The Professor

Clark County (GRC) is going to be very good again. I wouldn't be surprised if they claim another state championship this season.

I agree with you on the Dragons and Purples having an intense rivalry. When I was in high school and college back in the ‘70’s the big team of the region seemed to be Warren East. They haven’t made much noise in basketball in recent years but they were darn good back then and if memory serves me correctly they turned out a few kids that went on to star for the WKU Hilltoppers.

I think Male vs Manual is one of the oldest and intense rivalries in the state.

I hear this is becoming increasingly common with high school athletes in the state. The only time they are around the school is for practice of the sport they play. And it’s legal. That would have sure been nice back in the ‘60’s when I was in school. Kids in the hills of eastern Kentucky in many areas got up well before daylight and waited for busses in frigid weather on many days. It would have been sweet to have been able to lay under the warm covers and then later do school work on line, lol.

Everyone is the 14th region thought when MC Napier and Dilce Combs consolidated in the late 1990s that Perry with around 1200-1300 students (at that time) would dominate but Hazard with only 300 students was still in the thick of the regional rankings every year and have won several championships since PCC was established.

I heard the new Carter County high school will have the largest enrollment in the 16th region by a sizable amount. And I think the new mascot choice is Coyotes.

I don’t see a pathway for Powell to be rated at the top of the region in 2026-27 season. They lose four starters from this year’s regional runner-up team. The only player back is Morguson. The team will basically be this season’s JV team and Morguson.

I talked to our AD at Owsley County and he said they were set up and ready with new scoreboards and shot clocks on the backboards. I didn’t ask him what the cost was. Owsley’s biggest obstacle when the shot clock goes into effect will be having qualified people to operate it for all games. They have a guy who has done the scoreboard for the past 10 years so I assume he will take care of that again next season. But as a former AD it was difficult to find people to keep the scoreboard and scorebooks on a consistent basis and now that a shot clock will be used that will add to the scrambling to find personnel. Owsley is small, with a high school enrollment of 173 and a K-12 enrollment of 600. The entire county population is only 4100. So it’s a bit tougher to recruit workers for us than for large school districts.

How many teams have won the state championship without winning their District Tournament?

I have no dog in this fight but imo St X is getting away with some fouling. I think the player called Chief has had a couple of open floor steals that looked like reach around/ hacking fouls to me and Akins of GRC was clobbered on a layup, just to mention a few.

Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s Rupp had big crowds for about every session. I remember in the early 1980s I couldn’t find a seat in the lower section and had to sit far back in the upper arena. I’ve watched this tournament on NFHS because I wasn’t able to go this year and I’ve noticed there’s very small attendance. I suppose streaming has something to do with it but the Rupp Arena experience and numbers aren’t what they once were.

You won’t get too much farther apart in Kentucky than these two schools. 370 miles.

North Laurel has too much size for Warren Central. Two 6’7 guys is a load to defend and keep off the boards. And in Davidson’s case he can handle the ball like a guard.

Particularly when the player does a chin-up after the flush. That is suppose to be a T. Now, it is permissible if the player is moving forward and it is deemed he was holding on to keep from taking a bad fall and getting injured. But the chin-up is never allowed, or not supposed to be per the rule book.

It’s hard to believe that St X lost 7 games this season. I assume most of them were out of state.