[Old School Hound]

Gray could be the worst coach in the state of Kentucky.  People can defend him all they want and make excuses all they want but the results won't lie.  Yes he took a middle school state tournament championship team and beat a couple of good teams no one can argue with that.  During his 5 year stint Gray has failed to make the Regional tournament 3 times.  He does have 1 district title, but remember he did this with a middle school championship team.  He has lost the last 2 district tournaments on his home floor.  He has never even coached his team to a regional final.  He has lost to Jackson County more in this 5 year stint than all Clay's other coaches combined.  Last nights game showed once again he can't coach.  He switched defenses for whatever reason going into the 4th and Jackson got to the rim every time.  If Harris didn't protect the rim and block it then they shot a lay up......however if you look at Gray's track record any coach would have known what he was going to do.  He has a history of doing the same stuff over and over and never making any type of adjustments when things start going bad.  Everyone in Clay County knows what the real problem in and only outsiders or people in his political bubble protects him.  Lose the pride Gray, step down and let someone else have their shot.  I just hope that the powers will do the right thing and put in a coach and not a puppet......but they don't have a good track record at that either.

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Hopefully Robert Marcum had a nice relaxing drink last night.

If that is the case then Marcum has had a lot of relaxing drinking nights in the past 5 years.  I know Marcum and have talked to him a few times since he stepped down and he still cares for the program.  I've even heard he sits down with Hibbard (JV coach) and helps him out and gives him advice......and well I think the JV won a heck of a lot more games than the varsity this year and even had to move up 2-3 of his JV players half way during the year.  He would never come back to coach with this administration in office, but he does care about the kids.

And you could have the least knowledgeable basketball mind in the state of Kentucky if you think that. In fact, someone need to nominate you for that dubious award.  Wasn't it just three seasons or so ago that Gray had his Tigers off to a 16-0 start? That season included wins over a 30-win Knox Central team, Lexington Catholic,  a good Boyle County team and a really good Huntington(WV) Prep team,  Pulaski County, a terrific Mercer County team with a Mr. Basketball  candidate , North Laurel , and two wins over a 20-win Harlan team. They also beat Corbin to win the CFIT.  The only reason this team didn't win the region is because the Tigers lost a close game at North Laurel in the opening round of the district to a 23-win Jaguar team. If they had beaten the Jags, they win the region that year, in my opinion.

Now, let's turn to the following season.  They beat a damn good North Laurel team THREE times, including the championship of the 49th district.  They beat a crazy good Knoxville Catholic team(same team that had beaten Corbin by 30) that had three D-I starters. Coach Gray accomplished something I had never seen before. He shut out Knoxville Catholic in the 4th quarter to come from behind and pull off the big upset. The Tigers soundly beat Scott County and a 25-win Knox Central team at Knox. They also beat an outstanding 28-win South Laurel team and had a very close two-point loss to Trinity at Louisville. If that wasn't enough , Coach Gray and his Tigers took #1 ranked John Hardin to the wire before finally falling in the championship of the CFIT. The only reason they didn't win the region that season was because of a close loss to a Harlan County team that caught fire late in the season and was playing extremely well.

I'm sorry, but these games are not from the resume of the "worst coach in the state of Kentucky." That is as ignorant a statement as I've ever read on a sports message board. Glenn Gray can coach the game of basketball. Reread the two paragraphs above if you are still not convinced. And let me say this. When Gray was recording all of these impressive wins, he was not blessed with great talent. He had some nice talent, some good players, maybe even a couple of really good players,  but no where near the talent that Hicks had at Scott County or Keith had back in the day with guys like Richie Farmer, Russ Farmer, Russ Chadwell, Shannon Hoskins, etc...

Please just stop the insanity about Glenn Gray not being able to coach. You can bring up other things like politics or socioeconomic factors as to why Clay has fallen on hard times but your argument is just plain weak if you say it's because Glenn Gray is a bad coach. That's just not the case, as I have outlined.  Pissed off Manchesterites  need to come up with something better than that.