March Madness – and another champ is crowned

Four days of roundball action with some of the best young teams in the nation last week in Rupp Arena, produced several really nice high school basketball games, a couple of stinkers, and in the end, a somewhat surprising KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 champion.

The biggest surprise from my seat was the early exit of neighboring Wayne County. The Cardinals might have overlooked McCracken County in its tourney opener, giving up an 81-74 loss that ended what I thought would be a nice long Sweet 16 run for Coach Rodney Woods this year.

Instead, it was next Bowling Green that advanced, but a game later found they had absolutely nothing to offer as an answer on the floor against eventual Champion Covington Catholic.

Meanwhile in the upper bracket that was absolutely stacked with talent, Coach Billy Hicks’ Scott County Cardinals made it to the championship game with victories over Fleming, Johnson Central, and the surpriser of the week, over Trinity in the Saturday night semifinals before eventually losing the overtime battle to Covington Catholic on Sunday.

So, high school roundball ends for another year, with Cov Cath and Louisville Butler claiming ownership of the most coveted prizes in all of high school basketball, the Kentucky Sweet 16 championships.

A couple of side notes about last week’s tournament events.

Several authors of Kentucky basketball books were on hand throughout the area last week, pitching and selling their goods and one of the most impressive was the new Kentucky High School Basketball Encyclopedia that has been the result of years of research from Jeff Bridgeman.

David Cross, who attends the Sweet 16 annually, made note to me last week that among the first coaches listed for our own high school basketball program – then the Albany High School – was his Dad, the late Perry Cross, who was also a player in the late 1930s.

Perry was a 24 year-old senior on the squad in the 1937-38 season, and David says that, according to accounts, his Dad relayed to him over the years, the team needed to list someone as coach, so Perry was named.

“All he told me was they coached themselves” Cross remembers.

Another listing in the book made for a pretty serious argument between myself and a former teammate and dear life-long friend, Mike Conner, where the encyclopedia notes that former Bulldog head coach Jim DeForest coached three years in his first tenure – from the 1972-73 season until the 1974-75 season.

I checked my own records when I returned home, and sure enough, Mike was right and I was wrong – Jim actually coached four years, beginning in the 1971-72 campaign – the last full season in the old Clinton County High School gymnasium.

Finally, I always run into a host of old friends while attending the Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena, and this year was no exception.

However, the most memorable quote of the year came from Allen Feldhaus, Jr., who came to Clinton County to coach our Bulldogs for two years, 1986-87 and 1987-88, before moving on to Green County and eventually landing what many consider to be the premier high school coaching job in this basketball-loving Commonwealth – leading the Madison Central Indians.

Of course Allen led his Indians to a championship finish last year with a thrilling down to the wire win in the final game over Ballard.

This year, his season ended in regional play with a disappointing loss to eventually Sweet 16 runner-up Scott County.

When asked what happened to his run in this season, he had a very short, but to the point answer – which he gave with a big grin…

“We weren’t any good!” Feldhaus said.

Oh well, there’s still some NCAA men’s and women’s hoops to enjoy.

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