High School Basketball Right Around the Corner

With high school basketball starting in a little over a week my sports journal is really going to pickup in posts. As last year I will be doing a continuous playing and team ranking of players and teams that I watch play and will also be doing previews for games. To kick off the season I'll just be talking about some of the big stories of the season.

The biggest story in division one this year is the transfer of four of the top 25 sophomores transferring from Milwaukee Bay View to Milwaukee Hamiliton. Many people see Hamiliton as a state contender but, personally I believe that they are still a season away from seriously contending for state. Last year at Bay View they were towards of the bottom of the City conference and they had a division one recruit in Johnnie Lacy playing with them. The Hamiliton transfers are getting the headlines but, a bigger transfer is the move of number one soph Larry Bradley transferring from perennial power Milwaukee Vincent to the defending state champions Wauwatosa East. Tosa East was once again going to be a very good team but, Bradley coming in makes them one of the top teams in division one. Along with Tosa East, Madison Memorial and Oshkosh West are the top teams, in my mind, gunning for a state title. Madison Memorial has a pair of division one recruits in 6'6 Jeronne Maymon and 6'3 Vander Blue and adding in freshmen from Canada that is supposedly going to be the top player in his class. Oshkosh West lost only two players from their final four team from a year ago and as usual have great height and bring back there two starting guards.

In division two is probably the most wide open of any division, as to who is the favorite to win state. You could ask 10 people and probably get at least eight different answers as to who is the favorite. Personally I had my money on state runner ups Adams Friendship having the best shot but, now there are rumors that their best player 6'4 Tommie Gaston may not be playing this year. If the rumor is true that may make the division even more unpredictable.

Division three will once again be the debate of privates verse publics, as privates have seemed to dominate D3 year in and year out. The early favorites, all privates, are Lacrosse Aquinas, Eau Claire Regis, Racine St Catherines, and Whitefish Bay Dominican. The top public schools looking to knock them off are Laconia, Cuba City, and Marshall along with the two schools that moved up from division four in Luck and Eleva Strum, who were both at state for D4 last year.

Division four is Randolph as usual and if Benton can finally get past them and win state. Benton has had a great summer playing against many D1 schools and beating a good majority of them. They also have three guards that are in their fourth year of starting and were knocked out by Randolph last year in the sectional final by two points. Randolph is once again Randolph. They have a big man, 6'9 Kyle Kelm, and a Tillema, 6'3 Tyler Tillema, leading the way.

Those are some of the early thoughts of the season with the season just over a week away. In the following week I will be giving my top teams for each division and my preseason all state for each division and possibly a preview into some of the top early season games I will be going to.