Turnovers … by Alan B. Gibson

Posted March 21, 2023 at 12:16 pm

The champs have been crowned, time for a rest

Returned from Lexington and the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 Basketball State Tournament on Sunday, and after missing a couple of tournaments the two years before, my return to the event couldn’t have been on a better year.

When Saturday night’s boys’ championship came to a final horn ending, the 2023 Championship Banner and the trophy that goes with it, was coming back to our 4th Region.

Saturday night’s championship game was a mirror matchup of the 2022 title game, with Warren Central narrowly falling to the Cardinals of George Rogers Clark (Clark County) High School , 43-42.

This year’s Sweet 16 results saw the Dragons hang on for the win in Saturday night’s final contest.

The Dragons of Warren Central nearly pulled off a perfect season, taking Saturday night’s title game over last year’s champion GRC , 64-60.

All in all, it was a great tournament action with most games being decided by 10 points or less, one OT contest and just six games ending with spreads of more than 10 points, two of which were Warren Central wins.

Since my first Sweet 16 in 1976, I had been to a Sweet 16 every year until the cancellation brought on in 2020 by COVID-19, and that’s a run of 44 years.

Full disclosure as to the wording above, a health tic caused me to miss the 2002 Boys’ Sweet 16, but I was able to attend a girls’ Sweet 16 game that year to watch our Lady Bulldogs play in their first ever state tournament.

Back to last week’s Sweet 16, the quality of the lineup for this tournament can be attested to by the attendance figures released after Saturday night’ final contest, falling just short of the 100,000 mark for the four days, with 99,535 attending the 2023 event.

That’s a marked improvement over the 2022 Sweet 16 that saw 83,689 going through the turnstiles and that horrid 2021 event that was choked by COVID restrictions of 25 percent capacity, and most of us being afraid to gather in gymnasium crowds anyway, when just 47,686 attended.

All of those numbers fall way short of the glory years, and especially that 1987 tournament when 154,002 attended to watch Ritchie Farmer of Clay County, Deron Feldhaus of Mason County and John Pelphrey of Paintsville battle it out on the Rupp Arena floor.

Farmer and Clay County would eventually lay claim to the championship that year, and of course those three aforementioned players would become teammates as University of Kentucky Wildcats, eventually becoming the “Unforgettables” that went down in defeat on that now famous Christian Laettner last second shot.

They now have UK banners hanging from the rafters of Rupp Arena.

Feldhaus honored on Rupp floor

Allen Feldhaus, Jr. was among a host of individuals honored last week on the Rupp Arena floor.

Allen received a plaque from the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches for having surpassed 700 wins as a head coach.

Feldhaus currently is head coach of the Indians of Madison Central and he picked up the coveted Sweet 16 Championship title in 2013.

His first of those 700 plus victories as a head coach of a high school team came on December 16, 1986, when he first earned a victory here, Clinton County – 74, Wayne County – 56.

Come on spring

With high school roundball behind us now for a few months, attention goes to the outdoors and the softball, baseball and tennis Dawgs in action for those 2023 seasons.

This week readers will enjoy finding our annual Spring Sports Preview and although the weather isn’t cooperating much yet, games and matches are going on.

Take advantage of this Preview to get more familiar with the names and faces who will be wearing our blue and white uniforms on the courts and diamonds this spring, and get out to enjoy some sunshine (when it arrives with warmth) and boost these student athletes.

They deserve to know we support them.

In the meantime –

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