KentuckySports.co Rival Kentucky Sports Blog

So we all know the state of Kentucky is the heart of basketball country, especially this season being that UK, U of L, WKU and Murray State University are all headed to the Big Dance. What other angle could we look into as it relates to Kentucky basketball and March Madness? How about players who are from the state of KY and are currently on a team that is part of the 68 teams in the NCAA tourney?

First we have the obvious. The guys who play for the four schools within the state.

Kentucky Wildcats- The Wildcats (1) Play against the winner of the Mississippi Valley State/WKU (16) game. The UK game is on Thursday 3/15/2012 @ 6:50PM EST at the YUM! Center in Louisville, KY.

Twany Beckham is a 6-5 205 lb guard for the Wildcats. He transferred to UK from Mississippi State. Twany is from Louisville, KY and played his HS basketball for Ballard HS Head Coach Chris Renner. Here is Twany’s profile from UK’s official web site.

Kentucky High School basketball state is just around the corner. this means we have 16 regions wrapping up to see which lucky team's get to travel to Lexington to play in Rupp.  Tonight one is going home stoked.

Bullitt East, just outside the city of Louisville in Bullitt County faced off against PRP of Louisville earlier tonight in the 6th Region Championship. Tied up with 3.4 seconds left, Tray Rakes sent up a 35-foot heave at the buzzer that found the bottom of the nylon to send his Charger team to State. To watch the video, our friends over at KSR have it posted.

Also, I'd like to give a shout out to my Alma mater, the Oldham County Colonels. They knocked off Collins HS to win the 8th Region Championship for the second consecutive season and now have a chance to shock the state at Rupp! Go Colonels!

      Junior James Quick from Trinity High School in Louisville, KY. had an amazing year helping his team go undefeated and win the state championship. Quick has gotten the attention from a lot of colleges as well. He has offers from Auburn, Arkansas, Illinois, Alabama, Kentucky and Louisville. The 6'1 180 lbs. receiver is ranked a 4-Star recruit by Scout.com and is a top 150 recruit by ESPN.com. He runs a 4.41 40 yard dash and averaged 100.5 receiving yards a game with 16 total touchdown receptions on the year.

James Quick Junior Year Highlights

             When I was in middle school I was barely able to dunk on the mini basketball hoops you put on your door, so I can not imagine being in the 8th grade and being 7'0 tall. Thon Maker is 14 years old and lives in Australia and was born in The Sudan. Maker went to the John Lucas International Middle School Combine and has been the talk of coaches and scouts ever since. At 7'0 I would imagine he would look good against little normal sized middle schoolers, but his ball handling skills and nice hook shot is what impressed everyone. Thon Maker has now moved to the U.S. and will play at Metairie Park Country Day School in Metairie, Louisiana.

            I expect this kid will have coaches licking their chops for years to come. Here is a highlight video from the combine:

Trinity 62, Scott Co. 21

              A crowd of 6,691 were in Bowling Green, KY. to watch the best team in the nation battle in the KHSAA Class 6A Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl championship game. Trinity shows once again that the can not be stopped. Scott County scored first but it was all Shamrocks after that. “I knew our defense would settle down,” Trinity's Coach Beatty said. “And I knew once our offense got the ball that they’d move the ball down the field.”

               Trinity ends the season 14-0, so will they be voted the best high school football team in the nation? “I don’t have any control over that,” Beatty said. “I know we’re going to take a trophy home. We have control over that. Everything else is somebody’s opinion now, but if you take a look at our schedule, I think it sells itself. … It was a great schedule, and we persevered through it.”

Kentucky High School Scoreboard

2nd Round Playoffs

Kentucky High School Scoreboard

Playoff 2nd Round

(Trinity High School's Darryl Hicks)

          ESPN released their All-State High School players on Tuesday in which they selected their top 20 players in each state. For Kentucky their is several top national recruits, including several players being recruited by UK and UofL. To check out other states go HERE. Here is the list for Kentucky:

Kentucky High School Scoreboar

1st Round Playoffs

Louisville Trinity is now the #1 team in the nation on the RivalsHigh100 from rivalshigh.com.  Trinity just completed their perfect season last week by defeating Cincinnati Moeller on Friday 49-14.  Trinity jumped to number one from the number two spot last week.  Rivals had this to say about Trinity:

“In this year of uncertainty atop the RivalsHigh 100, we’ve decided to go with the one thing we’re certain of when picking the new No. 1: To date, Louisville (Ky.) Trinity has been the most complete team in the country.”

Closely following Trinity in the rankings is #2 Armwood High School from Seffner, FL who also holds a perfect (9-0) record.  However, Trinity's out of state victories are what pushed them to the top. 

Trinity will begin the 2011 playoffs at home against Simon Kenton on Friday.

Kentucky High School Scoreboard Week 11

October 28th