The All A hangover ...

Years ago, local broadcaster David Rowton coined the term "All A hangover," alluding to the lull that teams regularly suffer after coming back from an extended stay at the All A Classic state tournament.

There is always a dose of emotional and physical fatigue for the affected teams, and each club handles it differently. Some take All A Classic success and build on it — coming to mind are Fulton County's boys in 1993, who were beaten in overtime in the championship game and eventually weathered the shocking death of teammate Joey Bumpous (from a congenital heart defect) en route to a spot in the regional championship game.

In 2003, Mayfield's boys came back from a two-point loss to eventual champion St. Henry in the quarterfinals and made it to the regional finals. And just last year, Murray's girls built on a semifinal finish in Richmond with a run to the regional championship in March.

Others seem to never recover. Murray's boys, beaten in a close game by eventual champion Harlan in the quarterfinals in 1995, never put things back together. Heath's boys had a sluggish performance in a loss to Barbourville and 2005 and had nearly a total collapse upon returning home, going 2-5 and getting knocked out of the postseason by a sub-.500 Paducah Tilghman outfit in the district semifinals.

So what happens with Heath's boys and Ballard Memorial's girls? We almost don't have enough time to find out.

Because the All A Classic state tournament was moved back a week to accommodate host Eastern Kentucky University and its Ohio Valley Conference schedule, we're now just two weeks away from the end of the regular season.

For the Pirates, there is no time to lick their wounds from a draining quarterfinal-round loss to Danville. Friday's game with Lone Oak was moved back to Monday, and Heath has to finish up its district schedule with Tilghman on Tuesday and Reidland on Friday. Heath has something for which to play, too — a sweep of the week would probably earn it a tie for the top seed for the district tournament.

Ballard's girls may have some emotional baggage to shed. Coach Billie Prince didn't bring any of his players to the postgame press conference, noting that they were "devastated" after a 52-51 loss to Sheldon Clark.

"We had put in their head the idea that we could win up here," Prince said. "And that's what they were thinking about doing."

Ballard needs only one win this week to clinch the top seed for the district tournament, with home games against Graves County on Tuesday and Mayfield on Saturday afternoon. Those games will also help to determine the Nos. 3-4 seeds, as those are the two teams that could face the Lady Bombers in the postseason opener.