethlehem 74.8 R10 — Bishop Brossart 61.5 R4 — Metcalfe Co. 60.1 R15 — Paintsville 55.3 R11 — Berea 51.8 R14 — Wolfe Co. 51.8 R6 — Holy Cross 49.6 R2 — University Heights 46.6 R13 — Middlesboro 43.2 R7 — Brown 42.6

The All A Classic has always had the schedule format it has as long as I can recall, with the first game of the first session of Day 1-2-3 being 8:30am ET and the last of the second session set for 9pm ET (but it sometimes starts waaaaaay later than that, and never right at 9).

I think basketball season has too many games as well. About 24 games max but 22 would be more ideal. Last year's state finalists played 39 games each (10 postseason).

There seems to be some flux in Bardstown, which is rare, even at different stations within the same company. Anywhere from $1.93-$2.05. The ones at $2.05 made the jump yesterday.

The winner Sunday will face 5th Region champ Bethlehem at 5pm Wednesday. The Banshees are making their first-ever trip to the state All A Classic and are having their best season in school history so far, with a 16-2 mark to start the year. They beat host Green Co. — who has traditionally been the top small-school team in the 5th — 58-46 last night in Greensburg.

Good grief. How many teams are in All A qualification in this region?

Very interesting score. But I understand as John had a busy week last week with the 2A tourney. Wish I could have gone to their game with LaRue at NC on Saturday, but I was preoccupied.

I'm going to go ahead and leave this post from the thread in the Controversial Issues forum right here. Notice how few kids from small-town schools are on this team? Does that mean that there's nobody any good outside of the state's larger population centers? Someone said they don't consider Scott Co., Jessamine Co., Mercer Co. and certain other areas as "part of Lexington." But they are close enough to where the voters would have had a chance to see those kids. Same goes for Oldham Co. and other areas that are not necessarily metro area, but play in the same districts as metro area teams. Voters can (should) only vote for players they actually have an opportunity to see and be impressed by. And this is why the AP vote fails miserably.

Two starters sat out v. Spencer Co. They started out the season with their top PG out for several weeks. Then their top returning scorer went out for several games — he was out again Wednesday. Their top big man has been out since before Christmas with an ankle injury. It's a rash that's hitting the local boys' teams. Bardstown has had four different starters spend time sidelined with injuries. Thomas Nelson has had three guys out for various lengths of time.

I’m told Bardstown was without a 3-year starting forward who is the team leader, in addition to having Traynor get hurt. They’ve battled a ton of injuries all year.

People aren’t going to games like they used to because there are a lot more distractions available to people entertainment-wise that weren’t there 25 years ago. Stall ball has a negligible affect on that decline. Same here. True hoops fans appreciate seeing a good strategy executed in a high-pressure championship environment. That’s who goes to the Sweet 16. This is what I keep coming back to. I’ve seen exactly one game in the past decade, and two in the past 20 that would legitimately be a stall ball game where a team ran 4 corners all game. I watch more HS hoops than the average person. Where do all these stall ball games happen? Nowhere near me. Sure, you might see a team hold for the last shot the final minute of a game or half, but that’s about it. Both 1) and 2) are things I highly agree with. I’ll add 3) HS hoops teams already throw out some abysmal FG shooting numbers. Add a shot clock and there will be a lot of 18-for-65 overall and 3-for-30 on three nights.

Nelson Co. has had a rough start with three different staters missing multiple games to injuries. They’ll fall off this list once they get healthy.

Does anybody have a bracket for this tournament they could post? I can't seem to find one anywhere.

Bethlehem is off to what is believed to be the best start in school history at 7-0.

Was just 27-20 at half. Trinity started pressing and trapping to start the second half and blew it open. Bardstown was down two starting guards with injuries. Johnson scored 20 in about 2 1/2 quarters of work.

Things had settled at $1.98-1.99 for several days, but they seem to be climbing back up at some spots today in Bardstown.

I'd say driving to Glasgow is a better trip for Meade Co. than going down to the south end of BG like when Greenwood was in their district.

With five of six games being one-score margins, yep. Don’t recall that ever happening.