Discussion of the BluegrassPreps.com Preseason Boys Basketball Rankings

[theguru]

1. Male
2. Ballard
3. Ashland
4. Bowling Green
5. Fern Creek
6. Elizabethtown
7. Lexington Catholic
8. Covington Catholic
9. Highlands
10. George Rogers Clark
11. Oldham County
12. Eastern
13. Madison Central
14. Trinity
15. North Laurel
16. Beechwood
17. Frederick Douglass
18. Rowan County
19. West Jessamine
20. Murray

[theguru]

Who should be higher?  Who should be lower?  Who is missing from the Top 20?

[KeepItRealYo]

Montgomery Co, who played GRC to 3 points in the region championship last season, has their top scorers back, some role players from last season ready to step up, plus have added some new players.   They play 6 teams on this list so they will have their chance.  

[ACfan4]

Surprised Marshall county with Zion Harmon is not in there. 

[11kodiak]

GRC at 10 is a huge stretch!  They arent the best team in the 10th!

[Tigerpride94]

I would have Seneca at 20. I think Seneca one of top teams in 7th.

[JoJoSl]

I thought the coaches voted them best team?GRC I’m referring to. 

[ColonelMike]

Since the BGP Top 20 is created separately from the region rankings, we wind up with an interesting thing....our 7th Region rankings have Ballard #1, but the overall Top 20 has Male 1 and Ballard 2.   😆

I am also kind of surprised that Seneca is not in the Top 20.    They have a lot of the pieces back from a darn good team last year.

In the 8th Region, North Oldham has a good argument for being ranked in the 15-20 range.   The Mustangs are talented enough, return a lot of the firepower from last year's team, and got a key transfer that fills a need they had.   The problem will be assessing their ranking if they lose a few games - which they likely will, facing one of the toughest schedules in the state (North faces 6 of the teams ranked in the above top 12....)

I guess I'm a little surprised at how low CovCath is after all I've heard through the grapevine...but the grapevine isn't always that reliable, and with all the NKY folks on this board, I would expect the BGP voters have as good of a handle on CovCath as anyone, if not better.

It will be interesting to see if Bardstown cracks this ranking soon....

CM

[Tigerpride94]

4 minutes ago, ColonelMike said:

Since the BGP Top 20 is created separately from the region rankings, we wind up with an interesting thing....our 7th Region rankings have Ballard #1, but the overall Top 20 has Male 1 and Ballard 2.   😆

I am also kind of surprised that Seneca is not in the Top 20.    They have a lot of the pieces back from a darn good team last year.

In the 8th Region, North Oldham has a good argument for being ranked in the 15-20 range.   The Mustangs are talented enough, return a lot of the firepower from last year's team, and got a key transfer that fills a need they had.   The problem will be assessing their ranking if they lose a few games - which they likely will, facing one of the toughest schedules in the state (North faces 6 of the teams ranked in the above top 12....)

I guess I'm a little surprised at how low CovCath is after all I've heard through the grapevine...but the grapevine isn't always that reliable, and with all the NKY folks on this board, I would expect the BGP voters have as good of a handle on CovCath as anyone, if not better.

It will be interesting to see if Bardstown cracks this ranking soon....

CM

Male and Ballard to me are interchangeable. Both very good but have to pick one over the other. Maybe 1A and 1B better designation.

[4 Quarters]

7 hours ago, 11kodiak said:

GRC at 10 is a huge stretch!  They arent the best team in the 10th!

If GRC isn't the best team in the 10th, then who is?

[ColonelMike]

1 hour ago, Tigerpride94 said:

Male and Ballard to me are interchangeable. Both very good but have to pick one over the other. Maybe 1A and 1B better designation.

That's kind of what I'm hearing....    7th will be a real war this year - and there's several teams there also that are poised to pounce if the Big 2 slip up....Eastern and Seneca, in particular.

[NKYBBALLFANS]

Pre Season rankings with the 9th Region having 3 Teams (Cov Cath, Highlands and Beechwood) representing.  All 3 Teams have a good shot of having the type of year to win the region and make the Sweet 16, but only one can go.  

Interesting not to see St. Henry who have 3 returning starters (Vieth, Bessler) and won the KY All A Region last year in 2020.  Cov Cath will be hard pressed to match last years deep and Senior led team, having to fill the void of Grant Disken and Greene graduating.

Speaking of Senior led teams, Beechwood tops the Region with 5 returning Seniors, three of which were starters and two who were 6 and 7 man off bench.  However, if Beechwood is to have the kind of seasons they had in 2019 when they were the 9th Region's runner up's, they will have to find more than one player who shoots more than 50% of their shots.  

Championship teams have a few things in common, Great Defense, Low Turnover Ratio and a balanced offense where 3 players score double digit per game on average.  This Senior led Beechwood Team will need to play much more disciplined to win.  

I give Highlands the edge and prediction to win the 9th Region. They do all three.

[Tigerpride94]

I think it’s tough to do a preseason top 20 since so much unknown about teams. I know football is hard to rank 10 teams in one class so basketball much harder with no classes.

[ColonelMike]

5 hours ago, Tigerpride94 said:

I think it’s tough to do a preseason top 20 since so much unknown about teams. I know football is hard to rank 10 teams in one class so basketball much harder with no classes.

I agree!   There are so many unknowns to start the year.   So many teams with lots of new faces - not just faces who saw limited time last year, but often new faces who were relegated to JV last year and saw no varsity time.   Even though the tendency is to somewhat discount those players, we know every year that many will exceed everyone's wildest expectations....which ones will be the breakout players??

And the circumstances are very weird this year...veteran teams should weather this storm a little better.  Theoretically.

CM

[teeroy]

Rankings look good! Here are mine. Feedback is appreciated.

 
 

1. Etown 
2. Ballard 
3. Oldham Co 
4. Male 
5. Ashland   
6. Fern Creek
7. Lex Cath
8. Highlands
9. Cov Cath
10. Bowling Green
11. St. Henry
12. McCracken County
13. Knox Central
14. GRC
15. Murray
16. Eastern
17. N Oldham 
18. Trinity 
19. Conner 
20. Marshall Co 
21. Frederick Douglass 
22. Seneca 
23. N Laurel 
24. Madison Central 
25. Montgomery County