It's District Tournament Time

For some reason, the district basketball tournaments seem to start about a week earlier than they used to.  So I decided to check in on the end of the regular season, only to find that the tournaments were underway.  The big news in Western Kentucky is that Tilghman has already been eliminated -- the Tornadoes were beaten by St. Mary 62-53 in the first round of the 2d District Tournament, and they are done.  Here's where the four districts in the First Region stand:

1st District:  Final will be Hickman Co. (13-10) v. Carlisle Co. (14-15)
2d District:  Final will be McCracken Co. (20-8) v. St. Mary (21-9)
3d District:  Final will be Mayfield (12-14) v. Graves Co. (25-4)
4th District:  Final will be Marshall Co. (20-10) v. Calloway Co. (19-7)

And here's where we are in the Second Region:

5th District:  Final will be Trigg Co. (17-7) v. Crittenden Co. (9-19)
6th District:  Final will be Union Co. (12-18) v. Henderson Co. (18-7)
7th District:  Final will be Madisonville-North Hopkins (17-9) v. Caldwell Co. (17-10)
8th District:  Final will be Hopkinsville (26-2) v. University Heights (15-10)

Meanwhile, here were the top 10 from the last AP poll of the regular season (records do not include tournament games):

1.  Hopkinsville:  25-2  (The Tigers are undefeated against teams from Kentucky)
2.  Lou. Ballard:  25-5 (The Bruins have won their last 10 games)
3.  Scott Co:  28-2 (Team Toyota is on a 21-game winning streak)
4.  Cov. Catholic:  25-1 (The Colonels' only loss was to Fairfield H.S. in Ohio).
5.  Newport Cent. Catholic:  26-3 (The Thoroughbreds did not play CovCath in the regular season)
6.  Lou. Trinity:  24-5 (The Shamrocks lost to Ballard by two points in the LIT.)
7.  Cov. Holmes:  24-5 (Holmes won the 9th region last year)
8.  Lou. Pleasure Ridge Park:  21-7 (PRP beat Ballard in January to win the LIT)
9.  Montgomery Co:  26-2 (The Indians lost to Ballard in the State Semi-Finals last year)
10.  Wayne Co:  27-1 (The Cardinals' only loss was to Montgomery County)

I have rarely seen a stronger group of teams -- at least on paper -- at the end of the regular season.  This should be quite a year for the State Tournament.