LOOKING BACK

 Last week I wrote about Isaac Wilson’s game against Berea, scoring 22 points and dishing out nine assists as Alice Lloyd won 76-57.

Wilson followed that performance with a 21-point and five assists against Brescia as the Eagles won in overtime, 75-72.

Wilson, a former Redhound standout, was named the Player of the Week in the KIAC. Nobody on any level plays with more effort than Isaac Wilson.

As the regular season wears on, we are no closer to a clear-cut answer to who is the favorite to win the 13^th regional championship.

The Redhouds of Coach Tony Pietrowski had a difficult week, losing to North Laurel on the road and Knox Central at home.

This week the task will be no easier as the Redhounds will have home games with South Laurel, Bell County and Pineville.

Coach P and his staff have not gone this deep into the season without having the pieces of the puzzle in place. I feel, however, the pieces are there and Coach P will work it out on the practice court. Do not give up on this team.

The Kentucky Wildcats played perhaps their best game of the season to date, blasting a good Arkansas team. The Wildcats followed that win by beating Alabama in a not so stellar performance. The job Coach John Calipari has done molding a group of individuals who could each be a standout player into a great team is nothing short of remarkable. Six players are averaging in double figures in scoring.

Coach Adolph Rupp accomplished a similar feat in the late forties and early fifties with a team labeled the “Fabulous Five”.

Last year as I watched the state high school basketball tournament I remember seeing a 6-foot-nine inch young man (15 years old) in his sophomore year as he led his team, Bullitt East, in front of 20,000 fans. He was very nimble, a very good ball handler and shot the ball well from the perimeter. The young man was Derek Willis, who has now committed to play for Coach John Calipari at the University of Kentucky in 2013.

I also had an opportunity to watch Shabazz Muhammed, who continues to be a top target of Coach Calipari for next year on television.

Muhammed is a left-hander with obvious physical attributes, he runs and jumps well, and appears to have a burning desire to win.

Muhammed’s team did not win, however. Is he the best college prospect available? I personally feel Jabber Parker, a junior who plays for Chicago Simon, looks to be the best I have seen play on television.

Now, with television, computers and big recruiting budgets you would think a kid could not get overlooked, but it happens.

A couple of things that seemed to be particularly impressive about Corbin High School’s history to author Gary West were the number of players who were able to receive division one scholarships in the decades of the fifties and sixties that had played football or basketball for the Corbin Redhounds and the number of brothers that played that same era

I will name some at a risk of overlooking some division one-football scholarships.

Football – Tommy Adkins, Kentucky; Roy Kidd, Eastern Kentucky; Carl Oakley, Eastern; Carl Bays, Eastern; Edd Selvy, Kentucky; David Chandler, Kentucky; Don Turner, Kentucky; Calvin Bird, Kentucky.

David Miller, Western Kentucky; Ralph Wilder, Western Kentucky; Winton Boone, Western; Tony Lanham, Eastern; Mel Chandler, Kentucky; Bill Meadors, Western; Donnie Williams, Kentucky; Keith Hutson, Kentucky; Rodney Barton, Kentucky; Harold Queary, Georgia Tech.; Fred Rader, Kentucky; Jesse Grant, Kentucky.

Billy Bird, Kentucky; Rodger Bird, Kentucky; Bill Hammons, Eastern; Bruce Carpenter, Kentucky and Dennis Myers, Murray. That is twenty-six in football alone, and I am sure I have overlooked some.

I will name basketball scholarship recipients in my next column.