Armchair Coach

First Quarter sounded ugly(Morgan 6-Russell 4).

Yes-And he can still light it up!

I dont appreciate the comment about Jonathon's dad, I think Jonathon's dad was one of the greatest hackers of all time, he left many arms scratched and raw as they hobbled their way down the stairs from what they thought was going to be a friendly day at noon ball, If Jonathon works hard enough, after college he can become a hacker as well. Gottarebound-You are just one of many that has suffered from a hack job from Mr.Vanhoose.You won't be the last.

When Jonathan was in 8th grade he played on the team that finished 38-0 and won the middle school state championship defeating South Laurel.Other members of that team included Michael Taylor and Jamaal Williams currently of Huntington High,Alex Barker(Fairview)Austin Blair(Russell-held the middle school state tournament scoring record-34-for a couple of years),Austin Robinson (Russell) and Matt Thomas(Ashland MVP of that tournament as a 7th grader).If someone had told you at that time that Jonathan would be leading career scorer for that group you wouldn't have believed it.It is a testament to his hard work that he has developed into an outstanding player.

________________________________________________________________ Good scouting report AC, but keep in mind VanHoose is getting pretty old now and doesnt get to the Y as much as he used too, then theres all the broacast work, etc , etc, etc, its just a matter of time before Jon becomes the best shooter in the family:banana: Thanks for the compliment shooter.You as much as anyone realize that Jonathan has had to overcome a great deal in regards to the gene pool on his fathers side.He definitely should be commended for this.Just think if he could drive right like his Dad....... He would be UNSTOPPABLE.

You make a very valid point.I should have said teams as a group work much harder.When it comes to individuals you are probably right.Very seldom to you see SERIOUS pick up games today.Those that you have mentioned work extremely hard.They need to as they probably realize they don't have the the athleticism that some have.

Blair and Scott GIll are the only two Russell players to start all 16 games.Blair is avg. 6.8ppg,4,0 rpg and 3.3 apg.He is shooting 42% from the field(18% 0n threes) and 63% from the line.Does a very good job of setting up the offense.

Have to disagree with you on the direction you are going with this.Van Hoose is avg. 14.1 shots a game which is pretty good for someone avg. over 21 ppg.He has 317 points on 212 shots which comes out to 1.5(rounded) points per shot.Most coaches will tell you that anything over 1.20 is good.All the players you have mentioned were tremendous and would do well today as would the players that are playing today do well in yesteryear.I also played back "in the day" and have watched a great deal of ball over the years.The game today is much more physical,better coached,better scouted and the teams work much harder in the off season than they have in the past.Before you jump all over me remember the players you mentioned were all exceptional and encompass more than a 25 year period(1961-late 1980s) so yes it would be difficult to compare the 2006-2007 teams to that elite group.Getting back to Vanhoose the only two criticisms I have heard in regard to him is:1)Free throw shooting 2)He does NOT SHOOT ENOUGH.

I agree that Daniel may be playing D-1 next year but I believe he plays "off" the ball more than he runs the point.Seems as though Martin plays the point a majority of the time for Rowan.

Great Job! If there is a better rebounder in the area/state for his size please let me know.Two words to describe Ferguson:Constant Aggression.He dares you to stop him.

Elliott looked very good.Changed up defenses constantly.They were very aggresive and fed off the crowd.The crowd seemed to energize Elliott a great deal.Ferguson is an absolute beast,the twins played their usual solid game and Knipp had some nice blocks.EC played very unselfish.If it plays out it will be a very good game Saturday night between RH-EC.Jackson who came off the bench had a nice game for the Eagles.

Great Job-Plays the game hard and seems never to let up.

Great Job.Euton has really worked to improve his game this year.He is much better posting up and is putting the ball on the floor with confidence. Although statewide and locally we recognize all varsity points prior to the 9th grade I believe the national federation only counts points starting with the freshman year.I bring this up because with his size,touch and work ethic he is going to be in the 3000-4000 point range for his career.This would probably place him fairly high on some all time lists. Someone please correct me if I have the wrong information.

The future is bright as three of these young men are not seniors.

I don't believe TRENT Wolfenbarker will be playing at the next level although Tyler Wolfenbarker might.

The 5th D-1 signee is from Paintsville which is in the 15th.

You can say what you want about the state of basketball for boys and girls in the 16th region and which way it is heading, but the fact of the matter is that the 16th region boys overall are better than the 16th region girls.Yes I know that Rose hill finished runner up in the state last year and that there are 4 D-1 women signees in the region.But look at the most recent Cantrell ratings: The 16 boys' teams hava a 58.0 rating while the girls avg. 49.8.The boys have a better rating at every position except 5th which is a tie(61.9).The girls have way too many bad teams.Be honest there are 9-10 teams in the region(boys) other than Ashland,Boyd and Russell that could beat those teams and it would not be a total shock.Can the same be said on the girls side? I have been around both the boys and girls teams in the region a great deal during the past 6 years and from my observation there is much more scouting,preparation and summer work done on the boys side than the girls.There are exceptions to this-I KNOW THAT.I am speaking in general terms.Everybody is making a big deal about the RH-LC game and they should.Bot don't forget that our region in boys has already played:Central twice,Mason County twice,Scott County three times and Ballard once.

Yes but Russell beat Ashland at Ashland last year and I believe that Russell has won 3 three of the past four. Russell cannot win without VanHoose having a big game but Ashland can have an off night from McDavid OR Thomas(not both) and win.Vanhoose 25 plus and Russell wins otherwise I'll go with Ashland.

Are you sure they play South Charleston on Saturday?It is not on the schedule.

Some D-3 and smaller schools have contacted him.Makes good grades and has a good test score which should help.

Without VanHoose I don't think Russell can stay within three.

Hall and Collins have been mentioned but I understand your point.I'm sure that Barker appreciates his teammates as much as anyone.The other 2 starters are Daniel Armstrong a 6'3" 235 lb. junior playing his first significant minutes(a few mop up minutes last year) and John Gehringer a 6'0'' forward (very limited minutes as a Jr.)that usually guards the other teams best offensive frontcourt player(Euton,McDavid,Gill).In order for Fairview to win all 5 have to play well not just one or two.

It wasn't really clear what I was saying in the last post.What I wanted to say is that Stephens is a Senior. Back to the game.Look for the freshmen of Fairview(Collins and Hall) to have a good game.Collins is a very good athlete and Hall possesses a great deal of savvy.For BC never and I mean never underestimate the contributions of Billy Blanton.He is the only player on both teams(and probably in the region) that can play all 5 positions.Mayhew also does a very good job running the point.Playing with much more confidence this year.

If you are a Kentucky High School basketball partisan as I am it is difficult to make a fair appraisal until Huntington play a Ky. team.They do that this weekend against a very good but not great Lexington Catholic team.LC has played a very difficult schedule and have already played teams that are on par or ranked ahead of Huntington nationally. Huntington is not deep.Of course when you have 5-6 potential D-1 prospects depth is not a needed attribute(unless foul trouble occurs).Please pay attention to Bruce Senior, a very valuable but underappreciated member of the Huntington team.He does a lot of the grunt work and is a good rebounder. It will be interesting to see how Huntington plays tonight.I believe this will be the first game all year that they have played on the home court of an opponent.They play at South Charleston and the gym only seats about 900 most of whom will be rooting heavily against Huntington.SC is 3-1 and ranked 9th in WV AAA. BTW according to some stats I saw yesterday the three leading scorers for Huntington are:Mayo(30ppg),Patterson(18 ppg) and Williams(16ppg).

I also heard that Van Hoose might be out for one to two weeks.I guess we will find out tonight.It would be interesting to see how Russell would fare without him.