Toss the records out, and throw it up again

By the time you readers are checking in with this week’s Turnovers musings, we will be no more than one game away from seeing the 2016-17 regular season games at an end.

Both the Bulldogs and Lady Dawgs closed out the home games portion of the schedule in the early part of the week, and all that is left after that will be Thursday night’s trip to the 15th Region and the now long-time traditional final game against Barren County.

Next week, beginning on Monday night in Burkesville, it will be time for the “Season II” so to speak when the first round of the post-season gets underway.

Before we close out this regular season discussion, a couple of things need mentioning, beginning with Monday night’s Bulldog win over the Spartans of South Warren.

Congrats on the team for the big win in great fashion, and congrats to the team and coaching staff in grabbing what was this season’s 20th win of the year – always a nice feat to accomplish.

In addition, the victory over South Warren closed out what ends up being a perfect home season with a 14-0 run through games hosted in The Castle

By capturing yet another 20 win season, head Coach Todd Messer now has five 20 win seasons since coming here to lead our Bulldogs in the 2006-07 season.

That stat ties Messer with Coach Lindle Castle for the most 20-win seasons in a career here.

Now, on to tourney time. As I noted in the header, regardless of whether a team finishes with a 20 plus win season, or a season with single-digit number of victories, it’s tournament time in Kentucky high school basketball and starting Monday, we begin all anew, so to speak.

Sure, the teams with the best records start out playing the teams with the worst, and for that reason, the season certainly matters. However, on all other levels, every team is equal and in that first game, a win means we go on, and a loss means we watch everyone else play for a few weeks.

Local fans did benefit from getting both of our teams on the floor together on the opening night of next week’s 16th District Tournament

Our Lady Dawgs will take the floor Monday night, February 20, going up against top seeded Russell County, in an opening round game set for a 6:00 p.m. tip.

In the nightcap, our top-seeded Bulldogs will go head to head with Metcalfe County in first round action. Tip will follow the girls’ game by about 30 minutes.

A separate article giving complete tournament details for additional games and rounds can be found elsewhere in this week’s NEWS, but from this desk the message is simple.

To the players – lace ‘em up and shoot ‘em straight.

To the fans – mark everything else off of your calendars and make the short trip to Burkesville in big numbers. Our players need to see some big numbers of blue behind them, especially in this opening game.

Go Blue – bring home some gold and let’s head to Bowling Green next week!

It’s February already and tournament time is later this month, so . . .

I’ll see you in the gym!