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February 3, 2010

A lot of important high school basketball games in store for Friday

Les Dixon

We’ve got some interesting games on slate this week for high school basketball fans — especially on Friday.

Corbin and Whitley County face-off in a boy/girl doubleheader, which is very important, especially on the girls’ side of things. It’s still up in the air to see who will be the No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the 50th District Tournament, so a win on Friday is VERY important.

But that’s not all.

The North Laurel girls are coming off a HUGE win against cross-town rival South Laurel and will try to continue its impressive play by knocking off state power Rockcastle County — never underestimate a team that is coached by Roy Bowling.

I’m still not finished.

Patrick Robinson’s Williamsburg Yellow Jackets and Anthony Pennington’s Lynn Camp Wildcats will go up against one another. Both teams need a win in this game just for confidence.

Lynn Camp has been a hit and miss team the entire season, and just can’t seem to gather any type of momentum, while Williamsburg hopes to continue the momentum it captured during its run in the All ‘A’ region and state tournaments.

We’ve also got a rematch of the 13th Region All ‘A’ girls championship game when Harlan pays a visit to Williamsburg. The Lady Green Dragons won the All ‘A’ title by defeating the Lady Yellow Jackets, but don’t be surprised if Williamsburg wins by double digits in this game.

Yep, there is more.

We’ve got two big games in Laurel County with No. 1 ranked Trinity squaring off against North Laurel. North Laurel coach James Conway sure doesn’t mind to play the top dogs in the state. The Jaguars will be back in action on Saturday with a contest against All ‘A’ Classic champion Shelby Valley.

South Laurel will host rival Clay County in what should be a very good 13th Region matchup. The Cardinals enter the game as the No. 3 ranked team according to my Fear ‘Les’ 13th Region rankings, while the Tigers are ranked No. 2.



• 49th District draw

A blind draw for the boys’ and girls’ 49th District Tournaments will be held at Jackson County today and everyone knows my thoughts on the blind draw.

I just hope Clay County and North Laurel don’t draw each other, especially on the girls’ side.

It’s obvious that the Lady Tigers and Lady Jaguars are the two best teams in the 49th District and it would be a shame if they had to face each other in an elimination game. Jackson County (6-8), Red Bird (3-7) and Oneida Baptist (0-9) are a combined 9-24 on the season, while Clay County and North Laurel are a combined 30-11.

On the boys’ side, Jackson County (6-11) did hand North Laurel (8-12) a loss earlier in the season, but Oneida Baptist (2-8) and Red Bird (2-10) have combined to go 4-18, while Clay County is 14-7.

Hopefully the blind draw gets voted down today, but I seriously doubt it.

• NCAA Tournament field expanding

to 96 teams?

I seriously hope the NCAA doesn’t expand the NCAA Tournament field from 65 teams to 96 teams.

I’ve got a lot of questions.

Are you kidding me?

Ninety-six teams?

So what gives?

From what I understand, the NCAA’s contract with the 32-team NIT will expire at the end of this season, and one of the possibilities is to end the agreement and take 31 of those teams and add them to the NCAA Tournament field.

In the end, it’s all about money.

The NCAA’s current television contract, an 11-year, $6 billion deal with CBS that expires in 2013, has an opt-out clause after this season.

So that means, let the bidding begin.

When it comes to the NCAA, all it cares about is the green stuff — money.

So don’t be surprised to see this happen in the near future.

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