factsonlyplease

Hello,

This a not a normal thing but my daughter plays for the Royals and Holy Cross High School. The last post on Bolus Pre Season ranks is not good for KY girls’ basketball or the kids involved in exposure or AAU. The Royals organization is being talked about this year consisted of 6 or 7 young ladies giving everything they had to succeed. When they received some exposure you come down on them and the coach. The girls on Premier and their families are friends or family. When we see each other, there is no animosity between us. It has become so disturbing that KY girls’ basketball has come down to this. Premier and Royals friends should come together say, NO to those horrible post and division they try to create.

Maybe you didn’t catch all that I said, it was super long. I was very clear that there was no bashing of other AAU programs meant. I was also very clear that I was hopeful for all the Ky Royals players that lots of future offers were coming. I am sure they are all good players deserving of opportunities.

I have my opinion that KYP is the best organization to be a part of. That’s just my opinion and it differs quite a lot from the poster Pete Mitchell. Surely that opinion is not something that is mean or hurtful towards players and parents there though. As I’m sure you have your opinion about the best options for girls basketball players.

I’m also unsure why the thread was closed? I tried to keep my post mostly about the Bolus rankings. Maybe we’re not supposed to show favoritism towards organizations? But in that case why wasn’t the thread stopped after Pete Mitchell bashed the original poster and KYP?

A few observations of my own:

 

If you haven’t heard of Louisville Christian Academy, and presumably it’s best player, you probably should refrain from critical comments about the propriety of this or any other list, or any of the players or organizations. Ignorance is ignorance in this instance; it is difficult to win an argument using the “I’m ignorant, but you’re more ignorant” tact. I would stick with facts and positive opinions.

 

Second, your cherry picking of facts reflects your bias and agenda. #3 girl is going to wind up being the most highly recruited girl to ever come out of Kentucky. Concluding that that is the case because of who she plays AAU for is unfair to her and her family, and it’s unfair to the other girls and organizations represented. The biggest flaw in your reasoning with respect to the “HUGE” difference the organization makes is, if you remove #3 from the calculus, the dozens of other 2020s that play for that organization are not as highly ranked and do not hold those kinds of offers. For that matter, none of the seniors on the list hold those kinds of offers either. The aberration in this analysis is player #3, not the organization she plays for. Now having said that, the fact that she has been the featured talent in the organization has certainly helped her exposure, but your conclusion that she got all those offers because of who she plays AAU for doesn’t explain why the other girls in that organization (or boys, for that matter) don’t have the same kind of offers or rankings.

 

You spin your facts to suit your agenda, but I can do the same thing to suit my agenda. The only consistent theme among those top 3 players, all 2020s, is that they all played for the Kentucky Royals at some point. And given that the Kentucky Royals are 19-1 all time against your organization, it’s not surprising that there is a consistent, continuing and pervasive effort by that organization to recruit Kentucky Royal players to leave and join that organization. It has worked in the past, and a number of players have, in fact, left, including #3, but all the others that have left have not enjoyed the “HUGE” difference benefits you imply result from playing for that organization.

 

Finally, the Royals and #2 have accorded themselves well against many of the top 2020 teams and players in the country, and are absolutely on the high D1 radar. Choose to believe that or not, but the fact that your organization continues to recruit those players is well known and implicitly corroborates Bolus’s rankings, including that of #2.

 

I might suggest waiting until next summer, when all the 2020s are playing in the same tournaments, to assess the accuracy of Bolus’s rankings, or any others, and the relative merits of playing for one organization or another.

 

I don’t know how well read you are statistically, and I am not suggesting they are determinative of a player’s ability, necessarily, but #1 and #2 on Bolus’s list have the biggest stats on this list; perhaps that entered into his calculations. I do not know. All I know is that it was my position 5 years ago that one of the Kentucky Royals, including the top 3 on Bolus’s list, would be Ms. Basketball in 2020, and I still feel pretty good about that prediction.

Going for the world record length post here. Since the KYP people are too respectful to respond, I will. I absolutely believe KYP offers the best opportunities for girls to get the best college offers possible at all levels. Kentucky Premier is one of the top organizations in the country. Just by the fact that the director and all the coaches that work with the organization refuse to respond to your bitterness is evidence enough of their character. My daughter played with KYP and I know the ins and outs of exposure basketball well.

To begin, your opening statement is unfairly contradictory. First you use strong language and condemn the poster as “ignorant” (like he/she is not allowed to have an opinion because they don’t know who CAL is) and then despite your continued bashing of KYP over your next several paragraphs you say “stick to the facts and positive opinions”.

Your next paragraph tries to state that Scherr is an “aberration in this analysis” so therefore KYP does not make a “HUGE” difference in college offers. So we will leave defining “HUGE” to the readers as we look at the “facts” as you say.

Bolus list. Here are facts, this will be fun. I will include only posted offers since we all know that letters or even phone calls mean very little until an offer is there. I’m sure not all the info is exactly correct but I did my best.

Shelby Calhoun – Nike EYBL Gym Rats. 8-10 D1 offers, best offers are OSU, NC State, Kentucky

Kendall Wingler – KY Royals. 3-4 NAIA/D2 offers, 2 low D1 offers. Best offer Evansville (0-18 in MVC)

Maddie Scherr – KYP EYBL. 20-25 offers, best offers are Louisville, Oregon and Tennessee

Emma King – KYP EYBL. Committed to Kentucky

Hailey Harrison – KYP (non-EYBL). Committed Tennessee Martin (2nd in OVC, NIT berth)

Nila Blackford - Indy Gym Rats EYBL. 4-6 Mid Major offers, best offers UTEP and Marshall

Aaliyah Hampton – KYP (non-EYBL). Has at least one offer but unable to determine details

Jada Higgins – KYP (non-EYBL). Committed to EKU (OVC team)

Cameron Browning – KYP EYBL, committed to Belmont (31-4 record, 3 straight NCAA appearances)

Maaliyah Owens – KYP EYBL. 9-10 D1 offers. Best offers are Middle Tennessee and Morehead State

Whitney Hay – KYP 2nd team EYBL. 3-4 D1 offers. Best offers NKU and Indiana State

Savannah Wheeler – West Virginia Thunder 2019. Committed to Marshall

Malea Williams – KYP 2nd team EYBL. 5-6 D1 offers. Best offer top 25 Georgia

Ta’Ziah Jenks – West Virginia Thunder 2020. 6-7 D1 offers. Best offers WKU and Xavier

Mikayla Kinnard – Indy Gym Rats EYBL. 5-6 D1 offers. Best offers Toledo and EKU

Kennedy Igo – KYP EYBL. 6-7 D1 offers. Best offers are Louisville and Kentucky

Ivy Turner – Team Slink 2019. No offers or unable to determine any offers.

Destyne Jackson. Overtime Performance 2019. Offers to EKU and Morehead State

Lauren Schwartz – KYP EYBL. 7-8 D1 offers. Best offers Belmont and NKU

Jasmine Elder – All Ohio EYBL. 4-5 D1 offers. Best offers are Cincinnati and Toledo

Erin Toller – KYP EYBL. 6-7 offers. Best offers are Tennessee and Kentucky

MacKenzie Keelin – Sky Diggs Elite. 3-4 D1 offers. Best offers are EKU and Tennessee Tech

Kaitlyn Wilks – Central KY Sparx. Committed to Travecca Nazzerene (D2)

Sarah Beth Clemons – Kentucky Clutch. No offers or unable to determine any offers.

Maddie Burcham – KYP (non EYBL). NAIA/D2 offers

Other notable KYP players from Bolus list since we’re comparing AAU programs…

Cassidy Rowe – KYP 2nd team EYBL. Committed to Kentucky

Ally Collett - KYP 2nd team EYBL. 7-8 D1 offers. Best offers are NKU and WKU

Sarah Sutton, KYP (non-EYBL). Committed to Murray State

Jillian Hayes (a 2020), Ohio Bolus list. KYP EYBL – 8-9 D1 offers. Best offers are Middle Tenn and Xavier

Kaiya Wynn (a 2021), Tenn Bolus list. KYP EYBL – 6-7 D1 offers. Best offers are Kentucky and WKU

Other notable KY Royals players on Bolus list….

Lexi Taylor, KY Royals. 1 NAIA offer from Georgetown

- In these 30 players there are 18 players that play for KYP. Of those 18 players, 17 have either committed or have offers from at least one D1 school. And every single one has better D1 offers than Evansville.

- There are 4 girls in other programs that play at the EYBL level as well, all 4 have multiple D1 offers.

- There are 8 girls that have offers from a college in one of the Power Five conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, ACC and SEC). 7 of these 8 play for KYP. One plays for another EYBL program.

- Of these 30 girls, 5 girls have no D1 offers. 4 of these 5 DO NOT play KYP.

If you use Bolus top 13 girls for comparison you will see that its not girl #3 that’s an aberration but girl #2. And even if you take out Scherr (as you propose needs to happen), you have 11 other girls with mid to high D1 offers better than Evansville. 8 of the 11 play KYP (2 of which have a Power Five offer). Only “KY Royals colored glasses” would keep someone from seeing this aberration.

If that’s not enough, in the 2018 class there were 33 girls that played for KYP that are now playing college ball somewhere. Here is that list Kentucky Premier Alumni

For clarity, this is not a bash on other exposure programs. Clearly other EYBL programs and programs like WV Thunder, Team Slink, OTP, KY Sparx and KY Royals can provide a great opportunity for girls to both play in a good environment and have possible scholarship opportunities. And many non-shoe company programs like WV Thunder have elevated themselves to national levels and are great places for girls.

SOOO… lets let others decide how big the difference is (HUGE or not) between playing on the platform that Kentucky Premier (and other EYBL teams) provides or not.

As to your other comments. Just bringing up that Scherr and Calhoun played for the Royals is completely irrelevant and betrays personal issues with this stuff. Many girls, probably most girls do not continue with the same team/organization they played with in the 3rd-5th grade.

To insinuate or state that these girls were “recruited” by KYP is truly a false statement since Scherr came from the Shining Stars and Calhoun from Sky Diggs to EYBL. So who was “recruited away”? Jillian Hayes this past season? I heard the story of how she ended up with KYP and it wasn’t “recruited” for sure. As a case in point though how could you be anything but happy for Miss Hayes? Since she started with KYP she has gotten 8-9 D1 offers. Seems like she is “benefitting from the result of playing KYP”. So what girl that’s left the KY Royals for KYP is “not enjoying the benefits”? I couldn’t find KY Royals rosters from the past but Maggie Jones has offers, the girl from Southwestern has offers. So who “was recruited away and not enjoying the benefits of KYP”?

Stating your record vs KYP is so silly, there are many KYP teams out there, and they don’t have tryouts, anyone can play on a KYP team. That’s like saying your AAU team is 19-1 versus rec teams. What’s the Royals record vs KYP top EYBL teams? Prob 0-0 since the EYBL teams usually play only other EYBL teams.

So your statement “we’ll see next year” is unrealistic also. Last season KYP EYBL teams played in 6 tourneys. 3 of which were EYBL only. So unless you happen to play in one of the same 3 tourneys that aren’t EYBL they play in AND your team is entered in the Diamond/Platinum division which they likely wouldn’t be AND you happen to be in the same pool.... odds are you won’t play the KYP EYBL next summer.

HOWEVER, even if the KY Royals got to play KYP EYBL and for some odd chance the KY Royals won, you know who would care? No one. Because the KYP coaches know its about getting the girls exposure and no one cares about winning like the old AAU teams. Only the ego maniac coaches who need their egos elevated care about winning like that in exposure basketball. Not a single college coach cares whether the KY Royals are good (19-1) or not, it will gain zero scholarship offers for the girls.

Lastly and most importantly, although I am disagreeing with your “observations”, I am hopeful for the KY Royals girls as you are. As you mention, next summer, hopefully some KY Royals girls get some good offers. I am by no means against the girls or think they don’t deserve D1 scholarship offers. Many of them are good enough to play in college for sure. There are some good players on the KY Royals and I wish them success with their recruiting. But IN MY OPINION (and I think the FACTS support this), they would have a better chance with a KYP team to get the most/best possible offers.