Just a reminder that the State Boys' Basketball Tournament tips off today in Rupp Arena at 10 A.M. Central. You can watch the games online by subscribing to the NFHS Network, or you can listen online for free by going to the KHSAA's web page.
Just a reminder that the State Boys' Basketball Tournament tips off today in Rupp Arena at 10 A.M. Central. You can watch the games online by subscribing to the NFHS Network, or you can listen online for free by going to the KHSAA's web page.
E-Town leads Knott Co. Central 49-28 at the half, and I'm calling this one for the Panthers.
ReplyDeleteE-Town up 70-43 with one quarter left.
ReplyDeleteE-Town wins 87-59. They are going to be tough to beat.
ReplyDeleteI've come to like Elizabethtown over the years. I've also come to like the south side of Paducah.
ReplyDeleteWednesday, March 31:
ReplyDelete10 A.M.: Knott Co. Central Patriots (18-7) v. (4) Elizabethtown Panthers (19-2)
7 P.M.: George Rogers Clark Cardinals (19-4) v. Oldham Co. Colonels (14-4)
4 P.M.: Madison Cent. Indians (21-9) v. (5) Lou. Ballard Bruins (19-2)
1 P.M.: (8) Bowling Green Purples (23-2) v. University Heights Blazers (15-9)
Thursday, April 1:
4 P.M.: Boyle Co. Rebels (21-4) v. Paintsville Tigers (15-8)
7 P.M.: Knox Cent. Panthers (18-5) v. (10) Ashland Blazer Tomcats (20-4)
1 P.M.: Bullitt East Chargers (15-8) v. McCracken Co. Mustangs (22-6)
10 A.M.: Muhlenberg Co. Mustangs (19-1) v. Ft. Thomas Highlands Bluebirds (26-4)
Well, I just turned on WHOP in hopes of hearing Todd Hamilton talk about the concession stands in Rupp Arena before the UHA tipoff, and instead it's Rush Limbaugh, and now I'm really confused.
ReplyDeleteOK, now here's another broadcaster, and he appears to be narrating Rush Limbaugh clips within the framework of the Rush Limbaugh show. This makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it appears the Rupp Arena concession stands are open--but encourage cashless transactions.
Rush Limbaugh is telling a story about having met President Clinton. I've never met a president of the United States, and I would love to some day. I covered speeches by President Reagan in person a couple of times, but I was never came close to actually meeting him. And I met Shirley Chisholm years after she ran for president, and I walked alongside Michael Dukakis for about five minutes when he was running for president, and I went to Plains, Georgia, with my mom on a Sunday when it turned out that President Carter had taught Sunday school at his church that very morning, and I once met and sat and talked for about half an hour with the sitting president of Iceland. That's as close as I've gotten.
ReplyDeleteConcession stands are located on the Main and Upper Concourses of Rupp Arena. Concession locations are opened based on projected attendance at each Arena event.
ReplyDeleteWe serve a wide variety of items from our Main Concession locations, including:
Soft Drinks
Hot Dogs
Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches
Hunt Brothers Pizza
Nachos with Salsa or Cheese Sauce
Beer/Wine (when appropriate)
Popcorn (popped in coconut oil)
Soft Pretzels
Soft Serve Ice Cream
And much more
Offerings subject to change.
I was trying to find a list of the restaurants in that food court adjacent to Rupp Arena, but I'm coming up empty. And now we've got the UHA-centric WHOP broadcast coming on, so I'm going to content myself with a couple of hot dogs, a couple of soft pretzels, an icy Diet Coke and probably some of the "much more" from one of the concession stands.
ReplyDeleteWe have not Todd Hamilton doing the pregame on WHOP, and this broadcaster is playing us comments from the University Heights and Bowling Green coaches, as recorded from a Zoom call earlier today.
ReplyDeleteMoment of silence in Rupp for those who have been killed by COVID-19 ... beautiful performance on the national anthem by the West Jessamine High School choir ... that's it for the Blazer pregame show brought to us by Chick-fil-A ... opening tip coming up next ...
ReplyDelete"The Final Countdown" by Europe is playing over the Rupp public-address system. I was never exactly a hater, but this song certainly has stuck around longer than I would've guessed in 1986.
ReplyDeleteThe KHSAA is honoring at this tournament Madisonville-North Hopkins and the other regional champions from 2020 who did not get to play in a Sweet 16 because of the pandemic cancellation.
ReplyDeleteI will never get over this.
DeleteI always like it when teams from Bowling Green and Hoptown play each other. Bowling Green and University Heights are in a close one. BGHS leads 18-17 after one quarter.
ReplyDeleteThey are probably getting nervous on WHOP. BGHS now leads 24-17 with 5 minutes left in the 2d quarter.
ReplyDeleteAnd there it is. BGHS jumps out to a 35-23 lead with 2:50 left.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Bowling Green is to Hoptown as Hoptown is to Madisonville.
ReplyDeleteOK, I've been thinking about this all afternoon, and I love this comment, but I cannot allow it. Here's why ...
DeleteI always feel like the grain of western Kentucky is horizontal. Trying to arrange things vertically tends to end in violence ...
DeleteYes, Hoptown is akin to Bowling Green. I might draw a line from Fulton, to Mayfield, to Russellville, back to Hopkinsville and then all the way over to Bowling Green.
DeleteMadisonville and Hopkinsville don't feel much alike to me at all. When Madisonville shops outside its city, it goes north to Evansville. When Hopkinsville shops outside its city, it goes south to Clarksville. Crofton, the Christian County town almost perfectly situated between them, is a mostly demilitarized zone inhabited by a goodly number of Amish people.
Madisonville's line goes maybe Princeton>Central City>Leitchfield>Madisonville>Elizabethtown.
DeleteThere's a line of Smithland>Henderson>Owensboro>Paducah (defying population in those last two).
There's a faint line of Dawson Springs>Hartford>Greenville.
Again, these are not ordered by geography; there are east/west switchbacks in the progressions.
So what I would argue is something along the lines of ...
DeleteHopkinsville is to Bowling Green ...
as Madisonville is to Elizabethtown ...
as Owensboro is to Paducah (but really as Paducah is to Owensboro).
Paducah is really it's own thing. Everybody here thinks it's bigger than what it is. A more accurate line for Paducah might be Paducah>Asheville, North Carolina>Santa Fe, New Mexico. But for the sake of a Kentucky discussion, the Paducah line is the river line of Smithland>Henderson>Paducah>Owensboro>Louisville.
But when you try to cut anything across the grain in western Kentucky, along north/south cuts, you end up getting unintended consequences like fights at the Second Region tournament and vandalizing heavy equipment and whatnot back on the unmarked logging roads in Land Between the Lakes.
DeleteKuttawa, by the way, is wherever it is on the Dawson Springs>Hartford>Greenville progression. Murray is probably at the end end.
DeleteThis is really helpful.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteBGHS hits a half-court shot at the buzzer and goes into the locker room with a 42-28 halftime lead. It's been a good day for purple teams named after Kentucky towns.
ReplyDeleteThe Purples are up 52-35 with 3:44 left in the third, so I'm calling this game for Bowling Green.
ReplyDeleteBowling Green hammers UHA 85-57. Next up, at 4 PM Central, the big one: Madison Central against Ballard.
ReplyDeleteWhen WHOP broadcasts a team's season-ending game, that team's seniors are named players of the game. That's a nice tradition. Jeff Sisk, who was the broadcaster who is not Todd Hamilton, thanked Todd Hamilton for his work on basketball coverage this year and says that WHOP gets started with local baseball and softball coverage next week.
ReplyDeleteI really like having the State Tournament the week after the Elite Eight. UK is usually finished by this point, and this gives us all one more thing to enjoy. And UK is still going, then we're all in the mood for more basketball. So I like this arrangement a lot.
ReplyDeleteIn the first quarter, Ballard jumped out to a 9-1 lead. Central fought back, but Ballard still leads 20-16 after one.
ReplyDeleteWith 2:49 left in the 2d quarter, Central has missed eight shots in a row. Ballard now leads 28-19. I would like to talk to the AP voters who thought there were four teams in Kentucky better than Ballard.
ReplyDeleteCentral continues to be cold:
ReplyDelete2-point shooting: 4-8 (50 percent)
3-point shooting: 4-13 (30.8 percent)
Free throws: 4-7 (57.1 percent)
Here's Ballard:
2-point shooting: 12-22 (54.5 percent)
3-point shooting: 2-10 (20 percent)
Free throws: 2-3 (66.7 percent)
So Ballard leads 32-24 at the half.
Ballard's best player is a 6'10" junior center named Maker Bar. He is originally from Sudan, and he looks really good to me. In the first half he had 9 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 steals.
ReplyDeleteBallard jumps out to a 38-27 lead with 4 1/2 minutes left in the third. Central calls time.
ReplyDeleteBallard is in control; the Bruins lead 46-32 with 2 1/2 minutes left. Central needed to stay red-hot from three-point range, like they were in regionals. But that hasn't happened.
ReplyDeleteWith one quarter left, Ballard leads 49-37. Unless Central hits five three's in a row at some point, the Indians are probably going home.
ReplyDeleteI think Ballard is one of the best Kentucky high school teams I've seen.
ReplyDeleteBut Ballard won't have it easy. If they win this game, they get Bowling Green. If they win that game they probably get E-Town. And then they would still have to win the Final.
ReplyDeleteBallard up 63-49 with 2:31 left in the game. I'm calling it for the Bruins. Central is 7-23 from three-point range -- which is pretty good, but not close to being good enough. Bar has 11 points and 14 rebounds for Ballard. Also, his defense explains a lot about why Central is only 9-22 from 2-point range.
ReplyDeleteI will not be commenting on the last game of the day, between George Rogers Clark and Oldham County. But I'm pretty excited about Friday, when Bowling Green will take on Ballard.
ReplyDelete"Oh, Kentucky"-crossover: Madisonville has a new Popeye's. Our KFC has been closed for remodeling, and we don't have a Chick-fil-A, Church's, Lee's, etc. According to my daughter, the drive-through line in these early days of opening has extended far down both sides of the street outside the Popeye's. This makes me very happy to learn.
ReplyDeleteBallard wins 70-61. Ballard won the title in 1977, 1988, and 1999. They have lost in the final in 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013. But they will be tough to beat this year.
ReplyDelete"Oh, Kentucky"-crossover: Here's a song about a 1966 train derailment and hazardous chemical spill in Horse Cave in 1966.
ReplyDelete