The Professor

I think the one team you may be underestimating a little is Buckhorn. Their only loss has been a one point decision to Louisville Holy Cross. They also own a 13 point win at Breathitt (although Breathitt is down this year, a 13 point win in the Colusium is impressive), a 17 point point win over Owsley County, and a win at Oneida Baptist, which is never an easy task.

The Wildcats have veteran players, good guards, and a big front court.

Honestly, I don't see very much difference between Jackson City and Buckhorn. In a game between those two I would give the advantage to whichever team was playing at home that night.

And Estll County is a very dangerous team. They have played a very difficult schedule so far this season.....a 3 point loss to Dunbar, a 22 point loss to Clark County in a game that was much closer than the final score, a 3 point and 9 point loss to Lee County (in a game not decided until the final minutes), and a 2 point loss at Johnson Central. Right now 8 is about right for them.

Owsley County and Wolfe County will no doubt get better when Smith and Stamper become eligible, and probably will move up the ladder later in the year, but how much better is yet to be seen.

And Owsley's schedule doesn't get any easier. They have remaining games with Jackson City, Lee, Estill, Breathitt, Leslie County (twice), Knott Central, Letcher Central, South Floyd, Buckhorn, Cordia, and Hazard, plus June Buchanan in the All A. They've already played at Perry Central, Estill, Buckhor and Eliott County. WHEW!! Hopefully this type of schedule will make them better by district tournament time.

I totally agree that Hazard is tough in Memorial, heck PCC only beat them by 2 pts. Not making excuses here I'll just explain those loses. Greenup they came out and played awful and just gave up, quit, surrendered, and got drilled. The Lee County game was their 2nd bad game of the year. In the fourth quarter the game was still tied even though they played horrible. Down by like 7 they began to foul and Lee doubled the margin. At Leslie County, with 2:20 remaining they were down by only 2 and had possession. Three starters in a row fouled out, Eagles were up by 8 and they began to foul. Also the KHSAA scoreboard had the score wrong, Jackson's score book and the scoreboard both had the score an 11 point loss instead of 13. I know it's only two points but I just thought I'd throw that in there. Leslie is tough at home but Jackson could have and should have won this game(IMO). I know the Wolfe and Powell games are hard to look at, but Jackson played the JV some at Wolfe and could have beaten Powell by 30. I guess I will agree with you Hazard by 20 if Jackson does not show up to play, but I think after the Cumberland game the Tigers seem ready to make some noise and I think they will be up for the Bulldogs. Once again, not saying they will win, but I think they will fair well in this one. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I hope you didn't mistake my post as a slap at Jackson City. Heck, I hope they win at Hazard. Anytime one of the region's nontraditional powers can defeat the traditional upper level teams....I'm all for it. Plus, Jackson City is a neighbor school.

Go Tigers!! :lol:

Knott Central will win....BIG!!

I think Letcher Central will win in a close game, but they'd better play a whole lot better than they did against Bourbon County last week. That was the first time I had seen them play this year, and I was not the least impressed with their effort. I suppose they just had a bad night.

I think that Knott Central is better than Lee County, but that is just my opinion.

 

1. Pcc

2. Hazard

3. Leslie

4. Letcher Central

5. Knott Central

There are several teams right on the brink of the #5 spot right now, alot of parity IMO.

Lee plays at Knott January 17th. That game may answer a few questions.

Not saying Jackson is going to win, but that would be a shocker to me.

Hazard is pretty difficult in Memorial Gym.

Plus, I was determining my prediction by who Jackson City has played so far who would be fairly similiar to Hazard : Greenup County 25 point loss, Lee County 14 point loss, and 13 points to Leslie County.

I realize that the Tigers have defeated Powell County and Wolfe County this year, but those two teams are about as weak this year as they have been in a long, long time.

I would give Hazard a 10 point advantage at Jackson, and at least 15 to 20 points at Hazard.

Hazard by 20.

Thanks for the info.

 

Is this a new school? I have never heard of them.

The school was created in 1993 from Pulaski County High when that school became too big and was split to form Southwestern. I've heard that they may have to build another new school in the not-too-distant future because the county continues to grow in population.

I've also heard that the same may happen in Laurel County, a third high school, because their county's population also continues to grow.

This might be a dumb question, but who in the heck is Southwestern?

Pulaski Southwestern

I wouldn't go as far as to talk about Southwestern being ranked. With thier style they can beat anyone on a given night but they can also lay an egg with the best of them!

I was only kidding, lol.

And that's the end of the Mason being ranked discussion......

Or maybe the beginning of a 'Southwestern's being ranked' discussion.

I bet Michael is just trying to make him feel good about himself by "revising" Barkley's past golf history. I've seen him on TV in the celebrity events, and his swing and play are both terrible.

If he ever played in the 70's it's only because that was the air temperature that day.

No my info came directly from the school site http://www.beechwood.k12.ky.us/highschool/index.asp Beechwood High School (7th-12th grades) has an enrollment of approximately 500 students with graduating classes numbering around 80 students.

That's correct, but the high school numbers used in the KHSAA has Beechwood's enrollment at 331. When determining classificaton, I don't believe they use 7th and 8th grade numbers, only 9-12.

Whitefield is 1-8 and is averaging getting beaten by 25 points.

I don't see them staying with Lee County.

Lee by 20.

I dont know much about how good they are in basketball. But I know they excell in football and they are located in FT Mitchell,Ky in Northern Ky.

They are a big class 1a school with around 500 students. The mascott is the tigers.

Beechwood's enrollment is 331.

Is there a team from east of I-75 worthy of a top-20 ranking? If so, make your case.

South Laurel....won the state title last year; have most of that team back.

Morgan County....have an 8-0 record.

Mason County....played the #1 team, SL, to the wire, actually led most of the way.

Could you imagine the sports teams if Paintsville and Central combined? WOW! That basketball team would be loaded. Paintsville really does a great job with the number of students they have. The qulity of coaching there is great!

The same could be said of Hazard and Perry County Central. That would be one heck of a basketball program just about every year. Look what happened when Maysville consolidated with Mason County.

In a couple years JBS will own E-Ky .they are very young and very well coached .

Wait a minute......are we talking about the 2005-06 season or the 2007-08 season???

Let's try to keep the debate to this year and discuss 2008 when that season arrives.

Olinger might not have come to the rescue in his first game back, but remember, it WAS his FIRST game back.

In My Opinion,

I'm not saying Hazard is the best team in the region, but if history has anything to say about it, by tournament time Hazard will be to reckon with. And most posters have Perry Central rated #1 in the region, and they only beat the Bulldogs by 2.

Who has Hazard beat?

They've beaten the teams they should beat, with the exception of South Floyd (but they beat them on a later date), and their losses have been to very good competition---Perry Central by 2, Russell by 9, Iroquois by 2, Pulaski Southwestern by 12. Most of these losses have been in tournaments at Allen Central and Bryan Station. And we must remember that they have just recently picked up an important player in Olinger. Once he gets back in the groove I suspect some oif those 2 and 8 points losses will be reversed.

1 Perry County Central

2 Lee County

3 Leslie County

4 Knott County Central

5 Hazard

6 Letcher County Central

But you must remember, they have beaten everyone they played pretty bad except for Prestonburg, and it was called sooo bad. JBS is in there .

June Buchanan has to get past Owsley County (with Robert Smith back) in Booneville on January 25th, or they go down in the first round of the All "A". If they can defeat Owsley in Booneville, then I will change my opinion about them. But I figure the Owls to be a different team by that time, and I don't think they'll lose this game. The Owls have taken some shalackings (I hope that's a word) so far this season, but they have played some tough competition : Elliott County away, Perry Central away, Lee at home, Estill away......Even though they have lost all these games, competition like this will only make you better deeper into the season.

Who has Estill played?

Some pretty stiff competition......George Rogers Clark, Paul Dunbar, Lee County twice, and Johnson Central in the Eagles' invitational tournament.

I belive JBS is better than Lee Co. based on how jackson co. beat them .I would also put them ahead of KCC ,

June Buchanan cannot come within 12 points of Lee County, imo.

Lee County had not won any tournament since 1988 District Tournament, nor have they won eight straight games during that time. 3-0 in district for first time in forever. I have been watching for years, and only dreamed of beating Powell County and Owsley County both in same year much less in same week. Danny Wright has enthusiasm and willingness to work hard, he even coaches a little league team in Youth Sports. To say things are not looking up for Bobcats is ignoring the obvious.

Owsley won the district tournament in 1988. Lee won it in 1989.