Monday, February 24, 2025

KHSAA MaxPreps Rankings

District Tournaments start this week, so it's a good time to check in on the MaxPreps Top 20 for KHSAA boys' basketball.  It's amazing to see two teams from the Fourth District ranked in the Top Five:

1.  Great Crossing:  26-4
2.  Lou. St. Xavier:  25-2
3.  Lex. Frederick Douglass:  20-3
4.  Marshall Co:  26-1
5.  Calloway Co:  26-3
6.  Lex. Bryan Station:  22-6
7.  Cov. Catholic:  20-8
8.  Lou. Manual:  23-5
9.  Cooper:  18-5
10.  Ashland Blazer:  20-7
11.  G.R. Clark:  24-4
12.  Hazard:  26-2
13.  Lloyd Mem:  22-6
14.  Danville Christian Academy:  24-3
15.  Warren Cent:  22-5
16.  S. Laurel:  22-7
17.  N. Oldham:  19-6
18.  S. Oldham:  24-5
19.  Lou. Butler:  21-4
20.  Bowling Green:  22-6

39 comments:

  1. Marshall Co. and Calloway Co. have played each other twice already. On Jan. 14, the Marshals went to Calloway Co. and crushed the Lakers 79 to 52. But on Feb. 7, Calloway came to Marshall Co. and beat the Marshals 65 to 60.

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  2. UK is now ranked 16th on Ken Pom and 17th in the AP poll. It's been a long time since Ken Pom has UK ranked higher than the AP.

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  3. In Athens, Georgia (16-11) jumps out to an early 23-8 lead on Florida (24-3) with 13:40 left in the first half.

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  4. With 11:31 left in the first half, Georgia leads 29 to 10 (!).

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  5. Georgia leads 51-35 at the half. This should be a barn-burner.

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  6. Both teams come out blazing in the second half. Georgia leads 64-48 with 15:26 left in the game.

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  7. Meanwhile, lots of high school teams are being eliminated in district play. Yesterday, the most interesting game was in the 7th District, where Dawson Springs (17-14) defeated Caldwell Co. (16-11) by the score of 85 to 75.

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  8. UK lists both Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson as "probable" for tomorrow's game at Oklahoma. The Cats probably need that game to avoid a losing record in conference play.

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  9. Here come the Gators. They cut Georgia's lead to 66-56 with 11:33 left. The Dawgs call time.

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  10. With 10 minutes left, UGA leads 68-57. The Gators are 10-20 from the line.

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  11. With 7 minutes left, Florida closes to within 72-64.

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  12. With 4 1/2 minutes left, UGA leads 78-67. They should hold on now.

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  13. Well, maybe. With 2:24 left, UGA leads 78 to 72.

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  14. In the 5th District, Lyon County beats Crittenden County 95 to 24 to end the Rockets' season. The Rockets went 0-25 on the year, which is extremely disappointing.

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  15. With 1:52 left, UGA's lead is only 78 to 75.

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  16. The Gators make two FT's and Georgia's lead is 78-77. The Dawgs miss four shots at the other end, and Florida gets a runout to go up 79-78. They have scored 12 points in a row and they now lead for the first time tonight.

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  17. Georgia calls timeout, sets up a play, and can't get the ball over half court. Florida gets a runout going the other way and is fouled. Gators can slam the door shut now.

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  18. But they don't. Florida misses the first FT, and makes the second. They lead 80 to 78 with 1:08 left. UGA ball.

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  19. The Dawgs come back and HIT A THREE. UGA leads 81-80 with 48 seconds left.

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  20. Florida shoots, misses, and UGA grabs the rebound. Dawgs going to the line with 35.9 seconds left. They make the first FT. They make the second. UGA leads 83-80 with 35.9 seconds to go.

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  21. Florida misses a three, UGA grabs another rebound, and the Dawgs are going back to the line with a 3-point lead and 21.6 seconds to go. They miss the first FT. They make the second. UGA leads 84-80.

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  22. Florida comes down, misses another three, UGA gets another rebound, and that should (finally) do it.

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  23. Up 86-80 with 6 seconds left, UGA fouls a three point shooter. He makes all three free throws, and the Dawgs lead 86-83 with 6.4 seconds to go. Both teams have finally used all their timeouts.

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  24. With 5.5 seconds to go, and a three-point lead, UGA goes to the line. They make the first FT. They make the second. Florida tries a full-court pass and throws the ball out of bounds. But of course, since this is the SEC, the officials have to do a video review to see what happened. I don't watch a lot of SEC basketball any more, and video reviews are a big part of the reason why.

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  25. Meanwhile, Tilghman and McCracken Co. are playing in the Second District Semi-Finals. The loser is out for the year. At the half, Tilghman leads 23-21.

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  26. Florida gets the ball after the review. They miss a dunk and that's finally the end of the game. After 2 hours and 25 minutes, Georgia has beaten Florida 88 to 83. It's the first victory for UGA over a top-3 team since 2004.

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  27. What a weird game. Georgia dominated for 35 minutes. Then Florida went on a 13-0 run to take a 2-point lead. Then UGA went on an 8-0 run to put it away.

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  28. No wonder college basketball fans are so manic. I can remember when UK had teams as good as Florida's team this year, and they would lose road games like this, and I would be miserable for two days.

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  29. Now we have Alabama hosting Mississippi State. I don't think the Bulldogs are likely to beat the Tide in Tuscaloosa, so I will comment only on the fact that MSU has these weird black uniforms that just say "STATE" on the front of the jersey in all caps. It's like you're playing a team from a cartoon in the 1970's.

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  30. Back in the day, N.C. State had uniforms that not only said "STATE," they had a big "S" as the center court logo. I thought that was all very cool. But significantly, NCSU used their school colors, which made a lot more sense than having MSU turn up in black and white.

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  31. It's feast or famine for Alabama basketball fans, and it's feast tonight. The Tide has made 8 of its first 14 three-pointers, and they are up 35-15 with 5:35 left in the first half.

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  32. With one quarter to go, Tilghman and McCracken County are tied at 38. The winner gets St. Mary and a trip to the Regionals. The loser goes home until November.

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  33. Meanwhile, we go to Blacksburg, Virginia, where the Virginia Tech Hokies and the U of L Cardinals are playing an old-school Metro Seven game. For reasons I don't understand, the Hokies are wearing their road uniforms. They trail the Cards 34 to 26 with 14 seconds left in the first half, and there are a lot of empty seats -- always a bad sign in Blacksburg, where they love their Hokies.

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  34. I feel bad for Hokie fans. In 2019, they went 26-9 with Buzz Williams as their coach. But Williams then decamped for Texas A & M, and it's been downhill for Tech ever since. They are 12-15 on the season, and ranked 151 on Ken Pom. That's a great fan base, and they deserve better.

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  35. By the way, all college basketball games -- but especially the ones in the SEC -- are way too long. They should absolutely eliminate video review by the officials, or at a minimum allow it only in the last two minutes of an NCAA Tournament game. Unless you're about to be eliminated from the tournament, you should deal with whatever the officials dish out. And most college basketball games should be finished in two hours.

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  36. By the way, the coaches at UConn and Baylor each turned down the UK job. UConn is currently 18-9 and ranked 39 on Ken Pom. Baylor is 16-12 and ranked 31 on Ken Pom. UK is 18-9 and ranked 16 on Ken Pom.

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  37. Tilghman beats McCracken County 59 to 53 and the Mustangs are out. Christian Co. beats University Heights 69-62 and the Blazers are out.

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  38. Meanwhile, St. Mary will be going to Regionals for the first time in 10 years.

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