Swishenator

The other egregious miscalculation is rating Stonecipher 12th. Just not correct at all.

Another way to look at this is to take the voting done by the coaches last year for All-Region and remove last years seniors. That would look like this. 1 Hubert 2 Rentfrow 3 Puckett 4 Adams 5 Stonecipher 6 Arnett 7 Burnett 8 Kimbler 9 Williams 10 Chumbler I personally think this underrates Arnett, but this isn't my opinion these rankings are of the coaches that watched and scouted them. Leaving Burnett out is obviously the most egregious omission.

These player rankings are really not good. Really curious who this guy got his info from. Almost laughable. Arnett should be Top 3 at worst. Williams from Graves is a good player but 5 is a stretch. McEwen and Love at 7 and 8 almost made me fall out of my chair. Good players again but.... The McCracken kids are way underrated. Chumbler and Stonecipher both deserve higher rankings and how Jared Burnett didn't get on this list is beyond me. Bryce Rodgers also for that matter. Skyler Hunter is also rated too low. Not sure whoever fed this info has actually watched all the kids play. My list would look something like this: 1 Hubert, St Mary 2 Arnett, Calloway 3 Rentfrow, Marshall 4 Puckett, Graves 5 Adams, Calloway 6 Stonecipher, McCracken 7 Burnett, McCracken 8 Chumbler, McCracken, throw these 3 in a hat really 9 Hunter, Calloway 10 Williams, Graves 11 Kimbler, Graves 12 Rodgers, McCracken 13 Love, Mayfield 14 Boone, Murray 15 McEwen, PTHS I actually always kind of laugh when folks from Eastern Kentucky try to discuss first region bball. His team rankings aren't bad really. I would rank Calloway first, McCracken 2nd, Graves 3rd at this point.

Agree with this almost completely. Birdsong is an excellent coach and will always have Graves competitive. I agree with Sweet 16 that Marshall County will not be the same this year as most years. Just lost too much the last 2 years and other than Rentfrow there isn't a proven scorer left. They do have some good young players moving up but I don't think they will be ready to have them contending this year. Calloway really should be the favorite with everybody back from a Regional Runner-Up, but I still think the new McCracken team could be very, very good before the season is over. Just so many kids who can play on one team. Foul trouble will never be an issue for them.

Graves will be good as always. Will be interesting to see how they handle losing the two guards, Beale and Starkey though. They were the glue for that team. Puckett is one of the best players in the 1st Region and Jake Williams can shoot. Kimbler is also a very solid player. I expect that Calloway, Graves and McCracken will be the 3 region favorites. Those games along with Marshall, St Mary and Tilghman will all be fun to watch this year. The key for Graves will be what they are able to get after those 3 returning starters. Who fills the void?

One more thing. The first region was a little weak at the top last year. Not so this year in my opinion. Whoever gets out of it this year will be tough to handle. Calloway brings everybody back from region runner-up. Graves returns 3 starters, including leading scorer Puckett, from team that won opening game at state tournament. Marshall and St Mary have what is probably the top 2 players in the region. And if McCracken can mesh they are deepest most talented team. What a fun year coming.

I also watched several first region teams at Murray this weekend. Tilghman got rocked by a Memphis team. They will be rebuilding. McCracken beat that same Memphis team and looked pretty good doing it. They just have too many players right now they are trying to play. When rotation gets tighter they will be really good. Really good guard play. Marshall just doesn't have the horses they have had for the last few years but they will defend and play fundamentally sound. Graves is solid but they miss the two guards that graduated. Calloway was missing too much to get a read but they will be good. Looks like Graves, Calloway and McCracken will start out as the big 3.

McCracken's problem this year will be that they are basically Lone Oak moving up to 6A. Reidland and Heath's football programs had both fallen to rock bottom and won't add to McCracken like they will in other sports at the beginning. As Haskins builds that program from the bottom up with more of a pool of kids I expect that McCracken will get real good real fast over the next few years.

Sindelar didn't play last year. He is a pretty big time football and baseball player. If he does come back he is really good. Would change their season significantly.

Carlisle lost a LOT. Will be a different year for them.

When I saw Sindelar play a couple of years ago he was more of a small/power forward. He could really shoot it though. I was really impressed with Dee Cain's potential last year at guard. If Sindelar does come back they will be really good.

Yes, Graves will still be really good. Marshall will still have the big boy. St. Mary and Tilghman will be good too. Good year for Region 1 hoops.

That is probably a fair assessment. Kind of think McCracken's front court is going to be better and deeper than people think though. Armstrong is going to be a stud and looks like he has grown. Rodgers is a bulldog. On the other hand Arnett is really good. Hunter seems like he is more perimeter oriented. Should be great games.

This would all be correct in almost any other year. Everybody back from Regional Runner-up should be the favorite. But this year is different due to the consolidation of the McCracken schools. All three of the schools that consolidated were going to be very good in Region 1 next year. And the three guards from each school, Stonecipher, Burnett and Chumbler, were all going to be Region 1 top 10 players next year. They can all shoot and score but they are also all very smart players. Add to that what will be a very deep frontcourt with players like Rodgers, Armstrong and Weir and it is the makings of a very good high school team. They have to start the year as the Region favorites. Calloway would be 2nd.