[HAIL PIKEVILLE!]

The Pikeville administration did not report it first. KBA officials reached out to them AFTER the incident and complaints ensued. How do I know this? I was in the room when the calls were made to the Pikeville administration to clarify the situation. The calls were to Pikeville, not from Pikeville.

With that said, it was brought up during the tournament because an opponent recognized a player from Pikeville's team that played against them with Johns Creek a couple weeks prior at the Knott County Invitational. It had nothing to do with the Pikeville AD as the reason it was brought up. If the opponent hadn't said anything, I'm 100% positive that nothing would have came of it.

Whether it was self-reported or not, it's still cheating any way you want to spin it. The kid played for two separate teams and did not compete in the allotted number of games for Pikeville to be eligible for the tournament within the middle school basketball and tournament rules. It is what it is. It was known from the beginning and never should have been advanced that far. I sincerely hated it for the kids there as it wasn't their fault.

I say that to say this: I've been around middle school athletics for long time and I've never seen a fanbase exhibit behavior like Pikeville's acted while exiting KBA in Lexington that day. Grown adults threatening to fight, cussing, flipping the bird, etc. I would be embarrassed if our fanbase acted like that at a function in front of middle school kids, especially when they're the ones who were in the wrong. For me, those actions will forever be associated with Pikeville.

It's obvious we're going to have to agree to disagree. It's clear you have Pikeville running through your veins and that's understandable.

Now that you mention it. I do seem to remember that the way you tell it. I stand corrected. If our fans acted in the way you described. There's no excuse for that! With that said, the fact remains that
the coach was told not to play that kid before they even left Pikeville. The Coach himself told me that after the fact...