13th Analyst

I stand corrected. For some reason I neglected to include 05/06. This is how it breaks down. 2000/2001- 12/12/00 Middlesboro 61 Harlan 60 2/5/01 Harlan 83 Middlesboro 58 2001/2002- 12/11/01 Middlesboro 59 Harlan 57 2/5/02 Middlesboro 77 Harlan 54 2002/2003- 12/17/02 Middlesboro 71 Harlan 63 2003/2004- 12/16/03 Middlesboro 68 Harlan 64 12/30/03 Harlan 68 Middlesboro 66 1/29/04 Middlesboro 73 Harlan 60 2004/2005- 12/14/04 Harlan 82 Middlesboro 75 2005/2006- 12/13/05 Harlan 80 Middlesboro 68 2/10/06 Harlan 81 Middlesboro 68 2006/2007- 12/15/06 Harlan 89 Middlesboro 73 1/30/07 Harlan 71 Middlesboro 52 While both have had their streaks, I do not think it is fair to say that either team owns the other through the years. If you had said that Harlan has owned Middlesboro as of recently I wouldn't have had a problem but as these numbers show, Harlan obviously didn't own Middlesboro from 2000 to 2004.

I'm no professional but I do know a lot about the game. However, it doesn't take a professional scout to conclude that Greer can't throw 86-87. I've seen the kid throw on several occasions and I maintain my statement about him throwing 80-81 with decent off-speed. Just so you know, Smith from South Laural throws about 86-87 and he is a solid D1 pitcher. I would also argue that Nelson is the best pitcher on Bell County's squad.

At Middlesboro: Aaron Sowders- Cumberland College (I think) Bill Powell- Morehead St. (football) and then Lincoln Memorial University (baseball) David Kelley- Lincoln Memorial University Others that I know of: John Smith (Whitley County HS)- Cumberland College Bussell (Rockcastle County HS)- Eastern Kentucky University

Harlan has owned Middlesboro for several years??? How can you even say that?? Middlesboro has won 6 out of the last 10 meetings.

Not a chance. The kid is a good pitcher right now and could develop into a great pitcher, but there is no way he was clocked at 86-87. I would say he is more in the 80-81 region with decent off-speed.

Those are definitely the top hitters from Middlesboro. I would also argue that Tolliver is right there with them though. I would also throw Nelson in there for Bell County.

Yes he is an assistant coach for this team. However, Coach Sowders has the reigns now and this program is on his shoulders.

I think Middlesboro stands a great chance at winning this region this year. Coach Sowders has a couple years of head coaching under his belt and actually has some depth and leadership to work with this season. I highly doubt that one pitcher in the region will be enough to keep them from winning it.

Louisville wins one game an everyone goes nuts. It is really quite humorous. I'm still betting on the Cards not making the NCAA tournament. There play just isn't consistent enough.

I don't know if you were trying to prove me wrong or something but I think you added strength to my arguement. That is great company if you ask me. It shows me that he is far from an ordinary coach. And let's not also forget that Crumm coached for 30 years. Wait and see what Tubby can do after that long. And Pat Summit was a great coach in women's basketball before anybody else in the world cared to invest in their women's programs. A few other things to add to his resume: -5 First Round draft picks while at UK: Rondo, Padgett, Mohammed, Magloire, and Prince. -In ten years at UK, he has been named National Coach of the Year 3 times: 1998, 2003 (first ever unanimous -seven different entities- in the 25 year history of the award), and in 2005. -In 2000, helped coach the USA Olympic basketball team to a GOLD Medal.

In my experience, 60's are most time efficient and if it is a well ran showcase then they usually won't take the time it would require to time every single player from home to second. I agree that it would be useful but definitely secondary.

Let's just say that Roark has underachieved with the talent that he has been blessed with. He did win a state championship but who couldn't have with that 98' team. Unbelievable talent.

Here is a link to the website: http://www.dynastymanager.com/news.cgi?u=adami20&s=cbb&t=news&id=37987 Some things that I enjoyed from the article: "Smith's teams, known primarily for a defense-oriented slower style of play coined "Tubbyball", have received mixed reviews among Kentucky fans who have historically enjoyed a faster, higher-scoring, and arguably more exciting style of play under previous coaches. Since arriving in Lexington in 1997, Smith has led Kentucky to one National Championship in 1998, five SEC regular season championships (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005) and five SEC Tournament titles (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004), with six Sweet Sixteen finishes and three Elite Eight finishes (1999, 2003, 2005) in his nine seasons. Although this would be a very impressive resume at most college basketball teams, Smith has nevertheless come under much pressure from some UK fans, who believe that nothing short of a Final Four appearance is acceptable for UK. " "He totaled 100 wins quicker than any other Wildcat coach except Hall of Famer Adolph Rupp, reaching the plateau in 130 games. " "Even more impressive, Smith has averaged nearly 27 wins per season at Kentucky." "Prior to coming to the Bluegrass, he spent two seasons at Georgia, where he coached the Bulldogs to a 45-19 (70.3%) record and the first back-to-back seasons of 20 wins or more in school history. Prior to Georgia, he coached four seasons at Tulsa, guiding the Golden Hurricane to Final 16 appearances his last two seasons. " My thoughts, Tubby is an excellent coach. I get tired of other "Kentucky" fans getting on here and bashing him as a coach simply because his style of play is as crowd pleasing as say Pitino's was. How many other coaches can say that they have led their teams to 9 sweet sixteens, 3 elite eights, and 1 national championship?? Any other supporters out there?

I agree that the main point of the 60 for baseball is to measure the true speed of the player but the other things you mentioned, cutting corner, rounding first, and gap speed aren't figured in at all into the 60 yard dash. It is a dead straight run, they don't measure players at combines from home plate to second base. I think the 60 simply gives a little time for a player to show off his accelaration. I think it is most applicable for outfielders.

Are you serious? Anybody that knows the Middlesboro program knows that we have had more than our share of talent recently. Specialty positions (QB, RB, TE, WR) have been very talented the last ten years. They have had the talent to win at least one more ring since 98' but Roark shoots himself in the foot by not pushing weight lifting at all. Therefore, it isn't the talent that he doesn't get, he just doesn't put any size on his players. Middlesboro is always small and quick up front but against the best teams, they get exploited. Hence the reason that they always make it deep into the playoffs but rarely all the way.

Oh what a short memory we have!! Tubby pulls in the #1 recruiting class in the nation just 3 short years ago. He pulled in the #3 center (Morris), #2 SG (Crawford), #24 SG (Bradley), and #6 PG (Rondo).

That light pole will never be moved. There is probably 2 tons of cement anchoring that thing underground. They also choked a little bit by making that brick backstop so dang close to the plate (a true sign of a team that never has fundemental catchers). Example, Cumberland always has great catchers. They have to because if they don't, a pass ball would seriously hurt. Even Middlesboro's and Corbin, both brick, are a significant distance futher from the plate than the wall at Cawood. That being said, they have been pretty competitive through the years and I would like to see that come back again. It is good for the region.

A lot of people will be surprised at how much arm strength Tolliver has picked up over the off-season. However, Middlesboro is pretty deep with pitching this year and Tolliver probably fits in to their rotation at about 4 or 5 to tell you the truth. His future is at 3B. The kid was the best true hitter on Middlesboro's team last year and has only gotten better. He has a great build for the corner and is probably one of the hardest workers on the team.

They actually used up more than their regular alotment. The ticket office had to open up additional visitor seating to accomodate all of the students that wanted to attend the game. And just so you know, the student section has sold their full alotment for every regular season game.

You can thank the student section up top for that. It took up 4 whole sections today.

I was at the game as well and I have to disagree with you. It was the 6th game I have been to this season and it was by far the loudest. The student section did a great job at getting chants going and I was pleased with the overall atmosphere of the game. The opposing team was visibly flustered.

Actually, not everyone did. In fact, this is what you said prior to the game in the predictions thread: "Should be a decent game, but I look for the Cats to take it..... UK-72 SC-64 Therefore, you predicted just an eight point win. That isn't near the 15+ victory "everybody" supposedly predicted and even further from the 38 point victory that it actually was. It seems as though you really thought the Gamecocks weren't too bad of a team. I also think it is safe to say that Louisville doesn't have a good win like SC does. If you would do your research you would notice that earlier in the season, these Gamecocks beat a very good Southern Cal team; a team that has proven to be a dragon slayer as of recently with wins over ranked teams like then #8 Wichita State, #13 Washington, #17 Oregon, and a last second loss to #3 UCLA a few nights ago. Louisville's best win came against who? Providence? And the lowly Gamecocks scored just 2 points fewer against the Cats than Louisville. I would venture to say that South Carolina would probably be the favorite against Louisville in that hypothetical matchup.

What do all of you people who said that Rupp Arena was not a draw to a recruit have to say now?

There has been a lot of talk on another thread about the lack of an exciting atmosphere in Rupp Arena. Most blame it on the "dead" spirit of the student sections. One thing that most people seemed to misunderstand is that the students do not get free tickets. In fact, they can't even just go to the ticket office a buy tickets. At UK, the students participate in what is called a "lottery" for their allotment of student tickets. On designated nights throughout the basketball season, student flood into Memorial Coliseum, each getting a numbered ticket as the enter. Twenty minutes later when the venue is packed, they call out ranges of numbers (tickets 1200-1250 for example). That group of students goes down to the court and gets in line to purchase their ticket, on a first come first serve basis. Most of the time, if a student waits around long enough, they can at least buy a nose bleed ticket but for some games (North Carolina, Louisville, Florida, etc.) some do not. The student pay 5 dollars for each ticket, basketball and football. Now that the issue has been cleared up, ESPN recently posted an article about their favorite arena atmopsheres. Each analyst, all who I am sure have been to far more arenas than anyone posting on this board, rated their favorites and here were the results. These were all based on best game atmospheres and not just tradition Jay Bilas: Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Butler, Duke Pat Forde: Duke, Indiana, Michigan State, Arkansas, Kentucky Fran Franschilla: Kansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, New Mexico Doug Gottlieb: Oklahoma State, Illinois, Southern Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas Andy Katz: Florida, Gonzaga, Wisconsin, Kansas, Duke Mark Schlabach: Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Florida Kyle Whelliston: North Carolina A&T, Missourri State, Western Kentucky, Valpo, Penn

In response to a few of your statements: Technically, Middlesboro's varsity did play Pineville the past 15 years. However, while it did count on the varsity record, the top players did not participate and that I am positive of. If you did follow Middlesboro baseball you would know that Brian Powell did pitch as well. In fact, he was probably the best pitcher on the team his last two seasons. When he appeared on the mound he was dominant. What is even more impressive is that he played his entire senior season with a torn labrem and was still the strongest defensive player in the region. Justin Stewart may have only hit 2 homeruns his senior year but he did bat .463 that year. If you think Jeff Kyle is the only player in Middlesboro history to hit multiple HRs in a game then you are wrong. And I don't even know what you mean by the Brian Williams comment. Since the national guard building is a good 3-4 miles away I am assuming that you mean he hit a far HR. There is no need for you to defend Brian Williams as he was one of the players I put on my all-time team. As is Jeff Kyle. And I don't know who you are talking about but I also assure you that nobody is still talking about Craig Heath or his homerun at Palatka. I played for Middlesboro for 5 years since his time and actually never heard his name once. If you are putting Barry Burch in the linup because of his defensive abilities then you might as well throw Blake Allen in there as well. I thought we were just listing the best all around players. Just a note: 9 of the 22 players I named played prior to 98. The reason I named players mostly from that era is because they were flat out the better players. Middlesboro won regional championships in 98, 99, 02 while finishing runner-up in 00, 04, and 06. That is an extremely successful era. Let's not also forget that they reached the Final Four in both 99 and 02. That may be the reason why I listed so many in that era. You on the other hand seem a bit bitter towards players from newer Middlesboro teams, which may also be the reason you didn't put Coach Sowders on your list.