The University of Kentucky itself is arguably the top basketball program in the country. They have basketball fans that rival the biggest T-Shirt fans of college football.

Louisville is arguably in its own right a blue blood basketball program, probably in the Top 10 of all programs. Right in the same exact state as UK. The only comparable college football has is Florida/Florida State but that is pretty explainable with all of talent in the state of Florida.

Western Kentucky has through its history accomplished more than almost any true mid major program between NCAA berths and a Final Four. They'll not infrequently land a Top 100 recruit and have the talent to be an at-large entrant to the NCAA tourney.

Murray State is one of the very most dominant low majors with 15 NCAA tournament appearances in its history.

Northern Kentucky moves up to the Horizon League and boom the next thing they've made the NCAA tourney.

What is magical about basketball in the state of Kentucky that makes this possible?

(04-21-2017 06:48 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  The University of Kentucky itself is arguably the top basketball program in the country. They have basketball fans that rival the biggest T-Shirt fans of college football.

Louisville is arguably in its own right a blue blood basketball program, probably in the Top 10 of all programs. Right in the same exact state as UK. The only comparable college football has is Florida/Florida State but that is pretty explainable with all of talent in the state of Florida.

Western Kentucky has through its history accomplished more than almost any true mid major program between NCAA berths and a Final Four. They'll not infrequently land a Top 100 recruit and have the talent to be an at-large entrant to the NCAA tourney.

Murray State is one of the very most dominant low majors with 15 NCAA tournament appearances in its history.

Northern Kentucky moves up to the Horizon League and boom the next thing they've made the NCAA tourney.

What is magical about basketball in the state of Kentucky that makes this possible?

You can extend that over the Ohio a little too. Dayton, Xavier Cinci - Great fan support. I don't know how Evanston draws, but IU is right there in southern Indiana

Eastern Kentucky also has 8 bids
Morehead State has 7 bids, including a Sweet 16



Kentucky Wesleyan has reached the DII tourney 38 times, Elite 8 21 times, championship game 13 times, 8 National Champs

(04-21-2017 07:20 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  Eastern Kentucky also has 8 bids
Morehead State has 7 bids, including a Sweet 16

Kentucky Wesleyan has reached the DII tourney 38 times, Elite 8 21 times, championship game 13 times, 8 National Champs

No doubt that the state of Kentucky has great basketball programs, but is its depth really greater than neighboring Indiana (with Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame and Butler at the top level and smaller schools like Indiana State that have key historic moments) or North Carolina (Duke, UNC, NC State and Wake Forest plus schools like Davidson and Charlotte)?

(04-21-2017 07:25 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  No doubt that the state of Kentucky has great basketball programs, but is its depth really greater than neighboring Indiana (with Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame and Butler at the top level and smaller schools like Indiana State that have key historic moments) or North Carolina (Duke, UNC, NC State and Wake Forest plus schools like Davidson and Charlotte)?

Indiana and North Carolina produce prospects.

Kentucky produces bourbon.

(04-21-2017 07:27 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(04-21-2017 07:25 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  No doubt that the state of Kentucky has great basketball programs, but is its depth really greater than neighboring Indiana (with Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame and Butler at the top level and smaller schools like Indiana State that have key historic moments) or North Carolina (Duke, UNC, NC State and Wake Forest plus schools like Davidson and Charlotte)?

Indiana and North Carolina produce prospects.

Kentucky produces bourbon.

That's a fair point.

One theory is that where the Scotch-Irish predominates, basketball took center stage. Like NC, KY, parts of TN, southern IN, parts of Mo etc mostly south of the Ohio River. Been through those areas several times and those people are predominately wirey framed, not bulky. Davy Crockett was Scotch-Irish and his people helped settle Ky.

German, English and eastern ethnics didnt get into basketball til much later. Ohio was heavily settled by these people groups and seems to be more orientated to football. Of course Cincinnati seems to be an exception, but it is along the Ohio River and has many more Scoth-Irish descendants.

Where ever Abraham Lincoln and his forbears settled, it was bball country, not fb.

I guess to Kittonhead's point, the closest corollary would actually be the state of Kansas with KU, Kansas State and Wichita State all being excellent programs (and an elite blue blood in the case of KU) despite having few top in-state prospects.

The state of Georgia has a lot of Scotch-Irish settlers as does Texas, but those states are more into football than basketball. Why are they different?

Maybe it has something to do with the topography & climate of those states? Georgia & Texas are rather flat (with some exceptions), but Kentucky, North Carolina, southern Indiana & Ohio are rather hilly.

(04-21-2017 07:42 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  The state of Georgia has a lot of Scotch-Irish settlers as does Texas, but those states are more into football than basketball. Why are they different?

They weren't connected culturally to the Ohio Valley? And don't have long winters?

Why does western African nations produce sprinters (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria etc) and eastern African nations produce noted distance runners (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia) etc?

This is not a racial question at all, but different ethnic groups display different tendencies and inclinations. It may be part cultural and part physical traits.

back in the day, 20's, 30's when sports was infant
the schools were so small, they only had BB teams
school would have 14 kids, you can't get base ball team with that
i read that somewhere

I consider Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio as college hoops' heartland.
Kentucky | Indiana | Ohio St
Louisville | Purdue | Cincinnati
W Kentucky | Butler | Xavier
Murray St | Valparaiso | Dayton

N Kentucky/Morehead/E Kentucky
Evansville/Indiana St ('79 Sycamores)
Akron/Kent St/Miami/Ohio/Cleveland St/Wright St

(04-21-2017 06:48 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  The University of Kentucky itself is arguably the top basketball program in the country. They have basketball fans that rival the biggest T-Shirt fans of college football.

Louisville is arguably in its own right a blue blood basketball program, probably in the Top 10 of all programs. Right in the same exact state as UK. The only comparable college football has is Florida/Florida State but that is pretty explainable with all of talent in the state of Florida.

Western Kentucky has through its history accomplished more than almost any true mid major program between NCAA berths and a Final Four. They'll not infrequently land a Top 100 recruit and have the talent to be an at-large entrant to the NCAA tourney.

Murray State is one of the very most dominant low majors with 15 NCAA tournament appearances in its history.

Northern Kentucky moves up to the Horizon League and boom the next thing they've made the NCAA tourney.

What is magical about basketball in the state of Kentucky that makes this possible?

Its our water and Bourbon!

To steal an ad slogan from the SEC: it just means more.

When I was at AState hoops attendance was really good and games were an event and many students had the same background I had. We went to a high school that didn't play football. We came from little towns that might have a store or two or five and a high school with 18 to 50 seniors (18 smallest I heard of my class had 25).
That's Kentucky except on a much larger scale.

(04-21-2017 09:40 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  I consider Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio as college hoops' heartland.
Kentucky | Indiana | Ohio St
Louisville | Purdue | Cincinnati
W Kentucky | Butler | Xavier
Murray St | Valparaiso | Dayton

N Kentucky/Morehead/E Kentucky
Evansville/Indiana St ('79 Sycamores)
Akron/Kent St/Miami/Ohio/Cleveland St/Wright St

Never considered Ohio a strong basketball state excepting Cincinnati and LeBron. Ohio U and Wright St/Dayton might be an exceptions too, but the closer one gets to the Great Lakes the less the bball culture. And thats all about ethnicity.

Downstate Illinois has some strong bball credentials, but never got over the hump. Illinois, Illinois St, Bradley, S Ill are arguably bball schools.

Passion.Knowledge of the game.Tradition that feeds more tradition which carries on the Passion.

States usually go how their flagship goes and UK sets the tone for Kentucky.

Because the NCAA controlled the TV rights for football until the 80's and Kentucky was not a hotbed of football talent but Louisville could get a TV deal in basketball which wasn't regulated and like all metro schools pushed hoops.

WKU's case I believe was Diddle and a large arena getting it into the Sun Belt which at the time was a multibid conference allowing them to recruit nationally.

When you have UK, Louisville, WKU all recruiting nationally that opens up recruiting at the regional level for the Murray St's, Morehead's, EKU ect. They have very good facilities too for the level of institutions they happen to be.

Since NoDak claimed American migration and culture patterns explain Basketball. Perhaps we should look at some real data and analysis

First Colin Woodard's mapping of Americans by culture and migration might bear fruit
http://emerald.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine...-arms.html



Or perhaps the culture map below (it explains rivalries like Pitt-WV and KU-Mizzou) based on communication and migration patterns by Samuel Arbesman
http://www.citylab.com/politics/2012/04/...ture/1839/