[HCS]

My opinion: Harlan and Harlan Co will be the two teams to beat and it will be interesting to see how they develop through the season. Harlan Co has so much talent but Harlan has my favorite player in the region for next year in Brock... on the high school level and in this area she can flat out get it done as well as Bianchi which is one of the most underrated players in the region. I love South's pg and they have everyone back from last year which will go a long way but still was as sub .500 team last year and lost to NL by 20 or 30+ both games last year so while losing the Bruner girl will drastically hurt NL I won't put South WAY ahead of NL or Clay for the preseason. I do think that South has the most complete team though and could be very dangerous this year. Especially with a new coach...
The team that I think will most surprise though is Whitley. I think this could be a big year for Whitley(as bad as that pains me to say). So as this is all just our opinions this is my pre-season picks in tiers...

Tier I
1. Harlan Co.
2. Harlan Ind.

Tier II
3. South Laurel
4. North Laurel

Tier III
5. Clay
6. Whitley with a chance to make a big leap

Tier IV
7. Corbin
8. Knox
9. Lynn Camp
10. Pineville

This may change as I have heard of some transfers this fall which is odd for girls... I don't know this for sure so I'm not using them for my current rankings.

I know you know basketball from reading your posts, but I just can't see Clay and North being in separate tiers. I think a lot of people will rank Clay ahead of North. I think it could go either way. I'd also put Corbin in the same tier as Whitley.

To follow that pattern, I'd go:

Harlan
HCHS
South

North
Clay

Whitley
Corbin

Pineville
Lynn Camp
Knox Central or Jackson County