March Madness

The districts are over and the regionals are set, March Madness is here you bet.
Before I move on to the girls’ “Sweet 16” picks, here are a few observations on last week’s district and this week’s boys’ 13th region action.
Haynes outsed
Word out of Williamsburg today said that coach Donnie Haynes will be replaced as the Yellow Jackets basketball coach.
Haynes, like myself, would like to see high school basketball go in a different direction to level out the playing field.
However, no one at WHS could confirm the story.
Sixth Man Award
If there was a sixth man award given for the district tournament, it would have to go to Corbin’s Julie Jones. The senior has been impressive in many games for the Lady Redhounds over the season but in the district championship against South Laurel, she seemed even more cool and calm.
Defensive Award
Most definitely that goes to Katie Akins of Corbin. Akins did a tremendous job holding South Laurel star Amber Neace to eight points. It was Neace, who had a 26-point outing earlier in the week that enable the Lady Cardinals to reach the finals.
On a mission
South Laurel’s Jordan Hammonds seems to be on a mission, leading the Cardinals back to the state title game.
Hammonds has had two outstanding games in a row. He led the Cardinals to the win over Corbin in the 50th District finals with 25 points then ripped apart Lynn Camp’s defense in the first-round of the regional tournament Monday night for 28 points.
Hammonds knocked down five three pointers in the win over Lynn Camp.
Refuse to quit
Lynn Camp coach Anthony Pennington said when he took the Wildcats coaching job that he never wanted to see any of his teams quit on him.
They could have done that Monday against South Laurel when they were down by 48 points, 80-32.
But they didn’t. They more than held their own with the South Laurel starters in the third quarter but when coach Steve Wright sent in the subs, Lynn Camp went on a 39-17 in the final ten minutes of the game to make the final score somewhat liveable.
You have to give seniors Adam Bray, Joe Siler and Cody Dixon a lot of that credit.
Those three guys have a lot of heart and love for the game and there was no way they were about to lie down and take a 50-60-point loss.
Bray finished with a nice 25 points even after being called a “traitor” by the South Laurel fans.
Dixon finished the night with 16 points and nine rebounds while Siler had 10 points.
Whitley out
For the first time in seven years, Whitley County will not be in this week’s 13th region tournament. What a run coach Larry Anderson and his Lady Colonels had.
I hated to see them lose because Kayla Haynes is a fine senior player and a joy to watch.
She will certainly head to the next level, probably somewhere north of Whitley County. I know Northern Kentucky University is working hard to get Haynes and I think the University of Cumberlands might be in the picture as well.
Wherever she goes, they will be getting a hard worker. Her best is yet to come.
Old buddies
It was nice watching the North Laurel Jaguars post a win over Bell County Monday night, 59-50.
Several years back, I was their 5th and 6th grade AAU coach. I had a lot of fun with guys like Billy Carson, Taylor Smith, Shawn Asher, Tyer Lewis, Justin Howard and Shenade Allen.
I loved to press as many of those guys remember and one of my favorite memories was playing in the AAU tournament in Lexington. I was really into a game one day and the opposing coach walked over and said I could come off the press. I looked up and we were ahead 23-0. I thought, oh, yeah, I guess we can.
Another time I thought I had drew up the perfect last second play to Raymond Jones. But, Shenade decided he wanted to take the shot and we beat Ashland on a last-second basket.