Looking Back

I spent a very enjoyable Friday evening of basketball this past week at the Redhounds game with Whitley County. At halftime of the girl’s game, my friend Chuck Head and I left for Barbourville, where the Barbourville Tigers were hosting the Knox Central Panthers in one of the region’s biggest rivalries.
Assistant coach Jason Lake of Barbourville High provided Chuck and myself with reserved seats behind the Tigers bench and it was a great game before a packed house. Dinky Phipps added coach Lake to his staff last year and it was a very good move as Coach Lake has an excellent rapport with the players. The Tigers won a hard fought battle on Friday evening and show they can play in the upper echelon of the 13th region.
The Redhounds will be playing Knox Central in a couple of weeks in what I anticipate will be a very physical battle at Knox Central.
In the Corbin-Whitley County game, you could see the effects of coach Mike Deaton on the Colonels team over the end of last month. They were much improved from the last encounter with the Redhounds. The Redhounds prevailed however, and won handily 83-62. Deke Barley’s play has picked up over the last few games, adding offensive punch to the scoring to the scoring of Josh Crawford and Madison Johnson. Josh Hamlin and Josh Smith also stepped up their offensive production, giving the Redhounds as well balanced attack.
This is a time during the course of a basketball season that a coach has difficulty keeping the teams focus and keeping them motivated. The freshness of a new season has worn off. The holiday tournaments are over, and it is back to the hard work of practice. Before you know it however, March will be here and the peak of the year will arrive.
Coach Tony Pietrowski’s Redhounds are 10-4 with a home game with Adair County coming up Saturday and then three tough road games with Knox Central, Wayne County and South Laurel. Coach P will have the troops ready.
As I have watched the Redhounds this year, I have noticed a striking resemblance, of course, of Madison Johnson to his dad, Allen Johnson. Another player Madison reminds me of is Bo Roaden. Those are two pretty good players to resemble.
Josh Crawford continues to come into his own as perhaps the best all around player in the 13th region. Josh is a very unselfish and yet very capable of taking over a game. Crawford’s ability to step up in big games indicate a very bright future for the young man.
The 1957-58, 50th District tournament mystery team this week was coached by Harold Cole and their colors were blue and gold. The cheerleaders were Sue Swafford, Jackie Hale, Wanda Wright, Jannette Bright, and Wilma Jones. The roster was made up of Donnie “Diddle” Burnette, “Skeeter” Bill Burch, Wilbur Bingham, Billy Fultz, Jerry Hammons, Randall Jackson, Vencil Phipps, Delphus Ore, Wayne Zigos, Don Hyden, Chester Calebs, Rollie Mills and George Hammons.
This was a very good team and played Corbin in the 50th District finals. Harold Cole went on to coach at Ashland where he had a very distinguished career. This was a very good team led by “Diddle” Burnett and Vencil Phipps.
The Kentucky Wildcats are moving right along with their 8th straight win playing a pretty good game against Ole Miss. Joe Crawford scored 23 points, so my analysis of him in last week’s column looks kind of bad. I will stand by what I wrote, however, I think Tubby would be better off playing Jodie Meeks, the freshman from Georgia.
I watched a high school game on ESPNU in which UK’s top prospect Patrick Patterson played. Patterson plays for Huntington High School out of Huntington, West Virginia and they played the legendary DeMatha High School out of Maryland. Patterson is a teammate of O.J. Mayo, who is considered the top high school prospect in the country. Patterson looked very good but it is difficult to say just how good he could be trying to fit into the Kentucky program.