[HCS]

https://harlancountysports.com/21550/bas...returning/

[Keystone12]

https://harlancountysports.com/21550/bas...returning/

I think they have it about right. It’s a three team race next year. Even though North won the region i don’t see much separation between the top 3. Reece is clearly the best player and i expect him to start getting offers from bigger schools. Mr Basketball candidate. Akins is playing with one of the best known AAU programs this summer with some of the top young talent in the country. I expect him to be a different player next year.

Top 10 players:

1) Reece Davidson 
2) Ryder Akins
3) Grayson Burton (if he’s there)
4) Blake Burnett
5) Ethan Buell
6) Evan Ellis
7) Adon Grubb
8) Reggie Cottrell
9) Eli Pietrowski
10) Aiden Wagers

[dodger]

I'm sure it probably wouldn't have held together there either, but wonder if Swords ever regrets getting involved in the Whitley County politics mess. Probably less meddling if he'd stayed at Williamsburg. Akins, Ellis, and Bowling would've made a heckuva nucleus at the Burg.

[Old School Hound]

Could make a case for Dawson Farmer, as well, if he makes the same strides he made over the previous summer. That would give Corbin 4 of the top 10.

[Cactus Jack]

Excellent work as always.

[4 Quarters]

Could make a case for Dawson Farmer, as well, if he makes the same strides he made over the previous summer. That would give Corbin 4 of the top 10.

If Corbin has 3 or maybe 4 of the top 10 players in the region why are they only picked 3rd in the ranking?

[Old School Hound]

Could make a case for Dawson Farmer, as well, if he makes the same strides he made over the previous summer. That would give Corbin 4 of the top 10.

If Corbin has 3 or maybe 4 of the top 10 players in the region why are they only picked 3rd in the ranking?

Ask the ranker...

[4 Quarters]

Could make a case for Dawson Farmer, as well, if he makes the same strides he made over the previous summer. That would give Corbin 4 of the top 10.

If Corbin has 3 or maybe 4 of the top 10 players in the region why are they only picked 3rd in the ranking?

Ask the ranker...

Waiting for him to return my call.

[Keystone12]

Could make a case for Dawson Farmer, as well, if he makes the same strides he made over the previous summer. That would give Corbin 4 of the top 10.

If Corbin has 3 or maybe 4 of the top 10 players in the region why are they only picked 3rd in the ranking?

Ask the ranker...

Waiting for him to return 

You have to put North at one. Bell beat the crap out of corbin. They have a ton returning. I didn’t realize there were three from corbin in my top 10. I really love corbin’s talent. I can see corbin winning the region if they come together. It’s between one of those 3. Also, Reece showed he can put a team on his shoulders without being surrounded all star talent.

[HCS]

The ranker says you don't win on paper :)
Chemistry wasn't so great, it seemed. Probably part of adding players during the season.
Any of those three can win, but North played the best at the end and had, by far, the best player of those returning.

[Old School Hound]

The ranker says you don't win on paper
Chemistry wasn't so great, it seemed. Probably part of adding players during the season.
Any of those three can win, but North played the best at the end and had, by far, the best player of those returning.

I agree with you. I wasn't arguing that Corbin should be #1. Someone asked why a team with 3, possibly 4 , of the top players is ranked third. It wasn't my ranking so I wasn't the person to ask.  You're right, they have the talent but never were able to gel together. They have the talent to win the region but top talent doesn't always traslate to best team.

[cchsfan4life]

Rumor around town is Clay may have some recruits coming in from the transfer portal.

[ScratchGolf]

The ranker says you don't win on paper
Chemistry wasn't so great, it seemed. Probably part of adding players during the season.
Any of those three can win, but North played the best at the end and had, by far, the best player of those returning.

I agree with you. I wasn't arguing that Corbin should be #1. Someone asked why a team with 3, possibly 4 , of the top players is ranked third. It wasn't my ranking so I wasn't the person to ask.  You're right, they have the talent but never were able to gel together. They have the talent to win the region but top talent doesn't always traslate to best team.

Realistically Corbin doesn’t have 3 top 10 players in the region and to say 4 top 10 players in the region is a little bit absurd

[nedreader]

Clay hasn’t had an impact transfer in years so I seriously doubt it happens this year. That being said Clay may never play in a regional final again unless they get some transfers. They are in trouble at the guard position for sure next year.

[UKCC]

Clay hasn’t had an impact transfer in years so I seriously doubt it happens this year.  That being said Clay may never play in a regional final again unless they get some transfers.  They are in trouble at the guard position for sure next year.

I think they got their point guard for the next 3 years today. Maybe 2 guard.

[HCS]

Sounds like OBI then.

[KyGymRat]

Heard talk this weekend about the OBI kid, unsure on the level of impact but movement for sure.
Harlan will be in a reload rebuild mode as well with the loss of Maddox now following Trent those are two huge hits

[HCS]

Harlan County, Clay County and South Laurel are all rebuilding this season, but I would imagine all three will still be competitive.

[runthepill]

Harlan Ind will make a big leap forward. Best thing about all the frosh they had is that they will now be Sophs. Also the addition of 2 bigs is really gonna help matters as well.

[Varsityclub2004]

The ranker says you don't win on paper
Chemistry wasn't so great, it seemed. Probably part of adding players during the season.
Any of those three can win, but North played the best at the end and had, by far, the best player of those returning.

I agree with you. I wasn't arguing that Corbin should be #1. Someone asked why a team with 3, possibly 4 , of the top players is ranked third. It wasn't my ranking so I wasn't the person to ask.  You're right, they have the talent but never were able to gel together. They have the talent to win the region but top talent doesn't always traslate to best team.

I don’t think they really had the chance to gel with the Ellis kid being thrown in right at the end. Give them time this summer and see what happens. If you can get akins and Ellis to play together big things happen for this team. Time will tell

[ArJay]

Locally, Bell should have a great season. Burnett and Buell make a nice duo. But they got some other good players. I wish they had them a big thick holler boy. But they'll be good.
Middlesboro is looking for a coach. They have had a couple good seasons in the past 10 yrs. Tough job but no where to go but up.
Pineville had a great season for them, but like 10 players. Unless they get a bunch of transfers again they will struggle. They say the Superintendent calls all the shots during the season and they got some random guy doing all their offseason work. The super was a good coach. Rumor has it they got a couple transfers from Bell but I can't find out who.
Knox looks like they are on the uptick.

[Varsityclub2004]

Locally, Bell should have a great season.  Burnett and Buell make a nice duo.  But they got some other good players.  I wish they had them a big thick holler boy.  But they'll be good.
Middlesboro is looking for a coach. They have had a couple good seasons in the past 10 yrs. Tough job but no where to go but up. 
Pineville had a great season for them, but like 10 players.  Unless they get a bunch of transfers again they will struggle. They say the Superintendent calls all the shots during the season and they got some random guy doing all their offseason work. The super was a good coach.  Rumor has it they got a couple transfers from Bell but I can't find out who.
Knox looks like they are on the uptick.

Is the Burton kid still at Knox?

[ArJay]

Locally, Bell should have a great season.  Burnett and Buell make a nice duo.  But they got some other good players.  I wish they had them a big thick holler boy.  But they'll be good.
Middlesboro is looking for a coach. They have had a couple good seasons in the past 10 yrs. Tough job but no where to go but up. 
Pineville had a great season for them, but like 10 players.  Unless they get a bunch of transfers again they will struggle. They say the Superintendent calls all the shots during the season and they got some random guy doing all their offseason work. The super was a good coach.  Rumor has it they got a couple transfers from Bell but I can't find out who.
Knox looks like they are on the uptick.

Is the Burton kid still at Knox?

I haven't heard that he had left

[BCE]

As far as I know Burton is playing national AAU but not left KC.

As far as the Bell Area teams, there’s no question that BC will have a talented squad. The young talent is now older and they have a great head coach. No question they’re top 3 in the region.

MHS is a complete rebuild. They have to get the coach that can build the program back up. It’s completely possible to do that but they will need time and resources. Players too.

As far as Pineville goes, I feel like saying they had a great season for them is throwing off on the team and school. I believe that if you ask any school would they take 22 wins, an All A title, a win at all A state, a district title, and a win in the regional tournament they would in a heartbeat. Yes they lose 10 seniors- something most mountain teams don’t do even the big schools- but they have a solid jv squad that lost only one game and a middle school team that won the all a and made a run at middle school regional tournament. The cupboard is certainly not bare.
As far as the super making all the decisions, who would not want a successful basketball minds input? Their head coach has worked to build the program on toughness and player development. He’s done that. The super has helped achieve that. Pineville works together. The someone doing training there has done a phenomenal job helping develop the talent and it shows. So don’t throw off on Pineville when you don’t know the story.

[ArJay]

No doubt Pineville had a great season. They had a few really good players, and then brought in a bunch of kids to get them over the hump. But I'm guessing they will have to go find some more players to be good again for a bit. Which isn't that unusual at a small school.

[Keystone12]

https://harlancountysports.com/21550/bas...returning/

I think they have it about right. It’s a three team race next year. Even though North won the region i don’t see much separation between the top 3. Reece is clearly the best player and i expect him to start getting offers from bigger schools. Mr Basketball candidate. Akins is playing with one of the best known AAU programs this summer with some of the top young talent in the country. I expect him to be a different player next year.

Top 10 players:

1) Reece Davidson 
2) Ryder Akins
3) Grayson Burton (if he’s there)
4) Blake Burnett
5) Ethan Buell
6) Evan Ellis
7) Adon Grubb
8) Reggie Cottrell
9) Eli Pietrowski
10) Aiden Wagers

That is a great point. Williamsburg would be a lot less headache but they have a far better winning tradition than whitley county. Whitley has the most underachieving basketball program in the state. Ellis, Akins and bowling would’ve given williamsburg and swords chance at deep region runs. I’m told akins lives 100 feet from the williamsburg high school and would’ve preferred to stay there.

[ArJay]

The way I see it is I would put teams in tiers.
Tier 1 (legit shot at Rupp)
N Laurel, Corbin, Knox, Bell
Tier 2 (lots of potential but replacing several pieces)
S Laurel
Whitley
Clay
Harlan County
Tier 3 (Best of the All A. But drop between 2 and 3).
Jackson County
OBI
Harlan City
Barbourville
Tier 4 (struggle bus)
Red Bird
Williamsburg
Pineville
Middlesboro

---

The way I see it is I would put teams in tiers. 
Tier 1 (legit shot at Rupp)
N Laurel, Corbin, Knox, Bell
Tier 2 (lots of potential but replacing several pieces)
S Laurel
Whitley
Clay
Harlan County
Tier 3  (Best of the All A.  But drop between 2 and 3).
Jackson County
OBI
Harlan City
Barbourville
Tier 4 (struggle bus)
Red Bird
Williamsburg
Pineville
Middlesboro

This list can change drastically with transfers.

[HCS]

Not sure how Jackson could be ahead of Harlan after watching them play late in the season. Jackson came back to win but Ward did most of the damage and he graduates. Harlan loses no starters. Maybe the new coach will speed up the process at Jackson.
Red Bird is at an entirely different level than anyone else.

[ArJay]

Not sure how Jackson could be ahead of Harlan after watching them play late in the season. Jackson came back to win but Ward did most of the damage and he graduates. Harlan loses no starters. Maybe the new coach will speed up the process at Jackson.
Red Bird is at an entirely different level than anyone else.

I didn't have them ranked within the tiers.  I just think they are a bigger school and seem to always have some big physical players.  I think there is a big drop off between tier 3 and tier 4.

[HCS]

They did last year. Looks like they graduate the size though.
I think Whitley could be as good as Knox. They have just about everyone back.