LOOKING BACK

 The football Redhounds blasted Bath County with 49 first quarter points enroute to a 55-8 first round victory in the 2A state playoffs.

The Hounds will face Leslie County in the second round Friday night.

Whitley County slammed Southwestern 45-0 in somewhat of a surprise, at least the margin of victory.

•Last Friday evening Paul and Shirley Jones, my wife, Sharon and I drove to Richmond to watch a basketball game as Eastern Kentucky University hosted Alice Lloyd College. It was an exhibition game in which EKU, a Division One school was heavily favored.

What peaked our interest in that particular game was that Isaac Wilson, who was the point guard for the Redhounds over the past four years, is now the starting point guard for the Alice Lloyd Eagles as a true freshman.

That is quite a step for the young man and Isaac acquitted himself very well. Wilson played nearly the whole game, handling the ball and setting up the offense on each trip down the floor with virtually no turnovers.

The Eagles played very aggressively and were in the game with about five minutes to go before losing, 75-60.

Coach J.R. Hammond of Alice Lloyd did an excellent job keeping his much smaller team in the game.

I spoke with Isaac and he told me his mid-term grades were excellent. This is a young man our community should be proud to have represent them.

This coming weekend Alice Lloyd will travel to Barbourville to face another stern test, as they play a strong Union College Bulldogs’ team.

Another former Redhound standout, Madison Johnson, plays for the Bulldogs. Madison and Isaac were teammates as Redhounds over the last four years. Madison also is a young man of whom this community can be proud.

Madison is the most athletic player to come out of Corbin in many years, I only wish Madison and Issac could have played on the same team in college.

•I have often expressed my admiration of the job John Calipari has done in turning a program around in rapid speed.

As I look at possibilities for Coach Calipari and his second edition of the Wildcat basketball team, I break out in a cold sweat.

Coach Cal has 10 players total on his roster, assuming Enes Kanter is ruled ineligible, which I fear will be the case, Of these thin 10, I feel they have two prime time players (Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones), two very average players (Daricus Miller and DeAndre Liggins), one potentially good player (Doron Lamb). Coach Cal has one player that may be a pleasant surprise (Jon Hood), two who cannot be counted on against high caliber competition (Eloy Vargas and Josh Harrelson) and two bodies (Stacy Poole and Jared Polson).

What is Coach Cal’s most urgent need? Five bodies. A sprained ankle, a breakout of a virus passes through the team, somebody become academically ineligible, someone becomes dissatisfied for any reason and transfers. Any of those things could result in total devastation to Coach Call’s second year.

Hopefully, none of the above will occur, but that is like walking a high wire.

Surely, Coach Cal has all this in his perspective for this season.

•This week’s Redhound from the past is Gail “Dago” Phillips who played for the great Redhound teams of the mid-fifties.

“Dago”, his mother and his sister Jessie moved to Corbin from Harlan County after his father was killed in an accident. “Dago” quickly became a popular member of the Redhound football team. Gail is married to the former Billie Rae Tucker, the daughter of Coach Bill Tucker who was the head coach of the 1955 state champions, Gail Phillips always a Corbin Redhound.