dawgs83

The cost of the state tournament is making it an adult only crowd. Lower arena in mid sections seats are selling but not always attending. Big torunaments through out the year dont have a lot of students at the games. The KOB at $8 a ticket has good crowds but very few students unless its a rival game or finals. Participating teams must provide a package to get students to and from Lexington or most cant get there. My school in 07 charged $20 for a ticket, T-shirt, and bus ride to and from. We took six bus loads of students. How many kids can get to and from Bowling Green 4 times in one week on their on. If schools provide a deal kids will come more. The NCAA tournament hurts attendance. Also the downtime between games has gotten out of hand. Takes 40 minutes for the next game to start

Need to move finals back to Saturday night. Teams that win their fans can stay and only have to pay for one day of transportation. Lots of coaches that did attend all week went home Saturday night or early this morning skipping the finals. Staying from Weds to Sunday gets expensive. Also heard coaches complaining about the Hyatt jacking up room rates to $300 a night and you have get the rooms a minimum of 4 nights. One thing I would like to see is getting the second game started faster. They give 25 minutes between games and they usually have another ten minutes allotted for awards. Some coaches who stay at the Hyatt leave and go watch NCAA games at the bar.

Once again Ballard can't get it done. Boyle is that team this year no one expects. After tonight I think they win it

Participating teams should not lose money to make money for the KHSAA. Its a joke. If you go up on Tuesday and make it to the finals your program will go in debt. Yes its a great debt but shouldnt be there. The KHSAA big wigs live good during the Sweet 16's staying at the Hyatt with all expenses covered. Would like to know what the KHSAA pays for members housing/food during the tournament while putting teams in Red Roof Inns and Super 8 hotels.

Central also upset Louisville Eastern in the second round and no one gave them much of a chance to win. Eastern beat them by 20 on last game of the regular season

No, then the opinions of larger populations would always want to rule. Always putting the lower and less enrolled schools at a disadvantage. I can hear it know, this region plays tougher competition so they must be better. Their athletic budget allows them to play bigger and better outside competition, which means they must be ranked higher. It fair and honest. Win and advance. It's that simple.

Agree. If your going to seed it then you need a class system. You would be giving the advantages to the big schools. What makes the Sweet Sixteen so good is that it gives a smaller school the opportunity with the draw. We will see a team step up next week and play well that nobody expects. Good discussion but leave it alone.

Jason Frakes tweeted that he thought the manual kid slammed the ball with two hands but meant to catch it coming up and missed it. Most tweets didn't think it should have been called especially since most thought it was a clean steal. Wow Ballard comes back from 20 down.

Desales former coach Mingus made the statement to me that they were benefitting from Trinity. They are getting kids from CSAA that they could not get before. It has also benefitted them in Football. Kids are choosing Desales as opposed to getting past over at X and T. Desales has won back to back in Football.

Well I will shoot down my own prediction on Bullitt East and Blackburn. I now heard Coach told the kids yesterday he is coming back next season.

Wasnt there some disagreements last year at East. From my understanding East wanted to hire Willie Feldhaus. Feldhaus resigned and moved there when Blackburn decided to return. Isnt Feldhaus teaching there?

Last year's bracket was horribly unbalanced which allowed a team like Cov Cath to go to the finals without ever playing a top 20 team. The brackets are much more even this year which will make it more difficult for a team off the radar to win it. I'm not saying it can't happen, because this year is pretty wide open. Ballard is no doubt the favorite, but how often does that actually happen?

Agreed with the brackets. However there is always teams that surprises everyone. No one expected Christian Co to beat Eastern with 5 D-1 starters 4 years ago or Rowan Co to be in the finals. I think Ballard will be the favorite and should win it but I will go with the odds and say they dont.

Ballard if they get there will be the heavy favorite just like they were the last two times they were runner-up. They seem to always find away to lose in the finals. There always seems to be a team in the sweet sixteen that no one looks at that steps up and wins it. Its what makes it the greatest show on earth. Cov Cath was an example last year. All the talk was about Trinity, Scott Co, and Hoptown.

They were moved originally in 06 and placed in 24th district with Fairdale, Southern, North Bullitt, and Bullitt Central. When the regions were changed again East was moved in the district they are currently in.

Someone correct me if I am wrong... But this will be the first year since reorganization of the Louisville regions that it hasn't been PRP/East final. I believe East will be a lot better team next year with who they have returning.

Not correct. 2006 was the first year that Bullitt Co schools were moved to the 6th. Also PRP beat east in 2013 regional semi final.

He's the reason they are there. I guess he can be the reason they leave.

Sounds like a little jealousy from some 5th region schools. This is the first time since 1983 that Taylor Co. is in the Sweet 16 and all year nothing but complaints about them. I think some 5th region teams don't like the fact that they have a young, hardworking, and enthusiastic coach that is building a winning program that will compete at the top of the region every year. Coach Gatewood can coach and success follows him. Good luck to TC at Rupp

I was following on twitter, Jason Frakes tweeted that Klefot came back in the game.

Ballard will be a heavy favorite. I like Taylor Co. also. They have played a tough schedule.

What has Bardstown done to turn their earlier season problems around. They were 0-3 in the KOB and were not very impressive.

I had heard he left the team after the controversy involving the player & father involved in a physical altercation with the Head Coach. The young man dismissed from the team was close to Jefferson and it was a very emotional time which contributed to Jefferson's departure. As time went by and things simmered down, there was a change of heart. I have no knowledge of the details other than this situation had played a role according to someone very close to the team. Perhaps the WKU situation also played a role too.

This is the kind of drama that causes talented teams to lose in the post season. Doss should win but I wont be surprised if they are knocked out. My pick for the 6th is still Desales.

Only Ballard could lose Quentin Snider, Kelan Martin, and Malik Dow and yet somehow find a way to perhaps be even better.

 

That's a talent-producing machine out there.

Helps when a nice player like Eaves shows up.

I agree with most have put here. I think Szabo is a great defensive coach, I'm not sure about the other side of the ball though. The team that won state had so many great athletes and they were perfect for his in your face, wear you down, defensive pressure. Not that this team didn't have athletes but this time had a ton of offensive fire power IMO. If they would have been allowed to play a more open style of play I'd hate to know how many teams they would have been able to just simply outscore. Not many teams can score 80+, I think this Trinity team had the talent to do that regularly.

Having a 6'10 guy to bail you out defensively helps. Trinity got beat off the dribble all night. Spaulding bailed them out blocking or altering shots. Really surprised Trinity didnt go zone after they came back and took the lead. Ballard drove right past them all night.

Can we still not question Szabo's prowess? All those that criticized me for questioning if he used Spalding enough need to be evaluated. Good day.

Would agree here. Spaulding hardly touches the ball. I picked Trinity to win having never seen them play. Wasn't that impressed. Take Spaulding off they look average. Other than Spaulding not sure the other guys can play D-1 ball. Looked really slow and un-athletic

28-4 is a good year. Obviously didnt end the way they wanted it to. However, when you really look at it only one team is going to have a happy ending. That is the Sweet sixteen champ. Anything can happen tournament time. The 9th region is a solid region with good teams. Holmes is good with one of the top players in the state in Bolden. Newport just about eliminated Cov Cath. Too me if you compete at a high level against good teams its a good year. You win the region its a great year. Enjoyed watching them during the KOB the past two years. Glad they came to Louisville to play.

Maybe to have minimal conflict with girls state tournament that will be going on...

Thats possible. However, The two Louisville schools play each other on Weds night and only one will move on to Friday's second round. The two girls team in state Male/Mercy are not in the boys region tournament. The winner of each region gets an extra cut of the gate to help pay expenses for the state tournament. They will lose money at the gate playing on the same night. Lets say that Manual/Ballard and Desales/Bullitt East make the finals. Those would be great crowd games and would be a mess. Anyway I still take Trinity by 4 and Manual by 8

Whichever team can control the tempo will likely win. If the game is in the 60s I'll take Ballard. If it is in the 50s or below I'll take Trinity. It should be a great game.

I agree about tempo. So I will take Trinity. They have been able to control the tempo the last several meetings. Trinity size seems to give Ballard trouble. Ballard constantly attacks them and has to shoot over them. Ballards run and jump traps is usually not a factor with Trinity. Their size helps them with pressure. Ballard needs to shoot well from the perimeter. JCPS has blown it again with scheduling. I realize you cant control the snow but this should have been an 8:30 game. Also both the 6th/7th region final will be on the same night. That will not be good. Not sure why they didnt play finals on Thurs/Friday