Girls Basketball Takes Over Expo Center -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Run 4 The Roses in Town This Weekend

The Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center is full of basketball courts this week as the annual Run 4 The Roses Classic and Run 4 The Roses Championship events take place from July 10-12 and July 13-15, respectively. The R4R event is a massive exposure event for middle and high school basketball players, drawing teams and coaches from all over the country. In fact, a coworker from a different office has been making use of some of our spare space in the Louisville office as he is in town with his daughter for the games. 

Just searching "Run 4 The Roses" will yield numerous posts from athletes wanting to draw attention to themselves as well as teams indicating they'll be in attendance to scout. One such post, from Tennessee Tech, feels like a recruiting opportunity for the team just as much as a chance to scout. 

This year, the events will be played on 88 courts and host 2,910 teams. With a guaranteed four games for each team, you can bet that it's quite the jam-packed space. I confirmed with the aforementioned coworker that it can be a bit difficult to "play to the whistle" when you can hardly tell which court a whistle is coming from. Nevertheless, the event has tons of value for the athletes to get in front of scouts from the next level, as the website boasts that 2,037 college coaches are credentialed. You can bet that if Jeff Walz and Kenny Brooks aren't among them, they've sent representatives. 

The event is also open to spectators. If watching loads of competitive youth sports is your kind of thing, you can head down to the Expo Center during any of the event times listed below. Spectator tickets are fairly reasonable, given the scale, as you can get a day pass for $30 or an event pass for $85. Granted, you might also pay half that in parking thanks to the Fair Board's wonderful parking policies, but that's neither here nor there. 

Might we see the next great Louisville player stand out this weekend? Surely there's a chance. It might even be a player not yet on anyone's radar, such is the nature of a huge exposure event like this. One thing is for sure, with more hotel compression in Louisville than the Kentucky Derby, the annual Run 4 The Roses hammers home that Kentucky is a basketball state and Louisville is a basketball town. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

No CCRHP This Week

When we skipped the show last week for the 4th of July, we anticipated returning to the booth this week. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we'll be off again this week. In the middle of the summer slump, you're not missing much on the news front, but we'll aim to get back into the swing of things next week as we are just about a month out from the fall schedule getting underway.