LOOKING BACK

 January and February are cold dreary times of the year that are highlighted only from my point of view by basketball season, both high school and college.

Now the calendar turns to March and tournament time. Actually this year district tournaments began the last week of February and several high school teams have already seen their dreams come to an end with a heart breaking loss.

For the Corbin Redhounds who are champions of the 50^th District Tournament for the second straight year, Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. the Redhounds and the Bell County Bobcats will open the 13^th Region Tournament at THE ARENA in Corbin.

Tournament time creates storybook endings and heroes and yes sometimes goats. My friend, Don Estep, my two sons Scott and Jeff and two friends from Western Kentucky, Bob Berry and Larry Pace will make our annual trip to Rupp Arena for the state high school tournament.

We have made it to the Sweet Sixteen a number of years in a row, but nothing compared to the number of years Corbin resident Charles Craig has made, and Charlie says he will make his 67^th trip this year. Larry Root another Corbin resident had his streak broken last year due to health issues.

My first state tournament was to watch the Corbin Redhounds play the Cuba Cubs in 1957 at age nine.

Coach Harry Taylor was bringing the Redhounds to the Sweet Sixteen for the sixth straight year,

The starting lineup for the Redhounds that night featured the state’s best high school basketball player that year…Jerry Bird. The other Redhound starters that night were Darrell Storm, C.D, Vermillion, Roy Gilliam, Jr. and Lavon Lewis.

This was an excellent Redhound team and they led Cuba for three quarters before falling behind in the fourth quarter. The Cubs turned the ball over to a ball-handling wizard, Howard Crittenden once they gained the lead and secured the victory.

Cuba went on from there and won the state championship.

In 1992, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness Coach Billy Hicks returned the Redhounds to the big show and behind a standout performance by Bo Roaden in the quarterfinals nearly beat Louisville Fairdale who went on to win the ’92 state championship.

Coach Tony Pietrowski, a key player on that ’92 team as a sophomore will be trying to lead this years Redhounds to Rupp Arena for a third time in his tenure as coach.

 ‘CATS LOSE

The Kentucky Wildcats lost to Tennessee in Knoxville Saturday, but showed a lot of heart by coming from 19 points behind to catch up at 65-65. Tennessee is a very good team that is extremely well coached.

All I hear is Big East and Big 12, let them come to Knoxville or Starkville or Nashville or Lexington and see how they like the water.

I watched Syracuse and Villanova and all I saw was Villanova running up and down the floor firing up three pointers and Syracuse laying back in a zone defense. I believe you must be able to shoot three pointers and heaven knows Kentucky could use a three point shooter, but to win it all, to put six games back-to-back in the win column and win the national championship, you better be able to do something besides shoot three pointers and play a zone defense.