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Notes From The 1985 Tourney ^^wee. Sixteen Tourney
Chatter    - -Saturday's Action
By J.C. Dumas
Alice McDonald long has been a respected educator.
She's fast becoming quite a politician, too.
During halftime of the State Tournament championship game between Hopkinsville and Clay County, McDonald -- the state Superintendent of Public Instruction -- said she never presented the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's Board of Control with an ultimatum to schedule future boys' and girls' state basketball tournaments during the same week.
"We had a meeting with their (KHSAA's) board in January regarding changes in athletics, and 95% of what we proposed they accepted," McDonald said. "I'm still waiting for a plan or a proposal from them on what we can do about the state tournaments. When they do, I'll be glad to discuss it with them.
"I don't hate the State Tournament. I was here yesterday (Friday), and I'm here tonight. This is one of the great events we have in Kentucky. It's a fine event for kids, and I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt it."
McDonald's statements regarding the boys' and girls' state basketball tournaments seemed to conflict with a report of the aforementioned January board meeting which appeared in a January column by Louisville Courier-Journal sports columnist Earl Cox.
In that column, Cox reported that McDonald was adamant with the KHSAA board concerning her wishes regarding the scheduling of those tournaments -- so much so that, according to Cox, she told the board that if they weren't willing to schedule them during the same week, she'd do it herself.
McDonald's comments of last Saturday, however, came roughly a week after another Cox column, in which she reportedly told Cox that she had softened her stance regarding future scheduling of the tournaments. McDonald told Cox that she anticipated, no change in the current scheduling plan through 1988, when her term expires.
What changed McDonald's mind? According to the Mar. 14 Cox column, two sources of influence existed:
One source: The KHSAA itself. Commissioner Tom Mills told Cox that a joint committee of the KHSAA and the State Board of Education convinced McDonald that the many positive aspects derived from the tournament dictated that the scheduling of both state tournaments should remain intact.
That's well and good. But, as Mark Twain once said, "Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but lightning does the work."
If Mills and the KHSAA represented the thunder in this case, Cox makes it apparent that McDonald's boss -- Gov. Martha Layne Collins -- brought down the lightning.
Cox stated in the Mar. 14 column that sources close to Collins told him the governor suggested to McDonald that resistance to proposed athletic
Tom Mills
changes -- most notably the state tournament question -- could serve to harm the considerable efforts of both Collins and McDonald to improve Kentucky's educational standard.
That, simply put, is called hitting McDonald where she lives. It's one thing for outsiders (the KHSAA) to tell you you're all wet. But when your boss draws the same conclusion, you're a bit more likely to change your tone.
So it becomes understandable how, at halftime of the state final, McDonald cheerily could endorse a concept that -- if you believe Cox -- she abhorred in the beginning. Had I not known better - trusting Cox as I do - I would have sworn that keeping the State Tournaments as they are was her idea all along.
No problem, by me, Alice. Talk that talk - so long as you continue to allow both boys' and girls' basketball players an equal opportunity to develop an audience.
One thing, though.
If politics eventually doesn't pan out for you as a career, don't waste your breath on me.
I'll be buying my used cars elsewhere. . . .
Unlike last year's championship game between Logan County and Bourbon County, Saturday's final wasn't televised. Mills said the company behind the 1984 telecast, Lorimar Productions, backed out of negotiations in mid-January, a time too late to allow the KHSAA to make a deal elsewhere.
"We did talk to WKYT-TV (in Lexington) and other stations in the state to try and set up some sort of independent network. But it basically was too late by the time Lorimar backed out," Mills said. "Lorimar said their sponsor of last year backed out on them, and they couldn't find other sponsorship."
As Linda EUerbee said -- and as Bob Watkins says -- and so it goes.
Mills said efforts will be made to telecast the 1986 state championship game from Rupp Arena.
"We're committed to televising the final as long as our attendance isn't
hurt," Mills said. "Our agreement with Lorimar stated that, if our attendance was hurt significantly, they would reimburse us up to a maximum of $3,500. That'll be a year-to-year thing as far as watching trends in the attendance. But we'd like to televise it each year."
Mills said bids for the 1987 State Tournament would be accepted in July. Look for representatives of the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center to make a determined pitch for the newly-renovated Freedom Hall in Louisville. . . .
Quotes from some of the participants in the final, in which Hopkinsville nipped Clay County 65-64. . . .
Hopkinsville's Jeff Quarles, who knocked the ball loose from Clay County's Sean Pennington as the latter was driving for the potential game-winning shot:,."Once Pennington got past us and was driving down the sideline, I saw that there were a few
Spence Shipley-seconds left on the clock. Wendell (Quarles, Jeff's brother) got in front of him and made him turn around. I had to go for the ball. I told myself he wasn't going to get a shot off. No way we were going to lose like that. . . .
Wendell Quarles, on the same play: "All I tried to do was shut him off and make him change direction. Time was running out, and I knew he wouldn't get a good shot off.
' 'When I saw Jeff cut in and slap the ball away, and the clock ran out, . . .well, I've never felt that happy. All I really wanted to do once we won the (Second) Region was come here and see the tournament. I never thought much about winning it. This is the greatest feeling in the world." . . .
Pennington, on the play: "I just tried to get down the floor as fast as I could to look for a shot or get somebody open. He (Wendell) just cut over and trapped me on the side. I came down in control, but I had to cut outside, and that gave the other guy (Jeff) time to slap at the ball. We had a great year, and we came a long way. But it doesn't feel too good to lose like this." . . .
Hopkinsville's Lamont Ware, who put his team ahead for good with a basket with 53 seconds left: "We just needed a good basket near the basket. I goy by the big guy (Clay County's Eddie Smith) and put it in.
"This is something. We had been rated pretty high all year. But we really felt that when we got here, we had nothing to lose. Christian County had beaten us in the district (final), and there were a lot of other good teams here. Nothing could beat this feeling."
Jens Doerner, Hopkinsville's starting center and an exchange student from Koblenz, West Germany -a country that doesn't have high school basketball: "It's a great feeling. I never could have dreamed it when I came over here. We had nothing like it in Europe. Coach (Daryl) Hallmark told me how great it would be, but it's better than I dreamed.
"Playing before crowds like this is the most amazing thing. In Germany, you never played before a whole lot of people. But in Hopkinsville, there would be 5,000 people sometimes. Now tonight, there's 20,000 people here. This is going to be something to
'^S Bobby Keith, on Hopkinsville's full-court press that enabled it to overcome a nine-point, second-quarter deficit: "It's not different from other presses we've seen. But they've got super people playing it. They're quick enough that they can cut off the middle of the floor and the sides. We definitely got tired in the second half, and their pressure had something to do with that."
Keith, with the last word on the Hopkinsville press: "It should be against the law." . . .
Hopkinsville High is in the midst of a banner athletic year. The boys' basketball team, of course, won the state championship. So did the school's wrestling team. The football team finished second in Class AAA to Danville. The swimming and diving team placed third in the state. And the girls' basketball team brought home runner-up trophies in both district and regional tournaments.
The school's baseball team also is expected to contend for state honors this spring. One of the starters on the basketball team, Jimbo Binkley, is a pitcher who reportedly has a 90-mile-an-hour fastball. . . .
Wendell Quarles, who stands 5-11, said after the final that he's undecided about college. A source close to the athletic program, however, told The Cats' Pause that Quarles is leaning toward Tennessee Tech. After Quarles' performance in the State Tour^ nament -- he scored 56 points and handed out 20 assists in the four games, and spurred the Hopkinsville press -- Tennessee Tech is likely to have heavy competition. ...
Obscure prep trivia: A Clay County victory last Saturday would have given
(Continued on Page 37)