The day after Scott County basketball star Bud Mackey appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges, Coach Billy Hicks ran his team through pre-season drills this morning.
Before practice began at Scott County Middle School’s gym, Hicks (shown at right) said Mackey’s troubles “should be a flag for all coaches. You better watch who your kids are running around with. I know Bud Mackey as well as anybody. He’s a great kid. But he fell in with the wrong group. I tried to tell him he shouldn’t run with those guys, but he didn’t listen.”
Hicks said contrary to news reports, that while Mackey is suspended from school, he has not withdrawn from school. “He called me yesterday and was tore to pieces. He told me he wasn’t withdrawing. We’re servicing him through our home-bound, home-school program.”
While Mackey awaits his next court hearing on Nov. 6, Scott County’s reigning state basketball champs are readying for the season.
The mood among the Cardinals this morning was mixed. They regret Mackey’s situation — “It was a shock, none of us saw it coming,” said Cam Hundley (left) — but they are also optimistic that even without their Mr. Basketball candidate, they can defend their state title.
If Scott County was going to be a solid pre-season No. 1 with Mackey, where will the Cards rank without him?
“We still expect to be a top five team easy,” Hicks said. “I’m not crying on anybody’s shoulder. We’ve got as much talent and firepower as we’ve ever had.”
Hundley, Jordan Lee, Richie Phares and Tyler Portwood all started at some point last season. Jordan Adams and Markus Burchfield also got quality playing time.
“I’d say we should still be No. 1,” Hundley said. “Don’t count us out now that Bud’s gone. We’re still a heckuva team and we’ve got a lot to prove this year.”
Lee (right) agreed. “I think we’re still No. 1. We’ve got a lot of talent . . . point guards galore, big men, everything we need. But we’re really not worried about rankings and all that. We’re just worried about getting better right now.”
“One person doesn’t make a team,” Portwood added.
October 17, 2007 at 11:28 am |
This is a very unfortunate situation, to say the least. Here is a bright future potentially darkened by bad choices. We can’t throw stones at the kid though; who among us hasn’t done something we wished we hadn’t? By all accounts, this was a good kid. I had looked forward tracking this kid’s success through college and into the pros. Perhaps there’s another chance in his future, others have done much worse and have gotten off with serving little or no time. We’ll have to wait and see. My thoughts and prayers are with this kid and his family.
As for Scott County, they’ll do fine but it’s only a game. I hope they (the team) will enjoy and cherish this time in their lives. They’ll only be high schoolers once.