The Professor

Pikeville will be difficult to stop from winning the championship.

I believe she is 6’0. Our local team played them in early December in McKee. She is very talented in all aspects of the game. She has signed with Pittsburgh. Her and Jordan together are a handful. They jumped on us early and although we was able to cut the lead to 10 they eventually ended up with a 20 point win. They certainly deserve their ranking.

Biggs and Jordan are a tremendous chore for teams to contain. Biggs is so physical and can play any position. She’s 5’10 and Jordan is about 6’3. I saw them in the PRTC at Jackson County and was highly impressed.

Owsley County had their game clicking on all cylinders vs Hazard, winning every quarter, making thirteen 3 pointers, and a running clock for the last 10 minutes of the game in the 42 point victory. It was the fourth All A Region title for the Lady Owls and their eleventh appearance in the championship game. They advance on to the All A Classic State at Corbin Arena for an 8:30 AM game January 24 against 4th region champ Cumberland County.

Owsley took a brief lead in the fourth quarter. The Owls are starting to play much better than they did in September. And two players who played last season have rejoined the team following the holidays.

I just don’t see how Sacred Heart could lose four straight in any tournament unless they were playing prep schools that attract talent from far and wide. SHA is very good.

What about Notre Dame? Aren’t they an All A school?

Owsley County played one of their best games of the year and it was their first home game. Owsley has had a challenging schedule in December, opening up with a loss to Boyd County in the PRTC Classic at Jackson County. They narrowly lost two games in the WYMT Mountain Classic to Knox Central and Martin County. And lost an overtime decision at Perry Central after leading for 90% of the game. So it was good for the team to finally play a game in Booneville. Both head coaches were absent due to being ejected from a game in different Florida tournaments over the holidays and Corbin had a player sitting out because of an ejection on their southern holiday trip. It was a close game until the fourth quarter and Owsley went on a big run with several 3’s and fast breaks points to expand their lead and put it away. Senior guard Carly Smith led the Lady Owls with 23 points and sophomore guard Addison Terry had 22. 6’2 freshman center Macey Brown scored 15 and had a double-double with her rebound total. Senior wing Laya Lynch made four treys and finished with 12 points. Junior guard Kiley Clem led Corbin with 26 points, of which 22 came in the first half. It was a good win for the Lady Owls heading into next week’s All A. The first rounds are at various sites. Owsley shouldn’t have much trouble making the semifinals rounds at Wolfe County, where most likely they play Leslie County.

They have been plaqued with injuries for much of the season. I know they had 3 starters out when they played at Hazard. I think they’ll be okay going forward once they get their entire roster intact.

The PRP semifinals win over Hazard in 1986 State Tournament was extremely controversial. It appeared the officials missed several obvious fouls on PRP late in the game and other odd decisions that swung the game to the Panthers. The crowd stood and booed and covered the court with debris for 30 minutes post game. The Lexington Herald -Leader received so many letters to the editor for the next several weeks from irate Hazard fans complaining about the game that they finally issued a statement in their newspaper requesting no more letters be sent.

Leary has had a crazy amount of passes deflected this season. He’s already had 2 in this game.

His team went 33-0 the next season and Covid canceled the state tournament. So I suppose he didn’t have anything to do with the undefeated season, just rolled out the balls and let them play??? No development, game preparation, scouting, strategy, etc… Well, okay. I didn’t know it worked that way. Learn something new every day.

Yes. I was referring to the Hazard game. Powell County is not a bad team by any means, particularly on their home court. They have all their players back from a district championship team. The Pirates had a great night and Montgomery didn’t. The Indians also rely on several young players. Mays’ first year at Ashland they were .500 going into the middle of January and then caught fire and won the 16th region and one game at state. I’m not saying they will repeat that in his first year at Montgomery but people need to have some patience and not rush to judgement after just a few games.

Mays’ team has battled injuries quite a bit. His top 3 players are out right now with injuries, I believe two are ankles and one is a hand injury.

They have a basketball museum there in one of the adjacent buildings. Also, a short distance from the Wayland Gym is a restaurant that has a 1950’s theme and appearance. It has a jukebox with the old ‘50’s music and has tables and booths and stools and menu that will take you back in time.

This game was played in the historic Wayland High gymnasium in Floyd County where the Wasp’s King Kelly Coleman played his home games in the 1950’s.

When are these two schools consolidating? It’s been talked about for several years.

The ‘63 Carr Creek team starred future ABA guard Glen Combs, coached by his dad Morton Combs. He led the ABA in 3 point shooting several times and was also named to the All Star team several years. Phenomenal shooter.

The Black Bear’s Noah had 54 points. That might be a WYMT Mountain Classic game scoring record.

I heard that the coach at Hazard may be his replacement. But it was one of those “that’s what they’re saying but who knows” type comments, lol.

Boyd is darn good. Whoever plays them had better be ready to contain a 6’4 center and the 6’ Biggs girl. They are also a very physical team.

Bilas is killing it tonight, lol. ”He’s going to reach a higher octave”

“The only thing Reed hasn’t done tonight is deliver me my ice cream.” Lol

Mitchell has had Reed open a couple times for a kick out and chose other options. Anytime he is open he should get the ball.

I’m not sure about this season but Larry Gritton Jr is back coaching OBI and I have a feeling he will build them back into a competitive program. However, I’m not sure how long he plans on doing this job because he is also the school’s president. He may just be filling in for a year or so. He was a standout himself at OBI playing for his dad back in the ‘90s, and I think this is his second stint as head coach. I think this year he has a young team and a very good middle school team that had a successful season., Actually, OBI is in a perfect system to build a powerhouse if they chose that route. They are a boarding school with students from all over the U.S. and the world. They could theoretically build an Oak Hill Academy type program and do it legally. They have a beautiful campus and have been renovating buildings or building new structures for the past few years. The school has a lot of upside.