[Old School Hound]

The Hounds best player and arguably their 2nd best player are both FRESHMEN in high school….Before all you brilliant basketball know it alls ramble on about this team please just take a little time and give a little thought and let that sink in……… The strength of their team is in the class of the 9th grade!!! Do you guys remember what growing pains are like ? They hurt sometimes!! Let these kids grow without laying  too much expectation, too quick on them!!! I saw them play early in the year and was very impressed by some of their players, but I felt and said then that they are too young to expect too much out of them too quick after they played HC really well in the 1st game, I knew the growing pains would come, so let them learn and grow a little…..

That's a salient point, definitely has merit, and thank you for your input. I must, however, retort with this. Those 9th graders are now closer to being 10th graders than 9th graders, plus Mr Akins is not a typical freshman. He was one of the top players for Wburg varsity as a 7th grader and one of Corbin key cogs as a 8th grader. Point is, Ryder is essentially a grizzled veteran as a freshman. I refuse to blame a loss to Evangel Christian on Ryder and Dalton being in the 9th grade. Corbin also has true veterans, like Seniors Middleton and Blackburn and Junior, Pietrowski. They also have an experienced player in Brittain, who has seen the court a lot in previous years, and that just added a 6-6 senior in Hyde. 

It seems to me that this Corbin team, heading into the second week of February still has yet to find its identity. And as they look for an identity, they are still adding new pieces to the puzzle.  It's clearly still a work in progress at a time when it should be that everyone understands their clearly defined roles. There's still too much flux going on with this team. The guys looked totally lost against in their own home gym against a sorry Whitley County team. The problem, as I see it , is lack of an identity as a team and too much loss of focus and drive. They were focused and on fire for South Laurel at home and won easily. Then it's like someone turned the power switch to off. Again, I refuse to put all of that on youth when you have plenty of experienced players and a star freshman who is in his third year as a varsity starter.  There's something else going on besides kids being too young.


Comments anyone ???