7th region preview if I forgot anyone or am unaware of transfers or injuries please up date. Just thought would be nice to get something out with October 15 appreciating.

 

Ballard-

Ballard lost Eaves, Perry and Douglas which was 46% of their scoring. They do return PG Wilson who averaged 8 ppg and is one of the best guards in the 7th region. I would expect Brian Alvey to step in to a starting role and contribute a decent shooter who can handle the ball. Without the big names they have had in the pass some might thing this will be a down year for Ballard but it is Ballard

 

Manual-

Lost 7th region co-player of the year Sutton and William West, Manual will be a lot more balanced in scoring this year. They will make it to the Regional tournament but with so many unknowns, this team could be a dark horse if they can all buy in to what coach Just is saying and be a really good defensive team.

 

Trinity-

Graduated 8 seniors and a ton of talent lead by Spalding. A lot believe this Trinity team will be a better “Team”. They are more defensive oriented and have some shooters Jr. Jacob King shoot 57% from 3pt line in limited playing time (11 games) and avg. 3 points a game. He is not the only one Half court defense and great half court execution.

 

ST X

Gone are Burgess and Miller ST X will reload and be at the top of the region again, with 7 seniors on this year’s team they will continue to be at the top of the 7th region. They also have a 6’9 sophomore John kiesler can develop he can be a nice shot blocker in the middle. He was still devolving last year on freshman and JV. Connor Knight should lead the Tigers in scoring.

 

Central

Lead by one of the State’s best back courts with Daivon Thompson and Brandon Well along with the big man they were missing in an Indiana transfer they will be one of the top 2 teams in the region. They will play hard as all Bibby teams do and they are my pick to win the region. Their coach has been there before and this team was 1 of 4 Kentucky teams to beat Trinity last year and 1 of 2 Louisville teams to knock off a very talented Trinity team. They did this with their guard play.

 

Eastern-

With the loss of two D1 players in Moss and Reed most would expect a step back for Eastern, led by an extremely talented junior class with PG Sugar Ray Wyche, Forward Caleb Williams and Jonathon Lane they should be a lot more up tempo, they did not push the tempo with Moss in the game last year. This trio strives in the open court and will surprise a lot of people. It would not surprise me if they are right there at the end.

 

Waggener

Returning almost every major player from last year’s tem, also getting back PG Hobbs who was injured most of last year. They will be the favorite to win the region. Two transfers should help with depth PG Isiah Knight (Trinity) and a shooter from St X will combine with a starting lineup of Kratholm 6’7 Kirby 6’6 Hill 6’6 Cooper 6’4 Hobbs 6’3 they will not only have the most talent but also the most size of any one in the region. They struggled at time last year going 16-10, now that could have been attributed to injuries. This team lost to a bad Jtown team last year and went 6-8 in the region going 1-8 against

Central, Eastern, Ballard, Trinity, Manual and ST X. the lone win was an impressive come from behind win against X in the region.

 

Male

I do not know a lot about the new coach, they do return Alex Cook who is a very skilled Forward who can score inside and out and a top five player in the region. Male was up and down last year part of that could have been that Coach Miller was announced to not be returning in next season, the middle of the year. Male will always have talent and athletes and will make it to region simply based on their district. They are a huge unknown with a new coach if he can put life into this program they could sneak up on some people.

 

Walden

The best Walden team ever, is gone, leading 3 point shooter Burton, Dowling and 6’7 Charles Thomas all graduated. They will be led by point guard Michael Harris 13.7 points game. He does not have any help around him; they will struggle and not come close to the 14 wins from a year ago.

 

KCD

One of the best PG in the region Mathis leads a talented group along with forward Colin Ferguson. They played eastern close both times last year losing by 5 in regular season. They could be a dangerous team and if Ballard is down they could pull a huge upset and sneak into region this year. They will be a top ten team unfortunately they are with Eastern and Ballard both top five in district.

 

Portland Christian

Graduated 6 seniors along with one of the top scores in the state Jacob Ryan (transfer from fern creek). They will have to do a lot of rebuilding this year and be very young with only one senior on the team. This should be a struggle this year to repeat the success they had last year.

 

Seneca

All 7th region play Chris Coffey is gone along with all 4 other starters. PG James Dunlop left to go to a prep school (in Indiana?) This will be along year for Seneca who under achieved with the talent they had the last two years 18-33. There is talk with very low numbers around 10 players this year. They lost the football basketball players when football coach Boyd left. Being in the 7th region there are not to many nights off this team might struggle to win 5 games this year.

 

Shawnee

Out is 13 seniors and Coach Miquel Coleman (now at JTown), in his 1st year coach Geary former asst. at Doss in his first chance as a head coach. Half of their wins last year where verse all a schools) Walden, Holy Cross, Brown, Portland Ch and Evangel) this will be a complete rebuilding year for the Golden Eagles. There is talent in the school if Coach Geary can get them out they could be competitive this year.

 

Atherton

In his 2nd her Coach Turley will look to improve Atherton a step further. He will have to do so without his best player from last year William Rainey. The JV team was very competitive with a lot of size and athleticism; they should move up to 3rd in the district behind Trinity and Waggener if he can get to .500 this year that will be another positive step.

 

CAL

Coach Carr is in his second year, he will look to Gregory Fist and Kenneth Purvis, both avg 8.7 ppg, to improve on last year 9-22 record. Coach Carr is a very good coach who always had Whitefield competitive. The road is tough as the fourth best team in the toughest district in the region. (Ballard, Eastern, KCD, CAL, and Walden) getting out of district will be a hard task.

 

Brown

Coach Cissell is in his 2nd season they lost top three scores from last year team. They took a few small steps last year, they finished 3rd in the district for the first time since 2009, but struggled to score. They will be led by senior Jaylen Childress and Junior Jared Fife. With only 2 returning seniors they will be young again. If this group buys into playing together they could sneak up on a few people. Brown had not had a winning season in 15 years, which could change this year and would be huge lift for the program.

 

St. Francis

Coach Butcher is in his second season and it does not look like it will be much better than his first. With only 1 senior on this year team they will be young and look to close the gap on the all a schools in the region.

 

Collegiate

With its top players George and Foley along with Coach Mucker gone, they will look to get life in the program with first year coach Tim Grey. It could be a tough battle unless he is able to get a few players into the school to get a quick fix. Alec Hertzman is the leading returning scorer at just over 5 a game. They will try and compete with KCD and Whitefield in all A.

 

7th region preseason ranking

1. Waggener

2. Central

3. Eastern

4. Trinity

5. Ballard

6. Male

7. St X

8. KCD

9. Manual

10. Atherton

11. Cal

12. Brown

13. Seneca

14. Shawnee

15. Portland Christian

16. Collegiate

17. Walden

18. St. Francis

 

Prediction for district finishes

25th

1. Central

2. Manual

3. Shawnee

4. Portland Ch

5. St. Francis

 

26th

1. Male

2. St X

3. Brown

4. Collegiate

 

27th

1. Trinity

2. Waggener

3. Atherton

4. Seneca

 

28th

1. Eastern

2. Ballard

3. KCD

4. CAL

5. Walden

 

All A finish

1. KCD

2. Whitefield

3. Brown

4. Portland Christian

5. Collegiate

6. Walden

7. St. Francis

Good assessment, Trinity will a much better "Team", they looked very solid over the summer.

Male has so many unknowns, two seniors are playing football for the first time, two would be starters coming on injuries and a new coach. I would say it will be January before we know how good Males will be.

Ballard as strong, always seem to reload.

Central best coached team in the city.

 

 

Bottom line the 7th is wide open.

Excellent review. I appreciate the hard work you put into it.

 

I will speak on the smaller schools that I know about:

 

KCD will be the cream of that crop. Anthony Mathis and Colin Ferguson are quality high school basketball players. They will need to replace the play of Mayliek McCray, who was able to physically overwhelm a lot of opponents last year.

 

Walden lost a whole lot. Michael Harris is a nice player, but he will not have much around him. It looks like a big step back for Walden.

 

Portland Christian also lost a whole lot. Agree it will be a rebuilding year.

 

I give Coach Cissell at Brown a lot of credit. He will have that team running and playing hard from the opening tap to the final whistle. I don't know if they will get to a winning record, but believe they will move forward this year.

 

Rumor has it that Collegiate has received a 6' 9" transfer from St. X. He is a nice looking player who will tower above most of Collegiate's competition, although he likes to play out of the floor. Will be an interesting addition for Collegiate.

 

I believe St. Francis will move forward this year. They played last year with 7 players. But they lost only one player, and will have 3 returning seniors plus their leading scorer is returning as a junior (James Risley, who averaged around 16-17 points last year). But the best news is that it looks like they will have a roster of 13-14 players this year.

I agree with your Top 5 and especially agree on paper the #1 favorite should be Waggener. I would not count out Ballard from ending the season higher than #5. I believe they got a nice transfer from Male that is going to help them inside some. The younger guys will provide ample depth for the Renner system. Agree Central will be very solid and capable of a Rupp run at the end. Eastern has enough to win the 7th and I think the surprise player not mentioned is Chance Moore who has grown to be close to 6'6" and he can score in many ways.

 

Different from last year with Raymond at Trinity, Moses at Eastern, and Douglas at Ballard there was very good size, but this year the region will not have the high profile size players as it had last year. Somebody gave you a generous size with the St. X big man, I would say he is much closer to 6'6" than 6'9", but he still will be one of the best bigs in the region for sure. Just a note of observation that the region lacks the profile players like those three last season who all were 6'9" or bigger.

My top 3 would be:

1. Central

2. Ballard

3. Waggener

 

I think all three are probably top 10 teams in the state.

I know alot of people are high on Waggener, they do return alot, had a very average season last year in my opinion with that talent. I'm going with the 3 coaches that have had championship state tournament game experience

1. Bibby

2. Renner

3. Henley

I agree with the region being wide open I could see any of the top 5 or 6 teams winning it, I would also not be surprised one bit if they finished in any order.

 

Gohardinpaint, I agree there is not the high profile players like last year in this region.

1. Waggener

2. Central

3. Eastern

4. Trinity

5. Ballard

6. Male

Who are the top 5 players in the region?

I can tell you who's best- Jalaam Hill.

Who are the top 5 players in the region?

 

In no order there are about 15 players who are all very even.

 

Jaalamm Hill Forward Waggener

Devon Cooper SG Waggener

Anthony Mathis PG KCD

Alex Cook Forward Male

Jamil Wilson PG Ballard

Jonathon Lane Forward Eastern

Daivon Thompson Guard Central

Jaquis Hobbs Guard Waggener