Sweet_Sixteen_(KHSAA_State_Basketball_Championship)

Sweet Sixteen (KHSAA State Basketball Championship)

Sweet Sixteen (KHSAA State Basketball Championship)

Kentucky high school basketball tournaments

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association boys' and girls' state basketball championships are single elimination tournaments held each March featuring 16 high schools. Colloquially known as the Sweet Sixteen (the KHSAA holds a trademark on the phrase). Since 2019, both the boys' and girls' tournaments takes place over four days at downtown Lexington's Rupp Arena.

History

The Kentucky High School Boys' Basketball State Tournament began in 1918. For fourteen years there were 18 regions that encompassed the tournament. Since 1932 there have only been 16 regions thus the term "Sweet Sixteen" was coined. Kentucky is one of only two states (Delaware is the other) that still play a state tournament without a class system that divides large and small schools into separate tournaments.[1]

The first six tournaments were held at the University of Kentucky gymnasium in Lexington. After 1923 the tournament continued in Lexington but moved to the new Alumni Gymnasium on UK's campus which had become the new venue for the university's basketball teams, where it stayed from 1924 until 1944. In 1945 the tournament moved to the Louisville Gardens until 1950, when it moved back to Lexington and took up residence at Memorial Coliseum, again on the UK campus. Once construction was complete on Freedom Hall in Louisville, the 1957 tournament was held there and returned in odd-numbered years.

In 1965, Freedom Hall agreed to host the tournament for fourteen consecutive years until 1978. The opening of Rupp Arena in 1979 led to the tournament's return to Lexington, where it remains to the present day. However, Freedom Hall has hosted the tournament six times since then, the most recent being in 1994.

Both the boys' and girls' tournaments were cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

Notable participants

Boys' Tournament

More information Player, Years ...

2023 Boys' Tournament Results

2023 UK Healthcare/KHSAA Boys' Sweet Sixteen® State Basketball Tournament

March 15–18, 2023 — Rupp Arena (Lexington, KY)

Note: First round seeds indicate ordinal position by region, match-ups are determined by random draw.
First round
March 15–16 		Quarterfinals
March 17 		Semifinals
March 18 		State Championship
March 18
            
5 Elizabethtown 48
1 McCracken County 44
Elizabethtown 48
Woodford County 59
6 Jeffersontown 57
8 Woodford County 60 (OT)
Woodford County 48
March 15
Warren Central 56
4 Warren Central 80
12 Pulaski County 55
Warren Central 64
Ashland Blazer 48
3 Owensboro 65
16 Ashland Blazer 66
Warren Central 64
George Rogers Clark 60
11 Frederick Douglass 73
15 Martin County 53
Frederick Douglass 58
Male 54
7 Male 94
14 Breathitt County 59
Frederick Douglass 44
March 16
George Rogers Clark 51
2 Lyon County 61
9 Newport 46
Lyon County 56
George Rogers Clark 60
10 George Rogers Clark 62
13 North Laurel 54

Boys' Basketball State Championship

Tournament results, by year

More information Year, Champion ...

Championships, by school

More information School, Titles ...

KHSAA Girls' Sweet Sixteen State Champions

More information Year, Champion ...

Schools with at least three boys' state championships

More information Rank, School ...

Schools with at least two girls' state championships

More information Rank, School ...

Notes and references

  1. [1]
    "The tradition of Kentucky's Sweet Sixteen". The Ledger Independent. 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  2. [2]
    KHSAA cancels 2020 spring sports season, Sweet 16 tournaments
  3. [3]
    Now Henry Clay High School.
  4. [4]
    The predecessor to today's Paul G. Blazer High School.
  5. [5]
    Defunct.
  6. [6]
    This is not the school that is today incorrectly referred to as "Clark County", properly known as George Rogers Clark High School. This was one of the two schools that merged to form "GRC".
  7. [7]
    The predecessor to today's Highlands High School, also in Fort Thomas.
  8. [8]
    This is the other school that merged to form today's George Rogers Clark High School.
  9. [9]
    Closed in 2003.
  10. [10]
    Later merged into Laurel County High School, which would win a boys' state title in 1982 and several girls' titles. Laurel County split in 1992 into today's North Laurel and South Laurel High Schools.
  11. [11]
    Consolidated into today's Knott County Central High School.
  12. [12]
    This is the "Heath" of the 1997 Heath High School shooting. The district that operates Heath, the McCracken County Public Schools, has received state approval for plans to consolidate its three current high schools into the new McCracken County High School, which it opened on August 9th 2013.
  13. [13]
    Consolidated into today's Grant County High School.
  14. [14]
    Consolidated into today's Anderson County High School.
  15. [15]
    Consolidated into today's Crittenden County High School.
  16. [16]
    Consolidated into today's Caverna High School.
  17. [17]
    Consolidated into West Hopkins High School, which was in turn consolidated into today's Hopkins County Central High School.
  18. [18]
    Consolidated into today's Woodford County High School.
  19. [19]
    Consolidated into today's Sheldon Clark High School.
  20. [20]
    Consolidated into North Marshall High School, which would win a state title of its own in 1959. Still later, North Marshall was consolidated into today's Marshall County High School in 1974.
  21. [21]
    Absorbed by Mason County High School.
  22. [22]
    Consolidated into today's Bracken County High School.
  23. [23]
    Consolidated into today's Knott County Central High School.
  24. [24]
    Consolidated into Laurel County High School along with London, Bush and Lily High Schools in 1971.
  25. [25]
    Unlike other schools in Harlan County, Harlan High did not participate in the 2008 consolidation that created Harlan. Harlan High is operated by the Harlan city school district, a separate district from that of the county.
  26. [26]
    Consolidated into Muhlenberg North High School in 1990, which in turn consolidated with Muhlenberg South High School in 2009 to form today's Muhlenberg County High School.
  27. [27]
    Consolidated into South Marshall High School, which would itself consolidate in 1974 to form today's Marshall County High School.
  28. [28]
    Later absorbed by Sedalia High School, which would in turn be consolidated into today's Graves County High School.
  29. [29]
    Tilghman did not participate in the 2013 McCracken County consolidation, as it is operated by a separate school district.
  30. [30]
    Consolidated into today's Henderson County High School.
  31. [31]
    Consolidated into today's Marshall County High School in 1974.
  32. [32]
    Closed in 1974.
  33. [33]
    This is not the modern Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, but rather Lexington's former black high school, from which today's "PLD" indirectly took its name.
  34. [34]
    In August 2010, the Shelby County High attendance zone was cut roughly in half with the opening of the new Martha Layne Collins High School.
  35. [35]
    Consolidated into South Hopkins High School, another of the high schools which would eventually consolidate into today's Hopkins County Central.
  36. [36]
    Closed in 1989, with its attendance zone moved into that of Madison Central High School.
  37. [37]
    Split in 1992 into today's North Laurel and South Laurel High Schools. The old Laurel County High building houses South Laurel.
  38. [38]
    Consolidated into today's Shelby Valley High School.
  39. [39]
    This school still exists, but with a smaller attendance zone, as it spawned Southwestern High School in 1993.
  40. [40]
    This school still exists, but with a smaller attendance zone, as it spawned Great Crossing High School in 2019.
  41. [41]
    This school still exists, but with a considerably smaller attendance zone, having spawned Western Hills High School in 1981.
  42. [42]
    Later consolidated into Letcher County Central High School.
  43. [43]
    This school still exists, but has a considerably smaller attendance zone, having spawned first South Oldham High School and later North Oldham High School.
  44. [44]
    As noted in the main text, this was Napier's last year of existence, as it would be consolidated into Perry County Central High School that fall (autumn).
  45. [45]
    This was after Pulaski County High had spawned Southwestern.
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