Old School Dr.

No not this year, but I have noticed that all of their games have been at home except for the games in the Berea tournament and one at Williamsburg. Do they have some new players they didnt have last year? I have heard they have some kids that have talent and they may be a little better than I think they are, but from my years involved in basketball, teams that give up the amount of points they give up and shoot as many 3's as they do have a hard time in a highly competitive tournament setting.

Is the big kid that played well in the AAU tournament last summer about ready to come back?

Great job Trace, he is a fantastic point guard that probably doesnt get the full credit he deserves sometimes. As for RH and their stars, I am wondering if Billy Clyde didnt jump the gun on Euton, I mean does he really look like he has the ability to play next to the likes of Patterson some day and actually contribute at Kentucky?

Pineville has a nice team and obviously Lynn Camp has some kids that can shoot a bit, but both teams seem to really play well against teams that are not known for their defensive abilities. I would have thought Pinevile would be able to take care of business better than this against a team that is mostly one demensional, but it takes a team committed to defense to handle a pretty good offensive team. Bottom line, these teams score tons of points on each other, but against athletic defensive teams like the Cumberland and Corbin they would both probably score in the 40's or 50's.

Without Caldwell inside to battle the big kids for Cumberland it was pretty much a mismatch, Cumberland also seemed to have their tenacious defensive mojo back after not playing very well last Saturday following the 9 day stretch without a game from the 20th to the 29th of December.

Yes , 64-31 at the 4:00 mark then the last 5 subs didnt score again for a 64-40 final.

How about Charles Thomas and Todd Cox when they both transferred to Harlan? Do you remember those guys? Mr Basketball (who was from Cumberland) and a 6'8" center who started for a National Championship Georgetown College team. How about Woody Asher to Clay County, Shannon Hoskins to Clay County, Whitaker and Warren from Bell County to Hazard this year!! Billy Hicks actually won his first state championship with his best player and sweet 16 mvp transferring in from Corbin (Rick Jones) and I know there are several more that I have not mentioned that transferred to Clay County and other schools over the last 40 years. Then you have a kid like O.J. Mayo who goes wherever he wants and actually played for 3 different High Schools and never had to sit out an entire year like Wilson of Cumberland did last year.

Once again, Absolutely on the money!!!! I dont know how it could be put any better.

Thank you very much sir for helping explain to everyone what I have been trying to explain for the last couple days.

Exactly, with margin of victory having a substantial effect on the overall power ranking of a team. This is one reason why this ranking system is screwed up, when you have some teams that choose to play their top players almost the entire game it helps them get a higher ranking than they really deserve. Just like I have said all along, when team A has a 30 point lead at the end of the 3rd quarter and allows their top players to continue playing and the final margin ends up 50 compared to other teams that in this siutuation play their freshman and sophomore jv players the final quater and finish with a 22 to 25 point margin, (in a nutshell) these differences distort a ranking system such as this.

Are you saying that none of the kids on their jv have worked hard enough and earned the right to dress varsity?

You have a good point and I guess if Cumberland can pick up some wins against top 25 competition this month things will change for them in the rankings

If Elliot county dresses only 10 players on their varsity why do they not dress 4 or 5 more kids from their junior varsity like everybody else does?? Are you going to tell us next they dont have a junior varsity?

I dont believe that any of the teams mentioned have only 10 players in uniform, but even if they do I am referring to their top 7 or 8 players only playing until the last 60 seconds of the game and sometimes till the buzzer sounds. As for running the score up, I just dont buy the argument that these kids get anything out of playing the 4th quarter of major blowouts other than padded stats and padded margins of victory. Now the motive for these padded stats and padded margins of victory is something that could very much be debated.

I think Mason County is clearly the best team in the state. They lost to Lexington Catholic on Catholic's home floor in overtime not long after getting back from a trip to Hawaii and playing a grueling schedule over the last couple weeks. As for the rest of the poll, I dont see how Corbin and Hazard can be ranked ahead of June Buchanan, and I also think that Cumberland High should be in the top 25 somewhere. They haven't played a real difficult schedule as of yet, but they have games coming up against tp 25 teams and will have a chance to show what they have in the All A Classic coming up later this month

I disagree with you very much sir!!! I actually dont really understand what you are trying to say????? Are you saying that since the 6A schools can field 15 solid players that it is ok for the smaller schools to play their top players the entire game in a 40 or 50 point blowout. Also, how is it classles to say that a team is running the score up on another team by playing their top 7 or 8 guys the entire game of a 40 to 50 point blowout when actually that is the text book definition of running the score up??? I am not trashing anyone!

You think Les????? I would say so considering you along with a very big percentage of the experts and coaches in the region have them #1.

This rating system is clearly a joke, it allows the bigger schools that have 14 or 15 good players on their bench to run scores up on weak opponents, along with other size schools such as Elliot county and June Buchanan who choose to play their top 7 or 8 guys in big time blowouts to run scores up it appears for rating purposes, and I guess who can blame them. With expectations playing such a big part in most competitive situations, who can blame them for setting a high bar of expectation.

A little ridiculous, Elliot County plays there top 7 guys the entire game in 40 to 50 point blowouts and because of their margin of victory and total points scored end up with a ranking like this. They are a very good team, but should not be ranked ahead of several other teams.

Doyle was a class act and a great ambassador for mountain sports.

13th Region - Cumberland is the favorite and if they take care of business they will be capable of competing with anyone in Richmond. They were there last year, got a win then lost a hard fought game in the quarter finals to Hazard by 1. They only lost one starter and they added a very good 6'4" power forward to the mix.

Elliot County is a very good team and this loss will not devastate them at all, but as I had spoken about before, when they met up with a combination of strong defense, quality guard play and a solid inside game they would have a lot more difficult time than all of the runaway's they have been involved in. I dont even know what Catholic has, but I would guess they are solid combination of these three qualities. Could someone give a short summary on what kind of team Catholic is?

My poll and comments must have hit the nail on the head, otherwise I guess I would have gotten some feedback from some of the 13th region guru's. Come on fella's what are your thoughts?

Shelby Valley is for real to a certain degree IMO. They are a very good story, one that I have grown to respect and appreciate very much. This team absolutely gets more out of their talent than any other team in the state of Kentucky, but I actuallly wonder whether or not they have enough talent to be successful against the best the state has to offer later in the year. They play ball year round and only have I think one kid that plays football in their top 7 or 8 and he doesnt start, so they have come into the early season the last couple years at the very top of their game while other programs that have key players playing football late or maybe do not have their entire team returning like SV and it takes time for them to reach the top of their game. SV can compete with anyone right now, but once some of the stronger teams with size and strength inside and quality guard play reach their peak they will be able to handle SV's pressure defense and have a better shot at beating them. SV really doesnt have a strong inside game, but they do score inside as a result of being so fundamentally sound with their ball movement and great passing, I just dont see them having an answer defensively against a team with great interior play along with good guards, but there is probably only a handful or two of them out there. Having said all of that, I would say they are very dangerous and will be a tough out for anyone now or in March.

Come on now Bubba, haven't you seen some of my posts speaking about the overall strength of the 13th Region and spoke very highly of many of the teams in the Region.