Wow. I'm not sure I'm up to this ranking. There's just so many REALLY, REALLY good underclassmen (typically, this means anyone in HS except seniors, so that's how I'll treat it) in the 8th. I don't think it's fair - or perhaps even rationale - to rank them. How do you choose between a monster rebounder/passer and a shooter? Between a scorer and a defender?

 

Best Junior - I have to go with Kelli Dixon. She's the best combination of size, smarts, shooting, rebounding, and defensive ability I've seen in a while. More importantly, she plays within herself and lets the game come to her. A veryclose second would be SK's Wainscott, who's the region's premier point guard, an under-rated defensive player, and an incredibly heady player. She's one of my favorite players in the 8th. I haven't seen this young lady, but based purely on stats, Gallatin County's Brooke Hill has to be in the conversation. Finally, Tori Wilhoite of Williamstown has been one of the region's best all-purpose players, a member of the 1K/1K club.

 

Best sophomore - I think this is the best class in the region right now. The best all-around sophomore I've seen is South Oldham's Jasmine Whitfield. I continue to be amazed at her growth as a player in every facet of the game. She shot over 50% from the floor while the #2 scorer on South Oldham as a freshman and made her mark as an active defender. This year, she is starting to show the ability to simply take over games with her shooting, her defense, and her rebounding. Her passing is catching up to the rest of her game. Owen's Gayheart, Carroll's Devine, and one nobody's mentioning - North Oldham's Nicole Bryant - round out this group, IMO. Nobody's knows much about Bryant because North Oldham has never made the region tourney; but she led her team in just about every statistical category last year as a freshmen and is upping those averages this year (about 17 ppg this year after about 12.5 ppg last year). I also like Anderson's center Syndey Brown.

 

Freshmen Shelby's Wells leads this group, with Owen's Neely, Oldham's Jessica Leanheart, and W-V's Sandlin among the top players.

 

What's especially neat is how the talent is really spread out across the region... on any night, in any game, there's an underclassman star out there on the floor (it seems).

Wow. I'm not sure I'm up to this ranking. There's just so many REALLY, REALLY good underclassmen (typically, this means anyone in HS except seniors, so that's how I'll treat it) in the 8th. I don't think it's fair - or perhaps even rationale - to rank them. How do you choose between a monster rebounder/passer and a shooter? Between a scorer and a defender?

 

Best Junior - I have to go with Kelli Dixon. She's the best combination of size, smarts, shooting, rebounding, and defensive ability I've seen in a while. More importantly, she plays within herself and lets the game come to her. A veryclose second would be SK's Wainscott, who's the region's premier point guard, an under-rated defensive player, and an incredibly heady player. She's one of my favorite players in the 8th. I haven't seen this young lady, but based purely on stats, Gallatin County's Brooke Hill has to be in the conversation. Finally, Tori Wilhoite of Williamstown has been one of the region's best all-purpose players, a member of the 1K/1K club.

 

Best sophomore - I think this is the best class in the region right now. The best all-around sophomore I've seen is South Oldham's Jasmine Whitfield. I continue to be amazed at her growth as a player in every facet of the game. She shot over 50% from the floor while the #2 scorer on South Oldham as a freshman and made her mark as an active defender. This year, she is starting to show the ability to simply take over games with her shooting, her defense, and her rebounding. Her passing is catching up to the rest of her game. Owen's Gayheart, Carroll's Devine, and one nobody's mentioning - North Oldham's Nicole Bryant - round out this group, IMO. Nobody's knows much about Bryant because North Oldham has never made the region tourney; but she led her team in just about every statistical category last year as a freshmen and is upping those averages this year (about 17 ppg this year after about 12.5 ppg last year). I also like Anderson's center Syndey Brown.

 

Freshmen Shelby's Wells leads this group, with Owen's Neely, Oldham's Jessica Leanheart, and W-V's Sandlin among the top players.

 

What's especially neat is how the talent is really spread out across the region... on any night, in any game, there's an underclassman star out there on the floor (it seems).

Colonel Mike couldn`t agree more with you.I think all the kids metioned in this thread are deserving of a number 1 ranking, each do so much every night for there teams.All of them posses there own talents and abilities to take over a basketball game on any given night.So i would think its impossible to rank anyone of these talented kids in the region

Walton-Verona has several talented underclassmen. Dixon(JR),Slavey(SOPH), Sandlin(FR),Clinkenbeard(FR),McAdams(FR),and Judy(FR) for example. There will be times that you won't hear much about some of these kids other than Dixon and Sandlin,due to the fact they are all on the same team. But believe me, every one of these girls would start for several teams in the 8th Region.

I expect Walton-Verona to contend for the 8th Region title for the next 3 years.

Walton-Verona has several talented underclassmen. Dixon(JR),Slavey(SOPH), Sandlin(FR),Clinkenbeard(FR),McAdams(FR),and Judy(FR) for example. There will be times that you won't hear much about some of these kids other than Dixon and Sandlin,due to the fact they are all on the same team. But believe me, every one of these girls would start for several teams in the 8th Region.

I expect Walton-Verona to contend for the 8th Region title for the next 3 years.

 

Like everybody else, Walton-Verona has a nice little youth movement going on. I continue to be extremely impressed by the Lady Cats. Several of those players you mention would start for other teams in the region. But that's pretty much true for all the teams, the region is so terribly young. Other than Dixon and Sandlin, Clinkenbeard and Slavey especially seem to have potentially very good futures ahead of them. I've been impressed with the potential of both. But I've seen W-V, and - although I agree with your high opinion of some of the players you've mentioned - I really can't place any of these in the elite groups (for the purposes of this thread) except for Dixon and Sandlin right now simply because they aren't as consistently steller as the other players we've been mentioning above.

 

But that's really not a knock on those young ladies. It's just a weird year in the 8th. Normally, a player like Slavey would be considered one of the top sophomores - but this year the sophomore class includes Whitfield, Devine, Gayheart, Bryant, and Brown - five players who take "good" to an entirely new level. (How about that for a team??? Brown in the post, Bryant at forward, and Whitfield / Devine / Gayheart in a three-guard lineup? Might lack a true point, but they'd be a pretty solid team, with size and shooting)