wildcatfan

I think the starting 5's for these teams will be something like the following. Should be pretty even, IMHO, overall. Boone: Gabbard senior G Popp senior G Cotton senior F Lay (senior) or Montgomery (junior) F Earls senior C Highlands: Kowolonek senior G Lother or Gordon senior G Grote senior F Watson senior F Grubbs senior C Gabbard, Earls, Popp, and Cotton have all started a significant number of varsity games, and Lay started a few last year as well, so its not like they don't have lots of experience coming back. In addition, senior G Schulze started a few games last year and will come off the bench. They will miss McFarland's muilti-talented play (and Brown's leadership until/unless someone steps up to be a leader), but talent/skill wise, they aren't losing a beat replacing Spaulding with Popp and Brown with Cotton. Boone returns 7 seniors and 2-3 other junior bench players who will be contributors. That's plenty of depth, IMO. They may or may not benefit from more outside shooting. They didn't have a consistent outside threat last year, and they still did pretty well. The 2010 class from both of these schools have always been very competitive with each other, going back a few years. The season will have to play itself out.

Well, they are certainly the favorites and the team everyone will give their best shot against.

So do you think they will be stronger? They may be the favorite, but the probability against any team repeating year in and year out is not very high. I don't see who is going to fill Riley's shoes. He was the main reason that teams couldn't pack in zones against Holmes last year.

Don't be too sure. The same thing was said last year about Boone, and they beat Holmes once during the regular season and gave them a huge scare in the regional championship. Although they lost McFarland, they may end up being a better, more balanced team this year and will have more experience than last year's team. They will start 4-5 seniors and have at least one other senior from the bench contribute. 4 of the 5 starters all started a bunch of games last year. They also have a couple of good junior big men in Brown and Montgomery who did not get to play against Holmes last year and will be good contributors. In addition, Boone's J.V. team defeated Holmes in the NKY championship last year, so they have some other good players coming up too. The summer varsitiy game between them this year was a 1 point come from behind victory for Holmes. I don't think Holmes will be quite as strong as they were last year.

Boone over Manual by about 10. Approximate scoring leaders for Boone were Popp 20, Cotton 10, Earls 10, Gabbard 8.

I guess everybody wants to feel that their kid stands out! Big fish in a little pond syndrome. :lol:

Not really much different than a college team losing their end of season conference tournament and winning the national championship.

Congrats to a fine young man!

Not enough team speed this year, and as always, no passing game. It doesn't look much better next year.

They only lost by a few points. I remember Grote and Lother on the all tournament team but not Kowolonek.

They lost in a close game in the semifinals on the other side of the bracket from Highlands. Popp and Flannery were on the all-state team. Grote and Lother from Highlands. Lother was MVP. Believe RA Jones lost in the quarterfinals.

Is Lebanion still playing?

And 2007 and 2006?

Agree. I was trying to make the point that Boone's 2010 class is probably stronger than 2011 overall.

I agree.

You think that Ryle or Conner will beat Boone out in the districts?

Boone is picked to finish 2nd in the 9th region again this year behind one of the 9ths best teams ever. Do you think Boone will win the region in 2011?

The only point I'm making is that Earls never played freshman or JV ball, and Popp and Gabbard also played up on JV as freshmen and played very little freshman ball with their own class. So, you can't really gauge how good a class is by the freshman and JV championships while they were at the school. The JV team did finish 2nd in NKY when Popp and Gabbard played on that team as freshmen. The 2010 class at Boone has not really ever played entirely as one at Boone. That class is probably a little deeper overall. They could have about 9 players on the squad this year. Boone did win the JV tournament last year. However, I believe they had some kids in the 2010 class that were a significant part of that too: Thamann, Krickmer, etc. Without Thamann hitting about 5-6 threes in the JV championship game, Boone would not have won by 3 points. I think there could only be about 5-6 players on boone in the 2011 class (Oppenheimer, Crabtree, Montgomery, Fookes, Brown, Burgess). The 2012 class has Downs, McQueary, and maybe about 3 others, depending on who makes the team this year). The 2010 and 2011 class together are a pretty good combination, just as 2009/2010 was, and 2011/2012 will be. I don't know yet whether the 2009 or 2011 class is stronger. 2009 did have McFarland who went on to get a scholarship at Georgetown. Montomgery probably has the best chance to play at a school like that or better from the 2011 class. Crabtree has the height.

What D2 colleges are recruiting him?

Is Taylor NAIA?

I think they will be good but not quite as good, but we will see. Gabbard, Earls, and Popp all played JV and varsity most of the year as freshmen and strictly varsity as sophomores. The 2011 and 2012 classes will not have as much depth either, IMO. I would like to see Boone get on a streak of winning seasons and win a regional championship again.

Would love to see him play for NKU.

Playing devil's advocate, perhaps adjusting the system takes them to 27-4 and a regional championship, and 23-5 the previous year instead. Boone also scored very low in those games. I've never been a fan of deliberate stall ball like Princeton used to play against the big schools. It only works once in a great while, IMO. The infamous UK/UC game awhile back may have been a fairly close game point-wise, but it was nowhere near changing the end result.

Good point, although I've heard parents of past starters complain in the stands for various reasons too...

True, but that may have had more to do with the slow-down half-court game that Boone played. Should be fun to watch. Boone and Holmes had a very close scrimmage game this summer too.