First look at the rankings

It’s no secret that I put very little stock in pre-season rankings – or ratings if you prefer that terminology, but we always look and it makes for good conversation, particularly when us fans are sitting around waiting on the start of another roundball season.

However, I do put a little more stock in the ratings that begin showing up as the season progresses. The later into the season, the more the ratings seem to mean.

On Monday the first set of Dave Cantrell’s (the best in my opinion) Rating the State came out in the Lexington Herald Leader so let’s take a brief look at what it looked like in both girls and boys.

As for the girls, not much surprise in the top teams and not much surprise that our Lady Bulldogs, despite having built up a most impressive 15-0 record at the time these first rankings came out, certainly have their work cut out for them in games across the region.

Translation – from top to bottom, the 4th Region might be the absolute best in girls basketball in the state right now.

While E-Town sits atop of the top 25, if you break down the 4th Region, and at this time that’s all we really care about, our 4th Region is a tough one to say the least.

The Lady Dawgs, with their 15-0 overall record, are holding down the 6th spot out of 17 teams in the region. More impressive, however, is that three of the teams from this region are rated in the top 25 with Allen County-Scottsville in 4th, South Warren in 9th and Bowling Green in the 24th position.

According to Cantrell, also ahead of Clinton County would be Monroe County (4th in the region) and Glasgow just ahead of our Lady Dawgs, in 5th.

I think our Lady Dawgs are showing up a little low, after all, any team that can win 15 in a row deserves a little more credit than they give. I’m putting us at this point in the season, at least in the 4th spot – ahead of Monroe and Glasgow. The Lady Dawgs handed Monroe (8-6) a pretty sound defeat early in the season, 61-49, and Glasgow also defeated the Lady Falcons in mid-December, 53-44.

Now for the boys side.

The 4th Region isn’t coming through as such a powerhouse group of teams this year, as none of the 17 made it into the top 25 that not surprisingly sees Louisville Ballard in the state’s No. 1 position.

Just out of the top 25 are three 4th Region teams, Bowling Green, Monroe County and Warren Central, in that order and rated within less than a point from each other.

Clinton County is holding down the No. 5 spot in the 4th Region, just behind district rival Russell County. The other two 16th District teams are in the final two spots in the region lineup, Metcalfe County at No. 16 and Cumberland County at No. 17.

At present, our Bulldogs are struggling to find their game, and I’m thinking that situation is about to turn around. I’m looking for Clinton County to shake the 4th Region ratings up considerably in the next couple of weeks.

Things get busy over the next two weeks for both Clinton County squads, by the way, with three 16th District match ups, followed by the All “A” Classic tournament.

Congratulations – and more to come

Congratulations are certainly in order to Bulldog senior guard Keifer Dalton. While playing in Mt. Sterling last week in the Gateway Holiday Classic, he dropped in his career 1,888th point to overtake all-time point leader Kenneth “Chuck” Conner on the Bulldog scoring list.

Kudos to both Dalton and Conner. It took someone 55 years to match the feat that Ken Conner put up back in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the Bulldogs.

Following the record setting game at Mt. Sterling, a Gateway Tournament official presented Keifer with the game basketball – a fitting gesture that Keifer and Clinton County will always appreciate.

This past Tuesday night, in our home matchup against Pickett County, a ceremony was to be held (too late for press deadline this week) to honor Dalton for his accomplishment, and we plan on having extensive coverage of that presentation in next week’s coverage.

I would also need to point out here that from here until the end of this season, every point Keifer scores – sets a new record.

Congrats to Keifer. He’s a fantastic young man, on and off the court.

Bulldog guard Keifer Dalton was presented the game basketball that he scored the record breaking 1,888th point last week during the Gateway Holiday Classic Tournament in Montgomery County, Kentucky. C.C.H.S. Head Coach Todd Messer is at left, as the basketball was presented to Dalton by a Tournament official. An additional ceremony honoring Dalton’s feat was planned for this past Tuesday night, and will be featured with coverage in next week’s Clinton County News.