GoHardITP

In the Spring it is the only non-Nike event and the 16U team was scheduled to be in Houston as well that weekend but changed plans. Nike requires all 17U teams to play in the EYBL scheduled events and has moved toward requiring that with 16U also. Nike enhanced the 16U circuit and require the 16U teams to be in a minimum number of those events. I would not be surprised if next year they require the 16U to play in all of the events the 17U attend. I also was told that the Travelers have always played up even when they were in Tennessee and that the tradition of doing so would not ever change. Just a philosophy that has been in place for 15 years so who knows what factors started that.

Q is right and that is exactly what I was told too. To continue the preparation of what they face in the events they play in. As to the age of their 9th grade (15U) players on the team they buck the trend of frequent use of reclassification benefits. Each of them are 15: Ahmad Price, Trey Hill (moving to 15U Lou Magic), & JJ Reed-Each 15 with Fall birth dates in 1999 Anthony Wales & Zan Payne-Both just turned 15 with Spring 1999 birth dates Tre King is actually a sophomore this past season, but is only 15 with a fall 1999 birth date and was a 4 year old entering school. So in some cases they were not only playing against two years older in grade, but if those kids were reclassified kids they were actually three years older. I personally think the reclassification value diminishes as they start to enter high school. I see way too many star middle school kids who get left behind as they lose their size advantage of the past.

Boys...Boys...all the brotherhood lasted all of about 3 days. I really thought we had a chance at world peace here on the board. I must admit the two of you do bring a bit of a chuckle when you poke at each other. I trust it is all in good jest. There was some great basketball played and hopefully the kids competed hard and there was not any on court battles that went over the line of just good hard play. Does anyone know of any fights/troubles in any games? I saw none and for the most part good sportsmanship throughout.

Hammered is accurate, by the eventual state champion Charlotte Court in the Elite 8. Before that they were undefeated in pool play with (2) 20 point plus victories over Louisville Prospects and KY Heat in a pool where each of those three teams reached the Elite 8. They narrowly beat the NKY Legends in a round of 16 game that lasted until well past midnight on Saturday. They actually played very well until turning around and playing Charlotte Court on Sunday morning where it was never really close, but got bad at the end. The Court is very good and I am surprised more people are not talking about Dishman as one of the better returning seniors for the upcoming season. He is really nice and plays above the rim with a strong interior game. As for Trey Hill, anytime a player leaves you have to presume the obvious that he did not like playing with the team he is leaving. As I said in Q's post and as mentioned by someone here...Parents and kids need to make decisions about playing up or playing in your own grade. Lots of variables, but it no doubt is easier to be a more dominating player when you play in your grade for sure which can be tempting.

It is tough for me to weigh in because hindsight will always be the best judge in these type of situations of what was best or not. I just think at the end of the day parents have the right to do what they feel is best for their child. Kids obviously want to play major roles and sometimes when you are playing up with an elite travel team it is at the sacrifice of the potential of a lesser significant role than if you played at your age level. The Travelers do not have a 15U team and the Magic have a great 15U team which will be even better with the addition of this great young prospect. Only kids and families should make that decision and sometimes you have to find yourself in the situation to figure out what is best for you. The same situation may find another kid and family making a different decision so there is not any right or wrong that comes from playing up or dropping down. Each situation and impacted player deserve the right to make their own decision what is best for them and there was not any controversy other than a choice to move on to the 15U Magic team to join a talented group of 2018 players.

Word in Jefferson County is that two open jobs have been filled and they are sort of related....Former Shawnee Coach Miquel Coleman who was discussed as leaving Shawnee earlier in this post has been named the Jeffersontown coach while the Shawnee job he left has been filled with Coach Kevin Geary, an assistant at Doss for multiple seasons. This has been reported by Jason Frakes of the Courier Journal so likely official at this point.

I am buying lots of lottery tickets tonight.....on my post on the bottom of page 4 it shows I received two likes-one from Coach Q & the other from Doubletake. If I am the one to help them find common ground then I am feeling lucky tonight. Good luck to all teams and good health to all players.

I think this is the perfect resolution. If the young man wants to play in his last chance to participate in his State's AAU Championship who could blame him. Last year he played with an out of state team so now that he is back in a state program I could understand his desire to play again in the State Championships. His regular team was sitting out which they have the right to elect to do for whatever reason they see fit. Playing with the other team from that program makes sense in so many ways. Kid is happy, HD program is happy, and I suspect most families on Manimal also are pleased. Coaches and Players in many instances embrace guest pickups, but rarely has my experience been that families prefer to see that.

I used the range 6'10 - 7'0' and I had dropped it down to 6'9" on the low end it would still have held true....Believe me when I tell you as you go out and play elite teams from all over the country that many states (some much larger than ours) have an abundance of guys in that range. 7'0" kids are fewer, but there are teams loaded with guys nearing 6'9 or 6'10" and in KY they rarely are seen. When they do transfer in it becomes a much bigger deal because of the seldom seen syndrome than say in GA or AL, or especially TX or FL. I am sure it would be a big deal in West VA or Idaho like it is here in KY, but I have seen with my own eyes that this state does not have near the numbers of kids even 6'7 or 6'8" that many surrounding states seem to have. Not sure if all of these kids are homegrown from those states, because a rising number of foreign kids that are very tall for the most part are coming over to the US at a lot of prep like schools that cater to international players.

I mentioned some would be surprise picks, and of course BE is the favorite returning 4 starters for the region and they do come from the same district. But FC returns 4 starters also and three will be sophomores versus freshmen this season. The two teams played competitive games last year so to expect a potential upset from FC is not out of the question. FC could very well be a season away from being the favorite, but I am sure the BE coaches at least have an eye on their district rival as one of the few that could become a threat to what should be their year to be the heavy favorite to win the 6th region again.

I will take my shot and intentionally throw in some surprise teams 1st - Paducah Tilghman 2nd - University Heights 3rd - Apollo 4th- Bowling Green 5th- Taylor County 6th- Fern Creek 7th- Waggener 8th- Owen County 9th- Newport Central Catholic 10th - Campbell County 11th - LCA 12th- Mercer County 13th - Corbin 14th- Perry County Central 15th - Johnson Central 16th - Elliott County

This is an example of way too many assumptions and innuendo versus a fact discussion which is okay when you understand the context. Very few if any know exactly what is going on. Examples of conflicting reports is he could not play a lick of basketball to he is very good defensively, just raw on offense. I read he has been in Atlanta for less than a year and then read he has spent two years in school in Atlanta. The list could go on. We do apparently know his name and I believe it is the young man playing AAU ball with the Cincy Lakers. It is a long time coming as to whether we will see him suit up for a KY HS team. What is obvious is that a five page thread took on a life because in this state we get worked up in a frenzy when the potential of a 6'10 - 7'0" player emerges, especially a transfer and not home grown. I guess it is because we simply do not have very many big men playing KY HS basketball. They are like a sighting of Bigfoot when they show up to check out a school. It is what it is.

Major rebuild. Brandon Johnson departs and was probably about 40-50% of their scoring and it was because he needed to be. Not for sure, but freshmen and JV teams did not seem to have enough firepower to add much to the returning players either.

We can agree that a team that has a starting lineup worthy of mention as Top Players should easily be going into the season as the favorite as I too believe BE should be. Even though Doss lost a lot of seniors they also have some really good players with experience like Hall & McCloud with others. I do feel losing Collins will hurt them. Fern Creek has plenty of back court talent in Price, Hill, Wales, & Washington, but the inside will need some players to step up. The unknown is how PRP reloads and with whom they have transfer in. The kids there returning will not be enough. My surprise two teams are Fairdale with the Queen & Richardson duo along with Moore who could also benefit from the transfer season and new players. This should also be the best Valley team in recent years and they should continue to get better with the Coach they brought in last year keeping talent from the area in the school.

Not many surprise picks from those being some of the top players who already have proven their abilities in varsity games, but if you call out four players from BE and leave off Bailey Rakes there is some bias going on or a huge oversight. I have watched Bailey Rakes and some may argue as their PG he makes the team go and he averaged close to double figures while being their best on ball defender. You have seen Osborne up close so he may very well break out to become one of the Top Players, but in no way can Bailey not be mentioned if you list Osborne on potential as Rakes already has proven he deserves that designation from game performance. You also have to add Delvonte McCloud to the Doss list as he is a physical player with nice size that simply has untapped potential that could propel him into being a 6th region player of the year in the future if he reaches that potential. You should add Tony Washington from Fern Creek who was the leading scorer from last season who returns as a senior who is one of the best shooters in the 6th region. Anthony Wales was the third freshmen starter for Fern Creek who like Price & Hill averaged close to 10/game in their first season of varsity. Glenn Queen from Fairdale will be a player talked about for several seasons with great scoring punch. Tre' Richardson returns and will be one of the best players in the region as well from Fairdale. Others: Jaxson Burgess- DeSales Brandon Cranford & Hunter Stevenson- PRP Chase Craddock & Cameron Dukes- Bullitt Central Donquel Andrews- Southern Austin Wise & Jaquay Wales- Butler Marquese Bolden- Iroquois Eric George- Valley Keonte Smith & Ramon Collins- Moore Best incoming freshmen likely to end up in the 6th is Justin Weaver

Waggener, Ballard, and Central stand out with a maybe on Eastern. Nobody else is even on paper close to them, but somebody could surprise just like Central came out of nowhere this season. I think KCD had their best chance this past season when McCray was there. Not much from CAL expected either. Trinity and St X both rebuilding, but I expect Trinity to be better than X. Other public schools well down the list of surprise teams in my opinion.

So Drabo is on school #3 after beginning his career at Male, then Iroquois, and now PRP? I think he had almost landed at Western HS last year at this time as well before eventually settling in at Iroquois.

Ball Coach did a great job on detailing this 6th region as well. As Q said the favorite on paper clearly has to be Bullitt East with 4 really good starters returning and other contributors as well. The rest of the region could change drastically based on transfers and which young kids end up going where. Until school opens in August nothing is set, but June could indicate where some roster additions will indeed change things around for how good certain schools may be. Last year there was really about 5 teams that separated from the pack with Doss, BE, PRP, and DeSales the Top 4 and Fern Creek looming right behind them. DeSales and Doss lose a bunch, but Doss may be more prepared to fill in with varsity bench contributors when DeSales seems to be in rebuilding mold. PRP is not the PRP of old in terms of talent, but they have their same coaching staff and they always have a surprise transfer or two so at least expect them to be in the running. If Fern Creek can replace their departing big center, they cannot help to become much better with a season of experience from their elite freshmen class. I pick the three at the top to be BE, Doss, and Fern Creek with Fairdale as the darkhorse. However, much could change based on new roster additions for many other teams like PRP and Moore.

Good write up on a very early preseason review Ball Coach. Never count out Renner and Ballard. Despite all the talk of him leaving, looks like he is coming back right where he wants to be and that makes Ballard a contender. Waggener will be tough no doubt, and so will Eastern. But if I had to make an early prediction I feel Central under the guidance of Coach Bibby will be winning many games next season. His system is designed to have kids get better the longer they are in it and with those kids returning they will be 100% bought in and ready to compete every night. I think the winner will be from one of those three...Ballard, Waggener, and Central with the darkhorse being Eastern.

At the end of the day the weekend brings a collection of KY HS kids competing against each other apart from their HS teams. Alliances come together and we get to see which kids playing against mostly other KY HS players look really good and poised for breakout seasons the next year. Other than that you get some bragging rights and such, but for me I like seeing which kids have actually gained improvement from the end of the season using the last two months to get better. Off season improvements in 60 days let's you know who is working hard and will continue to work hard the rest of the off season. It should be fun and then in about 4 weeks they get to go back to their HS teams to have the month of June to gather and improve as a team.

The Louisville Magic program does not have a 17U team this year so players that may have played Louisville Magic 16U last year or players they would have went after are still playing in the event, just with different teams. I may be wrong but HD Orange has several players (Holman & Miller) able to compete in the Adidas Gauntlet but probably not in AAU State due to reclassification rules being different in the governing bodies. When key players are not available for non-injury reasons it makes sense to potentially sit out an event.

I absolutely liked McNeil and believe he can hold his own in and outside the 9th. I was giving counter to the assertion he is hands down the best 9th region player and not even close when that includes at least two other spectacular players in CVH & Weyer. To list Weyer as a good high school player but other than his size he doesn't do anything better than McNeil is discrediting Ben. When it was suggested Ben cannot defend the perimeter my point was I do not see McNeil as a lock down defender on the perimeter either based on the single time I saw him. In college at 6'6" you at least have some options to also guard the 3 and maybe the 4 some. But at 6'3" or smaller, your perimeter defense ability will in some ways limit where you project going in college. I do not think Ben has to take second hand to many in the state as a high school player or college prospect and nobody in the 9th is hands down better was my point.

He was my early pick to get the Male job when it opened up. It will be tough though, and he like anyone will need to be able to keep the best traditional middle school kids in traditional high school. The good news is that these younger traditional middle school kids will see that there are fewer kids from their middle schools that were the best players that went on to Male. I think they will believe they have a chance to play early.

I have seen all 3 of Weyer, CVH, and McNeil play, but only saw McNeil one time. They each are very good and if we are talking HS players they could all have an argument to be the top HS player in the 9th so suggesting it is not even close seems biased. Nobody can argue with what CVH has accomplished in starting as a 9th grader on a state championship team and then returning to the final four being the leader of his sophomore season. He is simply a winner in HS basketball in KY and that is why he could be #1 . Ben Weyer is the biggest and size does matter. He is pretty versatile in that he can play an inside and outside game. He probably defends better on the inside, but he is athletic enough to guard outside. All around he would be the toughest to match up and defend in my opinion for most KY HS teams which could make his case as #1 . I only saw 1 game Cooper played at Louisville Eastern's holiday tournament. He is smooth and a good scorer no doubt. At 6'3" he has good size too, but not Weyer length. The only thing I would suggest from that game was he and his teammates had trouble defending the Fern Creek guards. All four of their guards scored in double figures and 3 of them were freshmen. The Junior guard scored 26 that game so as a team (which included McNeil) defending quicker athletic guards seemed to be troublesome on that day. In the 9th he may do fine, but from that game I was more impressed with his offense because I recall him being a really good scorer which is where I could make his case for #1 . I think you could make a case for all 3. I personally feel in college that Weyer due to his size will be the most likely to have the highest Div 1 offers. He has a good combination of strength, size, agility and toughness that I like. Plus he is 6'6" so he could play the 3 or 4 in many college systems. The other two would have to play guard in college and I see good scoring from both at the 2 guard, but you have to be able to defend the perimeter which is very tough the higher up Division 1 you go.

I have no idea on whether this is the 7 footer, but according to some close coaching friends in the Cincy area there are a couple foreign kids that someone is now guardian that is looking for a place. They may be going separate schools, but my understanding is that these young men are kids that were at a basketball academy in Africa and ended up in the Cincy area that will now be placed somewhere for high school. I suspect that one of these kids is the 7 footer we are hearing about.