Season Preview: Class 2A Stars to Watch (Part II)
As we continue our march towards the start of the high school season, we take a look at some of the top players to watch in each class. We’ll take a look at 20 of the best players in each…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingAs we continue our march towards the start of the high school season, we take a look at some of the top players to watch in each class. We’ll take a look at 20 of the best players in each classification to keep an eye on this winter. In Part II of our Class 2A series, we take a look at the next seven standouts to monitor.
2020 Bryce Coppock, West Sioux
Coppock is a high-scoring guard who averaged 28.2 points a game last year at Newell-Fonda, and has transferred to West Sioux for his senior year. He enters the year with 1,592 career points, and has a chance to crack into the top 15 all-time in scoring. He should have a chance to put up some huge numbers for a West Sioux team that figures to be among the highest scoring in the state this year. A volume scorer with the ability to explode for 40 on any given night, he should have a great senior season with one of 2A’s best teams.
Photo credit: Boone News Republican
2020 Braden Gibbons, Madrid
The 5-8 lead guard is not only a big-time scorer (averaged 22 points a game), but he also dished out 182 assists last year, which is tied with BGM’s Noah Beck as the tops among any returnee in the state. At over eight assists per game, that means that Gibbons was accounting for a minimum of 38 points a night for the Tigers, who were one of the state’s highest scoring teams at 76.4 points a game.
2021 Blake Chance, Albia
A 6-3 junior guard, Chance led the Blue Demons in scoring (21.0), rebounding (5.4), assists (3.1) and steals (44) last year. With his size and length, he provides plenty of versatility on both ends of the floor for an Albia team that should be battling it out with Knoxville at the top of the South Central Conference.
2020 Cam Soenksen, Camanche
One of the state’s more exciting players, Soenksen is a 6-2 scoring guard who plays above the rim and can throw down some powerful dunks in transition. He also has “in the gym” range and a green light from Indians coach Josh Davis. He’s capable of getting red hot in a hurry, and he should provide plenty of highlights for a Camanche team that we consider the favorite to win it all in 2A, at least to open the year.
2020 Zane Neubaum, South Central Calhoun
The 6-1 forward does a majority of his damage inside the paint, and his tremendous improvement from his sophomore year (12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 38.9 FG%) to junior year (18.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 50.6 FG%) was the biggest reason that the Titans went from 8-14 in 2017-18, to 21-2 last season. We expect to see South Central Cal in the mix for a State berth this season, and Neubaum is the big reason why.
2022 Aaron Graves, Southeast Valley
The 6-5 sophomore forward has already committed to play football at Iowa, but was the leading freshman scorer in the state last year, averaging 18.5 points a game to go with 5.6 rebounds on 50-47-82 shooting splits. A big, strong forward with great touch around the rim, it was his shooting touch that caught us by surprise last year, knocking down 22 3-pointers in just 14 games, while shooting 46.8% on those attempts. He’s going to put up huge numbers for the next three years for Southeast Valley.
2020 Peyton Pope, West Marshall
Pope really burst onto the scene as a sophomore for the Trojans, when he went 89-183 (48.6%) from behind the arc and averaged 21 points a game. His numbers ticked down as a junior to 16.7 points a game, and just 64-197 (32.5%) from the arc. If he can get that hyper-efficiency he had as a sophomore back this year, he could be one of the state’s elite scorers.