Postseason primer ... boys

Here is a look at some things to watch this week, as March Madness begins in the area high school ranks:

• Calloway County's boys opened some eyebrows with last week's win at Paducah Tilghman, although neither team was at full strength. The Tornado, which hadn't lost a game to a First Region foe all season, was without starting guard Bryon Wright (sprained ankle) and reserve Trevonte Cole (bruised wrist), its two top perimeter threats.

Calloway was missing guard Brock Simmons, who was out with the flu.

Two reasons that the Tornado's losses were a little more staggering — Wright is a lock to make The Paducah Sun's All-Purchase Team and Cole is also the Tornado's sixth man. Those two players represent a big chunk of Tilghman's seven- or eight-man rotation.

Both players are healthy and available for tonight's Second District opener with Reidland.

Simmons is a solid player, but not at Wright's level, and even so, Bruce Lane still had a solid eight-man rotation to employ that night.

Throw in the Tornado's 3-for-16 performance at the free throw line in a two-point loss, and there is still little reason to consider Tilghman to be anything less than a top-shelf regional contender.

• Fulton City will be without center Cody Taylor for the Bulldogs' matchup with archrival Fulton County in the First District semifinals.

Taylor was ejected from last week's loss to Heath. Because it was his second ejection of the season, Taylor must sit out two games. The first was the regular-season finale against Calloway County, so Taylor would be eligible to return to action for the district finals, if Fulton City makes it there.

How does Taylor's loss hurt? At 6-4 and 225 pounds, he is the Bulldogs' defensive enforcer and he's shown a great deal of development as a shot blocker. He's also a big body to match up with Fulton County's inside tandem of mega-talented 6-4 sophomore Leonard Smith and 6-6 center Tony Udley.

Fulton City should be encouraged by its recent efforts without Taylor — the Bulldogs waxed Fulton County 67-40 last weekend without Taylor in the game that was resumed after his technical foul and ejection triggered the events that led to the game's suspension.

And they only lost to 60-50 to Calloway County in the first installment of Taylor's two-game suspension.

• If you want to watch Wednesday night's Fourth District grudge match between Calloway County, you might want to get there well before the 7 p.m. tipoff.

Murray's Tiger Gym holds around 1,700 fans and should be jam-packed for the third meeting between the two archrivals. Calloway has beaten the injury-riddled Tigers twice this season, but Murray won the two regular-season games last season before then-freshman Brock Simmons lit it up from the perimeter (five 3-pointers, 23 points) to lead the Lakers to the win.

After watching the Tigers lose a close game to Carlisle County on Friday night, it's obvious that guard Cole Hurt — a likely All-Purchase Team pick — is bothered by a knee brace that has limited his lateral movement and taken away much of the elevation on his jump shot.

Forward Kwame Duffy may get a minute or two here and there as he attempts to come back from a torn Achilles' tendon, but it's clear that he is miles away from being a major contributor.

"I've been in basketball since the beginning of time, and I've never had a season like this for injuries," Greene said, who has also had Aaron Jones (separated shoulder) and Blake Darnall (badly sprained wrist) out at various times. "It's really made it hard to get some momentum going into the postseason."