BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Pikeville
9. Bellevue
10. Raceland


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Louisville DeSales
3. Prestonsburg
4. Corbin
5. Monroe County
6. Newport Catholic
7. Murray
8. Covington Holy Cross
9. Green County
10. Christian Academy of Louisville


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Belfry
3. Mason County
4. Somerset
5. Sheldon Clark
6. Breathitt County
7. Russell
8. Union County
9. Henry County
10. North Oldham

Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Lexington Catholic
4. Lone Oak
5. Allen County
6. Marion County
7. Louisville Western
8. Franklin-Simpson
9. Covington Holmes
10. Louisville Valley


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Christian County
5. Owensboro
6. Anderson County
7. Oldham County
8. Covington Catholic
9. Ashland
10. Dixie Heights

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Louisville Trinity
3. Simon Kenton
4. Lexington Henry Clay
5. Scott County
6. Louisville Ballard
7. Louisville Male
8. Lexington Bryan Station
9. Louisville Manual
10. Shelby County

Please, no Dodgers-Yankees ...

Fox Sports must be salivating at the prospect of a Yankees-Dodgers series, with the two biggest media markets and the prospect of Joe Torre and Manny Ramirez (who grew up in Manhattan) renewing acquaintances with the Yankees, etc.

On the flip side, I can imagine the groans emanating from New York if the Phillies and Angels emerge as their respective league champions. Here's a brief synopsis on the two series:

Yankees-Angels: The most crucial element for the Angels is their starting pitching. Mike Scioscia is going with ace John Lackey in Game 1 and left-hander Joe Saunders in Game 2 — Saunders is a much better fit to pitch in Yankee Stadium than righty Jered Weaver, whose fly-ball tendencies make him a risk against New York's lefty power.

The story of the Angels' season has been their offense, which regularly features eight hitters that hit .287 or better — the lone holdout is underrated catcher Mike Napoli, who hit .272 with 20 home runs. The biggest keys will be whether Chone Figgins and Bobby Abreu can get on base for guys like Torii Hunter (90 RBI in only 119 games) and Kendry Morales, who drove in 108 runs this season in a surprisingly fine season.

The Yankees, however, seem to have too much firepower. Except when Jose Molina is in the lineup as A.J. Burnett's preferred catcher, New York doesn't have a hole in the lineup.

And New York has a big edge in the bullpen, with Joba Chamberlain potentially joining Phil Hughes as deluxe setup men for Mariano Rivera, still the game's best closer.

Pick: Yankees in six.

Dodgers-Phillies: If I was a Phillies fan, I would much rather have faced St. Louis. Why? The Dodgers have the lefty pitching that could neutralize Philly first baseman Ryan Howard, who is as good a hitter in the game against right-handed pitching, but southpaws tie him up in knots.

Notice that Howard had the big hit, a two-run double, in the Phillies' ninth-inning rally against Colorado in the series-deciding game. Colorado, stuck in the "closer mentality," left righty Huston Street in to face him with two runners on, even with reliable lefty Joe Beimel warmed up in the bullpen.

It also says something about Fox's coverage that none of the game announcers, and none of their post-game analysis, included an iota of discussion of the subject.

Los Angeles has two lefties in the rotation (young stud Clayton Kershaw and revived Randy Wolf) and two tough lefties in the pen in hard-throwing Hong-Chih Kuo and George Sherrill, quietly acquired from Baltimore at the trading deadline.

For much of the season, Philly hit lefties Chase Utley, Howard and Raul Ibanez in the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup, but Charlie Manuel has recently (and smartly) put Jayson Werth, who tattooes lefties, in the fifth spot above Ibanez.

This has the makings of a dynamite series. The pick here: Dodgers in seven.

And if I'm right, Fox gets their wish. I'm almost hoping I'm wrong somewhere.

BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Frankfort
6. Hazard
7. Louisville
8. Raceland
9. Pikeville
10. Fairview

Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Louisvile DeSales
3. Prestonsburg
4. Corbin
5. Monroe County
6. Newport Catholic
7. Murray
8. Covington Holy Cross
9. Green County
10. Christian Academy of Louisville

Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Somerset
4. Sheldon Clark
5. Belfry
6. Russell
7. Breathitt County
8. Union County
9. Paducah Tilghman
10. Henry County

Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Lexington Catholic
4. Lone Oak
5. Allen County
6. Louisville Western
7. Marion County
8. Louisville Valley
9. Franklin-Simpson
10. Covington Holmes

Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Christian County
5. Owensboro
6. Anderson County
7. Covington Catholic
8. Oldham County
9. Ashland
10. Dixie Heights


Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Louisville Trinity
3. Simon Kenton
4. Lexington Henry Clay
5. Scott County
6. Louisville Ballard at Seneca
7. Louisville Fern Creek
8. Louisville Male
9. Lexington Bryan Station
10. Louisville Manual

Madding making an impact at Campbellsville ...

Campbellsville University's coaching staff thought it got a steal in Marshall County product Josh Madding, and the early returns say they're probably right.

Madding, a true freshman, caught seven passes for 96 yards as Campbellsville went on the road and knocked off 10th-ranked Shorter 42-28 last Thursday night. It was a breakout game for Madding, who had caught only one pass in the Tigers' previous four games.

Campbellsville continues its turnaround under former Paducah Tilghman coach Perry Thomas, who won three games with a team that was winless in 2007. The Tigers are currently 3-2.

BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Frankfort
6. Hazard
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Raceland
9. Pikeville
10. Fairview


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Louisville DeSales
3. Prestonsburg
4. Corbin
5. Monroe County
6. Newport Catholic
7. Covington Holy Cross
8. Murray
9. Green County
10. Christian Academy of Louisville


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Somerset
4. Sheldon Clark
5. Belfry
6. Russell
7. Paducah Tilghman
8. Union County
9. Breathitt County
10. Spencer County


Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Lone Oak
4. Allen County
5. Lexington Catholic
6. Louisville Western
7. Marion County
8. Louisville Fairdale
9. Franklin-Simpson
10. Rockcastle County


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Christian County
5. Owensboro
6. Ashland
7. Anderson County
8. Covington Catholic
9. Oldham County
10. Dixie Heights


Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Trinity
4. Simon Kenton
5. Scott County
6. Lexington Bryan Station
7. Louisville Ballard
8. Louisville Male
9. Ryle
10. Louisville Fern Creek

Soccer: Heath, Murray boys face big weekends

Does any western Kentucky soccer team finish with a tougher final week than Heath? Doubtful.

The Pirates (11-3-1) will close out the regular season with three games against state-ranked teams. Heath meets No. 23 Lexington Catholic and 22nd-ranked Scott, the top team in northern Kentucky, on Saturday as part of Madisonville's Donley Classic, then hosts 19th-ranked Marshall County on Thursday night.

Two of Heath's losses have come to ranked teams — No. 5 East Jessamine beat a shorthanded Pirates squad 5-1 at Bourbon County two weeks ago, and 10th-ranked Daviess County knocked off the Pirates 4-1 in late August.

Murray's boys will play Danville in the Class A Cup semifinals on Sunday in Frankfort, weather permitting — the final four has already been postponed twice because of heavy rain. Lexington Sayre and St. Henry will meet in the other semifinal.

"We may have to play twice in Frankfort," Murray coach Jim Baurer said. "Then we come back home and have to go to Madisonville on Monday. That's pretty tough scheduling, no matter what we do on Sunday."

BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Crittenden County
4. Beechwood
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Raceland
9. Pikeville
10. Fairview


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Prestonsburg
4. Louisville DeSales
5. Green County
6. Monroe County
7. Murray
8. Newport Catholic
9. Covington Holy Cross
10. Christian Academy of Louisville


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Somerset
4. Sheldon Clark
5. Belfry
6. Russell
7. Paducah Tilghman
8. Union County
9. Breathitt County
10. Elizabethtown


Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Allen County
4. Lone Oak
5. Lexington Catholic
6. Louisville Western
7. Marion County
8. Louisville Fairdale
9. LaRue County
10. Rockcastle County


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Owensboro
5. Anderson County
6. Christian County
7. Ashland
8. Covington Catholic
9. Dixie Heights
10. Letcher Central

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Louisville Trinity
3. Lexington Henry Clay
4. Simon Kenton
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Scott County
7. Louisville Ballard
8. Louisville Male
9. Louisville Fern Creek
10. Ryle

BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Here are this week's Kentucky high school football rankings from Bluegrasspreps.com


Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Crittenden County
4. Beechwood
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Allen Central
9. Raceland
10. Lynn Camp


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Prestonsburg
4. DeSales
5. Monroe County
6. Green County
7. Murray
8. Covington Holy Cross
9. Newport Catholic
10. Glasgow


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Sheldon Clark
4. Somerset
5. Belfry
6. Russell
7. Elizabethtown
8. Breathitt County
9. Spencer County
10. Union County


Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Allen County
4. Lone Oak
5. Louisville Western
6. Lexington Catholic
7. Marion County
8. Louisville Fairdale
9. LaRue County
10. Rockcastle County


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. Owensboro
4. John Hardin
5. Christian County
6. Anderson County
7. Ashland
8. Covington Catholic
9. Dixie Heights
10. Letcher Central


Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Male
4. Louisville Trinity
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Simon Kenton
7. Scott County
8. Louisville Fern Creek
9. Ryle
10. Shelby County

Football leftovers ...

Has Paducah Tilghman reached the crossroads of its season?

The Tornado is 1-4 after last week's colossal 53-7 rout at the hands of Fort Campbell, but a cursory inspection of the schedule reveals that Tilghman has five straight winnable games to close out the regular season, starting with this week's non-district matchup with struggling Calloway County.

Running the table, which would also include a big win at defending Class 3A First District champion Union County, would do a lot to restore some confidence in the program, which is waning with Tilghman going 4-11 on the field (3-12 including last season's forfeit for the use of an ineligible player) in Randy Wyatt's 1 1/2 seasons on the job.

Tilghman wasn't going to beat Fort Campbell, even with Vince Lombardi on the sideline, but there are two easily identifiable games that the Tornado could have won — the 17-14 loss to Hopkinsville in which it blew a 14-0 fourth-quarter lead and the 26-21 defeat to Graves County that turned on a muffed punt.

• Tiger tracks: Murray's fast start has raised expectations to the point that non-routs have become eye-openers. Over the last two weeks, the 43-20 win over Fulton County and 59-40 win over Ballard Memorial prompted some people to wonder what's going on with the Tigers' defense.

Talk is that coach Steve Duncan, ever the strategist, has been tinkering with a bigger, beefier defensive front, although indications are that Murray is better with a smaller, quicker unit on the field. Murray was missing one of its top players, linebacker Demoree Fields, against Ballard.

• Bubba the Wildcat: Mayfield pulled out the Wildcat formation against Graves County, finding a way to put the ball in Xavier Shelton's hands. The Cardinals have used the formation a handful of times over the last couple of years, and it's just another way for Mayfield coach Joe Morris to make sure Shelton gets his touches.

Shelton, who is universally known by the nickname "Bubba" within the program, may be the best all-around athlete in far western Kentucky. He's also a fine basketball player who's made some clutch shots over the last two seasons, and his 6-1 frame nd speed makes him tough to defend in the secondary.

Morris said last week that he and Mayfield basketball coach Chris Guhy aren't sure that Shelton is the best natural athlete to grace the school's program in several years, perhaps even a decade or more.

• Patriot games: Massac County's amazing comeback against Harrisburg hasn't decided the River-to-River Conference race, which is just a week old, but it might be the game everyone points to when the season is over.

The conference race is projected to go down to Massac, Harrisburg and Herrin, which got off to a surprising 0-3 start before hammering West Frankfort. And the Patriots still have to play at Herrin, a place that hasn't been very kind to the Patriots over the years.

More football musings ...

Lone Oak's breakthrough win over Lexington Catholic overshadowed one glaring problem in the Purple Flash's defense — a secondary that was ripped to shreds, particularly during Lexington Catholic's fourth-quarter comeback that erased a 22-point deficit.

"We've got time to work on that," Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins said. "I'm just glad we were able to overcome that."

The Flash rotated several people in and out of the secondary throughout the evening, and tonight's game with Caldwell County's spread offense could show whether or not some improvement was made this week. Calloway County showed a solid passing game with freshman quarterback Tyler Greer in last week's 50-33 loss to Mayfield, and it's the Lakers that are the only thing standing between Lone Oak and a Class 3A district title. The two renew their deliciously fierce rivalry in three weeks.

If Lone Oak survives the visit to Lakerland and knocks off Class 2A power Green County, chances are the Flash will be 12-0 when Allen County rolls into town in the third week of the playoffs.

Haskins a builder: Is there any doubt that no coach in western Kentucky can turn around a program like Lone Oak's Jack Haskins?

Nearly four decades ago, he took Heath's program to the varsity level and had the Pirates in the Class A state championship game in five seasons. Two years ago, he took Lone Oak to the Class 4A state finals in his fourth season in purple.

The guy also won big at Ballard Memorial, a program that enjoyed very little success before or since his tenure.

It brings to mind a bet I had with a longtime Heath supporter some five years ago, just after Haskins left Graves County to take the Lone Oak job. The guy has a great deal of respect for Haskins, but bet me that he wouldn't post a winning record at Lone Oak. Haskins went 6-5 in his first year at Lone Oak, and his teams are now 45-18 there. Needless to say, I collected on that bet long ago.

Amazing for a program that, when he took over, had just one winning season since 1984.

More offensive: Graves County coach Lance Gregory, who was the defensive coordinator at John Hardin before taking over the Eagles last spring, admits he stressed defense early in preseason practice "because my thinking is that's where you win games."

Brad Lawson, the former defensive coordinator at Mayfield and Paducah Tilghman, handles that responsibility for the Eagles, and Gregory runs the Wing-T offense he inherited from predecessor Mike Rogers. Gregory has plenty of familiarity with the offense from his time at John Hardin, which is coached by Wing-T guru and former Rogers mentor Mark Brown.

As Gregory has grown into the role, so has the Eagles' offense. They scored 10 points in the opener, a turnover-marred win over Trigg County, then put up 28 against winless Muhlenberg County and 26 in last week's win over Tilghman.

"I spent eight years coaching the offensive line (at John Hardin), so I understand how defenses approach it," Gregory said. "It made this a lot easier transition."

Chasing perfection: Could Mayfield and Crittenden County both tote unbeaten records into their Week 9 game at Marion? Both figure to be 8-0 and playing for the Class A district title.

If the Rockets could pull out the win, they could stage a similar battle the next week against Murray, which has an excellent chance to put together that school's first unbeaten regular-season mark.

Bluegrass Preps rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Allen Central
9. Harlan
10. Williamsburg

Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Louisville DeSales
4. Prestonsburg
5. Monroe County
6. Green County
7. Murray
8. Covington Holy Cross
9. Newport Catholic
10. Glasgow

Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Sheldon Clark
4. Somerset
5. Belfry
6. Breathitt County
7. Russell
8. Elizabethtown
9. Paducah Tilghman
10. Spencer County

Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Allen County
4. Lone Oak
5. Lexington Catholic
6. Louisville Western
7. Marion County
8. Bullitt East
9. Louisville Fairdale
10. Rockcastle County

Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. Owensboro
4. John Hardin
5. Anderson County
6. Christian County
7. Ashland
8. Whitley County
9. Letcher Central
10. Dixie Heights

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Male
4. Louisville Trinity
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Simon Kenton
7. Scott County
8. Louisville Fern Creek
9. Ryle
10. Boone County

Football musings ...

It’s been the question on everyone’s mind this week: What’s going on at Paducah Tilghman?

The wild week that was in Tornadoland has football fans wondering if Tilghman will experience a meltdown similar to last season, when it finished 2-8 (including a forfeit loss for the use of an ineligible player) and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1984.

Gleaning together information from various sources, this is what we know:

Head coach Randy Wyatt met with parents, players and school administrators on Thursday afternoon and expressed contrition for some statements he has made to the team in recent days, especially in the aftermath of last week’s 21-12 loss to Mayfield.

Wyatt, in his second season as the Tornado’s head coach, doesn’t back down from the fact that he often takes a “tough love” approach to coach-player relationships — it’s a style that he feels worked well for his high school coach, Allan Cox, and one he experienced when he spent a couple of years playing for Howard Schnellenberger at the University of Louisville.

Unfortunately, some of those methods don’t always set too well in today’s society. And it apparently didn’t work well for three key players, all of whom left the team this week.

Among them are Kirk Sanderson, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound senior and a four-year starter on the offensive line. John Meza, a 275-pound senior, started the first two games at right tackle.

Linebacker Jim Hank also started as a freshman and has been battling a hip problem that will require surgery, although sources indicate his decision to leave the program isn’t entirely because of his medical issues.

Clearly, when players of that stripe choose to leave the program in midstream, there is some kind of disconnect between player and coach. This also seemed to be an issue last season, when the Tornado imploded after a promising start.

For whatever reason, be it coaching or discipline issues or some combination thereof, Tilghman has been a big-time underachiever since the start of last season, going 4-9 on the field. A team that should have been playing in the state semifinals for the second consecutive year never got to the postseason in Wyatt’s first year at the helm, and the second season is off to a 1-2 start that includes a fourth-quarter collapse against a Hopkinsville team that appears to be that program’s least talented team in at least a decade or two.

What’s in store for Tilghman the rest of the season? Who the heck knows? But tonight’s visit to Graves County should provide us with a few clues.

• Unbeaten Tigers?: There is growing sentiment that Murray could finish with the school’s first perfect regular season, and it wouldn’t come as a shock if the Tigers were 12-0 with two-time defending state champion Fort Campbell rolling into Ty Holland Stadium for a third-round contest in the Class 2A playoffs.

The biggest obstacle to the milestone season would have been Mayfield, which looks like a top contender in Class A. Head coaches from both programs — Murray’s Steve Duncan and Mayfield’s Joe Morris — have confirmed that the two teams discussed renewing their dormant series, one of the oldest in western Kentucky, but neither team could find an open date in common.

As it stands, a season-ending tilt with Crittenden County, a top-five team in the Class A rankings, might be Murray’s deepest pothole on the road to perfection.

• Back in the saddle: Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins has been working from atop the press box in the Purple Flash’s easy wins over Ballard Memorial, Reidland and Marshall County, but he expects to be back on the sideline for tonight’s game with Lexington Catholic.

“You can see a lot more stuff up in the sky,” Haskins said, “but it’s frustrating because you can’t have face-to-face conversations with your players. I haven’t done that in my head coaching career. The only time I did was when I was an assistant at Paducah Tilghman (from 1989-1996).”

Haskins had surgery in late summer to repair a blockage in the carotid artery in the right side of his neck. Part of the reason for his being in the press box was to avoid the risk of taking a hit on the sideline.

“I can’t yell as much as I normally do, either,” Haskins said. “Some of the kids probably like that.”

• Around the horn: A Reidland win over Webster County would give the Greyhounds a rare two-game winning streak, something that hasn’t happened since the 2005 season ... Heath is trying to extend a two-game winning streak against Jo Byrns, a school east of Clarksville that was the Tennessee Class A state runner-up last fall. The Pirates haven’t put together back-to-back-to-back wins since a four-game streak early in the 2005 season.

Bluegrass Prep football rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Frankfort
6. Hazard
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Raceland
9. Harlan
10. Williamsburg


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Green County
4. Louisville DeSales
5. Prestonsburg
6. Newport Catholic
7. Danville
8. Monroe County
9. Murray
10. Owensboro Catholic


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Breathitt County
4. Sheldon Clark
5. Belfry
6. Somerset
7. Paducah Tilghman
8. Russell
9. Elizabethtown
10. Spencer County

Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Lexington Catholic
4. Allen County
5. Marion County
6. Bullitt East
7. Louisville Western
8. Lone Oak
9. Rockcastle County
10. Louisville Fairdale


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. Owensboro
4. John Hardin
5. Whitley County
6. Anderson County
7. Letcher Central
8. Christian County
9. Ashland
10. Dixie Heights

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Trinity
4. Louisville Male
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Simon Kenton
7. Scott County
8. Boone County
9. Ryle
10. Louisville Fern Creek



6. Simon Kenton vs. Shroder, OH
7. Scott County at #2 Henry Clay
8. Boone County at Anderson, OH
9. Ryle at 2A #6 Newport Central Catholic (9/12)
10. Fern Creek at Meade County

Football extras ...

Murray coach Steve Duncan laughed at the joke comment that he considers "pass" to be a four-letter word.

"People laugh at us for it," said Duncan, whose club has thrown six passes in 85 offensive snaps in wins over Madisonville and Calloway County. "We want to throw the ball more, and we work on it in practice. But we just want to win, we have big tackles and we can block for a good stable of running backs."

The Tigers lack of an air show is even a running gag on the sidelines. After running back Matt Deese connected with Jarvae Langford on a 50-yard touchdown pass against Calloway County that resembled a can of corn hit to shallow center field, part-time quarterback Christian Duncan — the coach's son — arrived on the sideline and told an assistant coach "It's bad when you have to have your running back throw a touchdown pass."

Steve Duncan insists that the passing game has been a focal point of practice this week. "It sounds crazy," he said, "but we really had too much passing stuff in the offense. Our receivers didn't always know where they were supposed to be. We have quite a bit of the Franklin system in with our play-action package, but we felt like we had to narrow it down a little bit."

• More passing fancies: Massac County is employing a three-quarterback rotation in its spread offense, with coach Kelly Glass unable to determine a regular just yet.

"Someone told me I'm supposed to know that by now," Glass said. "I told them they need to see what I see in practice. One day one guy looks good. The next day it's another guy. Who it is depends on which day you talk to me. It's a dilemma that isn't going to go away."

The Patriots, who host Fulton County tonight, used Caleb Crim, Logan Wheeler and Daniel Duncan at quarterback against Crittenden County. Jarelle Johnson has been expected to be part of the rotation, but he's been battling a sore arm.

"We would like to keep Jarelle in the slot we had Byron Bailey in last year," Glass said, "where he lines up all over the field and the defense has to look for him. He's pretty good at whatever he does, but if we have him at quarterback we end up moving two people out of position."

Johnson also starts at free safety, and we was in on plenty of action on that side last week. "I bet he had 20 tackles," Glass said. "When your free safety has that many, you know you're having trouble stopping people."

• In the Cards?: Here are two more reasons to like Mayfield's chances of advancing to the Class A state finals, assuming the Cardinals stay healthy and they can get by a fine Crittenden County club that beat them twice last season.

Neither Beechwood or Frankfort, the two teams that would be likely semifinal opponents, are as formidable as expected. Word is that Beechwood, which thumped Crittenden 34-0 in the semifinals last year en route to its second consecutive state title, is beatable this year, and a 47-7 loss to Dixie Heights last week seems like confirmation of that.

Plus, Frankfort tailback and two-way star Quan Weaver, a Louisville commitment, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Frankfort's leading returning receiver is also out indefinitely with an injury.

Shaw does surgery, misses summer ...

Gabriel Shaw, the St. Mary product who pitches collegiately at Louisville, recently underwent surgery to repair an impingement of the ulnar nerve in his elbow. Shaw was originally slated to pitch in the Cape Cod League, the most prestigious of the summer college leagues, but felt it was better to go on and have the surgery and make sure he's ready to pitch for Louisville next spring.

Roof, Wright, Jones shine in Northwoods League ...

Michigan State shortstop Jonathan Roof, a St. Mary product, is continuing his fine summer in the Northwoods League, one of the nation's better summer leagues for college players. Roof, who plays for St. Cloud, is fourth in the league in hitting with a .325 average and is in the top 10 with 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts.

Heath product Chad Wright, who started in the Kentucky outfield as a true freshman, is hitting .285 for the Wausau-based Wisconsin Woodchucks and is tied for third in the league with 26 stolen bases.

And former Ballard Memorial pitcher James Jones is 4-2 with a 3.52 ERA at Battle Creek. Jones, who will pitch at Louisiana-Monroe, has allowed 54 hits in 61 innings with 27 walks and 51 strikeouts.

Chad Edwards, the Reidland product who now plays at Middle Tennessee, is 3-2 with a 1.86 ERA for Dubois County of the Prospect League. Edwards' ERA is in the league's top 10 and he was selected to play in the league's all-star game. In 53 innings, he's allowed 42 hits with 13 walks and 42 strikeouts.

Former Carlisle County pitcher Tim Dunn, now at Trevecca Nazarene, is making a case for the Cincinnati Reds to make him an offer after he was selected in the 47th round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft in June. Dunn was one of the best pitchers in the league, going 5-2 with a 1.93 ERA for the Fulton Railroaders. In 46.2 innings, Dunn allowed 39 hits with 16 walks and 43 strikeouts.

Fulton teammate Lee Kimbell, an infielder from Hickman County, hit .181 for the Railroaders. Also in the Kitty League, Heath product Drew Williams hit .147 for the Marion Bobcats.

Dog days of August ... minor league update

Brandon Braboy has been moved into the starting rotation at Charleston, the New York Yankees' low-Class A affiliate in the South Atlantic League, which bodes well for his future in the organization. Generally, in the low minors, teams try to keep their best arms in the starting rotation.

Braboy, a Heath product in his second year of pro ball, is 2-4 with a 3.66 ERA for Charleston with an impressive 59-15 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has allowed 57 hits in 66.1 innings.

Other area products and their numbers:

Shawn Roof (St. Mary) is hitting .248 for Erie, the Detroit Tigers' Double-A club in the Eastern League, while being used as a utility infielder.

Younger brother Eric Roof (St. Mary), also in the Tigers' organization, has come back strong a little time with a knee injury, hitting .326 since getting back on the field. Overall, he's hitting .271 with two home runs and 11 RBI in 59 at-bats for Oneonta of the rookie-level New York-Penn League.

Mike Broadway (Pope County) continues to struggle at Myrtle Beach, the Atlanta Braves' team in the High-A Carolina League. Broadway is 2-7 with a 4.53 ERA with 31 walks and 44 strikeouts in 51.2 innings.

Left-hander Daniel Calhoun (Murray State) continues to sparkle for Batavia, the St. Louis Cardinals' entry in the rookie-level New York-Penn League. In 21 innings, Calhoun has a 2.14 ERA and has allowed less than a baserunner per inning with 17 hits, three walks and 19 strikeouts.

Clint Tilford (Heath) is 1-3 with a 5.95 ERA in the thin air at Casper, Wyo., the Colorado Rockies' rookie-league team. Tilford has allowed 23 hits in 19.2 innings with 12 walks and 18 strikeouts.

Paducah 12, Metcalfe County 1 ...

Paducah Post 31 advanced to the winners' bracket final of the McDonald's American Legion baseball state tournament, beating Metcalfe County 12-1 in a six-inning game called on account of rain.

A thunderstorm hit as the seventh inning was about to start, with Metcalfe County three outs away from being beaten by the 10-run mercy rule. After consulting with tournament officials, both coaches agreed to declare the game over.

The decision especially benefits Metcalfe County, which has to turn around quickly nd play Danville today at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game.

Tyler Johnson, Alex Harper and Luke Shuemaker each drove in three runs for Paducah. Kyle Courtney tossed three innings in relief of Cody Forsythe and Rex Walton got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth.

Paducah still has its top two pitchers, lefties Forsythe and Allen Haase, available for today's winners' bracket final with Shelbyville. The winner advances to the championship round, which begins on Friday night.

Owensboro and Ashland meet in this morning's elimination game, followed by Danville and Metcalfe County. The two winners meet in the losers' bracket final in tonight's final contest.

Metcalfe County (22-14) 000 100 1 2 2
Paducah (35-10) (10)00 200 12 9 0

Warriner, McFall (2) and Downey; Forsythe, Courtney (3), Walton (6) and Barrett.

WP: Courtney. LP: Warriner.

2B: P-Johnson, Harper, Shuemaker. 3B: none. HR: none. Top hitters: P-Johnson 2-4 (3 RBI), Harper 2-4 (3 RBI), Shuemaker 1-3 (3 RBI).

Today's schedule:

Owensboro vs. Ashland, 9:30 a.m.
Danville vs. Metcalfe County, 12:30 p.m.
Shelbyville vs. Paducah, 4:30 p.m.
Losers’ bracket final, 7:30 p.m.

Holliday a Cardinal ...

Could outfielder Matt Holliday, acquired from Oakland on Friday for three minor leaguers, be the player that puts the St. Louis Cardinals over the top in the National League Central?

Chances are ... yes.

Give the Cardinals' embattled front office some credit. Stung by fan criticism for not spending money to help the team as some would like, general manager John Mozeliak has plugged two big holes in the lineup with Mark DeRosa and Holliday, with neither coming at a prohibitive cost.

DeRosa cost the Cardinals reliever Chris Perez and a player to be named later that figures to be another relief prospect, either Triple-A closer Jess Todd or wild (35 walks in 38 innings) Double-A closer Francisco Samuel.

Holliday's cost is certainly higher — Brett Wallace, last year's first-round draft pick, pitcher Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson, who was a second-round pick last year. Mortensen looks like a so-so prospect at best and Peterson is a 21-year-old outfielder that has spent most of the season in Class A but looks like an extra guy at best.

Wallace is the key. He's just 22, but at 6-1 and 245 pounds, doesn't project as a major league third baseman in the eyes of a lot of baseball people. If he ends up as a first baseman or designated hitter, as some expect, he doesn't have much of a future in St. Louis.

We'll address the deal a little more in my major league baseball column on Monday.

Legion district tournament, day 2 ...

We're down to the match up that everyone expected, with Mayfield and Lyon County colliding with a berth in next week's state tournament on the line.

Mayfield will trot ace Roman Kelly to the mound, with lefty Andrew Schultz on call in relief. Lyon County will go with lefty Robert Thomas, with Ramsey Walker available in relief and, perhaps, Jacob McMican and Donald Bush able to bounce back after pitching on Wednesday.

Lyon County has beaten Mayfield three times this summer, including a 3-2 decision on Wednesday. Lyon County coach Jason Wilson expects no surprises.

"We've seen all they've got in pitching, I'm sure," Wilson said Thursday. "We didn't see Kelly in the first two games, but we saw him for an inning (on Wednesday). They say it's hard to beat a team three times. The fourth one won't be any easier."

At this point, the Aces seem to have an edge, both in terms of hitting and pitching depth, and are probably the team better-equipped to be competitive in the state tournament.

• Mayfield teammates Roman Kelly and Joe Mike have finalized their college plans — they will be teammates at Freed-Hardeman. They will be joined there by Marshall County first baseman Daniel Riley.

• New Marshall County coach Bill Thorpe was on hand to watch Tri-County's final game of the season, and with a great deal of interest — several Tri-County players figure to be key contributors on the new-look Marshals next summer. Marshall will defend its regional title only returns a handful of players who saw part-time action in pitcher-third baseman Garrett Hunt, pitcher Andrew Edwards and outfielders Blake Turner, Blake Sullivan, Nick Forte and Alex Helm.

Lugo-Duncan trade could help Cardinals ...

Both teams rid themselves of non-contributors when the St. Louis Cardinals sent slumping outfielder Chris Duncan (1-for-32 since June 29) to the minors and later to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for deposed and oft-injured shortstop Julio Lugo, who long ago lost his job and was designated for assignment a few days ago.

The move could reshape the Cardinals' lineup in a positive way. Lugo could end up seeing significant time at second base, perhaps moving Skip Schumaker back to the outfield.

Schumaker was moved to second base this spring, but his defense has been lacking. Most defensive rating systems have Schumaker at the bottom of the pack, and that really shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

Plus, left field hasn't exactly been a productive position for the Cardinals. Rick Ankiel and Nick Stavinoha have seen the most time out there lately, but Ankiel hasn't been the same since banging his shoulder in a scary collision with Busch Stadium's centerfield wall while making a catch in a May 4 loss to Philadelphia. Since then, he's hit .188 with three home runs in 149 at-bats.

Playing Lugo at second would certainly solidify the Redbirds' infield defense, and left field is Schumaker's best position.

Lawson gets Mayfield job ...

Misty Pierceall Lawson, one of the better players in Mayfield's girls' basketball history, has been named as the Lady Cardinals' new coach. Lawson, a longtime assistant, will replace former head coach Don Hubbard, who will be the school's new principal.

Lawson was Hubbard's top assistant for several years, but sat out last season after having a second child and was planning on returning to the bench next season.

She was the lead guard on Mayfield's 1994 squad that reached the semifinals of the All A Classic state tournament and later knocked off Marshall County in the first round of the district tournament; a win that sent shockwaves through the First Region. Lawson later played four seasons at Murray State.

We'll have more on the hiring in Friday's Sun.

Legion district tournament, day 1 ...

Paducah Post 31 bombed Tri-County 15-5 in eight innings in a game that ended after midnight Thursday morning to complete the first round of the District 1 American Legion baseball tournament at Brooks Stadium. Paducah will meet Lyon County in Thursday night's winners-bracket final, with Mayfield taking on Tri-County in an elimination game.

Derek Roof and Kyle Courtney took the mound for Post 31, saving lefties Cody Forsythe and Allen Haase for the next two contests. As the host team, Paducah has an automatic bid to next week's state tournament at Brooks Stadium, but Post 31 is also hoping to extend its streak of nine consecutive district titles — Princeton prevailed in 1999 en route to a state runner-up finish.

Here are some extra news items from the first round:

• Derek Roof signed a letter-of-intent with Indiana this week, becoming the fourth member of his family to play in the Big Ten Conference. Cousin Shawn Roof played at Illinois and cousins Eric and Jonathan Roof were starters for Michigan State last spring.

• Jacob McMican's catching career is probably over. His response?

"I'm not that upset about it," McMican said after pitching five innings and finishing up at second base in Lyon County's 3-2 win over Mayfield.

McMican was a catcher and pitcher at Crittenden County but caught just five games at Three Rivers Community College this spring. He saw more action as a pitcher.

"We had a Division I catcher, a guy that signed at Arkansas State," he said. "I was an innings-eater. If we were behind, I was pitching."

McMican will play for Mid-Continent next year, a program that should be on the rise given head coach Shawn Yarbrough's success in recruiting area talent. McMican said Yarbrough told him he could "be a weekday starter and I can play some at third base."

• Lyon County coach Jason Wilson said he expects to go with left-hander Ronnie Howton against Paducah, and his first-night strategy was set with an eye on Friday.

McMican, who threw 66 pitches in five innings, thinks he could "close on Friday night or start on Saturday if I needed to." Donald Bush, who threw 40 pitches in four innings, could be on a similar schedule.

• Mayfield ace Roman Kelly worked an inning on relief, taking the loss against Lyon County, and chances are Mayfield will skip him against Tri-County to save him for Friday's action.

Let's assume for a minute that Paducah beats Lyon County on Thursday night. If Mayfield then beats the Aces in Friday's elimination game, it would earn a spot in next week's state tournament.

Jones heads summer ball contingent ...

The biggest surprise among local products in summer college baseball leagues might be James Jones, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from Ballard Memorial that just completed his sophomore season at John A. Logan.

Jones has sparkled this summer while pitching for Battle Creek (Mich.) in the Northwoods League, one of the nation's better summer leagues. Jones is 3-0 in the league's top 10 in ERA with a 1.60 mark. Control has been an issue for Jones in the past, but in 33 2/3 innings, he's allowed 27 hits to go with 10 walks and 22 strikeouts.

He was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 35th round of the amateur draft, but remains committed to Louisiana-Monroe. He originally signed with Lipscomb, but was granted a release when that school's pitching coach — with whom he had established a good relationship — left for Louisiana-Monroe.

Jones expects to pitch one year at Louisiana-Monroe with an eye toward next year's draft, but he will listen to an Indians' offer later this summer. The deadline for signing this year's draftees is Aug. 15.

Two other local players are in the Northwoods League. Michigan State shortstop Jonathan Roof (St. Mary) is hitting .336 for St. Cloud (Minn.) with 12 stolen bases. Kentucky outfielder Chad Wright (Heath) is hitting .267 for the Wausau-based Wisconsin Woodchucks and is second in the league with 18 stolen bases.

Middle Tennessee pitcher Chad Edwards (Reidland) is 1-1 with a 1.33 ERA in his second season as one of the top pitchers for Dubois County (Ind.) of the Prospect League, which merged with the Central Illinois Collegiate League last year. In 20 innings, Edwards has allowed 17 hits with four walks and 13 strikeouts.

In the Kitty League, Carlisle County product Tim Dunn is 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA for the Fulton Railroaders. In 31 2/3 innings, he has allowed 24 hits with 10 walks and 32 strikeouts. He is in the Kitty League's top 10 in ERA. Dunn, who was drafted by Cincinnati last month, will meet with the Reds to discuss a potential signing later this summer.

Heath product Drew Williams, who plays at Morehead State, is struggling this summer, hitting .111 for the Maroion Bobcats after sitting out the college season in the spring with a broken wrist.

Minor leaguers update ...

Heath product Clint Tilford made his professional baseball debut over the weekend for the Casper Ghosts (I'm not making it up) in the rookie-level Northwest League. Tilford, a pitcher drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 31st round after spending three years at the University of Kentucky, worked three innings, allowing two hits and one earned run with one walk and four strikeouts. He also picked up the win in relief.

Former Murray State lefty Daniel Calhoun has been very good in his first two outings, allowing just one hit in six scoreless innings for the Batavia Muckdogs (not making that one up, either), the Cardinals' rookie-level team in the New York-Penn League.

Brandon Braboy, another Heath graduate, is having a good season for Charleston, the Yankees' entry in the low-Class A South Atlantic League. Braboy is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA in relief, has allowed just 35 hits in 43 2/3 innings and has an impressive 41-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Mike Broadway, the former Pope County star, is struggling at Myrtle Beach, the Braves' high-Class A team in the Carolina League. Broadway is 1-7 with a 6.98 ERA with 23 walks and 22 strikeouts and 38 hits allowed in 29 2/3 innings.

St. Mary products Shawn and Eric Roof are in the Detroit Tigers organization. Shawn Roof, who played collegiately at Illinois, is playing shortstop at Double-A Erie, hitting .259 with 14 RBI and three stolen bases in 116 at-bats. Eric Roof, drafted as a catcher out of Michigan State, is 1-for-13 with two RBI for Oneonta of the New York-Penn League.

Casey Brockman ... All-American?

Checking out today's USA Today and its All-American baseball team produced a shock — Calloway County's Casey Brockman, named the First Region player of the year by area coaches and a first-team all-state selection, was named to the newspaper's second-team All-American squad.

Amazing, since Brockman hails from rural far western Kentucky and has exactly no Division I baseball offers, although nearby Tennessee-Martin has expressed some interest.

Brockman, who hit .564 with 21 extra-base hits in 91 at-bats for the Lakers, this spring, has been committed to join Murray State's football program as a walk-on quarterback, but things could change very quickly.

Don't be surprised if Brockman suddenly gets some Division I baseball interest — and decides to make a late change of heart in what sport he pursues at the college level.

Mid-America results ...

Christian County nipped Paducah Tilghman in Thursday night's championship game of the Mid-America Summer Hoops Classic at Murray State University's Regional Special Events Center.

Tilghman had advanced to the finals by beating Belleville (Ill.) Althoff, which is expected to be one of the top teams in the St. Louis area next season. Christian walloped Charleston (Mo.) in the semifinals, not long after Charleston had eliminated Massac County in the quarterfinals.

Graves County, which was one of the top half-dozen teams in the event, opted not to compete in the tournament.

All-state baseball honorees ...

Calloway County's Casey Brockman was named to the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association's all-state first team, the only First Region player honored as such.

Marshall County's Cody Forsythe and Tyler Johnson were second-team selections, as was Will Stagner of Trigg County. Lone Oak's Allen Haase was an honorable mention pick.

It's been quite a year for Brockman, who also received some all-state attention as the quarterback for the Lakers' football team that reached the Class 4A state semifinals. As it turns out, he has swung his bat competitively for the last time — he will play football at Murray State.

Mid-America entries ...

It should be a pretty good collection of talent on hand for the Mid-America Summer Hoops Classic at Murray State University's Regional Special Events Center, which begins Tuesday and continues through Thursday.

Paducah Tilghman, Graves County and Christian County were among the top teams at Murray State's team camp earlier this month. Christian should be a top-10 team in Kentucky next season and has several players drawing Division I interest — guard Shaquille Wilson seems ticketed for Missouri State and a pair of juniors, guard Anthony Hickey and wing Donovan Kates, are getting plenty of attention.

Murray has interest in Hickey and another junior point guard, Tilghman's Josh Forrest.

Belleville Althoff and East St. Louis figure to be one of southern Illinois' best teams, Carbondale always fields a solid club and Massac County returns three starters from last season's Class 2A state runner-up squad.

Union City again will be one of the top teams in northwest Tennessee, as will Henry County, which was 22-7 last year.

Helias, the Catholic school in Jefferson City, Mo., finished in third place in the Class 4 state tournament. Charleston is a perennial power in southeast Missouri and reached the Class 3 quarterfinals, giving the eventual state champion their toughest game of the postseason.

The girls' side features all of the First Region contenders, except for Calloway County. Christian County and Webster County are Second Region powers and Obion Central has long been one of the best programs in northwest Tennessee.

And then there is Quincy (Ill.), which is a homecoming of sorts for head coach Sandi Devoe, a Heath alum. Known then as Sandi Griffes, she was a Paducah Sun All-Purchase selection in 1986 and 1987 and played at Paducah Community College. While there, she started dating Fred Devoe, who played for PCC's men's team, and the two went on to Quincy University together before eventually getting married.

Baseball regional awards ...

Calloway County's Casey Brockman was named the First Region's baseball Player of the Year by a vote of the region's coaches. Brockman hit .564 for the Lakers with four homers and 38 RBI, including a whopping 21 extra-base hits in 94 at-bats. He played several different positions and was also the Lakers' top pitcher, going a surprising 1-4 but with an impressive 1.45 ERA.

Zach Hobbs of Calloway was voted the regional Coach of the Year after leading the Lakers to a 21-11 record.

Brockman and Marshall County third baseman-pitcher Tyler Johnson will represent the First Region in the East-West Senior All-Star Game, with Lone Oak pitcher-outfielder Allen Haase as the alternate selection.

Graves County pitcher-infielder Ryan Hayden and Paducah Tilghman catcher Tyler Bearden will play in the juniors all-star game, with Calloway County's Grant Williams as the alternate.

All-area baseball team

We tried this last year for the first time. Here is another stab at putting together a local high school all-star baseball team.

C ... Brantley Barrett, Marshall County. He's been a consistent run-producer and his throwing arm has shown improvement over the last year. Teams rarely challenge him on the bases. Honorable mention goes to Paducah Tilghman slugger Tyler Bearden and Murray's Tanner Richerson.

1B ... Daniel Riley, Marshall County. He's another big hitter in the heart of the Marshals' order and was a big contributor on the mound, too. Unlike last year, he gets the nod over Lyon County's Ramsey Walker, another solid two-way player.

2B ... Casey Brockman, Calloway County. Brockman played several positions and pitched, although second was where he settled in as a regular. It didn't seem to matter — Brockman just kept hitting and hitting all spring. Also meriting consideration were Murray's Aron Sweeney and Marshall's Shane McKenty.

SS ... Tucker Starkey, Graves County. Maybe a surprise choice, but I really like his bat and his smoothness in the field. It was a tough call, with Murray's Daniel Thile and St. Mary's Zach Howard in the running, as was Paducah Tilghman's Kenny Fukuhara and Trigg County's Donald Bush.

3B ... Joe Mike, Graves County. This was the hardest position to call. Marshall's Tyler Johnson was neck-and-neck with Mike, but the latter's regional tournament performance earned the slight nod. Both are big run-producers and provided solid work on the mound.

LF ... Taylor Edging, Ballard Memorial. He was the most feared bat in the Bombers' lineup. He played several positions, but would settle into the outfield among this group.

CF ... James Malast, St. Mary. A fine defensive outfielder, Malast has shown a consistently developing bat in American Legion ball the past two summers.

RF ... Shane Banks, Trigg County. He was another solid utility player that saw time at several positions, but he was primarily an outfielder. He has good speed and a reliable bat in the leadoff slot.

Honorable mention for the outfield: Cameron Kimball of Marshall County, Alex Porter of Crittenden County and Brock Downey of Murray.

P ... Cody Forsythe, Marshall County. His regional tournament performance showed it all, his dominance and versatility. He's also been a good bat in the outfield.

P ... Allen Haase, Lone Oak. He could have easily found a spot in the outfield, but his mound work was his most important contribution.

P ... Roman Kelly, Murray. The Tigers' big-game pitcher emerged as an ace in his senior year.

P ... Ryan Hayden, Graves County. A sore shoulder hampered his regional tournament effort, but for the rest of the season, he delivered when the Eagles needed a big outing.

Shaw, Edwards in same NCAA regional

Two former Paducah-area high school star pitchers, Louisville's Gabriel Shaw and Middle Tennessee's Chad Edwards, could face one another in the NCAA tournament regional at Louisville this weekend.

Shaw has been the workhorse in Louisville's bullpen, leading the team in appearances and relief innings, while going 3-1 with a 3.75 ERA and three saves. Edwards has been both a mid-week and weekend starter for the Blue Raiders, going 8-1 with a 5.99 ERA for a team that swept the regular-season and tournament titles in the Sun Belt Conference.

Louisville, which won both the Big East regular-season championship and tournament, takes on Indiana in its first-round game, with Middle Tennessee meeting a Vanderbilt club with which it's split two contests this season. Edwards threw a complete-game six-hit shutout against the Commodores on April 7.

First Region baseball-softball pairings

Here are the schedules (games listed in bracket order) for the First Region baseball and softball tournaments, which are scheduled to begin on Monday:

Baseball
(at Graves County)
Monday
Graves County (20-8) vs. Fulton County (9-3), 6:30 p.m.
Lone Oak (23-11) vs. Murray (21-11), 1:30 p.m.
Marshall County (24-3) vs. Paducah Tilghman (16-10), 4 p.m.
Carlisle County (9-13) vs. St. Mary (16-10), 11 a.m.
Tuesday
Semifinals, 5 p.m.
Wednesday
Championship, 6 p.m.


Softball
(at Heath)
Monday
Ballard Memorial (20-11) vs. Carlisle County (8-12), noon
Reidland (16-11) vs. Marshall County (22-5), 2 p.m.
Hickman County (13-13) vs. Heath (25-10), 4 p.m.
Calloway County (18-14) vs. Graves County (9-21), 6 p.m.
Tuesday
Semifinals, 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday
Championship, 6 p.m.


Schedule note: The Fulton County-Graves County game was originally drawn in the 11 a.m. slot, but was moved to the evening because Fulton County schools are in session on Memorial Day.

Lone Oak vs. Lexington Catholic ... and not Paducah Tilghman

Lone Oak completed its football schedule last week with a doozy, a game against Class 4A power Lexington Catholic.

Yes, the same Lexington Catholic that throttled the Purple Flash 49-7 in the 2007 state championship game.

Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins said the two teams will meet on Sept. 11 at Lone Oak, with the return game in Lexington in 2010.

The Flash, whose schedule has been heartily criticized the last couple of years, has certainly beefed up a bit. Lone Oak's non-district schedule includes games with Graves County and Marshall County. Also on the docket is Green County, which was a consensus top-10 team in Class 2A a year ago.

Conspicuous by its absence is Paducah Tilghman, which would have made for an attractive matchup, and both teams share an open date on Oct. 23, the next-to-last week of the regular season.

Haskins said the two teams talked about a potential meeting, but it never worked out. Haskins said he would prefer to play the Tornado early in the season, fearing that late-season games with local rivals Tilghman and Heath would sap a little of Lone Oak's emotion going into the postseason.

The bottom line, however, is that there appears to be some bad blood between the two programs, stemming in part from some off-the-field issues.

Tilghman, meanwhile, had to scramble to fill out its schedule, too, landing Louisville Holy Cross in Week 9 with an open date to end the regular season.

Last summer, Tornado coach Randy Wyatt said he had lined up some high-profile intersectional matchups with heavyweights like North Hardin and Evansville (Ind.) Reitz, but neither appear on Tilghman's schedule next year. The non-district slate includes Hopkinsville, Mayfield, Graves County, Calloway County and two-time defending Class 2A state champion Fort Campbell.

Tilghman will also meet St. Louis Beaumont at Ballard Memorial's bowl game. Beaumont was 2-7 last season, with one of the wins by forfeit. In the eight games the Blue Jackets lost on the field, they were outscored by an average of 47-3.

Shoring up the Mid-America ...

Dan Hudson, the director of the Mid-America Summer Hoops Classic, has been working hard on trying to get the event back up to the standard set by its first few seasons, and judging from the tentative list of participating teams, he's made some big strides in that direction.

At the moment, the field includes 40-plus schools from five different states, some of which will field more than one team. Most of the First Region schools are committed, as are some Second Region stalwarts and several top programs from southern Illinois.

Among the expected entries:

Massac County was the Class 2A state runner-up. Raleigh-Egypt, from Memphis, was the Tennessee Class 3A state runner-up.

In Kentucky, Graves County and Christian County were regional champions, and the Colonels are expected to be one of Kentucky's top 10 teams next season. The Illinois list includes perennial powers East St. Louis, Carbondale and Belleville Althoff. Dyer County and Union City are strong programs in west Tennessee.

The Mid-America was moved to June this year so that Tennessee teams, long a staple of the event, could rejoin the fray — Tennessee allows its basketball programs to compete in team events only in June. The event is June 15-17 at Murray State University's Regional Special Events Center.

Minor leaguers update ...

We haven't checked in with the area's three minor league baseball players in a while, so let's take a look at how they are doing in the early season.

Shawn Roof (St. Mary) has split time between Class A Lakeland and Class AA Erie in the Detroit Tigers organization. Roof has hit .250 in 52 at-bats and has stolen four bases in five attempts.

Mike Broadway (Pope County) is struggling in relief at Myrtle Beach, the Atlanta Braves' High-A affiliate. Broadway is 0-2 with a 5.63 ERA and has allowed 17 hits in 16 innings with 10 walks and 12 strikeouts.

Brandon Braboy (Heath) is off to a good start at Charleston, S.C., pitching for the New York Yankees' Low-A ballclub. Braboy has been used out of the bullpen, going 1-0 with a 3.94 ERA in 16 innings. He's allowed 14 hits and has a very impressive 19-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Baseball musings ...

Marshall County swept this week's two-game series with Calloway County, but the Lakers showed they are a legitimate contender for the First Region title.

And Calloway pitcher Casey Brockman may be the best 0-4 pitcher we've seen in the area in some time.

"We make errors behind him, for some reason," Calloway coach Zach Hobbs said. "He's 0-4 with an ERA in the ones."

Remember, also, the Lakers are still without the services of junior Grant Williams, one of their top hitters and pitchers. Williams is still out with a hamstring injury and hopes to be back in a couple of weeks, but that timetable could be a bit optimistic.

Brockman is one of the state's top quarterbacks and will walk on at Murray State, and he's also been one of the region's best hitters this spring. He's played several positions already this spring and was 3-for-5 with a pair of walks against the Marshals in the two-game set.

• So what is the area's pecking order right now? Marshall remains the consensus favorite, but putting the next four in order requires some effort.

In alphabetical order, it appears that Calloway County, Graves County, Lone Oak and Murray are in the next wave, and we already know that at least one of those top-five teams won't make it to the regional tournament, since Marshall, Calloway and Murray are in the Fourth District.

As usual, the regional draw will loom large for the tournament. If Graves and Lone Oak win their respective districts and draw into the same bracket, the Fourth District champion could be the top dog in a less competitive bracket.

• Ballard Memorial was considered to be one of the region's top teams, and still would be if ace left-hander Caleb Shelley was healthy this spring. Doctors won't allow Shelley, who underwent Tommy John surgery in December, to even make throw, which means he can't even play first base.

That, in turn, has had a domino effect on the rest of the Bombers. Because Shelley has to be in the DH slot, coach Jeff Sadler has little flexibility with his defensive alignment, and he's had to move some players to unfamiliar positions at times to keep their bats in the lineup.

Shelley's absence also means that the Bombers have had to dip further into their pitching depth, which keeps their infield defense almost resembling a revolving door — ace Colton Pool plays second base, shortstop Jordyn Abell has been pressed into mound duty much more often than anticipated and several players have moved around looking for the right fit.

Nevertheless, the Bombers remain a tough out in the postseason, especially with Pool on the mound. If Ballard ends up with the four seed and top seed Graves County gets the No. 1 seed, an upset isn't out of the question, especially with the tournament being played at Ballard and its unforgiving bandbox park.

• The First Region champion meets the Second Region winner in the semistate series this year, with the games being played at Graves County. And so far this season, the First Region contenders have fared fairly well against the Second Region's better clubs.

Marshall County is 2-2 against them, losing to Christian County, beating Henderson County and splitting with Hopkinsville. Calloway is 2-1, having lost to Henderson and owning wins over Christian and Madisonville. Lone Oak is 2-1 with wins over Hopkinsville and Madisonville and a loss to Christian.

Willis drawing big interest ...

Calloway County football star Tyrrell Willis is having conversations with some of college football's heavyweights this spring, several of which are expected to make him a scholarship offer sometime in the next few months.

Some like Willis, a 6-foot-3, 255-pound junior, as a power running back, and others project him as a linebacker, defensive end or even as a defensive lineman.

Memphis has offered, and Central Michigan is expected to do so as well. He's also on the board at programs such as Alabama, Tennessee, Louisville and Purdue.

Wright, E. Roof on tears ...

I'll be visiting Lexington this weekend, checking out Murray's entry into the All A Classic state baseball tournament and getting a chance to watch Heath products Chad Wright and Clint Tilford in action for the University of Kentucky as it hosts Tennessee in a three-game series.

No Kentucky hitter is as hot as Wright, a true freshman who was patrolling center field for the Pirates at this time last year. Wright has exploded since being moved to the leadoff spot two weeks ago, hitting .436 with a on-base percentage of .500 and scoring 15 runs in nine games. He's now hitting .356 on the season and has played errorless ball at the three outfield positions.

Tilford has been struggling in the bullpen as of late. He took the loss on Friday night against Alabama, giving up seven runs in one inning, and he was beaten on a ninth-inning homer against Georgia earlier this month. Tilford is now 1-4 with a 6.64 ERA.

Michigan State catcher Eric Roof was 8-for-13 with two homers and 10 RBI, including a grand slam, as the Spartans swept Iowa over the weekend. Roof, who figures to be selected in Major League Baseball's amateur draft in June, is now hitting a team-best .325 with three homers and 30 RBI on the season, also leading the squad in RBI and extra-base hits.

Brother Jonathan Roof is hitting .262 as the Spartans' everyday shortstop and is 6-for-7 in stolen base attempts.

At Middle Tennessee, Reidland product Chad Edwards is 7-1 with a 5.64 ERA. Edwards won two games last week, starts against Mississippi State and Sun Belt Conference foe South Alabama, and was named the Sun Belt's pitcher of the week after shutting out Vanderbilt on April 14.

Former St. Mary ace Gabriel Shaw is faring well in Louisville's bullpen. Shaw is 3-0 with a 3.29 ERA with solid all-around numbers (38 2/3 innings, 31 hits, 11 walks and 34 strikeouts). He picked up a win after allowing one run in three innings of relief against Big East Conference rival Notre Dame on Friday. That came on one day's rest after throwing three shutout innings against Indiana in a non-conference game.

Webb's draft status ... falling again?

Daniel Webb has had his moments at Northwest Florida State Community College, where he landed after turning down a late-summer offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks, but it's unclear where he figures to go in Major League Baseball's amateur draft in June.

Webb is 3-3 with a 5.06 ERA for Northwest Florida State (formerly known as Okaloosa-Walton) this spring and has allowed more hits (64) than innings pitched (58 2/3) and has had spotty control, with 33 walks and 46 strikeouts.

He's also playing first base occasionally and is struggling with the bat, hitting just .214 in 42 at-bats with two home runs and six RBI.

On the mound, reports are that Webb still has mid-90s velocity on his fastball, but remains inconsistent with his command. Baseball America magazine recently noted one scout's assessment that "he tends to rush through his delivery when he doesn't feel he has his best stuff."

There's a growing sentiment that Webb might not ever recoup the money he turned down last summer. Tampa Bay offered him $500,000 to sign as a seventh-round pick during the draft, but Webb's family opted to turn down the offer. Arizona eventually selected him in the 12th round and made him an offer reportedly in the $200,000-300,000 range, but was turned down at the end of the summer.

Dunn dominating at Trevecca

Former Carlisle County two-sport star Tim Dunn has emerged as one of the NAIA's top pitchers, going 11-0 with a 1.94 ERA at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. Dunn has put together some eye-popping numbers this spring — he's allowed just 56 hits in 83 1/3 innings with 30 walks and strikeouts, and he's holding hitters to a .194 batting average.

Dunn has attracted some pro scouts' attention the last two seasons, starting with his late-summer work for Paducah's American Legion team in 2007. Don't be surprised if he is picked in Major League Baseball's amateur draft in June and elects to turn pro.

In and out (of the lineup) ...

Calloway County's Grant Williams, projected as one of the Lakers' top pitchers and hitters, has been out for two weeks with a serious hamstring pull in his right leg, an injury he sustained while hitting "a three-RBI single. I went down in the baseline and had to crawl to first base," he said after the Lakers' game Friday in their round-robin tournament.

Williams is still using a crutch to get around, and while he hopes to return to the lineup in a couple of weeks, he may not be able to keep that schedule. The injury also has bigger implications for Williams, a three-sport athlete who will be one of the area's top football prospects next season.

A 6-foot-5, 270-pound two-way lineman, Williams is a two-time member of The Paducah Sun's all-area team and is attracting extensive Division I interest as an offensive tackle.

— Lone Oak's revolving door at third base may have settled on freshman Mitch Jacobs, who was rock-solid on defense in Friday's 2-1 win over Franklin-Simpson. In the sixth inning, Jacobs made a nifty backhand grab with one out and a runner on second base, looked the runner back to the bag and got the hitter at first base.

"We were ready to put him in the lineup a couple of weeks ago," said Lone Oak coach Geno Miller, "but he started having back problems."

Miller has used five different third baseman this season, but he liked Jacobs' poise and confidence on a couple of other nice plays at the hot corner.

Surprise! Wilson an All-Star ...

A lot of high school basketball fans around the state today are asking themselves: Who is Aaron Wilson?

The answer, for the moment, is that he is the biggest surprise choice for the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Series.

Wilson, Fulton City's do-everything guard, was named to the squad on Wednesday after impressing the coaching staff (Apollo's Tony Hopper and Covington Catholic's Mike Listerman) and the selection committee at last week's tryouts at Campbellsville University.

The team is led by Madisonville's Jon Hood, the state's Mr. Basketball award winner. Also on the roster are several players that led their teams to the state tournament — Adair County's Darren Ballou, twins Ethan and Evan Faulkner of Elliott County, Mason County's Russ Middleton, Anderson County's C.J. Penny, Lexington Catholic's Vee Sanford, Christian County's Corey Wilford and Louisville Central's Ridge Wilson.

Rounding out the squad are Wilson, Corey Jackson of Louisville Shawnee and Apollo's DeLon Butler.

Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard, put up whopping numbers for the Bulldogs last season, averaging around 25 points, 10 rebounds and four assists per game.

The Kentucky-Indiana series will be played on June 13 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and June 14 at Bellarmine University's Knights Hall in Louisville.

More details to come in Thursday's Paducah Sun ...

Kuykendall out indefinitely ...

Murray's baseball team has a favorable draw for the All A Classic state tournament, but there is a chance the Tigers won't be at full strength in Lexington.

Outfielder David Kuykendall, who has become a reliable leadoff hitter, is out indefinitely with what could be a broken bone in his left wrist. Kuykendall sustained the injury in Saturday's sectional win over Russellville when he was sliding into second base and grabbed the bag because he was afraid he might have overslid.

"He's got a splint, not a full cast on it," Murray coach Mike Johnson said, "but we many not know until next week exactly what the wrist looks like. There is a lot of swelling there."

Kuykendall could be out anywhere from a week until the end of the season, and even a week off could be damaging to Murray's hopes in Lexington. He almost certainly won't see time this weekend, when Murray plays in the Louisville Invitational Tournament, and the hope is he could get a few at-bats against line pitching the next week before Murray heads to Lexington.

Remembering "The Bird" ...

Mark Fidrych, who was once the toast of baseball, died last week in an accident on his farm. He was 54 years old. Very few baseball fans below the age of 40 will remember much about him, and it's a shame that he came along at least a generation too soon, both in terms of his health and his potential stardom.

Fidrych, for the uninitiated, was a nut. He talked to the baseball on the mound. His gawky frame and bushy hair earned him the nickname "The Bird," after "Big Bird" of "Sesame Street" fame.

And for one wonderful season, Fidrych was the biggest thing in baseball. In 1976, he was bigger than both the suddenly-resurgent New York Yankees (and the budding love-hate relationship between George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin) and the Big Red Machine. Bigger than the new thing called "free agency" and the debate over the four-year old designated hitter rule.

Fidrych was the real thing. He went 19-9 for a Detroit Tigers team that went 74-87 and led the league with a 2.34 ERA. And all this at age 21, less than two years after he was picked in Major League Baseball's amateur draft.

The next season, his career took a far different turn. He was pitching well again before his arm started hurting, and he never got it back. By 1981, he was out of baseball, his wonderful right arm shot and in way too much pain to pitch for anyone.

Knowing what we know now, Fidrych was destined to crash and burn. He pitched 250 innings at 21 years old — and all of them after May 1. He threw 24 complete games and worked 10 or more innings a whopping five times. He worked 11 innings (11 innings!) four times, once in back-to-back starts.

In retrospect, it's amazing that Fidrych's arm stayed attached to his body.

Pitch counts didn't exist then — the first time I ever heard of them was when Tommy Lasorda was working Fernando Valenzuela like a dog in the early 1980s — and no one realized what Detroit manager Ralph Houk (a well-respected baseball man) was doing to Fidrych's arm.

As a result, baseball fans were robbed of one of the game's biggest and brightest — and most deliciously interesting — stars.

Rest in peace, Mark ...

Pitino Lite he ain't ...

Driving to Thursday's Graves County-Mayfield baseball game, I stumbled onto an out-of-season "Big Blue Line" radio show with Kentucky coach John Calipari.

The same thought occurred to me as I was listening to the call-in show that did when I had turned away from the television during Calipari's initial UK press conference ... close your eyes, and you would swear Calipari was Rick Pitino about 15-20 years later. They have the same accent (Yankee) and know exactly how and what to say to whip the fan base into a frenzy.

Some have referred to Calipari as Pitino Lite, noting that both took New England schools to the Final Four (Calipari ruled the Atlantic-10 at Massachusetts while Pitino at Providence in the tougher Big East) before skipping off to the NBA (Pitino with the Knicks, Calipari across the Hudson at New Jersey) before returning to take the college game by storm.

The analogy works, but it ends when you compare the two. Calipari is Pitino's equal, both in terms of coaching and marketing himself and his program. Calipari has UK fans eating out of the palm of his hand by telling them exactly what they want to hear, judging from these (sometimes paraphrased) comments:

"We're playing for the number one seed in the NCAA tournament."

"If we get the guys we want, we'll play anybody."

"Duke doesn't want to play us."

The guy is good. Real good. And he has the track record to back it up.

UK basketball is going to be really interesting to watch for the next few years.

Ballard's ever-growing tournament ...

Kevin Estes, Ballard Memorial's girls' basketball coach, reports that his school's pre-Christmas tournament will expand from eight teams to 16 for next season, and with a very competitive field.

Several other area schools — Marshall County, Paducah Tilghman, Heath, Hickman County, Lyon County and Fulton City — will join the fray, as could a powerhouse program from Tennessee.

Knoxville Webb, which has won state titles in two of the last three seasons in Tennessee's private-school division, has verbally committed to play in the tournament but hasn't signed a contract yet. Also in the mix are Tennessee schools Lake County (a Class A quarterfinalist last year), Union City and Beech from suburban Nashville.

Also entered are Kentucky squads Allen County, Todd Central, Logan County, Hart County and Bourbon County. The tournament is scheduled from Dec. 21-23. It will be a standard bracket-style tournament with games played in both the high school and middle school gyms.

Area baseball products ...

Mother Nature interfered with today's trip to Bowling Green for the Kentucky-Western Kentucky baseball game, which would have given us a chance to catch up with the three Heath products on the UK roster — true freshman Chad Wright is starting in the outfield for the Bat 'Cats, and Clint Tilford is one of the key members of the bullpen.

Let's take a look at how some area products are faring on the Division I level:

Chad Wright is hitting .310 for UK while splitting time between the outfield corners. Brother Brock Wright had played sparingly, going hitless in two at-bats this spring. Clint Tilford is 1-2 with a 3.76 ERA, primarily being used in relief.

Gabriel Shaw is one of the bullpen stalwarts at Louisville, going 2-0 with a 3.70 ERA in 12 appearances.

His former St. Mary teammates, brothers Jonathan and Eric Roof, are regulars at Michigan State. Jonathan Roof, the Spartans' shortstop, is hitting .273 in 28 games. Eric Roof, the starting catcher, is hitting .311 with one homer and 18 RBI.

Former Reidland pitcher Chad Edwards is 4-0 with a 5.23 ERA at Middle Tennessee.

Oak Hill vs. Findlay, finally ...

ESPN helped put together the National High School Invitational, which is being billed as a sort of an eight-team "national championship tournament" for high school squads.

Sunday's championship game, which will be televised live on ESPN, will feature Oak Hill Academy and Findlay Prep, the consensus Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the country.

Both teams played at Marshall County's Hoop Fest in December and were clearly the top two outfits in Draffenville — Oak Hill beat Duncanville (Texas) and Chicago Simeon and Findlay was very impressive in disposing of Florida-based Monteverde Academy.

Oak Hill is 39-0 and Findlay is 31-0, and both teams are actually a little more talented now than when they played at Hoop Fest. Oak Hill center Keith Gallon missed most of the event with a knee injury and Findlay has since picked up a talented transfer in Texas-bound junior Tristian Thompson, who played at St. Benedict's (N.J.) at Hoop Fest before having a falling out with coach Danny Hurley and transferring to Findlay, which is based in Las Vegas.

St. Benedict reached the semifinals, losing to Oak Hill. Findlay hammered Montrose Christian of Maryland to reach the title game.

Oak Hill has its usual assortment of Division I signees, including Oklahoma-bound Gallon and guard Lamont "Mo-Mo" Jones, a Virginia Tech signee, and several highly-rated juniors.

Findlay has a star-studded backcourt in Avery Bradley (Texas), D.J. Richardson (Illinois) and junior Cory Joseph, who is one of Louisville's top recruiting targets for next season. They complement Thompson and UNLV-bound big man Carlos Lopez.

The tournament is being played at Georgetown Prep in suburban Washington, D.C. Marshall County was contacted as a potential host two years ago, but ESPN opted to take the event somewhere else.

Corey Robinson ... pushing at Troy?

Corey Robinson, Lone Oak's former record-setting quarterback and Kentucky's Mr. Football in 2007, is showing that he might be able to make an immediate contribution at Troy. Robinson, a freshman, was 8-for-10 for 102 yards and a touchdown in Troy's spring game last weekend.

Robinson will be considered a true freshman this fall after "grayshirting" in 2008, a move that didn't cost him any eligibility. Robinson paid his own way at Troy during the first semester and is now on scholarship, a process used by some Division I schools to stash an extra recruit or two — Kentucky often did it a few years ago as Rich Brooks' program had been penalized some scholarships by the NCAA.

Word is that the Trojans would like to redshirt Robinson, giving him four more seasons, but his performance in the spring game — his numbers were much better than those of projected starter Levi Brown — shows he might push for time this fall.

Gillispie's commitments ...

"Wormer ... dead."

"Marmalard ... dead."

"Niedermeyer ... "

OK, forgive the "Animal House" reference, but that is what came to mind when I started thinking at how Kentucky will deal with all those future Billy Gillispie-ites. One by one, Gillispie's commitments figure to be relieved of their obligations as John Calipari settles in as Kentucky's new basketball coach.

Already, they're dropping like flies, and not unlike Dean Wormer and the Omega House snobs.

Texas guard G.J. Vilarino has "re-opened his recruitment," in the current parlance. So have junior college guard Konner Tucker and guard K.C. Ross-Miller. Now comes word that Dakotah Euton and Michael Avery, the California kid that committed to UK as an eighth-grader, have followed suit after seeing the handwriting on the wall.

No word on whether or not Vinny Zollo, who plays at Clark County (within a 30-minute drive of UK's campus) is scratched off the list, too. The same goes for Dominique Ferguson, a guard from Indianapolis.

I'll confess that I haven't seen Zollo play, although at the Sweet 16 someone that knows UK's program well thinks he could still have a future with the 'Cats. Even Calipari's dribble-drive offense can use a good back-to-the-basket player on occasion, and Zollo — a 6-9 sophomore that averaged 12 points and seven rebounds per game after moving in from Ohio to be closer to Lexington — has enough potential for Calipari to approach his recruitment with an open mind.

Euton, the former Rose Hill Christian star whose departure started a mass exodus to Scott County last spring (two of his Rose Hill teammates ended up there as well), had a questionable future at best with UK. He hasn't shown that kind of potential in two visits to Marshall County's Hoop Fest, and not many other knowledgable fans see it in their travels across the state, either.

A 6-8 junior, Euton is cast as a wing player. For him to succeed, he has to be a Dan Langhi-type product at the college level, but at the moment, he's a couple of inches shorter and lacking Langhi's mobility and ability to handle the basketball. He is a fair outside shooter, but his lack of athleticism figures to be a big problem for him on the defensive end.

Calipari and recruiting ... culling the herd?

It's one of the more distasteful sides of college basketball — a new coach comes on board and starts jettisoning some of the previous regime's players to bring in his own recruits.

In most cases, it takes a year for the process to play itself out. At Kentucky, it may be John Calipari's first order of business.

Kentucky has 11 returning scholarship players, it appears, with three recruits signed in Madisonville's Jon Hood (named Kentucky's Mr. Basketball on Tuesday), Daniel Orton and G.J. Vilarino.

Suffice it to say that Billy Gillispie's staff had plans to whittle the number down to 13, whether it's to make transfer Matt Pilgrim a walk-on or the possibility of Michael Porter (now married with a child on the way) moving on to the rest of his life.

Ah, but what about the recruits that Calipari has on the hook? Four of them have already signed with Memphis, but each of them has an opt-out clause in the case Calipari left to take another job. Presumably, those guys are back on the market.

And there is the case of DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall, two elite-level seniors that are unsigned. Cousins had committed to Memphis and Wall was reportedly leaning that way.

What if any number of those six players wish to join Calipari at Kentucky? And if so, which players are culled from the herd to make room for them?

There are indications this may have been one of the points of negotiations between Calipari and Kentucky officials. It never looks good when a school nudges a player out the door (remember Rick Pitino and Rodrick Rhodes?), but the powers that be at Kentucky seem ready to take a little heat to help Calipari re-stock the roster.

Realistically, only Patrick Patterson, Jodie Meeks and Darius Miller appear certain to be spared the paring knife. Chances are Kentucky will concede to public relations and give next year's seniors (Porter, Kevin Galloway, Ramon Harris and Perry Stevenson) the opportunity to finish out their careers, but all bets are off on the likes of Josh Harrellson and Pilgrim and attitude questions like DeAndre Liggins and A.J. Stewart.

Suffice it to say, some Kentucky fans couldn't care less about the lesser players — the need to get back to the Final Four supersedes any other concerns. That's a shame. After all, these players did commit themselves to Kentucky, a program which wooed and recruited them.

Calipari could bite the bullet and publicly advise the Memphis players to stay with their commitment, but is that really fair to him or the players?

As for Gillispie's other commitments, we'll address those shortly.

Stay tuned ...

Hoops leftovers ... part 1

Basketball-induced exhaustion overcame me for a few days, so over the next couple of days, I'll clean up some state tournament (Kentucky and Illinois) nuggets out of the notebook.

First of all, the awards:

Two of southern Illinois' top players were named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association's Class A-2A all-state squad. Byron Bailey, who led Massac County to a state runner-up finish in Class 2A, was a first-team selection, as was Meridian guard Isiah "Hoopy" Jones.

Massac guards Jarelle Johnson and Cory Ayala were honorable mention choices.

In Kentucky, Marshall County's Jessica Holder and Aaron Wilson of Fulton City were named the First Region players of the year by the Kentucky Basketball Coaches Association. The players automatically receive invitations to try out for the Kentucky-Indiana all-star series.

Carlisle County's Brian O'Neill won the boys' coaching award, as did Marshall County's Howard Beth for the girls. Caldwell County's Stephanie Crick won the girls' coaching award in the Second Region.

Several coaches with area ties were selected to join the KABC's "Court of Honor" — Barney Thweatt of Paducah Tilghman and Jim Wallace of Trigg County were the boys' picks from the First and Second regions. The 12th Region selection was Kirk Chiles, who also did wonderful work at Lyon County and Marshall County.

Mayfield's Lanny Lancaster was honored from the First Region at the girls' state tournament.

Hoop Fest's future ...

Over the next year or two, we're going to find out the answer to a question I've been asking — and fearing to ask — for nearly a decade:

What happens to Marshall County's Hoop Fest when Steve Woodward is no longer around to run it?

The news that Woodward is no longer associated with the event calls into question whether or not the event can sustain its status as one of the nation's top high school basketball events.

Will nationally prominent programs like Oak Hill Academy, Findlay Prep and St. Benedict's keep coming if Woodward isn't running the show? Can Marshall maintain the contacts and goodwill that Woodward has established in high school basketball circles and keep the talent coming to Draffenville?

Already, indications are that some schools committed to the Hoop Fest won't be inclined to visit with Woodward out of the picture. We'll have a better idea when Marshall unveils the final product sometime this spring or summer.

State champs galore: This year's event featured five state champions, two state runners-up and one state final four squad.

The state champs were Marietta Wheeler (Georgia Class 5A), Columbus Northland (Ohio Division I), Memphis White Station (Tennessee Class 3A), Chicago Whitney Young (Illinois Class 4A) and Jackson Callaway (Mississippi Class 4A).

Massac County (Illinois Class 2A) and Jackson Provine (Mississippi Class 5A) were runners-up and Memphis Briarcrest (Tennessee Class 2A private schools) was beaten state semifinals. Duncanville (Texas Class 5A) was beaten by one point by nationally-ranked Cedar Hill in the state quarterfinals.

USA Today hasn't released their final rankings with the national high school tournament scheduled for this weekend, but at the moment there are four teams that played at Hoop Fest in the top 25, including No. 1 Findlay Prep and No. 2 Oak Hill Academy. St. Benedict's is at No. 8 and Northland checks in at No. 16.

Former 'Bred Witzel on verge of state title ...

Massac County isn't southern Illinois' only state championship hopeful this weekend. Woodlawn, located near Mount Vernon, beat Lewistown 56-44 in Friday's Class A semifinals and will play or a state title on Saturday afternoon at Peoria's Carver Arena.

Woodlawn's coach is Shane Witzel, who was the starting shortstop on the Murray State baseball team that won the Ohio Valley Conference title in 1991. Witzel had a brief foray into minor league baseball — as a pitcher, surprisingly — but returned to his alma mater after getting released by the Cincinnati Reds' organization in the spring of 1994.

"I don't know if I thought I would end up doing this," Witzel said. "When I was younger, I wanted to coach college baseball. I had some good role models — my high school coach, Tom Koppel, and (former 'Breds mentor Johnny) Reagan. They were such quality people, I thought everyone in this profession did things the right way."

Woodlawn is happy that Witzel chose another course of action. He has averaged nearly 20 wins per season in 13 years as the Cardinals' head coach, and this year's team will take a 30-1 record into the championship game against either Macon Meridian or Annawan.

Witzel, 38, was also the school's baseball coach for several years, but relinquished that job last summer. With less demands on his time, he may be able to make it back to Murray sometime.

"I went to Homecoming a couple of years ago and ran into my old second baseman ... I looked at him and he looked at me, and we realized we're a little heavier than we used to be," Witzel said. "I don't get down there or talk to those people as much as I should."

Update: Witzel's Cardinals fell 63-53 to Macon Meridian in the state championship game, hours before Massac County lost to Seton Academy in the Class 2A final.

The homestretch ...

A few random observations as high school basketball approaches its climax:

I can only imagine that a lot of fans around the state saw the score of the boys' First Region final — Graves County 49, Marshall County 45 in overtime — and laughed and chalked it up to the usual slowdown snoozefest for which this region, rightfully or not, has built up a reputation for providing.

Especially when the championship game in the neighboring Second Region was a 95-82 win for Christian County over Henderson County.

To the contrary ... in my mind, it goes down as one of the best and most exciting finals in the last two decades.

The pace wasn't slow, even if the score doesn't look like it. Chalk that up to solid defense and some poor shooting, some of which was caused by the solid half-court defense that both teams played.

• Marshall guard Scott McKenty, refused to blame an off-night (a season-low seven points) on what appears to be a broken left (non-shooting) hand, but one has to think it affected his game.

In any case, Marshall coach Gus Gillespie was impressed with McKenty's fortitude.

"The kid has played part of the season with a bad ankle and a bad foot," Gillespie said. "There was no way he was going to sit out this one. He's a tough kid."

• A lot of people were asking today "What's gotten into Graves County?"

The quick, one-word answer ... defense. Graves held its three regional tournament opponents to an average of 42 points, and it turned in some especially good work in the semifinals and finals.

Graves didn't let McKenty and Calloway's Brock Simmons get off the shots they wanted, and the Eagles were especially tough at stopping both teams' point guards — McKenty and Calloway's Chris Dobbins — from penetrating and creating opportunities for teammates.

• There will be some local ties at the boys' Sweet 16. David Henley, a starter on Carlisle County's 1983 state runner-up squad, has Covington Holmes at Rupp Arena for the fourth time in five seasons. Holmes is considered the tournament favorite by some, especially since Scott County was beaten by Lexington Catholic in the 11th Region final.

One of Mason County's assistants is Kelly Carwile, who has been a head coach at Webster County and Lyon County and served as an assistant at Graves County and Hopkinsville.

And give the old Fifth District a hand — two of its native sons are still coaching. Christian County is back at Rupp for the third time in four seasons under coach Kerry Stovall, a Lyon County alum. Bowling Green is coached by D.G. Sherrill, a Caldwell County product.

• Several other coaches with area ties nearly took their teams to Lexington.

Boone County, which lost to Covington Holmes in the Ninth Region title game, is coached by Greg McQueary, who played at Murray State, was an assistant at Graves County in the early 1990s and was Caldwell County's head coach from 1999-2004.

The Rebels had upset Holmes late in the regular season and fell 32-29 in the regioal final.

Allan Hatcher (surely we don't need to rehash his background) reached the 14th Region finals for the second straight year, again losing to archrival Hazard. This time, it was 51-48 in overtime.

Hazard and Perry Central may be the state's most heated rivalries — think of Graves County and Mayfield and ratchet it up a few notches. In fact, things have gotten so intense that Hazard's school board has decreed that the schools won't play each other in any sport next season.

And there are the other connections between the programs. Hatcher was hired to replace Allan Holland, who had been the only coach in the history of the school before leaving two years ago after he got into a dispute with the superintendent. Holland was scarfed up pretty quickly ... by Hazard.

Then last season, in Hatcher's first year, he was starting a freshman point guard named Eric Back that transferred to Hazard at the semester break.

Just one more log on an already-roaring fire.

• Some were surprised, and some even heartened, to see Scott County fall in the 11th Region final.

It wasn't a total shock, given that Scott center Richie Phares went down with a torn ACL in the regional semifinals. Still, the Cardinals had plenty of firepower with Division I prospects Dakotah Euton, Chad Jackson and Ge'Lawn Guyn, all of whom have transferred in from other schools over the last two years.

• Massac County steps into a star-studded final four at the Illinois Class 2A state tournament at Peoria. The Patriots are guaranteed two games, as Illinois plays a third-place game preceding the championship game.

Call the Patriots' semifinal against No. 1 Marshall the southern state title game. Marshall, about 20 minutes west of Terre Haute, Ind., has a pair of Indiana State signees (6-4 guards and twins Lucas and Logan Eitel) and has the size that could give Massac some problems if it gets a lead and can settle back into a zone.

The other semifinal pits Winnebago, from the Rockford area, against Seton Academy from South Holland, a south suburb of Chicago. Seton is a Catholic school that was an all-girls institution until about five years ago, and its team has at least four Division I prospects, including a point guard that has signed with Ohio University and a shooting guard that will play at Northern lllinois.

• Marshall County's Hoop Fest should have a heavy Kentucky flavor next season. Founder Steve Woodward has commitments from several of the state's top teams, including Covington Holmes, Lexington Catholic, Scott County, Louisville Ballard, Jeffersontown, South Laurel, Perry Central and the newly-consolidated Muhlenberg County. Christian County and Warren Central remain possibilities.

Woodward is ended his one-year association with WazooSports.com, which was the event's major sponsor in each of the last two seasons. At the moment, he is negotiating with Marshall to run the event as sort of an independent contractor.