The Professor

I believe, and one will never know, that if Kentucky could have figured out Oakland’s zone and also kept their 25 year old accountant from having the game of his life, they would have gone deep into this tournament, maybe even won it. When I see some of the remaining teams that made the Sweet 16 they don’t look like they have any special advantages over UK when the Cats were at the top of their game. It’s sad it ended like it did.

Duke’s big guy Filipowski is allowed too much liberty with his game inside the paint. He made a basket last night by literally lowering his shoulder and pushing the defender backwards. The tv guys said, “Great move. He cleared a space for himself and scored. He’s putting the team on his shoulders.” No, he’s putting his “shoulders” into the defender to clear that space. That is an offensive foul every time. Or it is unless you have DUKE written on the front of your jersey. He does it all the time and gets by with it. The defensive player is put at a disadvantage.

It’s always a good day when the Tar Heels lose. They had the 2017 national championship gift wrapped and handed to them with some shady officiating in the UK, Arkansas, and Oregon games. I haven’t liked them since they held the ball on Kentucky in the regional finals in 1977. Overrated Dean Smith (two titles in 35 years with NBA talent every year) single handily led to the adoption of the shot clock in college basketball.

I don’t think anyone can defeat the Huskies in this tournament.

When East and West Carter consolidate in a couple years with an enrollment of over 1300 they will be the biggest school in the region. They are most definitely going to be a new power player in the 16th in all sports.

Dave Fraley did just that in the late 1960s until he left for Pulaski County in 1978. They were a regional contender every year and won the championship in 1974, defeating Breathitt County and Hazard in the semifinals at Breathitt.

Powell County is the 3rd largest high school enrollment in the 14th region, about 650 students. That’s a nice number from which to develop a good program for an energetic coach.

I felt bad for Newport this year. You could see they had an awesome team but without their best player in the lineup (he tried to play some but it was obvious he couldn’t cut it with his groin injury) they were fighting an uphill battle. If any one of Lyon County’s main players——Perry, Riddick or Shoulders, had been absent from their games they would not have been the champions. Most teams in the tournament could say the same thing—-take out their best player and they’re not going very far.

Posters are raking the superintendent over the hot coals on Facebook and X/Twitter. He won’t survive this is my prediction. Just made his job 10X more difficult going forward. Rodney Woods means so much to that county. I remember him back in the day when he was a burr in the saddle to Adolph Rupp’s teams (Rupp didn’t recruit him out of old Lone Jack High in Bell County) when he played guard at Tennessee.

What are the chances that Boyle and Danville consolidate in the future? A lot of city schools around the state have done that over the decades such as Harrodsburg, Maysville, Salyersville, Monticello, etc.

IMO Wagner was giving a lot of freedom this season to show what he could do and he did have a few good games but overall I think his season was disappointing. He is not ready for the next level, although he will probably enter the draft. I believe he will be disappointed in draft position when it is held.

Hazard has their entire roster returning next year from a 26-7 season. The Bulldogs were actually the best team from the 14th to represent the region at Rupp but Breathitt County put together one of their best outings of the season at the right time and defeated them in overtime at Powell County in the regional tournament semifinals. They had beaten eventual regional winner Perry Central three times during the season.

If he could have simply imagined that the jersey lettering said Kentucky instead of Houston he would have sizzled the nets.

The women’s NCAA tournament doesn’t have the credibility that the men’s NCAA tournament has because of the home court advantages in the early rounds that they allow. That nearly always narrows down the Sweet 16 to the same group of teams every year.

Great tournament! I wasn’t able to attend this year but watched it all on TV stream. That was a huge judgement call on the 3 point attempt by Noah late in the game. It appeared he was in the act of shooting and should have had 3 free throws, which could have cut the lead to 2. But the call was foul before the shot. Broadcasters Dave and Cameron also thought it should have been 3 free throws. It might not have made a difference in the outcome but who knows. This was one championship game that I was for both teams to win, lol. Congratulations to Lyon County!! Won a title for their school and county and also for the small schools around the state.

Dave Baker thought Noah made and intentional foul and Cam Mills disagreed.

Did UK recruit Noah?

I’d like to see her in a Wildcat uniform but I realize that will never happen. By the way, what’s the latest on UK’s search for a coaching replacement?

I agree. Northern Kentucky has grown in population like crazy over the past few decades. I have quite a few Appalachia relatives that moved up there for jobs over the past 50 years.

Where is the feeling by people who know her where Zakiyah Johnson is leaning towards in her recruitment. The junior is gonna be a nice addition to some lucky team’s roster.

I knew something was wrong because he was point blank angle to an easy shot and missed badly.

Unless it’s the two Jefferson County regions that are from the most populous metropolitan area in Kentucky (stretching into surrounding counties) it is ludricrous to have teams in the same county in different regions, in my opinion. The KHSAA has some odd alignments around the state. Another that stands out to me is North and South Laurel were put in separate districts in the 13th region. Those two schools aren’t but about 3 miles apart.

Great Crossing by 20+.

Frieze missed a gimmie point blank shot late in the game from a nice pass for Ashland and I think the score was tied or a 1 point game. Players are going to miss makable shots, it’s just part of the game. But the timing on that one with not much time left in the game magnified it. By the way, two teams won’t be much farther apart in location in Kentucky that these two….345 miles!

I haven’t posted yet on the game but I want to say that people around the state don’t really grasp the meaning and importance to the Owsley County community for this opportunity to play in the Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena. No Owsley County team sport such as basketball, baseball/softball, volleyball, etc, had ever been to the state tournament. The boys and girls basketball had come close in the past, boys losing in the region championship game in 1983 and 1985, and the girls losing in the finals in 1988 and in overtime on a last second shot in 2022. Baseball was region runner up in 1980. But this 2024 Lady Owls team finally did it. Although they came up 2 points short of winning the opening round vs Bowling Green they battled to the end. Owsley Countians far and wide will always celebrate this team. To see the words “Owsley” on that big scoreboard jumbo screen over center court still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. Our fans were so excited and when I looked in their sections from the press row table (I was helping broadcast an audio stream for Bluegrass Sports Nation) I could see the jubilation on their faces. The maroon clad fans were sitting in three different sections and there were quite a few of them and they were loud and cheering like crazy. Owsley County at 4,000 is 119th population rank of the state’s 120 counties. Owsley County’s school district has 650 students grades K-12. The high school has 187 enrollment. It is a huge challenge to overcome those numbers to make it to Rupp and is one of the reasons they have never been until this year. And this celebration will continue into next season with a raising of the 14th Regional Championship banner in “The Palace”, the nickname for Owsley’s 1200 capacity gymnasium. Coach Travis Smith is to be commended, along with his staff of coaches—Kyle Bobrowski, Brent Lynch and Donnie Edwards—for a great and successful 26-10 season. The team won their 5th consecutive 56th district championship and 19th in school history. And Coach Smith’s daughter, Carly, was named Player of the Year in the 14th Region. These coaches and girls have taken our community on a magical ride this season!