[Gridiron_Raid]

I just don't think Marshall or Calloway either one has played really stiff competition, this has created nice records and ranking.  I believe APB or Boyd County has played better teams and will prevail.

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Agreed!

Watched boyd and Calloway play 2 games at lex cath, Calloway is a much better basketball team

I saw these games also, Boyd is playing much better now than in December.

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For anyone saying good draw, bad draw, it comes down to two things. Does the team matchup better or worse? For instance, there is three teams Bell County does not match up against position wise: GC, StX, and DCA purely on size and athletic ability.

I seen where sports “analysts” were ranking the draws for the regions, but they go strictly off their own blind rankings. I do not see how anyone can say the 14th got a good draw. Let’s say Hazard wins, Bell wins, and GRC/Montogomery wins their respective regions, does Hazard match up with anyone of those teams? Not at all. I say that because of style of play and being on a neutral floor. Also a bigger floor, which means you have to guard athletes after giving them even more spacing. The slow, tight, defensive game that relies on rebounding and getting to the line 31 times like they did on ashland doesn’t happen at Rupp.

The 16th got a great draw regardless on boyd or ashland. Especially Ashland. Calloway and Marshall are good teams, but Ashland matches up great against both. However the elite 8 with Warren Central/BG is a different story.

If you don't match up well with opposing team, you attempt to make them play your game.  Did you ever watch any of Bobby Keith's teams?

Yes sir… during the peak, teams couldn’t play man or zone against them cause they had guys to beat about anyone 1 on 1, and could shoot anyone out of a zone. Defense wise they pressured you into beating them off the dribble and if you got to the rim you had to finish over some huge and physical guys. The only time they had bad matchups was when they were outmatched athletically, and that was seldom. The allan Houston teams at ballard were some of the few that did have better athletes. 

However, one must understand how basketball in general has changed to make it easier to attack teams that played like clay. Postionless basketball was not a thing in the 80s or really 90s. It is every where you look now. I can’t see Clay playing that ferocious on ball defense against a team of 5 shooters. Getting those big clay county centers to guard on the perimeter would’ve changed how they played every where else cause you don’t have a cornbread fed monster standing under the rim waiting on you.

But Clay still found a way to beat Ballard in the first matchup.  Can't say that I have ever saw a HS team that truly had 5 shooters.

Harlan County, has all 5 starters over 30%. Last year even higher. Bell County has 4 Elite shooters and has two role guys that can step out and make it occasionally. Those are the two just in the 13th. And for the size/skill combo Ethan Buell would be a freak of god in the 1980s. A 6’7 guy who might be one of the best shooters in the state and can put the ball on the floor. When he plays the 5, you would have to put one of those big bodied centers from back in the day on him where he would cook. 

I’m definitely not saying that Clay would struggle in today’s era, cause they were straight up MORE TALENTED than 99 percent of the teams today. However, they would have to change the way they play or would be exposed strictly on how important shooting has become and how skillful bigger kids have gotten. Remember it wasn’t too long after the 3pt line was introduced into HS that the Bobby Keith dominance began, most players on his state champ and runner up teams played organized basketball without one. That style of play is a recipe for disaster with today’s skill level.