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Tag Archives: basketball
FC hosts Kentucky Derby Festival: 2013 Basketball Classic
By Lexi Burch
Fans weigh in on U of L and IU’s basketball seasons
By Michael Pepin
With the Big East and Big Ten conference tournaments next week, many people are beginning to formulate their own predictions and opinions of how this month of madness will turn out.
“There are six teams in the Top 25 right now [in the Big East], more than any other conference, just beating the Big Ten, which has five. I think that while U of L is vulnerable at any given time, they have what it takes to make win the Big East Conference,” said biology teacher Kirk Moldenhauer, who believes that U of L will also win the NCAA Basketball tournament, barely triumphing over IU.
However others have different predictions about the two local teams.
“I think that U of L will make it to the finals in the Big East Conference and then lose to Georgetown, since their team is really good this year. IU will only make it to the Elite Eight, if not just the Sweet 16,” said sophomore Harrison Rice.
Many agreed that the teams this year are very talented, though flawed.
“If (point guard Peyton) Siva doesn’t play well, the rest of the team doesn’t play well. Sometimes he rushes the shots, and that costs the team points. However the team this year is easily capable of making it to the finals,” said Rice.
The opinion remains generally the same even with fans of different teams.
“IU has the best team in college basketball, but sometimes when we turn it over, we don’t get as many possessions as we should. Yet, even with that there is no doubt that the team will make it to the final four. We are still ranked number 2 in the country,” said freshman Landon Receveur.
However, triumphing over the other teams in the NCAA basketball tournament requires more than a prestigious name or a good team and skillful players.
“Anybody can beat anybody these days; 15 years ago there were only a few good teams that stood a chance of winning. In order to win the NCAA, even the best teams need a lot of luck,” said Moldenhauer.
Lady Highlanders strengthen team bond
By McKenna Click
The Lady Highlanders basketball team is half way through their season and because of their statistics, can already be considered a winning team. The girl have won six of their ten games so far this season. Which means senior Tori Kingsley’s goal of “[winning] sectionals and conference and to have a winning season” is well on its way.
“We’ve got a lot of returning kids who’ve played varsity and a lot of hard working kids,” said counselor and head girl’s basketball coach Kirk Hamsley. He has hopes of a winning season. Winning does not just happen, teams need to be strong, and the Lady Highlanders have quite a few strengths.
Junior Taylor Andrew recognizes their strengths including the teamwork among the girls. “We’re a pretty good shooting and scoring team too,” said Kingsley.
Although the team is strong, Andrew realizes the girls still have improvements to make. “[We need to] talk and work on leadership.”
Leadership may be something the girls need to work on but Kingsley and Hamsley realize there are other things the girls need to work on also.
Kingsley wants the team to work on their defense, but Hamsley said, “[the girls] need to buy into being a team and playing together.”
The girls said they have been trying to grow together as a team. “We do team bonding like three times a week,” said Kingsley. Andrew and Kingsley rattled off team bonding activities including making balloon animals, a scavenger hunt, and team dinners.
“[At team dinners] we all indulge in a lot of food and talk about stuff that’s really funny and that makes us come closer,” said Kingsley. Team dinners help the team grow closer. “We are a lot closer than past teams. We’re all really good friends and we hang out outside of school,” said Andrew.
Not only have the girls been trying to grow together as a team, Hamsley talked about how the girls have been working hard to have a good season.
“[We worked for] six weeks conditioning. We have practice for two hours and fifteen minutes six days a week,” said Hamsley.
They successfully beat Scottsburg, who were sixth in the state last year, and Seymour, who are a part of their conference. Hamsley cited both of those wins as big wins for the team.
Hamsley looks forward to playing Jeff, New Albany, and Bedford, FC’s main rivals.
The next time the girls can be seen in action is Dec. 27 at 2:30 pm or 28th at 11:00 am at the Lady Highlander Classic held at FC.
For those looking to see a rival game the girls play New Albany at New Albany, January 5th at 6:00 pm for JV or 7:30 pm for varsity. There is also a game at FC January 12 against Bedford 1:00 pm for JV or 2:30 for varsity.
Local colleges look to exceed expectations
By Luke Geraghty
The 2011-2012 college basketball season was a great year for the local teams. Louisville and Kentucky each went to the Final Four with UK winning the championship. Indiana also had a nice run in the tournament by making it to the Sweet 16. Watching these teams make a run in the tournament seemed very unconventional. But with many polls having these teams in their preseason top five, people may start to grow accustomed to seeing these teams at the top of the polls.
For IU, they go into next year with practically the same team and then some. Point guard Yogi Ferrell and forwards Jeremy Hollowell and Hanner Perea will be a big contribution for the Hoosiers as freshmen next year. The Hoosiers also will get a boost from sophomore Cody Zeller, who decided to to return to school rather than entering the NBA draft. Zeller led the team in scoring and rebounding as a freshman. Joining Zeller will be seniors Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls as well as junior Victor Oladipo. The Hoosiers roster will have plenty of talent and depth. If they can stay healthy and get a boost from some of their younger players, a Final Four berth is possible.
U of L enters the next season with plenty of experience. The Cardinals will miss Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith, but everyone else returns, including some players who missed last year due to injuries. Rakeem Buckles, Mike Marra, and Stephan Van Treese all missed games due to injuries last year and they are expected to give big minutes off the bench next year. Senior point guard Peyton Siva may be the Preseason Big East Player of the Year and they will probably go as far as Siva takes them. Siva’s partner-in-crime, Russ Smith isn’t afraid to shoot and/or drive to the basket. Both Smith and Siva’s stealing ability will cause chaos for their opponents when they bring the ball up the floor. Sophomores Wayne Blackshear and Chane Behanan and junior Gorgui Dieng look to round out the starting line up while freshman Terry Rozier also looks to gain big minutes off the bench. If U of L can stay healthy, then they will certainly be a tough out in the NCAA tournament.
Coming off a national championship, UK will come into the next season with plenty of talent. Centers Nerlens Noel and Willie Cauley, forward Alex Poythress, and guard Archie Goodwin are apart of another top notch recruiting class for the Wildcats. UK’s strong recruiting class will make them a very talented team, but it is hard to pinpoint how good UK will be. UK’s top six scorers from last year’s team are gone. Freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Marquis Teague, as well as sophomores Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones, declared for the NBA draft, while Darius Miller graduated. Kyle Wiltjer will be team’s best returning player, averaging 5 points per game last year. With the majority of the team from last year gone and a lot of new faces coming in, it appears UK may have a rebuilding year for their standards. UK’s weaknesses will be the lack of experience and also the lack of a true legit player at the point guard position. If UK can withstand these weaknesses, another deep run may be in sight for the defending champs.
IU, UK and UL have always had passionate fan bases, but they have each had hardships pretty recently. Kelvin Sampson turned a winning IU program to a Big Ten bottom-dweller. While UK faced an unheard of NIT berth just four years ago. While U of L faced distractions from their head coach Rick Pitino’s off-the-court problems as well as back-to-back first round exits in 2010 and 2011. However, each of them have bounced back to the peak of their game, making Kentuckiana the best place to be for the college basketball season next year and maybe for years to come.