7 Predictions for the 2017-18 Season
With the basketball season starting up this weekend across Kentucky, the Top 25 teams and player rankings are starting to come out from the media. For now, we here at Prep Hoops will choose to make some bold predictions for the year ahead. Some are team related. Others are about individual players. Regardless, remember these are only my opinions and are likely to be way off base. Without further ado, my 10 predictions for the year ahead:
- Dontaie Allen will lead the state in scoring. Allen was 6th in the state last season with 29.1 points per game as a sophomore. 4 of the 5 players ahead of him have moved on to college and Andrew Taylor has more help at Corbin than Allen has at Pendleton County. Dontaie scored 37 points in each of the Pendleton scrimmages and I expect him to hover somewhere around 35 points per game for his Junior season.
- There will be a record number of shots blocked around the state. Kentucky is starting to see more and more true bigs across the state. So many of our athletes don’t know how to attack and avoid a shot blocker. Look for several bigs to get well over 100 blocks on the season and could see Isaiah Cozart, Trey James, Dieonte Miles and Riley Bodner all get 200 blocks on the season or close to it. Blocks, like assists, are not official KHSAA stats so we may never know if I’m correct on this one but I think there will lots of shots rejected across the state.
- The 2020 Class will start to make an impact. If you ask around, you will hear a lot of people say that the 2020 class in Kentucky is the worst crop of basketball players we have seen in the last 6 or 7 years. I’m not so sure. There are multiple quality bigs like Ksuan Casey and Ray Surrat and there are a lot of sophomores who will play major roles for regional title contenders. James Taylor Jr. will lead St. X in Lousiville while Dayvion McKnight will try to lead Collins back to Rupp Arena. There may not be any super stars in the class yet (outside of Justin Powell) but there are going to be some really good players across the state.
- Jayden Scrubb will be the best player in Louisville. His teammates David Johnson and Justin Powell get the high major offers and the national rankings but Scrubb is the kid who will put up the most impressive numbers. The guys at Fern Creek are less likely to have monster individual numbers and Scrubb will have games where he disappears but I think he will be recognized as the best player in the city by years end.
Photo Credit: TriCitiesSports.com
- Scoring will go up across the state (thanks to quick whistles). Based on scrimmages I’ve seen, officials are going to call games very tight to start the season. So until teams adjust their style of play, expect that there will be lots of handchecks called in games. That will lead to lots of free throw attempts and eventually higher game totals across the Commonwealth.
- Several regions will have one truly dominant team all season. Looking around the state, Hopkinsville, Fern Creek, Trinity, Covington Catholic, George Rogers Clark, Scott County and Corbin all have the look of a team that should dominate their regions all season long. In most cases, the talent gap between those teams and the second best team is substantial. Of course there is always potential for one of more of these teams to get upset on the road to Rupp but I think they will all be heavy favorites when the regional tournaments start. If they all make it to Rupp…
- The State Tournament could be memorable. The state tournament could feature as much Division 1 talent as we’ve ever seen at Rupp Arena if the regional favorites make the trip to Lexington in March. Depending on the state draw, there could be some amazing matchups.