March Madness – and then there were 16

This past Sunday, in Bowling Green, the state handed the most coveted prize in all of girls’ high school basketball to the Bearettes (that’s right, not the Lady Bears) of Louisville Butler.

Butler, the Region 6 champions, went into the tournament as the second highest rated team among the 16, and in Sunday’s championship game, they managed to topple the tournament’s highest rated team, No. 1 Elizabethtown, 49-38.

Butler finished the year with a very nice 32-3 mark, and picked up the championship trophy and banner while sitting on a 20 game winning streak to get the next season started with when it comes time to defend the title.

My original plans were to head to Bowling Green and watch our 4th Region representative on Sunday in what I thought might be a championship game that included the Lady Scotties of Glasgow – but Lexington Lafayette took care of those plans in Wednesday night’s opening round (61-47)

On to Rupp Arena and this week’s boys’ Sweet 16.

So, this week we head north to the nation’s basketball mecca referred to as Rupp Arena and the “Greatest Show in Hoops” as fans of all ages, shapes and sizes will spend four days – nope, thanks to the Julian Tackett rule from last year, now five days – in the seats of Rupp watching the best basketball playing teenagers do battle with one goal in mind, laying claim to that prized championship trophy.

Starting on Wednesday, we throw out the records, from the regular season, the district tournaments and the regional tournaments and we start all over again for a series of 15 games to determine which team wears the crown for another year.

Bowling Green, out of the 14th District, will be our 4th Region representative and a lot of Clinton County eyes will be on our neighbors to the east, the Cardinals of Wayne County, who are representing the 12th Region.

Bowling Green tips off in the first session Thursday, taking on Knott County of the 14th Region, just after the Wayne County game that sees the Cardinals taking on McCracken County from the 1st Region.

This should be a great tournament, although the top bracket is somewhat stacked with the highest rated teams, which should make for some good battles.

The above being considered, that leaves Wayne County as the highest rated team in the bottom set of brackets (eight teams), and Rodney Woods’ Cardinals certainly have the talent this year to pull it off.

Says here that Sunday’s final will see our neighbors – Wayne County, facing off for the big prize against 11th Region Scott County.

It’s still a game that would have been better off played on Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday “day” and now the lack of games in the Sweet 16. The result this year will be a terrific boost in the size of the crowd on hand Saturday morning to get behind our U.K. women’s basketball team, which is slated to face Wright State in Lexington’s Memorial Coliseum in the opening round action of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

A host of Boys Sweet 16 fans looking for something to do Saturday while waiting on games that night will certainly find themselves sitting in the stands for the UK game – likely myself included.

One last note concerning college play. Some rule changes work, other simply do not. Abandon all use of going back to the TV monitor to see if a call was right or wrong. Human judgment is part of the game. Turn the TV off, and let’s play ball!

It’s March Madness in Kentucky – don’t call me until April!