I didn't bother to watch last night's quarter-finals in the State Tournament, because I was certain that Ballard and Bowling Green were going to win. I was right about Bowling Green, but very wrong about Ballard, which suffered one of the biggest upsets I can ever remember in the Sweet 16.
Here are the scores from yesterday's quarterfinals:
This is the first time since 1984 that neither the 6th, 7th, nor 11th region champions made the semi-finals. Boyle County eliminated the champions from the 11th region and the 7th region on its way to the semi-finals -- that is almost unheard of.
Here are tonight's semi-finals:
(7) Owensboro (29-4) v. (9) Cov. Catholic (31-5)
Boyle Co. (28-6) v. Bowling Green (30-5)
And a belatedly happy from the Kentucky desk, Mr. Claycomb of Campbellsville.
Happy 90th Birthday to one of our favorites! Mr Conrad Claycomb, who spent 7 months as a #POW in Germany in 1944! pic.twitter.com/8ZMVhYBdb8 — Druther's Restaurant (@Druthers_Cville) June 16, 2014
So, when we left off last season, 1966-67, the Boston Celtics' long run of NBA championships had been at last ended at eight, as the Philadelphia 76ers put together what even Bill Russell had to agree was one of the best seasons in NBA history.
As the 1967-68 NBA division semifinals commence, all indications are that the 76ers are ready to begin a championship run of their own. Philadelphia finished the NBA's first 82-game regular season with 62 wins--including a 30-point romp in the season's last week against the Western Division-runnerup Los Angeles Lakers. The 76ers' 31-year-old, hometown-hero center, Wilt Chamberlain, had 53 points, 32 rebounds and 14 assists in the game, en route to his fourth-straight honor as the league's most valuable player. Like last season, Chamberlain was expected to shoulder less of the team's scoring load. After his first nine NBA seasons, in which he averaged no fewer than 30.1 points per game, Chamberlain had averaged 24.1 and 24.3 points in the 1966-67 and '67-68 seasons, respectively. In 1967-68, he also averaged a league-best 23.8 rebounds and totaled a league-best 702 assists (8.6 per).
Also qualifying from the playoffs from the Eastern Division are the Boston Celtics (54-28), New York Knichs (43-39) and Detroit Pistons (40-42). The Cincinnati Royals (39-43) and Baltimore Bulllets (36-46) finished out of the reason.
In the Western Division, the final standings saw the St. Louis Hawks (56-26) in first, followed by Los Angeles (52-30), the San Francisco Warriors (43-39), the Chicago Bulls (29-53), the expansion Seattle SuperSonics (23-59) and the expansion San Diego Rockets (15-67). After winning the Western Division last season, San Francisco slid in the standings in 1967-68 without Rick Barry, the NBA's rookie of the year in 1965-66 and leading scorer in 1966-67.
Barry left San Francisco and the NBA to join the Oakland Oaks of the first-year American Basketball Association. However, a San Francisco judge ruled in favor of the Warriors in a court case that prevented Barry from playing for the ABA Oaks for one year under terms of the NBA's reserve clause. So, with 23-year-old Barry providing radio commentary, the Oaks went 22-56 in the first ABA regular season--last place in the Western Division, behind the New Orleans Buccaneers (48-30), Dallas Chaparrals (46-32), Denver Rockets (45-33), Houston Mavericks (29-49) and Anaheim Amigos (25-53). In the Eastern Division, it was the Pittsburgh Pipers (54-24) coming in first, ahead of the Minnesota Muskies (50-28), Indiana Pacers (38-40), Kentucky Colonels (36-42) and New Jersey Americans (36-42).
The NBA playoffs open Friday, March 22, 1968. Here are the round-of-eight pairings:
-- 76ers vs. Knicks,
-- Celtics vs. Pistons,
-- Hawks vs. Warriors and
-- Lakers vs. Bulls.
The ABA playoffs tip off Saturday, March 23, 1968. Here are those round-of-eight pairings:
