[gapman]

[quote=gapman]You discredit all the Ashland players on the floor in that game when you blame your loss on B Kouns.


Not in the least. The atmosphere in the gym can be clearly controlled by the officiating. I have to agree with Truth. James A. is a difficult venue for any visitor to leave with a W when Bobby is toting a whistle.

To say that BK doesn't often control the outcome at James A. is being disingenuous.

HOOKUM HORNS :rockon::rockon:

Fair enough, you and Truth believe your team gets cheated at Anderson Gym and I believe you get beat. You say potahto I say potato.

[Squid]

But Elliott County will be more highly regarded on a statewide scale. Rowan County never made any statewide noise during their run. They are primarily remembered as the teams that Kelly Wells played on.

That's true, Orange. My point, though, is that with the passage of time, Elliott's team would be remembered (locally) even more strongly if they had had a better local team to compete with. Great rivals make the memories stick out more (at least, they do to me).

As an example, look at Rocky Marciano's boxing career. Many of the boxing historians don't consider him to have been all that great, because (in their eyes) he didn't have to beat a lot of great fighters to defend his title. Either way, when you go 49-0, you're doing something right. Personally, I don't fault Marciano for not having to beat Muhammed Ali three times in his career, and I don't hold it against Elliott that they didn't run into a real test until they got to Rupp. Unfortunately though, some people will do just that.

[Squid]

As I have said repeatedly, Squid, you take all of this too personally. Still, I'll take your bait and state that Buddy Biggs, Jeff Wilcox, and Bill Bradley are, in my opinion, good coaches. Wilcox is a Hall of Famer and I think everyone in this area can take pride in that. I certainly do.

There you go, Truth.

You had to take a shot at me to do it, but at least you got a (mostly) positive comment on the board. That wasn't that hard after all, was it?

The longest journey begins with a single step. - Lao Tzu

[inspiron]

That's true, Orange. My point, though, is that with the passage of time, Elliott's team would be remembered (locally) even more strongly if they had had a better local team to compete with. Great rivals make the memories stick out more (at least, they do to me).

As an example, look at Rocky Marciano's boxing career. Many of the boxing historians don't consider him to have been all that great, because (in their eyes) he didn't have to beat a lot of great fighters to defend his title. Either way, when you go 49-0, you're doing something right. Personally, I don't fault Marciano for not having to beat Muhammed Ali three times in his career, and I don't hold it against Elliott that they didn't run into a real test until they got to Rupp. Unfortunately though, some people will do just that.

East Carter was a really good team last year and they didn't get enough credit because Elliott over shadowed them. I see what you are saying and I agree with you they needed some more competition in the Region. But not even the 96' paintsville team had a front page write up in the USA today and on the front page of ESPN'S website. Last year they was on another level blowing everyone out, but the years prior to that they were young kids and the underdog a lot more. When they went to the state tourny as sophomores they were very young and also runner ups in the 16th as FRESHMAN. Tell me the last time a 4 Freshman team finished runner up in the Region. A lot of it was talent that we watched over 4 years develop into last years slaughter. It was a great team with under estimated players and will always be remembered as that little team that fell short; if you wasn't at Rupp last year when Timmy Knipp fouled out and the crowd booed for over 3 minutes you could understand why they will be remembered state wide. But they will be remembered as a great team that fell short, when people say what was one of the best team to not win a state tournament, thats when they will be mentioned throughout the state.

[central fan]

Tell me the last time a 4 Freshman team finished runner up in the Region.

Shelby Valley won the 15th with Hatfield, Justice and Newsome in the starting line up.

[Truth]

There you go, Truth.

You had to take a shot at me to do it, but at least you got a (mostly) positive comment on the board. That wasn't that hard after all, was it?

The longest journey begins with a single step. - Lao Tzu

"The truth is an absolute defense." - Hon. Learned Hand, et als.

[Truth]

It is difficult for a visitor to win at Fairview. A large Eagle crowd can add a few points to the homecourt advantage. The Fairview gymnasium is much like the old facilities that were prominent in this area years ago.

The old gymnasiums were really snake pits. Most of that is lost with the larger facilities of today. While the new venues are nice, the old ones had much more character. The home team knew the location of every dead spot on the floor.

[slinger]

15th-Shelby Valley today. Paintsville in years past.
Side note - Entertaining listening to Coach Runyon's vocabulary

16th-Tough to get a visitor's win at Anderson Gym, Fairview with a big crowd is pretty hard on visitors, a crowd of 500 can sound like 5000 somewhere else. Good Basketball with the crowd involved.

[Squid]

... The old gymnasiums were really snake pits. ... the old ones had much more character. The home team knew the location of every dead spot on the floor.

Two great examples in our district were the old Holy Family gym (still in use as a grade school court), and the original Putnam Junior High court (now Verity Middle School).

The Holy Family gym had a dotted line that ran the entire perimeter of the court, that was three feet inside the out of bounds line. When you had to take the ball out of bounds, the defense was not allowed to stand in (or reach through) the area between the dotted line and the actual OOB line. This was because the stands were only about 10 inches from the OOB line. The instant that the ball was touched inside the dotted line, it "dissapeared" and the solid line was back in play.

The old Putnam gym floor had two "half court" lines, because the floor was about 10 feet to short to be considered legal. When the offense was bringing the ball up the court, the far line was the half court mark. The instant that the ball (or either foot) touched that line, it "dissapeared" and the line that was about ten feet further back automatically became the half court line. Remember, this was in the days when "Over and Back" was any of the three points, rather than all three, as it is today.

Heck, it would take most kids three or four games on those floors before they understood the rules. Come to think of it, there were a lot of refs that never really understood how to use the lines in those two gyms.

[itzAmazing]

Shelby Valley...52 straight wins at home if I'm not mistaken. That speaks for itself.