Breaking Down the Kentucky Junior All-Star Roster
The Kentucky Junior All-Star team has not been formally announced but based on tweets here’s the team as it appears now: Junior All-Star Roster: Jackson Sivills, McCracken County Cody Potter, Shelby Valley Luke Morrison, South Oldham Brayden Sebastian, Garrard County…
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Continue ReadingThe Kentucky Junior All-Star team has not been formally announced but based on tweets here’s the team as it appears now:
Junior All-Star Roster:
- Jackson Sivills, McCracken County
- Cody Potter, Shelby Valley
- Luke Morrison, South Oldham
- Brayden Sebastian, Garrard County
- Marques Warrick, Henry Clay
- Thomas Spencer, Wayne County
- Ksuan Casey, Madisonville-North Hopkins
- Kenny White, Madisonville-North Hopkins
- Dayvion McKnight, Collins
- Ray Surratt, Lafayette
- Alex Matthews, John Hardin
- Howard Fleming, Male
- Tyren Moore, Male
- JJ Traynor, Bardstown
Rapid Reaction:
- There were some notable snubs with this group. Unlike the girls’ team where the list basically reflected the Prep Girls Hoops Top 2020 players, the boys have some pretty notable misses on this team. Among them:
- Justin Powell, North Oldham – The reasoning given was that the team is based on Junior season production and Justin didn’t play in Kentucky this season.
- Marcellus Vail, Collins – One of only 5 Juniors in the state holding a D1 offer, Vail was the only one of the 5 who didn’t make the team.
- Matt Cromer, South Laurel – Cromer was one of, if not the best player in the 13th region this year and likely Mr. Basketball finalist next season.
- Rashad Bishop, Ballard – If I were trying to beat Indiana, I would want long and athletic post players.
- Noah Courtney, Male – Of the 3 Male junior stars, Courtney is likely best suited to help Kentucky win over Indiana. On a team full of guards and wings, Courtney would have added some much needed toughness.
- The only questionable selections (in my opinion):
- Wayne County’s Thomas Spencer made the team over the 3 guards listed above. But when you factor in that Wayne County Coach Rodney Woods has major pull on the All-Star committee, it adds up.
- Male’s Howard Fleming only played 14 games this season and missed most of the first half of the season then missed time at the end as well. If you’re using Junior season production to justify not putting Justin Powell on, there’s no way Howard Fleming did enough in 14 games to beat out Cromer or Vail, who both outperformed Howard over the course of the season.
- Coming off last season’s two wins by the Kentucky Junior All-Stars over Indiana, it looked like the committee had finally realized the way to beat Indiana was with the type of athletes that Indiana has and stop trying to out-shoot the Hoosiers every year. That appears to not be the case as there are a couple of kids on the roster who are going to struggle to keep up with the Indiana team athletically.
- My parting thought would be that the KABC committee who picks the rosters continue to preach that they are wanting the game to be taken seriously and the priority is to beat Indiana. For that to happen, the team needs to be comprised of the best players in the state. Over the past few years of Junior All-Star teams, I’m not sure that’s the case. There are too many kids on the team whose high school coaches are on the selection committee. If you want the best players in the state on the team, hold a tryout and invite the top 30-40 Juniors and let the kids show who deserves to be named to the team. The pieces have to fit together.