In a season for the ages, one shot got the Ashland Tomcats onto ESPN
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Sweet Sixteen stories
The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories. Click below to read the stories published so far.
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Editor’s Note: The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories.
If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to hit a game-winning shot that is so dramatic, it ends up as the top play on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Ashland Blazer’s Cole Villers can tell you.
“It was crazy, I don’t even know how to explain it,” Villers says. “I got text messages from people I have never talked to. People on Instagram posting about (the shot). I had never talked to half those people, either.”
In a season of boys’ basketball glory for Ashland Blazer, the most electrifying moment came after a player called an audible.
Down 10 points at West Carter in the game’s final 4:07, Ashland — its perfect 26-0 record very much in jeopardy — had rallied to force a 54-54 tie with 2.1 seconds left.
The Tomcats had the ball on their own baseline. Needing to go the length of the court to win the game, Ashland Coach Jason Mays “put a press offense in, one our guys know well,” he recalls.
Once the Tomcats returned to the court, however, sophomore standout Villers looked at the West Carter defensive alignment and changed the play.
“We were supposed to throw the ball in to our big man,” Villers said. “But it was kind of an easy opportunity for a turnover. I didn’t want to give up a turnover and a layup on their end so they win the game. I told Ethan Hudson ‘Throw me the ball.’”
What happened next landed Villers on “SportsCenter.”
He took the inbounds pass, dribbled once and launched a three-quarters-court heave.
“Right when I shot it, it felt good and looked good, so I knew it had a chance,” Villers said last week. “Obviously, I didn’t know if it would go in or not.”
It swished.
Ashland’s perfect season was alive.
Five-guard attack
Had the coronavirus pandemic and the efforts to contain it not intervened, Ashland (33-0) would have come to Rupp Arena last week for the 2020 Sweet Sixteen needing four victories to become the first undefeated Kentucky boys’ basketball state champion since Brewers (36-0) in 1948.
However, the Tomcats’ run toward hoops acclaim actually began in 2018-19.
It started with the hiring of Mays as head coach. A Happy Osborne coaching disciple and Georgetown College alumnus, Mays had been interim head coach at Kentucky Wesleyan in 2017-18 but was not offered the full-time position by the Owensboro college.
Having spent most of his adult life working either in college basketball coaching or private business, Mays faced an adjustment in leading high school-aged boys.
“I really had to go back to square one as far as, not in knowing basketball, but how to reach the players,” Mays said. “I spent most of last year failing at that, to be honest with you.”
Last year’s turn in fortunes had much to do with Villers. He had been sidelined for most of his freshman year by a torn ACL, but returned to health late in the season.
“When we got him back, we got one of our most-competitive players, a very-skilled player, a good scorer, back,” Mays said.
Mays installed Villers in the starting lineup and went to a five-guard attack.
With the new approach, Ashland, 13-15 entering last year’s 16th Region Tournament, clicked.
The Tomcats made a surprise run to the region title, Ashland’s first since 2002. Ashland then beat Owensboro in the first round of the 2019 Sweet Sixteen before falling to eventual-champ Trinity in the quarterfinals.
“The rhythm we garnered from that continued into the summer,” Mays says.
In summer competition, Ashland scored victories over traditional Kentucky high school powers Ballard and Lexington Catholic, as well as against teams that had won state championships the prior year in South Carolina and Tennessee.
“That was when I was like, ‘We’ve got something special here,’” Mays says.
Coming into 2019-20, a strong returning nucleus from last season’s state tourney team was boosted when budding star Colin Porter — who played on the varsity at Elliott County as an eighth-grader in 2018-19 — transferred to Ashland.
“Colin is probably going to be the next Travis Ford,” Mays says referencing the former Madisonville and Kentucky Wildcats point guard. “(Porter) can shoot. He can score. He’s savvy. He’s smart.”
Led by Villers (17.1 points per game), Porter (15.1), Ethan Hudson (13.7), Ethan Sellars (10) and Justin Bradley (7.6) — the five-guard attack — Ashland shot 48.5 percent from the field and 39.5 percent on three-pointers.
“We’re not really playing anybody bigger than 6-foot-1, but we’re blessed,” Mays says. “We’ve got high basketball IQ and we can shoot the ball.”
A town’s rallying point
The past year has been a trying time in many ways for the Ashland community.
AK Steel shut down its Ashland Works plant as 2019 ended, laying off some 260. This year, Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital is slated to close. That will eliminate some 1,000 jobs, reports Ashland’s Daily Independent newspaper.
Against this backdrop, the success of the Ashland basketball team “gave people a good feeling,” says Dick Martin Jr., who has been calling the play-by-play of Tomcats games on the radio since 1976. “You didn’t have to worry about this plant closing and this hospital closing. It was just a place where you could go and enjoy and have a great time and watch these kids play ball — and they were good, really good.”
In Ashland, they will talk about this season’s special moments for years.
When Ashland beat West Virginia’s Capital High School in this season’s sixth game, it became the first Kentucky high school basketball program to reach 2,000 wins.
The 2019-20 Tomcats became only the 23rd team all time to qualify for the Boys’ Sweet 16 with an unbeaten record.
Then there was Cole Villers’ game-winning heave that preserved the perfect season and got the Ashland Tomcats onto ESPN.
“A dream come true,” Villers says. “Just to put Ashland on the map again, it was a great feeling.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 5:21 PM.
