Kibbles and bits ...

A few notes and observations:

• Calloway County's Averee Fields may end up as the most recruited girls' basketball player in First Region history. In recent weeks, Fields has had coaches from Big East (Villanova, West Virginia, Seton Hall) and Big Ten (Michigan) schools make the trip to western Kentucky to evaluate her.

Of course, Murray State long ago made Fields a scholarship offer. She's also getting looks from the likes of Marquette, Western Kentucky and Tennessee State.

• Fulton City's Jacquise Lockett may turn out to be a recruiting find for Kentucky State, which plays on the NCAA Division II level. Lockett, a sturdy 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, signed with the Thorobreds and was one of the better unknown players in the state. As an underclassman, he was a key contributor on a couple of Fulton City squads that were among the best the school had produced in the last three decades.

• Massac County's Jarelle Johnson is a two-sport star who is a better football prospect, as evidenced by his inclusion on Old Spice Red Zone's 50 state players of the year list.

Johnson was a fine tailback and quarterback for the Patriots, but he's also contemplating a basketball future. Johnson was a starting guard on Massac's state runner-up squad last season and is the point guard for the team that begins regional play this week.

Kelly Glass, Massac's football coach and athletic director, said that Murray State's previous coaching staff wanted Johnson to attend a prep school with an eye toward improving his academics and coming to Murray in the fall of 2011. Johnson has also drawn some hoops interest from small-college and junior-college programs.

Some football program would do well to make overtures toward Johnson and Byron Bailey, the Patriots' two-sport star that graduated last year. Bailey had signed with Kaskaskia's juco basketball program, but left school during the first semester.

• Everybody wants to know who I'm picking to win the First Region basketball titles. I've already gone on the record with Mike Mallory in a pregame interview on WGKY-FM last week, so here goes:

My boys' pick is Graves County, although I think the loss of key reserve Rex Coleman makes the Eagles a bit more vulnerable than they were a month ago. Coleman started earlier this season, was replaced in the lineup by swingman Brock Morris and left the team a few weeks ago.

Coleman gave the Eagles some size off the bench, something that will be missed if big men Ryan Vogt and Aaron Cooper run into foul trouble.

Paducah Tilghman has its well-documented free-throw issues, but remains the region's scariest and most athletic team. Marshall County has been solid all season, but has lived and died with the 3-point shot lately, and that usually doesn't translate well into extended postseason runs.

My girls' pick was Calloway County, and I'll stay with it, but the uncertainty surrounding Alyssa Cunningham's availability makes it a little tougher on the Lady Lakers. If Cunningham remains sidelined with mononucleosis, that means Averee Fields has to spend more time in the post.

That means that Fields may not be able to go out on the floor and defend guards and swing players such as Murray's Haley Armstrong or Ballard Memorial's duo of Abby Shelley and Candace Bryant.

If Murray and Calloway match up in the postseason, that could be enough to give the Lady Tigers the edge — the crosstown rivals have split a pair of regular-season matchups.