rojas4

Another good choice was the 1936 Benham Tiger team. They were the best team in the state by far. Benham had dominated their region and beaten Corbin badly in the regular season but was not allowed to participate in the regional tournament because Harlan County was quaritantined due to an illness epidemic in Harlan County. Corbin went on to win the state championship in 36.

You missed the most fantastic selection of all for a movie. No other choice comes close. Its the 1928 Carr Creek national runner up team.

I am going to disagree with this comment. While it is easier to win at larger schools, a lot of coaches began their careers at very small schools and were very successful before accepting positions at larger schools. There are tons of very large schools that seldom ever reach the Sweet 16. I especially like the job Humphrey has done at Clark Co. I don't think ANYONE could have done the job he has done. I also think you put the states best coaches at Deming, Bracken Co, etc. and they would be winners. They may not go to the Sweet 16 but they would build a very successful program. I have seen it done at Evarts (Hicks), Harlan (Jones, and Hicks), JBS (Stepp), Corbin (Hicks and Deaton) and many others.

I thought Portwood had a fantastic games against Mason County and Henry Clay. Like I said, I can think of at least 10 double digit scoring games Portwood had last year.

I think you are shortchanging Portwood big time Waterboy. I can think of 10 games Portwood scored in double figures just off the top of my head. I'm sure there were others.

It will be interesting to see how Holland does at Hazard and how Hatcher does at PCC. It will also be interesting to see how JBS follows up their regional championship. Stepp at JBS will be the most interesting player to follow.

I really like Listerman from your region. His teams are always well coached and very fundamentally sound. I don't particularly like to watch their games from a fans point of view. I also like the way Henley's teams play. As far as the comment about Schlarman adjusting his style of play to fit his team, there are two different schools of thought on this. I discussed this with a very successful high school coach that plays a very up tempo style of play, both offensively and defensively. A few years ago he had a team blessed with a lot of heigth but not much speed. The coach tried to change his style from an up-tempo team to a 1/2 court team to utilize the heigth advantage. The team had only moderate success by the program's standards. The coach told me never again would he change his style to fit his players. He instead would mold his players to fit the coaches style of play he believed in. He has had a great deal of success doing just this. If you look at the most successful coaches, most have a basic philosophy of how the game should be played and they stick with it.

13th Steve Wright- South Laurel John D Wilson- Red Bird Dinky Phipps- Barbourville Tony Pietrowski- Corbin JD Strange- Pineville Kevin Spurlock- Clay County Anthony Nolan- Cawood Jerry Edwards- Cumberaland

Waterboy, that was one great point. And furthermore he has never been successful at the professional level or at coaching international basketball.

Westsider, your responses are getting very predictable when it comes to Hicks.

EKU, Morehead, WKU, Kent, and Bradley offered Haddix.

If the kid you are talking about from Grant County is Tyler Jones he was a heck of a player.

Harlan did win the "Class A Classic" in 1986 when Hicks was the head coach of the Dragons. At that time the tournament was an invitational. The finals and semi finals were played at Northern Kentucky University. The organizers tried to get the top 8 class A teams from around the state plus the 9 or 10 class A teams in northern Kentucky. All the nothern Kentucky teams were on one side of the bracket and the rest were on the other side. In 1996 Harlan defeated Paris in the semifinals and Walton Varona in the finals. Walton Varona had a 6'8" kid that could play. He later played at Wright State. Edds was the head coach at WVHS then and Steve Wright was an assistant. Paris also had a very good team that year. At that time Harlan had a couple very quick little guards and played a tough man to man press the whole game. Walton Varona had a hard time beating the press.

Hicks was an assistant coach at Limestone College in South Carolina before coaching high school basketball.

Haddix will sign with Miami today. While SC was the most accomplished Kentucky team in the last 50 years, how good would they have been if Haddix had not been ruled ineligible?

5 final 4's in last 10 years. Most Sweet 16 wins in last 10 years Most career wins among active coaches Plays state's top schedule every year. Also was a winner at Evarts, Harlan, and Corbin

Vashon has been Missouri's top high school basketball program for years. The Vashon Wolverines won Missouri state championships in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2006. It is not uncommon to see Vashon ranked high nationally.

I am not too sure Hatcher has ever coached any other tempo than deliberate. His teams usually average in the high 40s or 50s per game.

Its more like sloooooooooooooooooooow style.

http://www.dailyindependent.com/localsports/local_story_133000104.html?keyword=topstory

It all depends on the results of the federal investigation of the Greenup County school system for retaliation against Hicks.

I don't thing there are as many "great" coaches out there as there were 25 years ago. My theory is that most coaches do not make a career out of coaching the way Hicks, Listerman, R. Woods, and many others have. Most young coaches these days will stay in coaching 6 or 7 years and get out. I believe the reason for this is the time demands of Kentucky High School basketball coaching. When I was in high school, many years ago, practice started October 15th or when football season was over. It ended when your team was beaten out of the tournament. Now, you have "open gym" from the end of the Sweet 16 till the end of school. The day school is out summer basketball starts. You have a two week dead period in mid summer. Then you have conditioning and open gym from the time school starts till Oct 15th. I would think a fellow would have to really love this job to go through that schedule for the long haul.

You know one that is a great one that seldom gets mentioned is John D Wilson at tiny tiny Red Bird Mission school. James A Cawood was pretty much at the bottom of the 13th region. JD took them from that to a 13th region finalist in a very short time. He took Red Bird to the region finals even though a couple of his best players had transferred to Clay Co.

It depends on the deffinition of a top coach. Below are some criteria that may be considered. Overall record Longevity (great coaches build great programs not just great teams) State Tournament record Regional Championships Respected by former players Plays tough schedule year in and year out Kids improve throughout career Cares less about his popularity and does not kowtow to boosters etc. Everyone on this board is going to say his or her favorite coach is one of the states best and the coach he or she does not like is overrated. But sports is largely a numbers game, otherwise we wouldn't have scoreboards and every team would get a championship trouphy at the end of each year. Coaches should be rated by the numbers.

I think a lot will depend on the results of the federal investigation of the GC school system. The investigation centers on if Hicks mid-year dismissal was in retaliation for Hicks testifying against the former principal in a civil rights investigation.