[bball_fan]

I know we had the 15th region tournament earlier this season, but after watching the BCI state tournament and seeing scores on here, I thought about how great it would be if we could have a mountain sweet 16 tournament at the end of Feb. maybe held at the Expo center. Maybe even do a 32 team tournament, with four high schools hosting the first 3 rounds and the final four being held at the Expo. Myself personally, drawing for a tournament which would have this talent and amount of teams would be unfair, because the best teams could meet in early rounds. If we could get 16, 24 or even 32 teams involved in the 14th, 15th and 16 regions and let the coaches vote on every team from the #1 ranked team in it all the way down to the last team in it, so the tournament could be seeded correctly like the NCAA Tournament. You could break it into 4 brackets much like the NCAA tournament, having a North, South, East and West with a local high school or grade school in that area hosting the first three rounds. For me personally, these are the a few teams that come to mind off the top of my head that I believe would make a great tournament...

Betsy Layne (Floyd)
Allen Central (Floyd)
South Floyd (Floyd)
Adams (Floyd)
Virgie (Pike)
Feds Creek (Pike)
Dorton (Pike)
Mullins (Pike)
Pikeville (Pike)
Johnson Central (Johnson)
Paintsville (Johnson)
June Buchanan (Knott)
Hindman (Knott)
Hazard (Perry)
AB Combs (Perry)
Chavies (Perry??? Letcher???)
Cowan (Perry??? Letcher???)
Martha Jane Potter (Letcher)
Whitesburg (Letcher)
Martin County (Martin)
Lawrence County (Lawrence)
Sebastian (Breathitt)
Boyd County (Boyd)
Russell (Russell)
Fleming County (Fleming)

In this case, my votes for the 4 number one seeds would be along with possible host sights...
North (@johnson Central or Paintsville): Johnson Central
South(@hazard or Perry Central):Hazard
West(@Betsy Layne or Prestonsburg):Betsy Layne
East(@Pike Central or Shelby Valley):Winner of the Pike County Tournament

Of course I do not know all of the major powerhouse schools outside of Floyd and Pike County and I even left a few out from those two Counties, but I believe this is enough to show the idea I have in mind.

As for the brackets, since they would be ranked by the coaches themselves or at least by a select few coaches...we would avoid putting teams from the same counties in a situation where they would play in the first 2 rounds unless there was no way to avoid it. Also, winning your County Tournament Title could be a automatic invite to lets call in the East Kentucky Mountain Championship.

Just a thought, nothing will probably come of it but its a idea to throw out there.

[Reanimate]

This is an outstanding idea. I would love for something like this to happen.