The Professor

Condolences to his friends and family. I didn’t know him but I know his dad Gary very well from the days when we both attended the annual Athletics Directors Conference over a 3 day period in Louisville. 

They impressed me today with their hustle and defense once they figured out they needed to do more to stop Germany’s 3’s. And they are going to be so much more lethal on both ends of the floor when their two big guys are back.

I know of two members of last year’s team transferred after school ended in the spring. Leading scorer and freshman-to-be Flinchum (around 25 ppg last season) transferred to Powell County and a 6’3 kid transferred to Breathitt County. 

They still won’t beat Sacred Heart. They lost their dynamic guard to graduation but have a super freshman transferring in to replace her. And they have their two 5 stars returning. 

They have lost some key players to transfer. Being a small school (less than 100 enrolled 9-12) that’s going to be hard to replace. Whoever gets the job will have their work cut out for them. 

Heavy rain, high winds, hail and constant lightning in Booneville. Our electric went out about 15 minutes ago. It appears the worst part is over but still lightening like crazy outside. 

Is the talented Marshall County sophomore golfer, Trinity Beth, his daughter? I watched her in a tournament in Lexington last summer and was highly impressed with her. 

How many players are going to be left for the new Bracken County coach? 

6 hours ago, Polar Bearcat said:

Did no one listen to the tape Mays explained that kids had to transfer right before high school.

That’s a good time to do it if a kid is thinking about transferring. 

The last few days have been raw windy/cool days for early May. Low 50’s with winds 14 gusting to close to 30. It’s interfering with my arthritis, and my golfing, lol. I bundled up yesterday and played through it but this old dude is going to skip today. There’s too many nicer days going forward. 

These same conditions in winter would seem like a heat wave but not in May! 

Good choice! 

On a side note these two team’s nicknames are easy to guess:

Owsley Owls

Red Bird Cardinals

On 4/21/2023 at 3:55 PM, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Per the Courier-Journal: "Indiana’s boys lead the all-time series 102-44 and have won 44 of the past 52 meetings."

And they’ll most likely sweep this year as well. When a state has over twice the population of their opponent’s state those numbers are difficult to overcome. 

From what I hear there’s a distinct fan loyalty for both schools. A person told me it’s almost like there’s two different counties with Olive Hill on one side and Grayson on the other end, with an imaginary boundary in the middle. But this is usually the case with all consolidations and requires a few years to get everyone assimilated.

I just hope they don’t add Central to their school name. There seems to be a hundred Centrals around the state. Just keep it Carter County High School. 

18 hours ago, Walter said:

I'm expecting DJ Jackson and another one from Taft to be at Newport next year... 

Do they return most of their regional championship team? If so these additions will definitely make them a force to reckon with next year. 

On 3/24/2023 at 11:24 AM, okie1 said:

Can you get to McCreary County from Nicholasville? 😀

 Nicholasville to Sterns Ky is 94 miles. It stills has a way to go to match the 135 miles distance in the 14th region from Jenkins to Irvine. 

Some years the 14th and 15th do this. 

I googled “largest enrollments in Kentucky high schools” and at the top of the list was Moore HS. Evidently it is half that 2,367 total. 

I believe Estill has their entire starting roster returning next year. I did my student teaching there in the spring of 1976. It’s a nice school and great people. They won’t have much problems filling this job. 

If you are referring to what last names seem to always be common on particular teams I have a few mountain schools that come to mind.

Breathitt: Turner

Clay: Sizemore

Perry: Combs

Knott: Hall 

Owsley: Smith

I like the bigger trophy better, too. Something as tough to win and as important as a state basketball championship should have an eye-catching size trophy for fans to observe in their gym trophy cases. 

I have a question for the Louisville area posters. I was checking the enrollments of schools in the state and I noticed that Louisville’s Moore High has the largest number on the list at 2,367. I know there’s many factors involved in competitive sports programs but I was wondering why this school is not more relevant in basketball. I know they have been good in the past a few years but with those kinds of numbers one would think they would be challenging for titles more often.

I think another factor to add to Papa’s excellent list is it would be difficult for small size schools to have personnel available to run a high school shot clock. Our school has around 220 students 9-12 and we have a hard enough time getting people to do the scoreboard and scorebook, much less worrying about operating a shot clock. 

Kentucky can’t win this game unless they start making outside shots. That will loosen Kansas State’s interior a little if they start connecting. Frederick and Reeves aren’t doing the only part of the game that they are capable of helping with. 

11 hours ago, DragonFire said:

I sympathize but as Jack pointed out, Warren Central went through the same thing - tough draw and all - last year. I view it as balance. I’ve said it more than once that I favor the double feature on Saturday but the KHSAA has messed up the timing. They need to bump the morning games back to 10 am and 25 min following conclusion (not a set time 2.5 hours later) and the finals to 8 pm. That is what is messing things up now. But I’m coming around on moving back to a Sunday final with late Saturday night semis. I just didn’t want that to be this year because doggone it we had to go through it so George Rogers Clark deserved to go through it too. 

I agree with this. If they’re going to keep the Saturday championship the first game of the day needs to be at 10am like it was for years and the last game needs to be 8:00pm. That adds two more hours rest for the players and a little breathing room. The teams that play the 1:30pm Saturday game have very little turnaround time before the championship tip the way it is now.