Headfirst into 2012

Heading into the new year and the “second half” of this 2011-2012 roundball season, it’s time to finally take a look at some rankings.

I’ve mentioned numerous times down through the years that while I don’t put much stock into rankings, if I pay any attention at all it won’t be until after the Christmas break.

There’s just too many factors to consider prior to the holiday break to make rankings – high school or college, for that matter – mean much, and pre-season rankings, in my humble opinion, mean even less.

So, with 2012 shining on the new calendar page, it was with great interest that I took a look Monday at the Dave Cantrell premier set of rankings in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The Cantrell rankings have long been my favorite, although the Courier Journal’s own Litkenhous rankings are a close second. There are a host of other ranking systems out there, and with the invent of the internet, the list has now seemingly become endless, but still, the two state print systems seem to be the most accurate, probably because more game result reporting is still done on a consistent manner from the schools themselves.

So, with all of that said, opening up the H-L Sports and looking at the rankings, I first scanned the top 25 thinking that the chances that our 10-1 Bulldogs might actually be included in this first list were pretty good, but finding that our Dawgs were not there.

A closer region by region examination also finds that Clinton County, with a points ranking of 75.6, is in a tight race for the top position in our 4th Region, falling in third place but just a fraction of a percentage point behind leader Warren Central (77.1) and second place Bowling Green (76.3).

The Top 25 list includes those top two 4th Region schools, and ends with No. 25 Lexington Christian, with a point total of 76.2. My next step was to scan the region lists to see how many schools fell between our 75.6 total, and Lexington Christian’s 76.2 – and the answer was none!

Translation – the Bulldogs hit this week’s ranking at No. 26 in Kentucky – quite a nice feat to get the 2012 portion of the campaign off and running.

While all of that is nice – probably the most important aspect of this current ranking would be the comparison between the Bulldogs and the team we will face in the January 16 opening round game of the All “A” Classic 4th Region opener, the Scotties of Glasgow.

Well, that didn’t take long. Clinton County’s 75.6 point total was just slightly ahead of Glasgow’s 75.4 point total. Understanding that in the two sets of rankings that will separate us now and our game on January 16 with the Scotties things can change tremendously between the two teams – if that game were to be played this week, it would likely be considered one of the premier boys’ games in the state – a match-up between No. 25 and No. 26.

Here’s something that won’t change – expect a “dog fight” when the Bulldogs and Scotties square off.

In the meantime – there’s plenty of pre-All “A” basketball to be played first – considering that between now and our All “A” games, we will find ourselves going up against all three of our 16th District opponents to finish up our regular season games that will determine the post-season tournament seeding positions – both boys’ and girls’

Those games include this Friday night’s all-important match-up between Clinton County and 16th District opponent Metcalfe County at The Castle, next Tuesday night’s (January 10) hosting of Cumberland County and a trip to Russell County that same week on Friday night (January 13).

Only six weeks of regular season action remains and it’s going to be busy and it’s going to be fun. Don’t miss out.

by Alan B. Gibson