Do you claim Kentucky is the best college hoops state? This will boost your argument.
Fast-break points from the Packers’ pity party:
21. The commonwealth of Kentucky. Has bolstered its case as “the best college basketball state” in the nation in 2019-20.
20. Georgetown men. The top-ranked team in the NAIA Division I men’s Top 25 is defending national champion Georgetown College. Coach Chris Briggs’ Tigers are 17-0 going into Thursday night’s game at Campbellsville.
19. Bellarmine men. The top-ranked team in the NCAA Division II men’s Top 25 is Bellarmine. Coach Scott Davenport’s Knights were 14-0 going into Monday’s meeting with No. 23 Indianapolis.
18. Campbellsville women. Until being upset 79-64 by No. 7 Shawnee State Jan. 11, the top-ranked team in the NAIA Division I women’s Top 25 was Campbellsville. Now, Coach Ginger Colvin’s Lady Tigers (19-1) are No. 3.
17. Kentucky’s No. 1 teams. Add the Kentucky Wildcats (ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division I men’s AP Top 25 for week two) and the Louisville Cardinals (ranked No. 1 in the AP men’s poll for weeks five and six), and that makes five college hoops teams from the commonwealth that have been No. 1 in the nation this season.
That’s pretty strong.
16. Taveion Hollingsworth. The former Paul Laurence Dunbar star is coming off a monster week for Western Kentucky.
15. Old Dominion. As WKU rallied from down eight in the final 1:20 to beat ODU 71-69 Thursday, Hollingsworth scored nine points in the final 38 seconds, including the game-winning layup with three seconds left. The 6-foot-2 junior finished with 23 points.
14. Charlotte. Not 48 hours later, Hollingsworth tied his career high with 30 points, making eight of 13 field goals and all 13 of his foul shots in an 80-63 pasting of the visiting 49ers.
13. Resilient Hilltoppers. Hollingsworth is averaging 14.9 points and 4.2 rebounds to help Western — which lost star center Charles Bassey for the season to a tibial plateau fracture in his left leg after 10 games — earn a first-place tie with North Texas (both 5-1) atop Conference USA.
12. Reed Sheppard. The North Laurel High School guard, a 6-1 freshman, had “UK basketball Twitter” abuzz Saturday morning.
11. A quadruple double. In Friday’s 82-34 blowout of Jackson County, the son of former Kentucky Wildcats basketball stars Stacey Reed and Jeff Sheppard had 24 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists and 10 steals.
10. Likes to dunk. North Laurel Coach Nate Valentine told Les Dixon of The Times-Tribune in Corbin, “It’s pretty impressive with what (Reed Sheppard) accomplished tonight. The great thing about him is the most thing he cares about is the assists. I have to yell at him twice a game to shoot it. He’d much rather pass the ball to a teammate and they hit a three than make a layup. He does like to dunk, though.”
9. The family pedigree. Jeff Sheppard scored 1,091 career points at UK and was Final Four Most Outstanding Player for Kentucky’s 1998 NCAA championship team.
8. The family pedigree II. Stacey Reed led the old Laurel County High School to two Sweet Sixteen titles (1987 and 1991). She went on to score 1,482 career points at Kentucky. At 5-7, she averaged an astounding 6.8 rebounds a game in both her junior and senior seasons at UK.
7. The family pedigree III. Madison Sheppard, Reed Sheppard’s older sister, is a sophomore for the Campbellsville University women’s team. The 5-7 guard has appeared in all 20 Lady Tigers games, averaging 3.8 points. As a high school senior, Madison Sheppard averaged 16.2 points and 8.7 rebounds and led North Laurel to 27 wins.
6. Erin Toller. The UK Hoops signee from Louisville’s Sacred Heart Academy has returned from two torn ACL injuries to produce a stellar senior year. Toller is averaging 17.5 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Valkyries (15-1).
5. Ryle. In a Friday showdown with defending state champion Ryle and 2020 Miss Basketball favorite Maddie Scherr, Toller went for 27 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals in an 83-61 Sacred Heart win. (Scherr, an Oregon signee, also had 27 points).
4. Assumption. On Sunday, Toller rifled in 31 points in Sacred Heart’s 71-49 vanquishing of Assumption. The 5-6 point guard hit seven of 13 three-point tries.
3. High school football. In the ninth week of the season, North Hardin and Central Hardin met as 8-0 teams. The visiting Trojans claimed a 7-0 win.
2. Boys’ basketball. On Tuesday night, John Hardin (20-0) takes a perfect record to face Elizabethtown (15-0) in a matchup of two of Kentucky’s last three boys’ hoops unbeatens. (Ashland, 18-0 going into Monday’s game at Rose Hill, is the other).
1. Hardin County. It has been a banner year for battles of the unbeaten in the Elizabethtown/Radcliff corridor.
Not just sharing that because I’m from Hardin County, either.
