Crimsonfan1

Top Players: Seniors: Jacob Jenkins-Manual Dayvon Sloan-Waggener Wesley Cox-Ballard Chris Dowe- Eastern Melvin Little-Trinity O.J. Bell-Male Kevin Glenn-Male Brian Gunter- St. X Antwan Wilson-J-town Jordan Reves-J-town I don't think it is a very deep Senior Class as far as talent is concerned. The Junior and Sophomore to be classes are loaded with talent. I will list my top Juniors and Sophomores later.

I agree with you GoSouth, CAL will be a sleeper next year along with Lopez and Henderson they had a nice freshman group that really competed with everyone. Coach Imlays' teams alway are very competitive and can pull the upset at anytime. Their Gym is one of the toughest places to play in Jefferson County. No one shoots a good percentage on the rims in that gym. As for Jenkins, after talking to him, I am confident that he will be a Crimson next year. That is great because he is one of the top returning players in the State and one of the hardest working kids in the State. If you looked up the definition of a gym-rat, you would see his picture next to the definition.

I will try to answer your question. J-town will be the obvious favorite in the 7th with numerous outstanding players returning(the Jackson brothers, Richard Kennedy, 6'9 Jordan Reves, Antwan Wilson,) add the transfers they have coming in Aaron Cosby(Manual), Trey Porter (Ballard), Harry Cross (Manual), and any others I don't know about the Chargers should only build on the outstanding year they had this season. Manual loses 6 seniors off of this years team 3 of them starters Aaron Williams, Derrance Lawson, and James Britt. The Crimsons still have some very talented players returning in Jacob Jenkins, Tony Kimbro, Sean Samsel, Aleks Nikolic, Harold Calhoun, and Miles Mitchell. Manaul will have to find a replacement for Williams at the point. If Samsel can fill that roll then the Crimson could be a big time contender in the 7th next year. Jenkins and Kimbro are proven players and the 6'9 Nikolic continues to improve by leaps and bounds. Coach Just played a lot of players during the course of the season giving a lot of these kids valuable playing time. It can only help down the road. Seneca is the team that I think will rise the most with all of their top players returning with the exception of Dominque Burdett. Burdett will be hard to replace but the Redhawks have plenty of young talent in the fold. With 4 starters returning( McElwain, Stone, Nance, and Harris) and the return of the Hearn brothers next year Seneca will be one of the favorites in the 7th. Ballard just continues to reload. No school in the County has the sheer number of athletes that Ballard has. Yes they lose some very nice players the Bruins have several quality players returning that saw significant palying time last year.(Wesley Cox, Ian Chiles, Kiestan Jones, Paul Perkins, Drew Hardin, etc.) They also had a very good freshman team, losing only two games, both to Eastern. Ballard will be lacking an inside presence but will be very hard to handle come next season. Eastern loses quite a bit off an outstanding team this year but they do have some very nice players returning and had the best freshman team in Jefferson County last year. Returning players that contributed this past season are Delquan Thomas, Chris Dowe, Remy Able, and Roderick Millner. Add the outstanding freshman group to this bunch and they will be tough again next year. Dowe just may have been the best player on the team at the end of the season. he played like a man possessed in the District and Region tournaments. Male will have to replace Dexter Heyman Brice Mitchell and Rod Lanon, a tall order but they have some high quality players returning in James Pilleshefski, Kevin Glenn, D' Carlos Hayes and O.J. Bell. Coach Crews does an excellent job and the Dogs have some very nice young talent to complement this group. They too will be a force in the 7th. Trinity is another team that I think will be improved next season. Replacing Chambliss, Kupper and Tierney will not be easy but the Rocks have some very good players returning in Josh Sewell, Melvin Little, Taylor Epley Trapper Graff and an outstanding Sophomore to be group Chance Armstrong, Darick Nix, Sam Keehner, Hayden Sweat. St. Xavier's new coach Kevin Klein will find out that he has some nice talent to work with returning players include Brian Gunter, Wyatt Gray, Patrick Butcher, and Markell Carter. If what people are saying is true and there is better talent walking the halls at St. X. if coach Klein can convince these kids to play the turn around at St. X will be quicker than expected. The Tigers dealt with a lot of injuries during last season contributing to their subpar performance. Atherton showed much improvement this past year and returns most of it's team from last season they competed with everyone they played but seemed to have trouble finishing games another year of experience may be just what they needed. Weatherford and Taylor are very talented players for the Rebels. Waggener will be rebuilding this year but have one of the best players in the state in my opinion in Dayvon Sloan. Moore is probably another year away from being a true contender for the Region but improved greatly over the course of the season and really played well during tournament time last season. Fern Creek is rebuilding but I truely believe that Coach Layfield will get the Tigers headed in the right direction. My hats off to coach Layfield for having the courage to eliminate possible problems dispite the obvious talent of some of the individuals who wouldn't conform to his way of doing things. I know this is long but I hope it helped to answer some of your questions about the 7th Region. My preseason Top Ten for next year: 1) J-town 2) Manual 3) Seneca 4) Ballard 5) Male 6) Trinity 7) Eastern 8) St. Xavier 9) Moore 10)Atherton/Fern Creek

1 Lex. Catholic 1 Owensboro 1 J-town 1 Holmes 1 Hazard 1 Lincoln Co. 1 Paducah Tilghman 1 Mason County 2 Lex Catholic 2 Holmes 2 Lincoln Co. 2 Mason Co. 3 Lex. Catholic 3 Mason Co. 5 Lex. Catholic TB 143

NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND - Corso Iroquois and Butler are playing very well right now. Iroquois just may be the hottest team in Jefferson County. The addition of Antonio Bryant inside has given the Raiders to kids inside over 6'4 and their guard play is as good as any team in the city. Butler is peaking at the right time, McAfee is doing a better job of running the team and they are getting good contributions from a lot of different players. Fairdale is also a sleeper. If Ransom gets hot and Morris continues to develop the Dogs could pull the upset. Central is capable of beating any team on any given night. All Four of these teams are well coached and will be ready for Regional play.

7-Manual 5-Collegiate 3-Larue Co. 2-Nelson Co. 1-Shelby Co. TB- Manual

7-Fairdale 5-Southern 3-Atherton 2-Ballard 1-Bardstown TB Ballard

Good point OYPreps. There are no Portland Christian, Whitfield Acad, KCD, St. Francis, Evangel, Brown, on Manual's schedule. They've played in the Defender of the Station, KOB, and the LIT tournament. They will definitely be tournament ready as far as competition goes. I mean no disrespect to those teams I mentioned.

Manual missed its first 18 shots of the 4th quarter. The game looked a lot like the West Virginia vs Cincinnati game last night. If you shoot 20% for the game it is going to be ugly. Give DeSales credit they came focused and ready to play. Manual will be OK. Coach Just will find away to right the ship, and they still will be a contender to win the region. The Colts student section is one of the best I've seen, but they need to learn to win with class. No need to be rude to their opponents after the game.

7 Iroquois 5 Larue Co. 3 Central 2 PRP 1 Ballard TB Iroquois

Trent, his name is Aaron Cosby and yes Manual does lose a little with out him. but, it also has given some others a chance to step up. Namely Sean Samsel a sharpshooter from downtown who brings a great energy to the team off the bench. Also, Tony Kimbro quite possibly the best freshman in the state. Cosby is a good player that made a mistake in my opinion leaving the Manual program. He didn't want to buy into the team concept that coach Just wants from his players. I wish him luck at J-town. Maybe he will be the man for the Chargers the next two years, but there are a lot of other talented players at J-town that will expect to be the man down the road. Too many stars not enough balls! Also, who is the other transfer they are getting? A player from Ballard I think. What kind of player is he? Are these kids being recruited? Just a thought.

What are everyones thoughts and predictions of tonights quarterfinal games in the Gardens? Here is the game rundown. Male (13-1) vs Eastern (14-2) 4:00 Ballard (10-6) vs Louisville Central (8-5) 5:30 J-Town (14-3) vs Manual (12-5) 7:00 DeSales (13-3) vs Madisonville (12-5) My thoughts: I think Male defeats Eastern, because Male has the complete package. Size, shooters, defense, and an exceptional point guard. Eastern has good talent but I don't think they have a perimeter game. they want to get the ball into the paint. Heyman will outplay Williams. Williams struggles to get up and down the floor. Eastern cannot shoot the ball from beyond 15 feet. Ballard beats Central, But if Ballard struggles to hit their shots Central could upset them. Centrals lack of depth will be their demise. Ballard will pressure them for 32 minutes. Central will play tough for 3 quarters only to wear down in the fourth. Coach Bibby will have a good game plan but can the Jackets execute it. Are the Bruins better with Renner or without? Manual beats J-town in a close hard fought game. I think these teams are very similar. The team that plays better defense will win the ballgame. Manual will have to stop the Chargers dribble penetration and locate Gagel and not give him any good looks from the perimeter. The Chargers will try to shutdown Jenkins, contain Williams, and try to rattle the Crimson with their pressure. J-town may very well win this ballgame but you can tell by my name I'm a Manual homer. Go Rams! Madisonville over DeSales. DeSales will do an exceptional job. If they can control the tempo they could get the win. Hood and Moore will present major problems for the Colts. DeSales can match-up with Moore with Melloan but they have no answer for Hood. Mullany will get his because he is an outstanding player but I think Madisonville will prevail. Oh by the way I thought it was interesting that the two closest games of the 1st round involved what many people thought were the two worst teams in the tournament ST. Xavier and Lafayette. Makes ya go hmmmmmm....

7. Manual 5. J-town 3. Iroquois 2. Marion Co. 1. Fairdale TB: Manual

No one knows how these ratings are calculated. Alot of teams in Jefferson Co. schedule a lot of cupcake games early and run up the score on their opponents to obtain a higher seed. check the early schedules of PRP and J-town. Why would you schedule some of those games other than to pad your LIT ratings