[Allcity33]

Who will be the top players and teams?

Players( im sure I am forgetting a few)

Reed Sheppard- North
Cole Kelly- North
Ryan Davidson(Reed’s cousin)- North
Connor Robinson- Clay
Jacob Curry- Clay
Connor Farmer- Clay
Matthew Cromer- South
Akal- Harlan
Slaht Hunter- Williamsburg
Caleb Rose- Williamsburg
Shawn Vaughn- Barbourville
Matthew Taylor- Corbin
Zach Patterson- Knox
Javonte Turner- Knox
Tay Tay Turner- Knox
London Stephney- Bell
Isiah Alexander- North

Teams

North- Should be the favorite with Reed Sheppard, Kelly, Alexander
South- Lose Ramey but return Cromer/Anders/Norvell/Hostettler
Clay- Return whole team from last year
Knox- Lose the big 3 but get back former starter Tay Turner, Javonte Turner, Zach Patterson. Freshman group won region this season.
Williamsburg- Return the dynamic duo of Rose and Hunter.

[Northside pride]

Isiah Alexander is a top 3 player for North and it’s not even close

[HCS]

I'd give Clay the edge with everyone back.

[Leonards_loser]

1-3 will be Clay, North , South. And the the order they’re ranked could change week to week. Not sure about 4-10 but would think Williamsburg will be pretty solid.

[Wayne_]

Only three teams that can play a lick next year. Clay, South, NL. Clay should be the best team, but the group hasn’t improved like everyone thought, but Clay will make it to the Arena next year, someone though will need to give them directions. Will be a monumental failure for Clay if they don’t make it to state. You should have seen this group when they all were 8th graders and freshman. A few quit and several hasn’t improved much. I blame coaching as the kids are great.

[UKCC]

Clay, North, and South in some order then a gap to Knox and Williamsburg and then an even bigger gap to everyone else. I’ve said it before, the region loses a ton of talent, guys that had been around a while. Each of the Top 3 have their concerns. Sheppard is coming on at North with some really good pieces around him but losing Sizemore’s experience and Young inside is a bigger deal than some make it. South has talent returning but lose a guy that played in a lot of big games and produced and their 4th leading scorer. Clay should return their entire team but will have that stigma of back to back bad endings to seasons hanging over them.

[BasketballManiac]

Who is everyones sleeper in the 13th?

[HCS]

Knox, Williamsburg and Corbin will be in the top 10, then probably all four teams in the 52nd, much like this year.

[KYHoopsFan71]

North and Clay, then a drop to South. Each team has a bunch of “if’s,” Shepherd is good, and I see him being regional POY by sophomore season. Maybe even talk of Mr Basketball by last two seasons.

South has lost a bunch of kids the last few years who were long and athletic. Don’t really see anyone ready to step into those roles yet. Cromer is fun to watch, and wouldn’t be surprised to see Norvell step it up another notch. Still, they need help on the inside. South missed their chance for Rupp last couple years. They are a bit snake bit in the postseason as of late- one state appearance (2016) since 2008.

[JustThinking]

I'd give Clay the edge with everyone back.

Rumor has it Clay may not have everyone back. Just saying.:Sad04:

[HCS]

You'd drive yourself crazy trying to deal with what "might" happen this time of year - 90 percent of it never does. I'd have to adjust my thinking if someone left.

[eky.sports.fan]

My preseason top 5 (with current rosters in place):

Clay
South
Knox
North-
Tie: Corbin/Williamsburg

Clay returns everyone and won the WYMT tourney, so I think you have to give them the nod, North will be fun to watch but young and the loss of Adam Sizemore is HUGE for them, South will boast the best player in region in Cromer and Knox has a lot of talent returning.

[Van Hagar]

How does the 52nd district look HCS? As even as this year?

[HCS]

Middlesboro and Harlan each lose six seniors. Bell had that many seniors also, but two or three quit during the year. Harlan County had three seniors and added one of the Bell kids late, but he didn't play very much.
HCHS has the most players back - three starters and three subs who played quite a bit.
Bell has three of the six back who saw action in the district tourney
Harlan loses three starters and three subs, but they bring Akal and Eldridge.
Middlesboro loses three starters and three of the five kids who played off the bench, but they do have Kyle and Brock back for their senior years.
You'd probably give the edge to HCHS to start the year, but all four have the potential to be pretty good. None of them, except HCHS and maybe Bell, will have a lot of depth.

[ArJay]

I was excited about my Bobcats going into last year and was awfully disappointed. Maybe this year with no expectations we will be better.

[Corbin1980]

Corbin has the best coach but will they have the talent to compete next season? Coach P will still probably get 20+ wins out of his team.

[HCS]

I was excited about my Bobcats going into last year and was awfully disappointed. Maybe this year with no expectations we will be better.

I don't mean this to be mean, but I think you were the only one with real high expectations. I think I had them 7th this time last year. They will be 9th or 10th this year, probably.They still have the potential to break out

[WhyLie]

Not with this Coach. Change is needed.

[ArJay]

I thought Bell would be top 5 or 6 with the athletes we have. I don’t think we finished in the top 10. Next year with no expectations we may exceed them.

[HCS]

Yeah, they did look pretty good on paper but hadn't been a top five team in several years. They were probably top 10 for much of the year and had a win over Corbin and wins over Harlan and Middlesboro

[cchsfan4life]

My preseason top 5 (with current rosters in place):

Clay
South
Knox
North-
Tie: Corbin/Williamsburg

Clay returns everyone and won the WYMT tourney, so I think you have to give them the nod, North will be fun to watch but young and the loss of Adam Sizemore is HUGE for them, South will boast the best player in region in Cromer and Knox has a lot of talent returning.

NO WAY Clay is #1.......I mean they have had the same team pretty much for 2 years anc can't get out of the district.....If Marcum takes the job at OBI....they won't get out of the district for a 3rd consecutive year.

[HCS]

Clay was a top five team in the region pretty much all year. They lost to another top five team to get knocked out of the district. They improved quite a bit last year with the same team, basically. If they get no better next year, you could still make a case for them as No. 1.

[insideinfo]

I saw Clay play 3times all after Xmas the times I saw them they couldn’t guard anybody, and there ball handling was really bad. I was told by a official that there zone was a lot more effective before xmas than after. I see no way they can be considered one of the best team in the region before the season starts: I saw North play 5 times last year. They are really going to miss there point guard and the other kid that played down low at ties he was a rebounding machine and he didn’t miss many shots when they got it to him he n place he could score. It looks to me like Sheppard is going to have to bring it up and carry a big load of the scoring, that’s alot for a freshman. That have a chance to be one the top teams come March.

[UKCC]

I saw Clay play 3times all after Xmas the times I saw them they couldn’t guard anybody, and there ball handling was really bad. I was told by a official that there zone was a lot more effective before xmas than after. I see no way they can be considered one of the best team in the region before the season starts: I saw North play 5 times last year. They are really going to miss there point guard and the other kid that played down low at ties he was a rebounding machine and he didn’t miss many shots when they got it to him he n place he could score. It looks to me like Sheppard is going to have to bring it up and carry a big load of the scoring, that’s alot for a freshman. That have a chance to be one the top teams come March.

They were playing without two starters in some capacity virtually every game after that.

[ArJay]

It’s hard to guess how rankings are going to be until you see if there is going to be transfers. Brock leaving Bell last year for Middlesboro with the 2 Overbay boys flipped everything around in the 52nd district.

[HCS]

Middlesboro won, but they were 1-5 in the district until the tournament.

[ArJay]

Without a lot of help Middlesboro would have been the 4th best team in the district. With all that help it was to their advantage in the post season.

[HCS]

They were the fourth seed anyway, but it was very balanced and they played well when it counted.

[roundball247]

Clay has to be the favorite going in next year. Robinson kid is really good and those kids have been playing together for a while.
North will also be hungry and will likely be ready to take the next step.

Not sure an edge to HC makes any sense in 52nd. They lost to M'boro to end the season and 3 of their last four games, lose most of their scoring and will have zero people to guard the Kyle kid. Bench players saw limited meaningful action. I would pick Middlesboro and then the rest is a toss up. Bell and Harlan Co. was picked ahead of Harlan City and M'bor was now where to be found last year and we see how that ended up at the end of the season. This district will likely be a toss up again. Of course, coaching changes and player personnel changes will impact all of the projections.

South should repeat as District Champs in the 50th. Corbin will have some work to do, they will be down the next couple years and will certainly be suspect on any given night.

[ArJay]

My point on Middlesboro is that we (Bell) would have probably been in the driver’s seat for the district with us having Brock and taking him away from Middlesboro. But then getting him and 2 more probably took them from 4th best in district to the eventual district champs.