CATS CATS CATS

Area basketball fans will have their hands full this week, as they will have three different tournaments that will each demand some of their attention.

On Thursday, the Shelby Valley (SV) Wildcats will start play in the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen with a real chance of bringing home the trophy. None of the three Wildcat teams involved in post-season play will have an easy road, and even though SV is the highest ranked team in the lower bracket of the state tourney, it will still have a tough row to hoe.

First up for the local Cats is Paducah Tilghman, out of the 1st Region, and if SV survives this team, there are any number of tough match-ups that could follow. When there are only 16 teams out of all the high schools in the state remaining, you can bet on one thing; nothing is gonna come easy.

Still, you gotta believe in Coach Booher and his team, then tune in on Thursday at 1:30 in the pm and cheer like crazy. If these Cats move on, tune in to each succeeding game, and repeat. Hopefully you’ll be following these simple directions on Saturday night, as SV tries to be the first team from Pike County to win a State Championship.

UK’s men’s team will also be in action on Thursday as they take on East Tennessee University. It isn’t the opening round game against East Tennessee University that makes Coach Calipari’s team the toughest draw of the three Cat teams; it is the potential for an upset on down the road that make the East Regional of the NCAA one that none of the other three no. 1 seeds would envy. There in the second round is Wake Forest or Texas, and further down the road, if the ESPN and CBS analysts are to be believe, is a dangerous Ivy League team, Cornell, that some have openly speculated could beat UK, if Calipari’s Cats survive either Texas or Wake Forest. And if UK gets lucky, the final in the East Regional could be against the West Virginia Mountaineers, a team that should have been a no. 1 seed in another region. All in all, this could get ugly before it’s over.

UK’s Lady Cats, got the no. 4 seed in the Kansas City Regional of women’s NCAA tourney, and could surprise a number of higher seeds. It’s not even outside the realm of possibility that they could make it to the final of this region, and then into the Women’s Final Four.

No matter where the fans of these teams go, to Lexington to cheer on SV, to New Orleans to watch Calipari’s Cats, or to Louisville, to see the Lady Cats first game against Liberty, or if the fans simply stay home, as I will, and try to get in as many of the games as possible, let’s hope for the best outcome for all three Wildcat teams; championship trophies all around. But as nice as that would be, we need to be able to accept, with grace, as hard as that is, a loss at any point in any of the three tournaments any true Wildcat fan will be following. After all, as the saying goes, you signs the papers, then you takes your chances.