Can You Ever Watch Too Much Roundball?
LOUISVILLE, Ky., & CINCINNATI, Ohio,  Do you think there's ever a time in a Kentuckians life when he or she can witness too much basketball? Probably not, but with the Sweet 16 and the first round of the NCAAs I came awfully close to hoop overkill last week. No complaints here, with the exception of hearing public address announcers
Nick Nicholas
Cats' Pause Columnist
John Tong of Louisville and Cincinnati's Neal Bendesky's unique voices in my sleep.
"And(a) now introducing the(a) Clay County(a) Tigers," Tong announced with an Italian pitch that would charm even Don Vito Corleone's godsons.
"That!. . .Was Rex Chapman," roared Bendesky with a Joe Dean twang every time the UK sophomore slammed one home or drilled a three-pointer.
Such a small price to pay to work 16 basketball games in an alloted five-day period (we skipped town before the completion of the first half between Villanova and Illinois).
These two events had everything imaginable surrounding a basketball game. There were: big guys, small guys. . .outside shooters, inside bangers. . .fast breaks, meal breaks. . .good calls, not-so-good calls. . .last-second heroics, last-second misfortunes. . .today's stars, yesterday's heroes. Anything to do with basketball, Louisville or Cincinnati were the places to be.
What you're about to read is a day-to-day summary which started in the Derby City and concluded in the Queen City.
Wednesday, March 16: LOUISVILLECovington Holmes and Buckhorn tipped off this year's state tournament. Two questions immediately popped in my noggin. One, where in the world is Buckhorn? Two, when did the KHSAA decide to allow NBA players to perform in the Sweet 16? Were my eyes playing tricks on me so early into the tournament or did Covington Holmes have a center which would win hands down a Charles Barkley look-alike contest?
Jack Jennings, the state's leading scorer, shredded Buckhorn's defense for 39 points. Listed at 6-foot-6. 230 pounds, Jennings showed he, like Barkley, can hit from outside as well as muscle his way in the paint. Meanwhile, Buckhorn, out of the 14th Region, gave an impressive performance in its first-ever state tournament, losing 75-72.
This was a contest matching underdog against giant. Buckhorn's sophomore-to-senior class enrollment is 153 while Holmes is 945. You might say it was a script right out of Hoosiers.
Three games were to follow as Ballard, with the dynamic trio of Allan Houston (29 points), Mark Bell and Kenneth Martin won easily over Laurel County, Owensboro Apollo upset tall-and-mighty Madisonville and Warren East managed to get past Oldham County in the nightcap.
ThursdayMarch 17th: LOUISVILLEDrained after the first day, I rolled out of the sack a few hours before the Rowan County-Clay County afternoon opener. Photographer David Sterling reminded me we were nearly out of film. No problem, we had a couple of hours to complete our mission before tipoff. Yeah, right!
Here's my only beef of the tournament being held in Louisvilletraffic (ugh!). Massive road construction turned a five-mile leisure drive to the film store into a nerve-racking, down right who-in-the-heck-created-this-mess road trip. Let's put it this way, we scampered into Freedom Hall 10 minutes prior to pregame introductions.
Getting back to the tournament, Richie Fanner, Russ Chadwell and the Clay County bunch outlasted the Green and White of Rowan County 83-52. However, I had my lead already written if Rowan had pulled the upset. This was St. Patrick's Day and Rowan County was dressed in green. . .You get the picture. Next up was LaRue County and its all-stater Scott Boley against Maysville. Boley didn't disappoint as he hit on 15 of 23 from the field for a 33-point performance, pacing his team to a 69-62 win.
Two more games and the quarterfinals would be set. Similar to the Buckhorn-Covington Holmes matchup, big boy Lexington Henry Clay and small town Phelps, earning its first-ever Sweet 16 invite, were scheduled to hook up. And at the end of the first quarter knotted at 15-all, Blue Devil coach Al Prewitt was fit to be tied.
Henry Clay proceeded to outscore the Hornets 27-8 in the second stanza, on its way to an impressive 94-65 win.
Again, two things caught mv eves. One. Prewitt was getting on his boys and the officials in the fourth stanza as if the outcome were in doubt. Two, Henry Clay's Scott Sutton, Eddie and Patsy's youngest son, was wearing Converse while most of his teammates were running up and down the hardwood in Nikes. Doesn't pop have a contract with Nike? Hmmmm.
And in the first-round finale. . .let's just say they saved the best game for last. Poor Marshall County. Last season, thousands and thousands of Orange-clad Marshall supporters left disappointed when their favorites lost a heart-breaker to Louisville Ballard. That game, though featured on opening night, also was the nightcap of the first round. This year the same thing happend
Again, Marshall County had a following comparable to no one. Again, the western Kentucky school was pitted against a Louisville team. And, again the Marshals lost a close one, this time 70-67. Yes, there's a place in my heart for this group, especially Mitch Cothran, the Marshals' best gunslinger.
Standing 6-3 and weighing a grand total of 150 pounds (only if soaking wet), Cothran dazzled the 16,910 on hand with 34 points from all sectors.
Cothran's three-pointer fell short in the final seconds, sending him to his knees in shear anguish.
What a game! What a day!
Friday, March 18: LOUISVILLE & CINCINNATIBy now millions of tiny, irritating basketballs were implanted in my vision. A knock on the head cured that. Bring on Holmes and Ballard.
Friday's initial quarterfinal duel proved that one star does not make a team. Sure, Jennings got 41 points but Ballard prevailed because of its balanced attack. Scotty Davenport's team became the first of the tournament to surpass the century mark, with a 101-90 win.
This time it was Martin who helped push the Bruins into Saturday's semifinals with 29 points. Bell added 26 points, followed by Houston's 15.
OK. if the Apollo-Warren East game ends in a reasonable time, Sterling and myself were to have a couple of hours to drive up to Cincy and catch the Maryland-UC Santa Barbara clash.
I should have read the writing on the wall, though. Only two days ago Apollo was in volved in an overtime game with Madisonville. Well, lightning struck twice. At the end of regulation with the score tied 51-all, I turned to Sterling, shook my head and started laughing.
There was something about overtime which ignited Apollo. Against the Maroons the Eagles outscored their taller opponents 14-3 in the three-minute period. Warren East was on the short end of an 18-6 overtime whipping.
Louisville Ballard and Apollo were set to meet in Saturday's first game, while 77ie Cats Pause travel crew, although now rushed for time, was Queen City-bound
We made it. . .30 minutes or so before the first game. Trying to keep myself awake for the second game. Maryland and California-Santa Barbara weren't any help. But when Kentucky took the court for pregame warmups, the Riverfront Coliseum crowd welcomed the 'Cats louder than the Big Blue faithful back in Lexington. No neutral site here. This was Rupp Arena-North.
Never before had I seen more dunks, more 2-on-l, 3-on-l, 3-on-none fastbreaks. The crowd loved it, applauding good plays no matter who made them. But Sutton's club had too many horses and eventually prevailed over a talented and worthy opponent.
Throughout the UK contest we heard that Clay County had rudely erased LaRue County from the high school tournament, 91-54. Later we would hear through the grapevine that Henry Clay was ousted by PRP, 77-70.
Oh well, back to Louisville. After a 20-minute adventure (I never get lost) that took us on course to Dayton, we turned the ol' jalopy around in the direction of Derby City. By 2:30 a.m. Saturday I was nestled under the covers, resting my eyes because a 9 a.m. wakeup call cruelly awaited.
Saturday, March 19: LOUISVILLE'Good morning, this is your wakeup call."
Good grief, didn't I just go to sleep? Somebody call Julian Tackett (KHSAA sports information director) and ask him to start the first game a couple hours later. Say around twoish.
No such luck.
Anyway, we made it before tipoff of the Apollo-Ballard game.
What was suppose to be a relatively easy win for Ballard turned into a close contest which wasn't decided until the final minute. With 48 seconds remaining and down by three, 60-57, Apollo coach Will Wyman instructed his club to get the ball inside, score two points and then see what happens. However, a steal by the Bruins resulting in a Bell layup put to rest an Apollo upset.
Clay County and PRP was the second game on the semifinal card.
Like the first game, the Tigers and Panthers scratched and clawed at each other for the entire 32 minutes. For 31 minutes, 55 seconds the game still was up for grabs. Clay County led 90-87 but PRP had the ball. And on an inbound pass Mark Woods was smothered by Tiger defenders, thus slipping and losing the ball out of bounds. Was there a foul?
Hard to tell.
Seconds after the incident happened PRP coach Dale Mabrey vocally lashed out his feelings, mainly at the officials. But in his postgame press conference he praised both teams' efforts and wished Clay County well. About the call he said if the official thought Wfoods didn't have possession then the right call was made.
Because of his cool composure, Mabrey was greeted with applause from those in the press room. . .a nice gesture, indeed.
Bring on Clay County and Ballard.
Despite being tired, not to mention seeing enough jump shots to satisfy any player's career I couldn't wait until these two state powers hooked up in a rematch of the '87 championship classic.
A packed Freedom Hall watched as Ballard's balanced attack proved too much for a weary Clay County bunch, 88-79. Richie Farmer, 51 points, and Chadwell combined for 70 of the Tigers' total point production. A dejected Farmer went to midcourt to pick up his second straight tournament MVP trophy 'o him a consolation prize that he would have gladly traded in for another shot at the Bruins. He and his teammates may have been sad at the time, but they will remember this evening and the rest of their high school careers with a twinkle in their eyes.
As for Ballard, the whole Bruin gang was dancing around chanting they were No. 1.
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