118 Teams Left

Here are the results of last night's Boys' Regional Games (MaxPreps rankings in parentheses):

FOURTH REGION QUARTER-FINALS (at W. Kentucky):

Barren Co. 77, Clinton Co. 49

(3) Warren Cent. 67, Franklin-Simpson 27

SIXTH REGION QUARTER-FINALS (home teams listed first):

(19) Lou. Butler 83 - 52 Lou. Pleasure Ridge Park

Lou. W.E.B. DuBois 71 - 59 Bullitt Cent.

Lou. Fairdale 61 - 78 (13) Lou. Jeffersontown

Lou. Moore 85 - 95 Lou. DeSales

SEVENTH REGION QUARTER-FINALS (home teams listed first):

(4) Lou. St. Xavier 105 - 50 Lou. Central

Lou. Trinity 64 - 63 Lou. Eastern

(9) Lou. Ballard 78 - 76 Lou. Male

(12) Lou. DuPont Manual 60 - 51 Lou. Waggener

Note:  Christian Academy-Louisville, ranked 14th in the Commonwealth on MaxPreps, was eliminated by Lou. Eastern 80-65 in the semi-finals of the 28th District.  So, CAL did not qualify for the Seventh Region Tournament.

Lots more action on tap tonight.

KHSAA Boys' State: Semi-Finals and Final

Earlier today, they played the semi-finals in the KHSAA Boys' State Basketball Tournament.  In the first semi-final, Number-14 Bowling Green pounded Number-11 S. Oldham 73 to 51.  The Purples appear to be getting stronger as the tournament goes along.  Next up, Malachi Moreno and the Great Crossing Warhawks crushed Montgomery County, 70 to 49.  So we are down to the last game of the season, both in the Commonwealth and in Rupp Arena:

(14) Bowling Green (30-6) v. (2) Great Crossing (33-4)

Here is how Bowling Green got here, starting with the Fourth Region Tournament:

03/11/25:  (14) Bowling Green 80, Glasgow 53

03/17/25:  (14) Bowling Green 86, Russell Co. 71

03/19/25:  (14) Bowling Green 66, Clinton Co. 59

03/26/25:  (14) Bowling Green 52, Adair Co. 51 (OT)

03/28/25:  (14) Bowling Green 80, (8) Ashland Blazer 74 (OT)

03/29/25:  (14) Bowling Green 73, (11) S. Oldham 51

And here is how Great Crossing got to the Final:

03/04/25:  (2) Great Crossing 81, Lex. Christian 51

03/08/25:  (2) Great Crossing 59, (5) Lex. Bryan Station 56

03/11/25:  (2) Great Crossing 59, (3) Lex. Frederick Douglass 57

03/27/25:  (2) Great Crossing 69, Daviess Co. 37

03/28/25:  (2) Great Crossing 49, (9) Cooper 36

03/29/25:  (2) Great Crossing 70, Montgomery Co. 49

Whatever happens tonight, it has been a tremendous season, and we wish both teams the very best of luck.

It is 160 miles from Bowling Green H.S. (in Bowling Green) to Great Crossing H.S. in Georgetown.

KHSAA Boys' State: Quarterfinals

Here are today's quarterfinals (all times Central):

10 A.M.:  (8) Ashland Blazer v. (14) Bowling Green

12:30 P.M.:  (11) S. Oldham v. Jeffersontown

5 P.M.:  N. Laurel v. Montgomery Co.

7:30 P.M.:  (2) Great Crossing v. (9) Cooper

Unfortunately, the UK game will be going on when Great Crossing plays Cooper, so that game will not get the attention it deserves.

KHSAA Boys' State: First Round

 With 32 seconds left in overtime of the first game, Bowling Green leads Adair County 50 to 49.

Great Music Videos: 'Alive and Kicking,' Simple Minds

Thanks, Matthew, for getting this series going. Here's the second video I thought of after reading your introductory post.

I'm pretty sure that I saw this video debut on MTV in September 1985. Remember how they used to do that? They'd announce they'd be showing a video for the first time at whatever time, and then on would come Alan, or J.J., or Nina, or Mark, or Martha, at that time to introduce the video with appropriate fanfare. I'm pretty sure the first time I saw "Alive and Kicking" was during this treatment.

I wasn't much of a Simple Minds fan before this video, and I feel confident I'd never heard this song before seeing this video. But immediately the video just totally grabbed me. I thought it was the song that I liked so much, and so I went out and bought the album at Camelot in the Kentucky Oaks Mall at some point that autumn of our senior year at Heath. I listened to the record all the way through once or twice, but I quickly got to the point where I pretty much just dropped the needle on "Alive and Kicking" and yanked it back off after that song had played.

And then it wasn't long after that before I realized it was the video I loved. I liked the song, but I loved the video. "Alive and Kicking" would fall into Matthew's Category 2, "Videos That Are Really Made to Be a Visual that Goes Along With the Music." I was a 17-year-old boy ready to get out of my parents' house on Cairo Road in Paducah, Kentucky, and here came Jim Kerr with his exotic friends inviting me with a striking Scottish travelogue into kicking, free life with all of its dramatic waterfalls, piercing sunsets and giant drums. Indeed, within a year, I was on my (self-perceived) own in college in Bowling Green, making my own discoveries, such as the rocky embankments along the Barren and Green rivers north of town.

I learned this morning from super Wikipedia that the video was actually shot "near the town of Hunter, at North–South Lake in the Catskill Mountains of New York State." Which is fine. Simple Minds was from Scotland, and the place they found to make their video looked like what I imagined Scotland to look like. But, regardless of exactly where on God's green Earth that it was shot, the "Alive and Kicking" video is no bait and switch. It's a brilliantly executed brochure for the gift of Life, More Life, wherever we have to get ourselves to receive and embrace its wild abundance.

Girls' Sweet Sixteen, Wednesday

Comments flow ...

KHSAA Boys' Basketball Is Under Way

In the first game of the KHSAA Boys' State Basketball Tournament, the Lincoln County Patriots defeated the Jeffersontown Chargers 45-41.  Next up, the Muhlenberg County Mustangs will play the North Oldham Mustangs.

Lincoln County High School opened in August 1974.  According to Wikipedia, it resulted from a merger of the the following schools:  Stanford, Crab Orchard, Hustonville, McKinney, and King Mountain.

Meanwhile, In Florida ...

  

Hilltoppers kick off against Appalachian State in Florida in about 25 minutes. Touch and go back here in Kentucky, but I'm hoping to watch and putter around in the comments. We'll see ...

State Champs in Football

I thought it was a very entertaining KHSAA football season -- the state playoffs seemed much more competitive than usual.  Thanks to Eric for his coverage of Russellville and Tilghman.  Here are your six state champions:

1.  In Class 1A, Pikeville (14-2) beat Russellville 30-27 for its third state title in recent years.  Pikeville also went all the way in 2015 and 2019.

2.  In Class 2A, Beechwood (15-0) stunned Lexington Christian 23-21 to win its second consecutive 2A title.  Last year, Beechwood beat Lexington Christian 24-23 in overtime, and this year they won the rematch.  Lexington Christian beat 1A Champion Pikeville (31-14), and 4A Champion Boyle County (35-28), but could not win the 2A title.

3.  In Class 3A, Belfry (9-6) started off by losing four games in a row to Pulaski County, Covington Catholic, Lou. Central, and Pikeville.  They also forfeited a game to Lexington Christian.  So on September 23, the Pirates had a record of 0-5.  But they went 9-1 the rest of the way, and beat Paducah Tilghman 33-28 in the final.  Belfry once lost the 3A title game to Louisville Central three years in a row:  2010, 2011, and 2012.  Since then, the Pirates have won it six times:  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, and 2021.  This was Tilghman's first appearance in the final since the Blue Tornado won it all in 2009.

4.  In Class 4A, Boyle County (14-1) lost only to Lexington Christian back in August, and had all blowouts in its last eight games.  The Rebels pounded Johnson Central 30-13 for its third consecutive 4A title, to go with previous titles in 2010 and 2009.

5.  In Class 5A, South Warren (14-1) continued Bowling Green's long tradition of excellence with a 38-26 win over Lex. Douglass.  The Spartans also won it all in 2018.

6.  In Class 6A, Lou. St. Xavier (14-1) had lost to Lou. Male 28-21 back on September 3.  But in the Game of the Year in Kentucky, the Tigers got their revenge when it mattered, beating Male 31-21 for the 6A title.  It was the first title for St. X since 2009.  But it was the sixth title for Kevin Wallace, who won the 5A title while at Bowling Green in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.  Wallace agreed to come to St. X a few years ago, and this year that really paid off.

For years, I've complained that we have too many blowouts in the KHSAA playoffs, and I still wish we would go back to four classes instead of six.  But five of the six title games this year were really good, and I'm so happy that everyone got to have a full season.

We will hand out our final awards once MaxPreps issues their final rankings for the 2021 season.

12 Teams Left

A collection of mismatches at the Sweet 16 today, as three top-10 teams put on a show.  Madison Central, which beat two top-10 teams in the 11th Region, could not handle Ballard today.  And Friday's game between Ballard and Bowling Green should be a doozy:

(4) Elizabethtown 87, Knott Co. Cent. 59

George Rogers Clark 54, Oldham Co. 47

(5) Lou. Ballard 70, Madison Cent. 61

(8) Bowling Green 85, University Heights 57

Bowling Green had a pretty easy time in the Fourth Region, and had a pretty easy time today.  Ballard crushed everyone in the Seventh Region -- which isn't easy -- and handled Madison Central without too much trouble today.  That will be a very big game.  Bowling Green is on a 12-game winning streak -- but the last team to beat the Purples was Ballard, who beat them 61-45 back on February 26.  It will be interesting to see what BGHS has learned since then.

The winner won't be out of the woods, because Elizabethtown -- which beat Bowling Green 64-36 back on February 13 -- will probably be waiting in the semi-finals.  The Panthers have only lost two games all year, and only one since January 12.  They will probably be too much for GRC on Friday, and their game with Ballard or Bowling Green on Saturday morning will probably decide the title.  

51 Teams Left

Eight big games in the Boys' basketball regionals tonight, including two regional finals.  Some big names were eliminated, including the number-2 team in the Commonwealth.  Here we go:

2d Region Semi-Final (at Madisonville-N. Hopkins):

University Heights 69, Henderson Co. 53

4th Region Championship (at W. Kentucky Univ.):

(T8) Bowling Green 57, Greenwood 49

7th Region Semi-Finals (at Lou. Valley):

(5) Lou. Ballard 79, Lou. Trinity 57

Lou. Manual 68, Lou. Male 62 (Overtime)

9th Region Semi-Finals (at Cov. Holmes):

Conner 71, Dixie Heights 54

Ft. Thomas Highlands 74, (2) Erlanger St. Henry 68

12th Region Semi-Final (at Lincoln Co.):

Boyle Co. 57, E. Jessamine 41

14th Region Championship (at Breathitt Co.):

Knott Co. Cent. 65, Hazard 56

114 Teams Left

The world's greatest high school sporting event kept going today, as the folks in the Fourth Region decided to start their tournament on a Sunday.  For the quarter-finals, the district champions got to play at home.  Here were the results (home teams listed first):

Allen County-Scottsville 53 - 48 Russellville

(8) Bowling Green 66 - 50 Clinton Co.

Metcalfe Co. 58 - 73 Greenwood

Franklin-Simpson 59 - 62 Barren Co. (OT)

Tomorrow features a huge game at 6 PM Central.  Erlanger St. Henry, which was ranked number 2 in the state last Monday, lost their district title game to Dixie Heights.  Now they get their punishment in the regional quarterfinals:

(3) Covington Catholic v. (2) Erlanger St. Henry (at Covington Holmes)

These two teams met on February 23 at St. Henry, and St. Henry (the Crusaders) won 61 to 60.

Hilltopper Haven

 From the February 17, 1969 issue of Sports Illustrated:

Down home is the place to be in the Ohio Valley Conference, especially when home is Bowling Green, Ky., where Western Kentucky plays.  In a shoot-out with Murray State for the OVC lead, the Hilltoppers scored the winning basket on a tap at approximately the same time the final buzzer sounded.  No goal, said Murray Coach Cal Luther.  The goal counts, said Referee Charles Fouty, after conferring with Timekeeper "Big Six" Henderson, a longtime Western rooter.  Luther's objection was reasonable, since the ball was fumbled, shot from 25 feet and tapped up twice, all in the last six seconds of Western's 84-82 win.

I'm very impressed at whoever it was at SI that decided to track down that much detail on this game, including the nickname of the timekeeper.  Based on my own knowledge of the rivalry between Western and Murray, I'm going with SI on this one.

But it didn't work out for Western, at least that year.  Murray won the OVC in 1969 -- the last time it would win the league until after Western decamped for the Sun Belt.  The Racers would finish second in 1971, 1973, 1977, and 1981.  They would finish either tied for first or in first in 1980, 1982, and 1983.  But they would not return to the NCAA Tournament until 1988.

NFL89 Update

I missed so much NFL in the late 1980s and early 1990s because I didn't have cable TV and Bowling Green was too far away to get much signal from the Nashville CBS and NBC affiliates other than on cloudy days.

OTD 1989: Simply known as "The Hit", Giants LB Gary Reasons dives headlong to stuff Broncos RB Bobby Humphrey, capping a classic goal line stand in the snow.

Here's a clip of the final 3 plays of the stand. Two very good teams, snow and Summerall & Maddenhttps://t.co/nqy0YndF5Q pic.twitter.com/dIhytXasr9

— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) December 10, 2020

I'm really looking forward to getting caught up some day.

MLB20 Update

Here's my current projection for pairings in the best-of-three Wild Card Series in the 2020 Major League Baseball playoffs:

-- Houston Astros (1) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (8)
-- Oakland A's (4) vs. Cleveland Baseball Team (5)
-- Minnesota Twins (3) vs. Boston Red Sox (6)
-- New York Yankees (2) vs. Texas Rangers (7)
-- Los Angeles Dodgers (1) vs. Atlanta Braves (8)
-- Chicago Cubs (4) vs. San Diego Padres (5)
-- New York Mets (3) vs. Miami Marlins (6)
-- St. Louis Cardinals (2) vs. Cincinnati Reds (7)

I'm basing this on current standings, with last season's regular-season performance breaking ties. My initial two thoughts about the pairings are, one, that Cardinals-Reds series would be huge around here, and, two, if I were a Dodgers fan, I would be a little wary of the Braves after they charged out of nowhere to take the National League's eighth berth.

The A's are 1-0, and I stayed awake until right before they actually won it. I have an anonymous source who emailed the following (italicized) observations as the glorious, 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels played out. He might choose to GOaHEAd and reveal himself, but I am not going to divulge.

Subject: I'm watching the A's and the Angels
Date: July 24, 2020 at 10:51:16 PM CDT
I would guess that approximately 80 percent of the A's games I've watched over the last 10 years involved the Angels.

This was the first of Oakland's 60 regular-season games, probably 45 of which will be against the Angels.

Baseball Reference is amazing. So, as previously noted, is the internet. I'm sitting here in my living room in Madisonville, Kentucky, watching the MLB74 All-Star Game on YouTube while also browsing  Mike Trout's career splits against different opponents (and checking out some gorgeous custom-made, 1970s-style football cards).

Richard Justice is ga-ga for Mike Trout, and Richard Justice is great.

Mike Trout has finished 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd and 1st in AL MVP voting in his first five full seasons. No one ever ever ever has done that.

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) November 17, 2016

Mike Trout is on pace for 51 homers, 132 runs and 14.3 WAR.

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) June 4, 2018

Mike Trout's 64.2 career WAR is currently ahead of Ty Cobb (63.4) for tops all time by a position player through age-27 season.--@Angels

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) April 1, 2019

I believe Richard Justice, but I do not have my own authentic sense of the greatness of Mike Trout's career. Because the only games I watch on TV are A's games or playoff games, and because the A's play the Angels two out of every three games and the Angels do not participate in the playoffs, my sense of Mike Trout is based only on his thousands of games against the A's, and Mike Trout has been better against the rest of the league than he has against the A's.

For example, Mike Trout's on-base percentage ((hits plus bases on balls plus + times hit by pitch) divided by (AB plus BB plus HBP plus sacrifice flies)) is .396 in 613 career plate appearances against the A's. That's really good. Carl Yastrzemski led the entire American League with an OBP of .395 in MLB65. However, Mike Trout has led the American League in OBP for each of the last four seasons with nothing lower than last year's .438. His career OBP is .500 against teams with less than a .500 record and .406 against above-.500 teams. He's played eight career games against the Milwaukee Brewers, and his OBP against them is .594!

(Oh, my gosh, Barry Bonds's OBPs were .515 in MLB01, .582 in MLB02, .529 in MLB03 and .609 in MLB04. No one has had an OBP above .500 since, and no one had one in the 1900s had one other than Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby—and none of those guys got close to .609. Cheating is the worst.)

So, back to Mike Trout, Mike Trout to me is a very good player but not nearly as great as Richard Justice knows him to be. (And, again, I do know that Richard Justice, who watches all of the baseball games, is correct.)

Mike Trout has played most of his games against the A's, Mariners and Rangers, who have always been in his division. The A's have intentionally walked Trout a lot less than those other two teams have, but they did so last night.

Subject: The A's no longer have a flagship radio station
Date: July 24, 2020 at 10:53:43 PM CDT
They've gone to a streaming model, although there are still 11 stations in Northern California (mostly in rural areas) that still carry the games.  I can still get the radio broadcasts online, so I'm fine.
On my scoreboard at home, I've decided to go with all logos from the 1970's as much as possible.  I also have the Angels listed on the scoreboard as "Cal."

I had to look up what the Angels are calling themselves now. I seriously thought they were currently going by "Anaheim."

Subject: The A's have designated their field
Date: July 24, 2020 at 10:57:54 PM CDT
As "Rickey Henderson Field."
I would have gone with "Reggie Jackson Field."

One thing they said on ESPN last night that surprised me is that Marcus Semien has more opening-day starts at shortstop than any other A ever. That is great! I absolutely would've guessed Bert Campaneris, who was my favorite of the '70s A's. But I'm very happy for Marcus Semien, who was born Sept. 17, 1990, in San Francisco, just a few weeks before the A's were swept by the Reds in the World Series. I watched those games with a bunch of Reds fans in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and those guys still remind me of it two or three times a season.

Subject: The A's have crowd noise on their radio broadcast
Date: July 25, 2020 at 12:06:50 AM CDT
It's quite good -- they have organ music, and a PA announcer, and you can hear the crowd reacting to the events in the game.  If you were only listening to the radio, you would think it was a normal game.

I particularly enjoyed the pictures of people in the seats. Tony La Russa and Sal Bando were among those. It's so great to have baseball back.

Subject: 3-3 after 9

Date: July 25, 2020 at 12:33:04 AM CDT

The A's and Angels become the first teams in Major League history to start the 10th inning with a runner on second base.

This is when I turned it off to go to sleep. I was really tired, and, besides, my wife wanted to show me a video of Lin-Manuel Miranda playing one of those arcade games where the claw drops down and grasps at a stuffed animal or whatever. He's really good at it!

Subject: A's walk off the Angels with a GRAND SLAM

Date: July 25, 2020 at 1:02:58 AM CDT

A's win 7-3 in 10, move to 1-0 on the year.

#GREENCOLLAR!

Oh, Kentucky

Again, Pikeville's Mountain Top News does just a fantastic job on covering the conversation in Whitesburg ...

"I have an alternate proposal. Suppose both sides of the story are told."

Midway will celebrate Juneteenth, officially.

The Bowling Green-Warren County Coronavirus Workgroup had a happy surprise on its regular conference call Wednesday.

Bardstown and Nelson County roll out another round of small-biz relief.

A weekend Kentucky Headhunters show at the Beaver Dam Amphitheatre delivered a big boost for the Ohio County food pantry.

Gabe's is (almost) gone.

Fancy Farm is happening.

Mercer County might be getting its second solar farm.

Vanceburg police is hiring. So's the forthcoming Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel.

The #ohky desk's DQ beat is blowing up of late. You might remember yesterday's dispatch from Columbia. Well, there are Blizzards in the forecast for Princeton, too.

Oh, Kentucky

Oh, Kentucky

Oh, Kentucky

114 Teams Left

Fourteen teams were eliminated from the KHSAA Boys' Basketball Championship yesterday, as regionals got underway in Bowling Green, Louisville, and Lexington.  Last year's champion, Louisville Trinity, was eliminated.  But three teams in the AP Top 10 advanced to the next round:

4th Region Quarter-Finals (at W. Kentucky Univ.):
Bowling Green 78, Allen Co.-Scottsville 46
Logan Co. 79, Cumberland Co. 58

6th Region Quarter-Finals (home teams listed first):
Lou. Fern Creek 80 - 38 Bullitt Cent.
Lou. Butler 47 - 51 Lou. Jeffersontown
N. Bullitt 78 - 63 Lou. Fairdale
Lou. Pleasure Ridge Park 86 - 70 Lou. Western

7th Region Quarter-Finals (home teams listed first):
(10) Lou. Ballard 92 - 50 Lou. Manual
Lou. Cent. 38 - 55 Lou. Eastern
(1) Lou. Male 84 - 53 Lou. Seneca
Lou. Trinity 47 - 58 Lou. St. Xavier

11th Region Quarter-Finals (home teams listed first):
Lex. Douglass 73 - 32 Berea
(4) Lex. Catholic 77 - 49 Franklin Co.
Frankfort 58 - 71 Scott Co.
Madison Cent. 55 - 57 Lex. Tates Creek