KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 Bracket Revealed

The KHSAA revealed the bracket for 2021 Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament today. Let’s take a look.

The deepest and strongest regions overall are the 7th, 9th and 11th in interchangeable order. The 4th, 5th, 6th, 13th and 16th all have teams ranked in the top 11 of the KSR Prep Rankings, so I will put those in Tier 2.

Toughest Draw – 7th and 11th

Those regions are hard enough and the winner of this game may have to deal with #8 Bowling Green in round 2.

Best Draw – 5th Region

If #5 Elizabethtown can make it past #19 John Hardin and get out of the 5th, they would be favored to make the semifinals.

Best First Round Matchup – 7th vs. 11th

Whoever represents each region will have proved themselves to be a quality team. A #6 Ballard vs #1 Lexington Catholic matchup would be epic and on par with hype for previous first round games such as Mercer County/Dunbar (2016), Trinity/Scott County (2018), and Trinity/Bullitt East (2012).

Male, Trinity, St X, Dunbar, and Frederick Douglass would also be worth watching if they can pull an upset in region.

Toughest Ticket – 13th vs. 16th

A possible North Laurel vs. Ashland rematch looms. The passionate fanbase of Ashland and the statewide interest in Reed Sheppard would draw lots of interest. Ashland, who was undefeated last year, beat North Laurel by 20 last week, ending the Jaguars’ own undefeated streak.

Rowan County (16th) is hot right now and played Ashland within two points earlier this year. The 13th also has several quality teams.

King of the Mountains

As usual, most of the mountain regions drew each other. The 12th plays the 15th and the 13th plays the 16th, with the winners to play each other, so we are guaranteed to have a mountain semifinalist. The ranked teams are #9 Ashland (16th), #11 North Laurel (13th), #21 Rowan County (16th), #22 Johnson Central (15th), and #23 South Laurel (13th).

The other mountain region, the 14th, drew the 5th region. The 14th does not have any ranked teams.

Can’t wait!