The Spencer County Basketball program under the guidance of Jason Burns should be getting ready to challenge for the region title in the next few years. Spencer County is a very young team with a strong junior class. The Bears could be a dark horse this year, but next year could be special. Spencer County has one of the strongest 8th grade classes in the state with three players generally considered among the best in the state. Jake Whitlock and Shelby County transfer Sam Conley play for the top AAU program GHITP Elite in the 8th grade. These two will be getting varsity time as eighth graders. Another top 8th grader is Lucas Hornback. All three players are listed in Rick Bolus's top ten eighth graders in the state. With these three being thrown in the fire early the future looks bright in Spencer County. While this year's team will be young, they look very capable of causing some upsets. Next year could be special with the strong Junior class becoming seniors combined with the young talent. Coach Burns (hidden gem) finally has the players in his program to take Spencer County where it never has been before. Spencer County fans need to get ready for the ride!

Tough district with Collins and Anderson County. Thanks for the information, I love hearing about teams flying under the radar.

Sorry I could be wrong but I don't see it, and if I remember correctly Andersons 8th grade team beat Spencer pretty handily this past season.

I believe they won by 12, however, the transfer from Shelby County had not transferred yet. He is a top five player in the state. Sam Conley.

Sam Conley will not be there in high school, right now he is because it does not hurt his eligibility. They don't live in Spencer County, he may end up at Fern Creek but Spencer will not be his destination. Coach Burns is doing a good job with what he has, but they have yet to get out of the district, this is his 4th year I believe, they should be seeing the fruits of their labor. They were a possession away last year from beating Anderson in district tournament. That district will always be a war

Bolus ranking are basically kids that went to his camp so take it for what it's worth. I'm not familiar with the other 8th graders but Sam Conley is pretty good. It sounds like he maybe doing what Quentin Snider did his 8th grade year when he played varsity for Fern Creek his 8th grade year before transferring to Ballard for high school. That gave him varsity experience as an 8th grader and he was able to make an immediate impact his freshman year at Ballard.

Didn't want to ruffle any feathers. Just excited about Spencer County's future. As far as the Conley kid. Know the family well and he will be playing for Spencer County High School all the way up. And it will be legal. No rules will be broken. The Whitlock kid and Conley play for the same AAU team and want to play high school together. Whitlock was born and raised there. Not going anywhere. You are correct Bolus can only rank kids that come to his camps, however, a whole lot of kids come to his camps and these three 8th graders are in his top 10 for the state. You can reasonably assume that they are pretty good. Whitlock and Conley play on an AAU team that regularly plays the top teams in the country so I would say they are legit. I know some people in Shelby County are mad about the transfer, but Conley won't be breaking any rules when he suits up for the Bears.

Tough district with Collins and Anderson County. Thanks for the information, I love hearing about teams flying under the radar.

 

Very tough district, especially with Anderson Co. probably being number 1 in the region. Like hearing good things out of spencer county. Always have a good band and great atmosphere there. Looking at their scores from last year, they lost to Shelby in triple OT, Anderson in OT. I saw the Collins game they should have won last year if not for blown layup. That district will always be a war.

I've been watching the 8th region for a long time and don't believe that I've ever considered Spencer a threat. Would make for some great games if that talent develops at Spencer and doesn't end up elsewhere.

Bigvman23. Double checked the score of that 8th grade Anderson County vs Spencer game. Spencer lost by 10. Keep in mind the two best Spencer County players were 7th graders playing in 8th grade game. Throw Conley in with them and it's a blowout the other way. 7th graders vs 8th graders.

A lot of enthusiasm for a team that hasn't made much noise in recent years. I hope you're right, and they can make the 8th interesting. Looking at their schedule, they'll be tested early with South Oldham and then Bullitt East. That should give everyone an idea of where they're at. If the youth movement is as strong as you say, it's probably going to be a couple more years of under .500.

Bigvman23. Double checked the score of that 8th grade Anderson County vs Spencer game. Spencer lost by 10. Keep in mind the two best Spencer County players were 7th graders playing in 8th grade game. Throw Conley in with them and it's a blowout the other way. 7th graders vs 8th graders.

 

Whoa there hoss, lets slow that roll just a little bit. For one thing, AC 8th played several schools quite a bit better than Spencer last year, and beat most of them, and they didn't get blown out (if memory serves) by anyone, finishing 5th in the state tournament losing to a very good Ashland team on a buzzer beater in OT to get to the final 4.

 

Secondly, AC 8th was unquestionably the better team between the two teams here, and played quite possibly one of their worst, if not their worst game of the year in this game against Spencer. And still won. So lets not go so far as to say had Spencer added this kid that it suddenly would have been a blowout for Spencer, because I highly doubt it.

 

Now, what does all this mean going forward? Who knows. Personally I like the next 2-3 years for AC basketball. They have 3-4 strong freshman coming in, a couple more kids that if they develop will help even more, a good Jr. class that with Sr. John Paul Garmon is favored to win the region this year, and will very likely be the favorites again next year when this freshman class will be sophomores and should start helping.

 

As for Spencer, they have never had the number of athletes/talent to consistently compete. That's not a knock, it's just reality. I'm not sure that changes the next couple of years.

 

Now, what they MIGHT have in their favor, is that Taylorsville and Spencer county in general is experiencing a little bit of a growth spurt. If they can maintain that, and they grow their student population over the next few years and can maybe add 2-3 dozen a class, THEN they could be looking at consistently being dangerous.

 

With all that said, this is a rivalry game and sometimes you can leave records at the door in those games. That's what happened last year when AC almost spit the bit and let Spencer take them to the wire on their home court in district, finally winning in OT.

It's great to hear people excited about spencer county. The may have a talented 8th grade group. However, Oldham, South, Anderson, and even Shelby will have good freshmen teams. Plus there is a difference between an 8th graders body and a high schoolers. But having watched their coach and lack of talent the past years. I can see them being a very scary team if talent starts coming through like these 8th graders people are talking about. I'm hearing good things from the entire region.

BigVMan23, I will have to respectfully disagree with quite a bit of what you said. I was at that 8th grade game. You all have a very big kid in the middle. We had zero inside players. We could not stop him. That was your whole offense. You say that was one of your all's worst performances. Well, there is a reason for that. We were a very good defensive team. Our guards actually had a poor shooting performance. The reason I say that it would be a blowout because of the new kid is because the one advantage you had would have been completely negated by Sam Conley who is the same size as the big kid you all had and generally considered a top five player in the state. Common sense tells you that it would not have been pretty.

 

Nighthawk, Good post. Coach Burns has never had the talent and still almost pulled off a few miracles. The talent is there now. The year after next Spencer will be in the mix for the region. The two 8th graders (Conley, and Whitlock) aren't typical. They will actually be contributing this year and by next (their freshman year) it should really take off. Not to mention a 7th grade African at the middle school projected to be 6 ft 9 in the pipeline. Burns has the talent we shall see what happens. I said it here first.

BigVMan23, I will have to respectfully disagree with quite a bit of what you said. I was at that 8th grade game. You all have a very big kid in the middle. We had zero inside players. We could not stop him. That was your whole offense. You say that was one of your all's worst performances. Well, there is a reason for that. We were a very good defensive team. Our guards actually had a poor shooting performance. The reason I say that it would be a blowout because of the new kid is because the one advantage you had would have been completely negated by Sam Conley who is the same size as the big kid you all had and generally considered a top five player in the state. Common sense tells you that it would not have been pretty.

 

Nighthawk, Good post. Coach Burns has never had the talent and still almost pulled off a few miracles. The talent is there now. The year after next Spencer will be in the mix for the region. The two 8th graders (Conley, and Whitlock) aren't typical. They will actually be contributing this year and by next (their freshman year) it should really take off. Not to mention a 7th grade African at the middle school projected to be 6 ft 9 in the pipeline. Burns has the talent we shall see what happens. I said it here first.

 

Like I said one of the worst games of the year. AC had far more than just Zack in the middle. They also had one of the best guards around, and a very good three and four as well. Unfortunately that game the team didn't show up which can happen from time to time but it still worked out for them. I would have no hesitation again saying Anderson had the much better team on the court.but we could sit here and discuss this all day, that was last year it's over and done with Unfortunately they won't be able to play again to prove either one of us right or wrong.

 

Now as far as the Connelly kid, you say he will be getting Varsity minutes this year as an eighth grader. Personally I think that speaks just as much about the needs that Spencer County has as it does to his ability if there is any chance of him actually playing any appreciable varsity minutes. Above you compared the Connelly kid to Zack from AC. I can pretty much with great confidence tell you that Zack won't be getting any Varsity minutes other than maybe some mop-up Duty here or there if he dresses. If the two players are comparable that should give an indication of where the two teams are., Again if as you say Connolly does get Varsity minutes. Not many 8th graders play Varsity unless there's just a huge, great need for it by the team, or they are just a stud Superstar. Connolly may be a very solid player but I don't know that he's a superstar.