King of the Bluegrass

After days of my fiancé begging me to write a column on my experience at the King of the Bluegrass basketball tournament, I finally gave in.  I was leaning towards writing a sappy, romantic love article about how special Katie is to me but she demanded that I write something that all 13 of our followers would want to read.  I thought about standing up to her, but I’ve received valuable advice these last few weeks about how the woman is always right so I decided to go with it.  So here it goes, my Christmas gift to all of you who have shown interest in our blog.  I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as Katie did.  Merry Christmas!

I had never been to the prestigious King of the Bluegrass (KOB) tournament in Louisville, but had always wanted to attend.  I was fortunate enough to play in the state’s oldest tournament (Ashland Invitational Tournament) and the state’s second best Christmas tournament(Republic Bank Classic at Lexington Catholic), but spending two days at the KOB was quite the experience.  For those of you who don’t know, the KOB is the best tournament in the state, with exception of the Sweet 16 held in March.  The KOB is invitation only and the field is always loaded, this year was no different.
The KOB is hosted by Fairdale High School and its inaugural year was 1981.  In 31 years there have been over 220 schools play in the tournament from 24 different states.  Including the 2011 field, there have been 414 Division 1 signees and 40 players that have gone on to play professional.  The KOB has been represented by the likes of Rex Chapman, “Muggsy” Bogues, Rajon Rondo and O.J. Mayo.  If your team happens to win the 4 day tournament, you’ve done something special.  The 16 team tournament is always held the week before Christmas and has a bracket-like format.  The winners advance to the winner’s bracket and the losers advance to the loser’s bracket.  Each team is guaranteed three games.  There have been several 0-3 teams that have gone on to win their respective regions and play in the state tournament. 

 

The hospitality at the KOB was second to none.  A week prior to the start of the tournament I e-mailed director Lloyd Gardner and told him that I was planning on blogging about the event and asked if I could sit on the floor where the other media people were sitting.  I wanted the opportunity to have a great view with a courtside seat and, also, to hopefully meet some other basketball junkies.  Without even knowing who I was exactly he offered me a free pass, a free program and the possibility of a chance to sit on the floor.  I gratefully accepted and was looking forward to my first KOB experience on December 17^th. 

I pulled into Fairdale’s parking lot about an hour and a half before the start of the first game.  I usually enjoy getting to the gym early because I like to walk around, look at old trophies and mingle with the people.  I walked into the front gym lobby area and was greeted by an older couple who were working the front gate.  The man smiled at me and said, “Welcome to Fairdale, sir.”  I greeted him back and told him who I was.  He pulled out a packet with a bunch of printed names on it.  He found my name on the pass list and asked me to sign beside it.  He then handed me a program and told me to “enjoy the tournament.” 

I immediately tried to track down Lloyd Gardner by asking one of the workers where his office is located.   He took me back to a little room that was smaller than the bathroom at my house.  With an old computer, papers stacked everywhere and a 1991-1992 Louisville Cardinals magnet schedule on the front of the file cabinet, I could tell that Mr. Gardner had made a home out of his undersized office.  Mr. Gardner was seated at his desk working on last minute tournament details.  He is an incredibly kind and genuine man and I’m glad I got the opportunity to thank him for his hospitality.

As I made myself at home on press row, my excitement was building for the first game that night between Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Academy and Louisville’s Pleasure Ridge Park.  I was rooting for the out of state team for three reasons: 1) CPA senior PG Craig Bradshaw had already signed with my alma mater, Belmont.  2) PRP ended my high school career in the first round of the 2005 Sweet 16.  3) My college teammate and good friend, Andrew House, is a 2004 CPA graduate.  I was still bitter about the loss and I always root for future Bruins.  All told, CPA beat the pesky Panthers and Bellarmine signee Max Clemons 66-60.  After witnessing a great opening game, I knew there was something special about the event and was stoked about the opportunity just to be there.  It only took about 45 minutes or so for me to realize that I was going to have to come back for the quarterfinals two days later. 

Here are some notes from my experience:

• CPA defeated PRP, Orange Lutheran (CA), Ballard & Butler en route to winning the 31^st annual King of the Bluegrass tournament.  CPA is just the 7^th out of state school to win the event and the only Tennessee school to ever win.  The Lions are coached by former Vanderbilt guard Drew Maddux.  CPA is led by Craig Bradshaw and sophomore sensation 6’6” Jalen Lindsey.  Several high major schools are interested in Lindsey considering he is ranked in the top 30 nationally for the class of 2014.  Lindsey showed an array of NBA type post moves and big time slams.  He put on a show and was named MVP of the tournament.  Sophomore SG Jake Allsmiller can flat out shoot the “3”, especially from the corner.  He was one of the leading scorers during the tournament and has a bright future ahead of him.  Also, I am ecstatic about Bradshaw joining the Belmont family.  The kid is tough as nails and can do it all.  I was very impressed with his rebounding ability for a point guard.  I talked to his mother, the CPA bookkeeper, a little bit and they are very excited about Craig’s decision.

 ·         Bullitt East was upset in the semi-finals by Butler.  However, this team has the potential to win the Sweet 16. The Chargers are coached by Troy Barr and are led by 6’9” junior Derek Willis.  Willis de-committed from Purdue and will be able to pick anywhere he wants to go.  Bullitt East has a couple of nice guards in juniors Rusty Troutman and Trey Rakes and will be one of the state’s best teams the next couple of seasons.  Other than CPA, Bullitt East was my favorite team in the tournament.  They remind me a lot of my high school team.

·         I was most surprised by Butler during the KOB.  They have a solid one-two punch in the back court with senior PG and Monmouth signee Jalen Palm and 6’2” sharpshooting junior Demetrius McReynolds.  Palm will be a good, quick guard for Monmouth next season.  McReynolds’ name was buzzing around the gym this week as he put on a shooting display the game I saw against Fairdale.  The kid is built like an NFL cornerback and OVC coaches are foaming at the mouth right now trying to get him.

·         Louisville Ballard, traditionally, is one of the state’s most productive programs in terms of producing good players and good teams.  During the 2011 KOB, the Bruins defeated out of state powers Thomasville (GA) & White Station (TN) before falling to CPA and Bullitt East.  Head coach Chris Renner has been at the helm at Ballard since the late 90’s and has been to the state championship game four times during his tenure, including winning the 1999 Sweet 16.  Ballard is led by sophomore PG and Louisville commit Quentin Snider, sophomore SF Kelan Martin & junior SG Lavonne Holland.

·         I was least impressed with Bardstown.  Coach James “Boo” Brewer’s Tigers defeated Mekale McKay’s Louisville Moore squad in the first round before falling to Bullitt East and Fairdale.  Maybe I caught them at a bad time, but they seemed to be rattled by Bullitt East’s trapping zone defense.  They do have a heady senior PG in Anthony “Smurf” Myrks.  Look for Bardstown to make a run in the watered down 5^th Region this year.

·         Eastern Kentucky’s Rowan County(1-2) and Northern Kentucky’s Dixie Heights(0-3) both have good teams this season but had trouble matching up with longer, more athletic squads.  Rowan County is led by senior Evansville signee Adam Wing and senior PG D.J. Townsend.  Rowan is favored to win the 16^th region and I was severely disappointed that Wing chose not to play the air guitar during the two games that I saw.  Dixie is led by sophomore SG Brandon Hatton who averaged over 20 PPG last season as a freshman.  Hatton impressed me with his “warrior-like attitude” and should dominate the 9^th region for the next 2 1/2 seasons.

·         The most impressive player in the tournament was 6’1” Arizona signee Gabe York from Orange Lutheran (CA).  I had already watched every YouTube video available on this kid and was still amazed when I watched him play live.  Multiple times during the tournament York would drive the lane, jump off of two feet and dunk on opponents like he was dunking on a Nerf goal.  The fans were quite impressed with his jumping ability.  Here is my personal favorite video of York: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgPJri2MqDU.   Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller is getting a bouncy wing that is super wet from three.  He had to work for everything he got at the KOB as he fought Box and 1 defense and was double-teamed a lot.  He still scored 28 points against CPA during the quarterfinals despite being in foul trouble the entire game.  I am honored that he now follows me on Twitter.  Best of luck to that young man.

·         I was fortunate enough to meet and see several college coaches this past week at the event.   Coaches from UT Martin, Lipscomb, Louisville, Indiana, Tennessee Tech, Kentucky, IU Southeast, Berea, NKU, Bellarmine, Evansville, Western Kentucky and Georgetown College were all in attendance when I was there.  Not to mention, on Monday evening I was asked to leave my courtside seat because some guy named Rick Pitino was about to sit there.

·         I had great conversations with Tennessee Tech head coach Steve Payne and UT Martin assistant coach Dylan Dudley on Saturday night.  Payne seemed like a very likable guy and was so down to earth towards me that the Golden Eagles are my newest favorite D1 team.  Dudley and I talked a lot about Belmont’s transition into the OVC.

·         It was nice getting to meet the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Jody Demling on Saturday night.  It made me quite happy when he said that he and the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Mike Fields were close friends.  Demling said that he was born and raised a Louisvillian and “kind of fell into the field of sports writing.”  I would love to have his job some day.

·         PRP’s longtime coach Dale Mabrey and I spoke for the first time since his 2004-2005 team defeated my Pendleton County Wildcats 64-61 in overtime at the Sweet 16.  Mabrey laughed and said “Oh Yeah” when asked if he remembered me.  We discussed how great of a shooting night the Panthers had from the free throw line.  He said, “We never shot that good again.”  PRP set a Sweet 16 FT % record that game by hitting 18 of 19 free throws.

·         I was fortunate enough to meet one of Louisville’s oldest living lettermen in Phil Rollins.  When he introduced himself I thought the name sounded familiar.  It turned out that Rollins was mentioned in the book When Cuba Conquered Kentucky (a GREAT read!) as a player for Wickliffe High School and is the younger brother of former UK star Kenny Rollins.  Phil graduated from UofL in 1956 as they captured the NIT Championship that season.  He also played for the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors, Cincinnati Royals and St. Louis Hawks.

In conclusion, I would like to say that my experience at the King of the Bluegrass was much better than expected.  The gym was packed for the quarterfinal games and it was standing room only at one point.  Rumor has it that the doors were locked at one point because it got so crowded in both gyms.  13 out of the 16 teams were very good basketball teams and out of the 11 games that I witnessed only one was a blowout.  A definite plus about the tournament is that it is held in two gyms 30 feet from one another.  I was able to walk back and forth between gyms many times during the quarterfinal round.  

If you have never been to the KOB and love high school basketball, you need to make it there at least once in your lifetime.

-Keaton

The Rebuttal

Belmont was not were I was supposed to go to school. Granted, it was in my top three choices, but I was Knoxville bound. I had already bought my dad a t-shirt that said “Tennessee Dad” on it, which pretty much means it was official. I had my housing assignment at UT that said I would be roommates with my best friend Chelsea in South Carrick. Everything was good to go.

Until…Chelsea got offered a softball scholarship to Belmont. And within just a couple of days, I changed my whole plan and ended up enrolling at Belmont. Since Chelsea was involved in athletics, I was around athletes at Belmont from the get go.

The first time I heard of Keaton Belcher was in the “Caf”. I was sitting at a table with a bunch of girls and he was walking nearby, so one of the girls got up and said something to him. There may have been talk of his good looks (my memory is fuzzy), but I definitely did not participate. (Not interested, although I’m sure he thought every girl was).

He is correct in saying we did not talk until Sophomore year spring semester after Psychology Lab. HOWEVER, he failed to mention that I had to chase him out the door to catch up with him to talk. We had done the ridiculous ice breakers in Psych Lab and he mentioned being from Kentucky. I still was not interested in him, but I thought it was a chance to initiate a conversation. So I sped walked across the Psych Building parking lot to catch him (If you have ever walked with him you know he doesn’t waste time or dawdle) and wooed him with the line “So, you are from Kentucky?”.

We proceeded to talk about Kentucky and my dad for the next couple of minutes as we walked down a sidewalk towards the Curb (Me at a jog pace, slightly out of breath). Then it ended with something like, “Welp, see ya”. I got a bottle of water to rehydrate and continued on with my life as usual.

I was around him throughout the years. My friends dated friends of his. We were both business majors so we had classes together and hung out in Massey. Once, him and his basketball cronies threw my smoothie from What’s Bruin in my face and ran off laughing…I bet he doesn’t remember that. Cried for days.

But seriously…Limited interaction between us except for the occasional “Hello” I would say in passing. UNTIL, he boldly asked me to carpool out to our Cool Springs class that one day my final semester at Belmont. I don’t know which was more surprising…his proposal two weeks ago or him asking if I wanted to carpool. I’m pretty sure I gave him a blank stare and said “sure” (Proposal answer was the same, blank stare and “yes”).

On the way to meet him for our first carpool, I called an anonymous friend and told them I would get them the hook up with Keaton. HA! Whoopthie…I am probably not the best friend in the world to have.

Keaton and I went from strangers to best friends in what seems like minutes. I’m pretty sure he fell in love with me instantly (after I said The Used was my favorite band). He says he didn’t like me then, but who are we kidding. We always have so much fun together (eg. Drive around downtown shooting marshmallows at people…my apologies to those wounded).  He is so easy to be around. He is even keeled and steady like a rock…which goes well with my bipolar tendencies. It is like he has been around my whole life. I don’t think he is sneaky enough to have planned how all of this would fall into place, but he definitely slipped in so smoothly.

The rest is history. Really, it is. Besides his obsession with Kentucky high school sports and Twitter, I feel like I am pretty important to him. He is everything I could ever want in a friend, sports analyst, boyfriend, blogger, fiancé, future husband and baby’s daddy. And he isn’t bad to look at either. My dad always tells me I have lived a charmed life…I’ve never disagreed with him. I don’t know how I got so lucky!

From Beginning to Beginning

12/11/11

The first time I met Katie Parker I just thought she was a normal girl.  It was spring semester 2007 (our sophomore year) and we were walking towards the gym after Psychology Lab let out.  I was headed to practice and she was headed back to her dorm room.  We sat relatively close to each other in class but that was the first time we actually had a conversation.  We talked about basketball and how her father was from Kentucky.  As our brief conversation ended I honestly never thought anything of it.  I thought she was a nice girl, but I never imagined I would ask her to be my wife.

We really didn't talk again until spring semester 2009.  Two years had gone by and we both went our separate ways.  I was balancing school, basketball and I enjoyed being single, although I did dabble in the dating world.  She was doing the same thing relationship wise while making better grades than me and preparing for graduate school.  Our paths really didn't cross all that much, but they definitely should have.  At the time, Belmont was roughly 5,000 students and it felt as if everybody hung out with the same crowd.  The on-campus environment was known to have a small feeling atmosphere.  Katie had different roommates that dated athletes, including a couple of my teammates.  We always knew of each other, but never really hung out together.  She came to most of the basketball games (but claims she didn't come to watch me).  We had mutual friends, but it never got to the point where we had a full-length conversation.  Things started to change during her last semester.

Katie was on schedule to graduate May 2009 and was heading to Birmingham in August for graduate school at UAB.  I was on schedule to graduate in August 2009, but I was going to be at Belmont the following year because I red-shirted my freshman year and still had one year of eligibility left.  We had two classes together that last semester (we both were business majors), but one class was off campus about 20 minutes away in Cool Springs.  Out of the blue, I asked Katie if she wanted to carpool with me.  I, still to this day, have no idea why I asked her.  She seemed like a cool girl that smiled a lot and it was going to save us both some gas money, so why not?  She agreed to carpool and that changed everything.

It turned out that Katie Parker wasn't a normal girl at all.  She had the best personality I had ever been around.  She was intelligent.  She was pretty.  She was funny.  She liked sports.  And she laughed at my cheesy jokes.  We probably carpooled together 6 or 7 times that semester and each time I enjoyed her company even more.  Not to mention, she helped me study for tests on the ride there by quizzing me because I had done minimal studying prior to the ride to class.  So as our conversations deepened, it turned out that we had a lot in common.  Here are 5 quick things that made me fall in love with Katie P.:

• We had the same favorite band in High School...The Used.
• Someday she wants court side season tickets for an NBA franchise.
• She had 81 steals during her senior season at Davidson Academy.  Was dubbed "The Glove" by her teammates by averaging 2.7spg.  (I made that last sentence up but they should've.)
• She has a special place for KY men in her heart.  Her dad is from Bowling Green.
• She prefers dogs over cats.

Although those 5 things ignited our love interest for one another, the most important thing is that I can see myself spending the rest of my life with this girl.  She brings a type of positive energy in my life that I have never experienced before.  She is going to be a great mother and wife and I can't see myself without her in the future.  After dating for about 2 years, I knew that it was time to make Kathryn Elizabeth Parker all mine.  So after having the engagement ring in my possession for only 60 minutes, I proposed to her the day after Thanksgiving, November 25, 2011 on campus where we first met .

So far, it has been fun and exciting telling our family and friends about our engagement.  It has also been fun planning our wedding even though it is still 10 months away.  The wedding will be on October 20, 2012 at City Road Chapel United Methodist Church in Madison, TN where Katie grew up.  We plan to reside in Nashville.