Bluegrass Hoops Report

They were teammates on the summer circuit but never met during the high school season. They are a pair of players who are prolific scorers and two of the nation's top players in their respective classes.

Brandon Knight should make a major impact no matter where he ends up.

They have raised the awareness of Florida prep basketball, taking their games to the highest levels. Senior Brandon Knight (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Pine Crest) and junior Austin Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) will finally face off in the regular season Friday on ESPN2, tipping off at 7 p.m. ET.

The Pine Crest-Winter Park matchup highlights a nationally televised doubleheader from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. In the opener, Montverde Academy plays Sagemont School (Weston) at 5 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

"Florida is known as a football state, but we like to [show] there's a lot of good basketball players here," said Winter Park coach David Bailey, whose team is 20-4 heading into Tuesday's Class 6A, District 4 quarterfinal game vs. Eastridge (Orlando). "People will see two of the nation's best players are from Florida. We're excited about the game," he said.

Bailey's teams are no stranger to ESPN, having appeared twice, most recently in December during the finals of the City of Palms Classic from Fort Myers, Fla.

The Old Spice High School Showcase, a series of 14 regular-season games, closes this weekend with a flurry. The ESPN family of networks will televise three games from Florida and Indiana, featuring top teams and players that will likely become household names.

Though many are intrigued by the player matchup, the burning question is where Pine Crest's Knight, the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year, will attend college. He has narrowed his choices to Florida, Miami, Syracuse, Connecticut, Kentucky and Kansas.

"Knowing Brandon and how he operates, it'll be a methodical process; he'll probably announce soon after the season," Pine Crest coach David Beckerman said.

Rivers, a 6-foot-3 guard who averages 24 points, has verbally committed to Florida but hasn't ruled out other schools, most notably Duke. "Things could change; nothing is done until you sign the national letter," he said.

We don't talk much girl's hoops here on the blog, but I'd like to give a shout-out to Mercy High School for defeating Manual 57-56 to win the Louisville Invitational Tournament over the weekend.

Therese Montano led the way for Mercy with 13 points, six rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Mercy is currently 16-5 and ranked No. 3 by the Courier-Journal Litkenhous Ratings. Manual is ranked 2nd at 17-5. This was Mercy's second victory of the season over 25th District rival Manual.

In a rowdy meeting between two top ten Kentucky boy's basketball teams, Scott County made a statement to the rest of the state with an exciting 67-64 victory at Clark County yesterday.

Scott County coach Billy Hicks said this game had a "regional championship atmosphere," with over 2,000 high school basketball fans in attendance - and neither squad disappointed. Both teams looked ready to play from the get-go, surely itching to play after the game being postponed until Sunday due to severe weather conditions in the area on Saturday.

The competition was heated through-out, as neither team led by more than five in the first three quarters (Scott County by 5 at half). Clark County made a strong third quarter run to tie the game up at 49 headed into the fourth, but it was Scott County's much-maligned defense that pulled out the victory for them.

Dakotah Euton, in particular, made two huge defensive plays in the fourth, with back-to-back steals leading to four Scott County points giving them a 65-62 lead. Clark County retaliated with a score to cut the lead to one, followed by a Ge'Lawn Guyn miss on the front end of a one-and-one. Robbie Stenzel lost the ball out of bounds on the next play, however, and Scott's Chad Jackson sealed the victory with a last-second dunk.

Jackson was the game's leading scorer, with 27 points.

SCOTT CO. (15-5) — Jackson 27, Euton 15, Guyn 8, Flannery 6 Manning 11, Shotwell 0.


CLARK CO. (16-5) — Stenzel 21, Zollo 13, Rogers 15, Daniel 8, Kindred 2, Purvis 5.

via Bluegrasspreps.com

BOYS BGP TOP 20


1. Trinity

2. Scott County

3. Ballard

4. Holmes

5. Eastern

6. Clark County

7. Christian County

8. Jeffersontown

9. Seneca

10. Warren Central

11. Lexington Catholic

12. Lafayette

13. Shelby Valley

14. Iroquois

15. Bowling Green

16. Moore

17. Tates Creek

18. McCreary Central

19. Lexington Christian Academy

20. Shelby County

GIRLS BGP TOP 20

1. Marion County

2. Dupont Manual

3. Christian Academy-Louisville

4. Mercy

5. Madison Central

6. Rockcastle County

7. Bullitt East

8. Bowling Green

9. Boone County

10. Lincoln County

11. Sacred Heart Academy

12. Henderson County

13. Elizabethtown

14. Clay County

15. Franklin County

16. Newport Central Catholic

17. Letcher County Central

18. Webster County

19. Paul Dunbar

20. Ballard

The following dialogue is an interview conducted with Head Coach Kelly Wells of the Pikeville College Bears. Coach Wells started his playing career at Rowan Couny High school where he was a two-time all-state player and led the team to three KHSAA Sweet Sixteen appearances! He started out playing his his college ball at the University of Tulsa and finished up at Morehead State. His coaching career includes the following: 2006–Present, Pikeville College, Head Coach (54-40)2005–2006, Hawaii Pacific University, Head Coach (8-19)2004–2005, Hawaii Pacific University, Assistant Coach1997–2004, Mason County High School, Head Coach (171-56)1995–1997, Marion County High School, Head Coach (32-28). Coach wells has had an extremely successful career as a coach and has most recently led Pikeville College to Back-to-back 20-win seasons in 2008 & 2009• 12th best record in school history in 2008 (22-9) and has an overall record of 54-40 (.574) for the Bears. At the high school level Coach Wells led Mason County High School to a 2003 Kentucky State Championship and a 2004 Kentucky State Runner-Up. He was also named Two-time Kentucky Coach of the Year (2003, 2004)• Three-time 10th Region Coach of the Year• 10th Region Hall of Fame member (2004)• Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Coach (2004). He also had the great privilage of caoching University of Tennessee All-American Chris Lofton and had an overall record of 171-56 (.753) at Mason County.

Coach Wells, let me thank you again for taking some time to answer a few questions for us here today. Now in your fourth year at the helm for Pikeville, talk about your journey as a head coach through the KHSAA to a short stint in Hawaii and finally to the NAIA …

It has been a journey of sorts in a lot of ways, but I would not trade any stop
along the way in my coaching/teaching career to this point. I began my
coaching at Marion County HS, Ky where we went to the state tournament in my 2nd season, then it was off to Mason County where we won the state and 3 regional
championships, next was NCAA DII Hawaii Pacific University for two seasons, now
we are back home in Pikeville and getting our program back into national
recognition.

Our atmosphere on Jan. 21st was second to none and was a big benefit to our team
and college. It was a very successful night in all avenues from the win to
the PR we received in the game. We have a great community here and we want
the Expo to be the place to be and it sure was on that Thursday night.

The season has gone well to this point as we have been ranked as high as #6
in the country and now we sit at #14 in the country. The MSC is the
toughest and best coached basketball league in the country at our level.
Having a good team does not guarantee anything in our league! We have lots
still to overcome and achieve, but I really like our team and staff.

We currently have 5 teams in the top 35 in the country so that tells you
there are no nights off in this league. We have some great returners in
the league as well as some great new faces. Some to highlight are
Georgetown’s Moses / Giles, Lindsey Wilson’s McPhearson / Tintor, Campbellsville
Comenaras / Bishop, West Virginia Tech’s Slack / Marshall, Cumberland’s Byron /
Russ, Rio’s Rase / Teer, and our guys Clark / Hicks / Smith / Setty / Thomas /
Thornton / Donald. As for the Bears, we are setting our sites on reaching
our full potential and handling one game at a time.

JC comes to us this year from Louisiana Tech University and this is his first
season with the Bears. JC has been a huge part of our success and a coach
on and off the floor for our team. JC carries a big load for our team, but
understands the importance of his teammates. JC is a great floor general
that can do almost all parts of the game very well.

Andre is a transfer from University of Central Florida and the sky is the limit
on him. He was the valedictorian of his high school class and that
intelligence is carried around with him on the court as well. He is a
versatile PF that is very strong and well rounded.

Landon is bringing great excitement to the PC program for so many reasons.
1st is his playing ability and toughness, 2nd is his great reputation and
character, 3rd is the fact that he can be an ambassador for our college, and
lastly are his experiences under great coaching legends such as Bill Mike Runyon
and Billy Gillespie.

NAIA basketball is a great division of basketball and extremely
competitive. My best advice for all recruits is to find the school and
program they fit in best at. Don’t try to look for the highest level you
can get into school, etc. but focus on what is the most important (players in
the program, your coaching staff, location, degree you want, class size,
involvement).

Each and every one! The most important game is the next one. (I know
you love coach talk!)


All games for the All "A" Classic State Tournament will be played in Richmond, Kentucky at Eastern Kentucky University.

Thursday :First round
Campbellsville vs. Glasgow, 9 a.m.
Walton-Verona vs. Brown, 10:30 a.m.
Newport vs. DeSales, noon
Bishop Brossart vs. Hazard, 1:30
University Heights vs. Lexington Christian, 5
Fairview vs. Owensboro Catholic, 6:30
Ballard Memorial vs. Shelby Valley, 8
Danville vs. Williamsburg, 9:30


Friday : Quarterfinals at 5, 6:30, 8 and 9:30
Saturday : Semifinals at 1 and 2:30
Sunday : Final, 2:30

Two schools from the 7th Region have made the cut for the RivalsHigh 100. The No. 1 and 2 teams in the state, Trinity and Ballard, are rated as the No. 88 and 99 teams in the country according to Rivals. Click here for the article.

The following is an excerpt from the Examiner.com's Michael Johnston, talking with former J'town/Manual star Aaron Cosby:

Former Manual and Jeffersontown standout Aaron Cosby is having a big year up north. The 6-foot-2 shooting guard is playing for Mt. Hermon in Northfield, Massachusetts. How is his season going so far? I caught up with Cosby.

"The season is going really well right now," Cosby said. "We are 5-2. I'm playing against some really good competition. I think we are one of the best teams in our class and I think we should do well."

Cosby has seen his recruitment heat up over the last few months. Several new schools have gotten involved.

"Stanford, Clemson, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Georgetown, Michigan, Providence, Rutgers and a few other schools are showing interest," Cosby said. "Providence and Northwestern have offered. Stanford is waiting on my test scores."

Here's the top 15 from Collegehoopsnet.com's recently released Top 25 Freshmen:

1. John Wall - Kentucky - G
17.0, 3.7, 6.9, 2.1 spg
Best player on the #1 team in the land. Not bad for a freshman.

2. DeMarcus Cousins - Kentucky - F/C
15.4, 9.5, 0.9, 1.8 bpg
On a per-minute basis, no one tops Cousins' production. 28 points and 18 boards per 40 minutes.

3. Xavier Henry - Kansas - G
14.3, 3.9, 2.0, 1.9 spg
Fading a bit as season has progressed, but still super talented.

4. Avery Bradley - Texas - G
12.3, 2.7, 2.5, 1.5 spg
Playing-time and scorig output has increased in recent weeks.

5. Derrick Favors - Georgia Tech - C
11.8, 8.9, 0.9, 1.1 spg, 1.9 bpg
Spotty at times, but has as much potential as anyone on the list.

6. Eric Bledsoe - Kentucky - G
11.3, 3.1, 3.2, 1.3 spg
Overshadowed by Wall and Cousins, but brings it every night.

7. Elias Harris - Gonzaga - F
16.1, 8.2, 1.1, 1.1 spg
Without Harris, Gonzaga wouldn't be near Top 25.

8. Derrick Williams - Arizona - F
15.6, 7.1, 0.7
Threat for 20 and 10 each night is keeping UofA afloat.

9. Hassan Whiteside - Marshall - F/C
12.7, 9.4, 0.3, 5.4 bpg
If you're wondering how Marshall is 15-4, here's the answer.

10. Kenny Boynton - Florida - G
14.6, 3.1, 3.3
If/when he finds consistency from three, can be 20 ppg scorer.

11. Reggie Moore - Washington St - G
14.4, 2.1, 4.6, 1.4 spg
Good mix of size, scoring, and passing ability.

12. Maurice Creek - Indiana - G
16.1, 3.8, 1.8, 1.4 spg
Will be a key component to a possible IU turnaround.

13. Lance Stephenson - Cincinnati - G
12.2, 4.8, 2.7, 1.0 spg
Has room for growth if cuts back on TO's and works on long ball.

14. Aaric Murray - LaSalle - F/C
12.1, 7.2, 1.4, 2.6 bpg
Defensive presence can surprise by hitting outside shots.

15. Marshawn Powell - Arkansas - F
15.4, 6.7, 1.2, 1.1 spg, 1.3 bpg
Positive note on otherwise blah Razorback squad.