Intramural hoops bounces onto Cumberland campus
by Dewayne Sutton
Southeast Community College's Cumberland campus has bounced into basketball season with intramural basketball teams. With Admissions/Student Activities Director Cookie Baker in charge and also a player on team number four, this promises to be a fun and exciting season of hoops for the 44 people involved. Those 44 are broken up into five teams.
Team number one consists of: Mo Hollingsworth, Shawn Branson, Jon Carr, Thaddius Jackson, Chris Daniels, Robert Gipe, Dante' Cranford, and Alvin Vickers.
On team number two, we have Kenny Raleigh, Kris Reitz, Lige Buell, Travis Jenkins, Chris Boggs, Mark Bell, Edgar Saavedra, and Brian Taylor.
Team number three: Bill Nolan, Mark Jordan, Brandon Howard, Wade Collins, Keith Jones, Travis Cox, Tim Rutledge, Tim Birman, and Kathy Sweat.
Members of team number four are Anthony Jenkins, Misty Creech, Sherrie Chapman, Casey Tinsley, Cookie Baker, Kelly Jackson, Shane Deal, Barney Boggs, Keith Slone, and Tommy Polson.
Lastly, team number five consists of: Kenny Perkins, Derrion Chapman, Chris Lankford, Brandon Hale, Rodrick Major, Terry Weaver, Tim Johnson, Becky Lloyd and Jamie Penny.
Every Wed. afternoon, beginning February 25 at 3:00 p.m., you can catch these teams in action at the Lynch Social Club.
Crunch time for both sets of Cats
by Dewayne Sutton
College Basketball at the University of Kentucky is in high gear with both the men and women Basketball Cats doing well.
At one point earlier in the season, the UK women’s team was looking forward to an NCAA Tournament bid at 8-4 (1-0 in the SEC) by upsetting three (then) top 25 teams: Auburn, Western Kentucky, and Ohio State; the Wildcats have since slipped a game under .500 for the season as they have hit the brunt of their tough SEC schedule, losing to rival schools such as #1 Tennessee, #5 Vanderbilt, #11 Florida (twice), and #23 Alabama. The Cats have rebounded though, with consecutive wins at #25 Auburn (for the 2nd time this season) and at home against a struggling South Carolina team. The Cats still have some lesser competition remaining, such as Mississippi State, another game with South Carolina, and a date with Eastern Kentucky University. Currently at 11-12 (4-7) at press time, a good showing to end the season and a couple of SEC tournament wins may be needed to head to the “Big Dance”.
Will the male Cats take new coach Tubby Smith to his first Final Four appearance? Kentucky is currently sitting atop the SEC with a 22-4 (9-2) record, but that record is far more impressive than some of their most recent games. Are the Kentucky Wildcats overrated? The answer depends on who you ask.
My opinion is no--the Cats are underrated if anything. Tubby and the Cats have shown they can win big time games against big time opponents such as Purdue, Indiana, Clemson, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Arkansas. Close games against the likes of Alabama, LSU, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State and home losses to Louisville, Florida, and Mississippi have sparked the question, “how good are the UK Cats?”
The record speaks for itself, and the afore-mentioned games, for the most part, were victories no matter how close they were. The loss to U of L was a rivalry game in which Louisville gave their all, and UK was looking ahead to bigger and better teams and got the “L”. The Florida disaster is explained only by saying that we lost to a hot shooting team when we weren’t so hot. The two best games or, at least the most memorable of the season, for Kentucky have been games decided by a total of 5 points.
The Arkansas Razorbacks came into Rupp with a head of steam. Their pressure was relentless in forcing a season high turnover margin for the Cats. Thanks to the defense and overall play of Heshimu Evans, the Cats, who trailed for much of the game, took the game into overtime. From there, Kentucky dominated, only to see their lead cut to three as the 24,000 fans watched as Arkansas took one final desperation three point attempt in hopes of forcing a second overtime. Needless to say, it was off the mark and the Cats prevailed.
The other game was down in Nashville. Vanderbilt had lost to the Cats earlier in the season by nine, but this time, the lead by either team would not even reach that at any point of the game. With Kentucky up by three, Vandy stormed out and was in a see-saw battle until the end of the game. With Kentucky up by three, Vandy nailed a long-range three-point shot with 4.4 seconds remaining. Tubby then set up a play and told the team the possibilities of their offense. The in-bounds pass went to Jeff Sheppard, then off to Nazr Mohammed, who drove in from the three point arc as if he were a guard and just threw up a “prayer” as time expired, and it was good! For the second straight year in Nashville, the Cats stole one from Vandy.
If the Cats can complete the sweep of its final SEC regular-season games, a good seed in the NCAA tournament should be imminent.
(Editor’s note: Kentucky’s loss to Ole Miss was last game played before press time.)
Sports Rivals in the Mountains
By: Joshua L. Yonts
Almost everyone in the nation has heard of the great rivals in pro sports such as the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers during the eighties. Rivals such as the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the seventies. Even here in the mountains of eastern Kentucky in high school athletics we have our own sports rivalries. The rivalries cause people who have long since graduated to come home and see their alma maters play the cross-county rivals.
Here in my home county of Letcher we have some of the most heated rivalries in all of the state. Almost every year people look forward to the Fleming-Neon and Whitesburg athletic events. Each year the rivalry becomes more and more heated. From stunts such as the Whitesburg faithful placing rats on the bleachers at this year's football game to the Neon team burning a Whitesburg jersey as an effigy during a pep rally. Over the years this has become a very entertaining and fun match-up to watch. It doesn’t matter which team wins you can guarantee that the fans and players will get their own version of a victory.
Just across the county are the teams of Jenkins and Letcher. In the recent years Jenkins has developed a rivalry with Fleming-Neon in girls basketball. It has shown glimpses of some of the most entertaining games that the sport has to offer. Letcher on the other hand has always had a rivalry with Whitesburg due to some of its students splitting after grade school and going to one of the two high schools. It has always been friend against friend which leads to some very interesting match-ups.
Across Pine Mountain there is another exciting rivalry between the Harlan Green Dragons and the Corbin Redhounds. These two schools each year have some of the most exciting games I have ever watched. A lot of great athletes have graduated from these schools and went own to play at the collegiate level, which only adds to the greatness of the contests.
In Perry County, a new rivalry has been born between the always tough Hazard Bulldogs and the newly-formed Perry County Central. The two schools, in this short rivalry, have given way to some great athletic events, such as overtime victories to last second scores. The rivalry should be on that will always be competitive and fun to watch.
In the recent years, a rivalry that has been born between the June Buchanan Crusaders and the Knott County Central Patriots. The two have had some great battles on the basketball courts in the past years, and it looks like many are in store for the future. The two schools are in the hunt for the regional crown.
Overall, the sports rivals in the mountains make wonderful and exciting events. People from all around flock to see some of the great match-ups. When the rival teams meet on the court or playing field ,you can throw out all records and brace yourself for a battle.