wildcatfan

Boone Co. is extremely young right now. They have 1 senior, 1 junior, and the rest sophomores at this point. 3 seniors and 2 juniors are still playing football and probably won't be much help to them at the start of the season. Also, another key junior is out right now with an injury. Talented sophs, but they have to be one of the youngest teams in their region. 1st scrimmage on 11/10 against Fern Creek.

Athletic, a lot of potential, and a nice kid, but you would be hard pressed to place him in front of any of the following: Arrez Henderson Nic Simpson Steve McFarland Luke Maile Corey Sorrell Needs to improve his shooting and ball handling first. In addition, Boone has 4 sophs that are just as good IMO, based on head-to-head AAU experience. A top 5 athlete, but not a top 5 basketball player at this point. He has the potential to be top 5 player in the next year or so.

I agree, but hopefully McFarland won't try to do too much by himself because Boone should be well balanced in scoring. They won't need him to lead them in scoring. Gabbard is a great ball handler and passer. Flannery is a great scorer and perhaps the best three point shooter in NKY. If Earls works hard, he will be a dominant inside presence and one of the best big men in NKY. Popp is another outstanding PG/SG and shooter/scorer. IMO, he and Gabbard are easily the best guards in NKY in the 2010 class and among the top 10 in all classes in NKY. They are definitely one of the better guard combinations in NKY when they are in the game together. There are also a couple of other good hard-working juniors in Spaulding and Andrew Brown. Sam Brown who is a senior will also be a scrapper. Senior Krohman will be another good outside shooter. Bogle will be a good defender. Cotton is an athletic soph who may be able to help rebound and block shots. He needs to keep improving his shooting, ball handling, and position defense. There are some other sophs coming up who may be scoring contributors in future years. Boone will be young this year, but should be fun to watch.

I disagree. Boone's JV players moving up are right there with SK's. Most of Boone's JV players moving up are sophs. I believe SK had more junior JV players last year. SK and Boone JV split their games last year, and both were very competitive. The summer varsity game this summer was also competitive.

' I'd flip flop 4 and 5.

He is one of the better sophomores in NKY for sure. Don't know I would not say he will be a top 5 player in NKY this year, but he could be in the future. He still needs to work on his ball handling and outside shot in my opinion. He has major hops. His brother is also very athletic. Guess there's always a chance they could go back to Taft...

According to Shining Star Sports, he accepted an offer after a recent visit.

I wish for nothing but the best for Euton and Jackson. They are both good kids and good players.

Can any of those 3 put up double figures if a team shuts Dakotah or Chad down or if they have a bad shooting game or get into foul trouble? Would they start at Elliot Co. over Knipp, Faulkner twins, and others? What year are Fuller an Arthur in? In my opinion a good team needs a solid starting five plus two strong bench players.

What if they finish second to Elliot this year? Do high profile college commitments need to be at successful high profile programs? Will Dakotah and Chad be able to carry their team? Depth could be an issue at the Hill unless they have at least another scorer who can put up double figures. If Dakotah is going to play for UK, is there a chance he moves to a Lexington or Georgetown high school next year? Chad used to live in Lexington. Scott County could be an obvious choice. Playing at a successful, large high school program and the possibility of playing for a state championshp could be pretty good reasons.

Grubbs is a big body, but I disagree that he is ready for varsity yet. He needs to get better at his footwork and his post-up moves in my opinion. Will he be able to run the floor and defend another athletic big man who can run the floor?

That may be but apparently good enough to land a basketball scholarship at North Carolina A&T.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe both of these kids are also holdbacks. I wonder how much more Gilbert will grow.

I believe he is the age of a sophomore and was held back a year. Good player.

I saw both play a couple of weeks ago. Gilbert is very quick. The only thing going against him is his size. I was more impressed with him than Setty.

Granted, but they still beat a lot of good teams this summer and could sneak into the top 16-25 this year.

If you base it on summer ball, Boone Co. went 16-5, with 2 of their losses being competitive games against Scott Co. and Mason Co. They should have a good year and challenge for the 9th region.

Timely opportunity for Guyn.

I think he is a good player, but I don't believe he'll contribute at the varsity level this year. Boone is too loaded in the sophomore class.

I think he will be more of a 4 this year.

Several kids being listed by are usually based on people's familiarity with their name and their playing time from last season, especially for kids who didn't get a lot of varsity exposure last year. Others are listed based on personal bias. I think it is hard to pick the top 10 objectively without looking at stats. It seems like many rankers add a name or two of their own and copy parts of other people's lists because they haven't seen enough of all the guards in NKY play or haven't seen them play enough. I doubt that many of us are familiar enough with all of the guards in NKY to be able to accurately pick all of the top 10. IMHO, the better guards are often on the better teams, with an exception here or there. Most of the better teams have great guard play. There will definitely be some surprises and unheralded names that will rise to the cream of the crop as the year goes on. Stats (A/T ratio, Assists per game, shooting and FT percentages, scoring averages, rebounds, steals, opposing guard scoring average, wins, etc.) will objectively bear out who the better guards are. For the kids who played last year, who are the best returning guards statistically? Best A/T ratio? Best scoring average? Best overall shooting percentage? Best 3 pt shooting percentage? Most assists per game? Most steals per game? Best FT percentage? My list, like most others are a dime a dozen without facts. That being said, in no particular order, below are names I think deserve mention. Are they all top 10? Who knows? It's just an opinion unless it's backed by statistics. I would think that consensus might identify the top 3 guards pretty accurately. Beyond that, I think it is a crap shoot and depends on who is reading this board and responding, many of which have personal ties to one or more of the players they list. A couple of these are probably 3s more than 2s: Henderson (Holmes) (athletic, strong, explosive, good defender) (POY candidate) Simpson (Highlands) (athletic, scorer, strong) (POY candidate) Giwa (HC) (quick, good slasher) Sorrell (HC) (good shooter, tough matchup for a guard because of his length) Shover (CC) (very smart, unselfish player who does what is needed, can also knock down big shots when needed) Bondick (CC) (not familiar with his game, depending on other's lists here...) Popp (BC) (up and coming sophomore, good shooter/scorer/defender) Gabbard (BC) (sophomore who saw varsity time last year, good ball handler/passer) Flannery (BC) (up and coming sophomore, very good 3-pt. shooter)

Pretty good list. You may also see Popp (Boone) in this list.

I agree he will probably be their leading scorer.

When I saw Thomas play last year, he appeared to be more of a 3--spot up shooter to me than a guard/ball handler.

He had a nice game against Boone last year.