Discussion of the BluegrassPreps.com Preseason Boys Basketball Rankings

[teeroy]

On 1/2/2021 at 2:53 PM, 11kodiak said:

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

I think GRC picked up a good transfer from Danville. Cardinals will be very good. Indians can challenge them, though.

[teeroy]

23 hours 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

Cov Cath lost their top 2 players and like 6 of their top 8 guys. They did pick up some transfers though. I think 8-12 range is about right.

[teeroy]

11 hours ago, NKYBBALLFANS said:

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.

You are right about St. Henry. They are going to be the real deal.

[4 Quarters]

With JCPS most likely not playing until Feb., do these schools hold their positions or drop in the rating?

[Big Red]

Covington Catholic might be the biggest wildcard to move way up or be most disappointing.  I'm told Starks grew noticeably.  Adding Mitchell Riley to Starks, Colin McHale, and Boydston makes them bigger and much more athletic than last years front line.  I heard the Sophomore transfer point guard is the real deal and "special" to play along with Donovan Stocks, Murphy, and Horn.  On paper they reloaded in a big way, but this is a mix of kids from OH and transfers.  Will they have the leadership and chemistry of the past teams? 

[Tigerpride94]

10 hours ago, 4 Quarters said:

With JCPS most likely not playing until Feb., do these schools hold their positions or drop in the rating?

Certainly throws a wrench in trying to rank them.

[theguru]

10 hours ago, 4 Quarters said:

With JCPS most likely not playing until Feb., do these schools hold their positions or drop in the rating?

Great question, what is your opinion?

Anyone have an opinion on this?

[theguru]

14 minutes ago, Big Red said:

Covington Catholic might be the biggest wildcard to move way up or be most disappointing.  I'm told Starks grew noticeably.  Adding Mitchell Riley to Starks, Colin McHale, and Boydston makes them bigger and much more athletic than last years front line.  I heard the Sophomore transfer point guard is the real deal and "special" to play along with Donovan Stocks, Murphy, and Horn.  On paper they reloaded in a big way, but this is a mix of kids from OH and transfers.  Will they have the leadership and chemistry of the past teams? 

The tea leaves I have been reading say CovCath is very confident about their basketball team this year.

[Tigerpride94]

1 hour ago, theguru said:

Great question, what is your opinion?

Anyone have an opinion on this?

I would rank them since going to eventually play and have good idea about them by what players have returning.

[theguru]

1 minute ago, Tigerpride94 said:

I would rank them since going to eventually play and have good idea about them by what players have returning.

I hope so but with JCPS's track record they will probably have another meeting and who knows what will come out of that. 

[Tigerpride94]

Just now, theguru said:

I hope so but with JCPS's track record they will probably have another meeting and who knows what will come out of that. 

Worse case scenario is they play district games only so they qualify for postseason play. They said at last meeting that all they had to do was play district opponents. I think they will play more games than just district. Hopefully find out exactly what they will be doing tomorrow.

[ColonelMike]

Obviously, tomorrow night's meeting could change all the assumptions here, but I think any poll right now is suspect, regardless.

If you include them, you include them using SWAGs, because you have no basis for ranking them high/low, because they have played no games and proven nothing (good or bad).

If you don't include them, then the poll exists with a real asterisk, because - for example - whoever's ranked #___ is ranked there strictly without any real sense of where they are in the "real" universe of basketball teams, since the JCPS schools represent - arguably - a third of the top 20.

Either way - assuming for the moment that JCPS does sit out January - we're looking at a situation where any January poll will lack real credibility.   (Of course, that doesn't mean we don't do polls, anyway - shoot, it just makes the water cooler debates more animated!  😄 )

CM

[Oldsoreknees]

#3 Ashland visiting #9 Highlands on the first night of the season will be the featured opening night game.

[The Double Deuce]

I'm really surprised at Beechwood's inclusion, not that they can't play to that level, but I'm going to wait and see on them.  I need to see a lot more balance to their roster / offense than we've seen previously, and can they rebound against bigger more physical teams with the loss of Mitchell.

Conversely, as @NKYBBALLFANS alluded to, if there is going to be a 3rd team from the 9th included in a pre-season ranking, I'd have St. Henry.  I think this could be (should be) Dave Faust's best team since his region champion (2003 maybe, with Fabiani et al), and if they get any consistent play at all from their back-court, they will be closer to the Top 2 than they are to the 4th place team and beyond.  Vieth + Bessler alone would have been enough to have them above Beechwood (comfortably) to start the year.  

I think the 9th ends up being a 2-team race, but if there is a team that I think can scare CovCath and Highlands in March, it is the Cru.

[Bluesport]

16 hours ago, teeroy said:

You are right about St. Henry. They are going to be the real deal.

St. Henry lost basically nothing are have all their top level guys back. This is the best team they have had since they won the 9th Region in 2003.