Mr. Basketball Candidate: Kyle Guy

<p>With the start of the high school season, we look to dive into the possible candidates for the Mr. Basketball Award in Indiana.  Since 2006, seven of the ten winner have been drafted by NBA teams.  Of those three others, Bloomington South’s Jordan Hulls went undrafted and Hamilton Southeastern’s Zak Irvin and Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan are still in college.  This prestigious award is always a difficult choice with the amount of talent in the state every year.</p><p>This year is no different and maybe even more than the past few.  There are no really dominant teams at the top levels and that evens the playing field even more. Players from all over the state should vie for this opportunity.  Guys like Dru Smith down in Evansville or Damien Jefferson up in East Chicago.  As always, there are tons of options in the central part of the state with C.J. Walker, Eron Gordon, Kyle Guy, and Joey Brunk near the top of the list.</p> <p>This season will be difficult to predict but we breakdown some of the key factors of each player we think has an early shot this year.  We begin with Kyle Guy of Lawrence Central.</p> <h3><span style="background-color:rgb(34, 34, 34)">Kyle Guy of Lawrence Central (IN)</span></h3> <p>Kyle Guy has been the most polarizing player in Indiana the last 12 months with his play on the AAU circuit and his commitment to Virginia.  He&#39;s a Twitter superstar for sure and he&#39;s been able to settle a lot of the doubt about his game since he had his breakout sophomore season at Lawrence Central.  The 6&#39;2 prospect has a rail-thin frame but has been more than strong enough and scored against the best in the country.  But, most of that success has come during the AAU season.  His Lawrence Central Bears have only won 11 games each of the last two years and haven&#39;t made it past the second round of Sectionals.  Kyle started out last year slow as did LC but they both got better as the year wore on including a six-game winning streak at the end of the season. During that stretch Kyle&#39;s point total went from 13-16-19-23-30-34.  He got better every game and that is pretty comparable to how his high school career has gone.  </p> <h3>WHY HE CAN WIN</h3> <p>There are a lot of reasons why Kyle can win and maybe the biggest is his scoring ability.  Of all the candidates, Kyle might have the biggest point total this year and he&#39;s expected to put up big numbers every game.  He&#39;s got a team around him that has the capability to outrun and outscore a lot of teams but they did have trouble under a new head coach last year to find their style early on. Now, a year later, that shouldn&#39;t be an issue and LC might have more success than they have had the last two years. Kyle&#39;s presence on and off the court is such that it drives people to like him and being a big-market team in the best Sectional in the state, Guy has the platform to perform all year long.</p> <h3>THINGS TO WATCH FOR</h3> <p>The biggest thing that could cause a potential road block is a repeat of last year.  When Lawrence Central struggled to get even one win in the first half of the season, it put them in the back of a lot of people&#39;s minds.  Going 1-9 to start the year can&#39;t happen again.  He wouldn&#39;t have to be a world beater but Kyle is going to have to make sure his team wins games early on. Now, the schedule is quite a bit easier so that helps.  Scoring isn&#39;t going to be a problem but team success could go a long way to helping his case.</p>