And then there were 1+1

This past week closed out the 2016-17 high school roundball season in this roundball crazy Bluegrass state, and when the dust cleared, it was (as I predicted in this very space last week), the Purples of our own 4th Region that was left standing the tallest.

Laying claim to the 2017 KHSAA Sweet 16 championship, Coach D.G. Sherrill and company will now lay claim for the next 52 weeks as the champion of high school basketball in Kentucky.

The Mercer County Titans get to do the same for the girls’ title after picking up that championship the week prior at Northern Kentucky University.

Last week saw the Purples put a cap on their 35-2 season with a 67-56 championship game win over the Region 9 champions of Cooper High School.

Overall, it was a good tournament and reports are that attendance might have actually been up slightly over last year. Sunday’s championship game reportedly saw 11,346 inside Rupp Arena for a week attendance total of 92,437. That figure represents an increase of about 4,000 through the turnstiles over the 2016 attendance announcement.

Still, there is some question about those figures and whether they are actual attendance figures or tickets sold figures.

Personally, I’ve made it well known that I would prefer to go back to the two session Saturday style, with a semi-final round that morning, bringing the teams back that night for a championship game to close it all out that night.

Everyone goes home Sunday morning knowing already which team is the new champion. Likely, we won’t see that happen ever again.

Still, our Kentucky Sweet 16, for high school basketball fans, is the true “Greatest Show In Hoops” and I hope to not miss one for a long, long time.

Spring Sports in full swing – enjoy the preview

With the official arrival of the spring season this past Monday – at 5:29 a.m. in case you missed it – it’s time to move the sports outdoors.

Actually, the spring sports seasons have been in full swing for the past couple of weeks, and with dodging some weather issues, as is always the case, the athletes are enjoying their respective seasons.

With all of that said, this week we present our annual Spring Sports Preview and we hope you not only enjoy it, but use it as a tool to get familiar with the young athletes who represent our county in the blue and white uniforms on the courts and fields.

The bulk of the credit for this publication goes to Brett Gibson and Amanda Sharpe, who as always, have done another nice job to make sure these CCHS athletes are recognized for their efforts.

A little more roundball ahead

While basketball on the high school level has come to a close, at least until this coming November, there are still couple of weeks of NCAA action remaining.

Our Kentucky Wildcats in men’s action are still alive in the Sweet 16, and will move to Memphis to take on UCLA this Friday night, while our Louisville Cardinals in women’s play survived a game against Tennessee and will also advance to the round of Sweet 16, playing Baylor this Friday in Connecticut.

Sadly, the nearby Lindsay Wilson Blue Raiders and former Lady Bulldog standout Ansley Stalcup, saw their season come to a close Saturday in the NAIA National Championship Tournament in Billings, Montana.

The Blue Raiders fell to Oklahoma City 80-64 to close out the season with a fantastic 32-3 season.

It’s still March in Kentucky, and that means we’re still playing basketball.

I’ll see you in the gym!