The biggest news in the offseason regarding 9th Region hoops was Newport junior Taylen Kinney deciding to make the move to prep school with Overtime Elite in Atlanta. The highly-touted guard will not be with the Wildcats this season, opening things up for not only the rest of the region, but creating some optimism for teams in the 36th District.
Highlands and Newport Central Catholic will challenge while Bellevue and Dayton look to rebuild and build up from last season.
Here is a team by team look at the boys basketball teams in the 36th District.
Boys basketball previews
Girls basketball previews
Newport (32-4 in 2023-24)
Even with the departure of Kinney, the Wildcats are still the favorites to come out of the 9th Region for the third straight season and considered one of the top 10 teams in the state.
James Turner and Griffin Starks are still there in the frontcourt while the backcourt got an added addition as Yamil Rondon transferred over from Cooper, one of the more dynamic guards in the region. Amontae Lowe and DaShawn Anderson bring back experience at the guard position while Adonaje Lowe has returned to the team after playing for a year at Scott. Irvan Nichols is also expected to enter the rotation. Noah Silverton provided depth off the bench the past two seasons, but moved to Michigan for his senior year.
Rondon, Lowe and Anderson will be relied upon to not only help offset the loss of Kinney, but Jabari Covington and DeShaun Jackson to graduation.
“We’ve got guys capable of carrying the torch,” Wildcats coach Rod Snapp said. “We know the bulls-eye is on our back and we’ll get everyone’s best hit and that comes with being back-to-back region champs.”
While Kinney was the one the team turned to when they needed a bucket or adversity struck, it will now be a collective effort. Rondon will be the facilitator, much like he was for the region runner-up Jaguars the past two seasons. He’ll be out until most likely the end of December, early January due to a shoulder injury.
Snapp feels Turner’s productivity will increase even more. The junior forward picked up a couple more Division I offers in the offseason as his game has grown and developed more of a game on the perimeter. Between Turner and Starks, it boasts a front line with size of 6-foot-7 (Turner) and 6-foot-8 (Starks) with a physical presence in Adonaje Lowe. The Wildcats will be stout defensively, especially in the halfcourt.
“We’ll hang our hat on man-to-man defense in the halfcourt,” Snapp said. “With the luxury of having Turner and Starks on the weakside, it will allow us to really get in passing lanes and play aggressively.”
By the time late February hits, Newport will have the kitchen sink thrown at them with the Marshall County Hoopfest, King of the Bluegrass, Lexington Catholic Holiday Tournament, Louisville St. Xavier and the some of the top tier 9th Region teams on the schedule.
Highlands (17-16 in 2023-24)
With no seniors on the roster, Kevin Listerman will be turning to his junior and sophomore class to keep things going in the right direction.
They’ll return two starters in Vinny Listerman and Nathan Rickard while turning to a bunch of unknown at the varsity level. It’s certainly a unit with a lot of upside.
“The JV team went 26-1 and finished as region champs last year. The freshman team won the Jack Kaelin Freshman tournament,” Listerman said. “They’re a talented group, just don’t have a lot of varsity experience. We won’t have a dominant player, so it will be a collective effort.”
Among those in that group include Charlie Messmer, Finn Bouldin, Owen Ebert, Cale Harris and Tayden Lorenzen.
With the youth, it’s created a fresh perspective for Listerman and his staff, three seasons removed from a state championship.
“You’ve got a whole bunch of kids wanting to prove themselves as varsity basketball players,” Listerman said. “It drives practice, offseason workouts. That energy especially early and in the preseason is great to have. Obviously you’d like to have seniors that have been there, that will be a challenge for them.”
Prior years, the Bluebirds had a guy when they walked in the gym had to be guarded because of their range. Highlands is not afraid to let it fly from deep, this year it will be more of a spread out process.
“Collectively we’ll have three or four guys shooting the three at a high level,” Listerman said. “We won’t have a Will (Herald) or Luke (Muller), but more guys capable of knocking down shots.”
The Bluebirds got quite the scare last just to even make the region tournament. They needed double-overtime in the district semifinals to get past Newport Central Catholic before dropping contests to Newport and Cooper to end their season.
The hope this year is to put out a more competitive product against Newport in the district and surprise some teams in the region. Highlands enters under the radar in the region, but a young and hungry unit could surprise some teams.
Newport Central Catholic (8-22 in 2023-24)
It’s been a rough four-year stretch to NewCath’s standards, a sub-.500 record all four seasons as they look to make a return trip to the region tournament for the first time since 2018.
With just two seniors gone from last year’s team, the Thoroughbreds are hopeful to change what’s happened in recent memory.
“Our theme is ‘Everyday Breds’ this season,” Thoroughbreds coach Jake Luhn said. “We can’t take a day off. You either find a way to win off talent or work so hard you force your own hand. We’re not going to let up, we know we have to earn it.”
This is Luhn’s fourth year as head coach of the program, meaning he’s been able to put his imprint on the current five-member senior class since they were freshman. Louie Collopy, Landon Kraft, Gabe Lyons, Ian Mann and Vinny Petroze are the five seniors.
Mann and Collopy are the returning leading scorers, both hitting double figures last season. Lyons and Petroze played in all 30 games last season.
“They’re all true competitors who have learned how to play and develop,” Luhn said. “It’s kind of a weird pressure I feel for those guys. They’ve done everything we’ve asked with the right attitude and I want them to be rewarded for what they’ve done.”
John Luhn, Jack Gearding, Eddie Bivens and Will Sandfoss will add to the rotation.
Luhn said the goal is to play as fast as possible and be able to space the floor with their shooting ability.
“We’ll be small and play incredibly fast and hopefully shoot it at a high clip,” Luhn said. “Defensively we’ll mix some things up. We need to be able to guard in the halfcourt and really impact other teams offenses without always being in a full court pressure situation. This is the most depth from a skillset standpoint that I’ve had since I’ve been here. Skill-wise we have it, size we’re lacking.”
The ‘Breds will know where they stand in the region early. They play Dixie Heights, Lloyd Memorial, Ryle, Cooper and Beechwood all in the first month of the season.
Bellevue (19-12 in 2023-24)
After a 19-win season last year, it’s rebuild time for Bellevue as they return one player with significant varsity experience.
The team features just one senior with six juniors, two sophomore and two freshman.
Tristan Woodyard is the lone returnee with the significant experience.
“It’s a fresh start and they’re ready to get after it,” Tigers coach Jim Hicks said. “We’re excited about this group, it’s a young group.”
After Woodyard, Hicks will look for Arion Stuckey, Deriance Roper, Jordan Watson and Austin Brockert-Wesley for production.
As the team looks to find their footing offensively, Hicks feels the team will have to be solid on the defensive end to be successful.
“With unable to have full practices until football season ended, the early stages of the season we’ll need to get these guys used to playing varsity basketball,” Hicks said. “So we’ll need to scrap defensively and hope to get up to speed as the season goes on.”
Dayton (5-23 in 2023-24)
After what was a transition year in Darian Witherspoon’s first year as head coach, Witherspoon is optimistic the Greendevils can turn things around quickly in 2024-25.
“I love the chemistry we have,” Witherspoon said. “They’re friends off the court and our six seniors have a combined GPA of 3.7 and above.”
They did graduate four starters, including 1,000-point scorer Mason Johnson, so guiding the turnaround will be a trio of seniors in Chad Nickell, Cayden Evans and Marquel Kennedy. Kevin Buemi, Joel Bryant and Nicholas Stevens will also be turned to in providing senior leadership for the roster.
The team doesn’t feature much size, so Witherspoon wants this team to be a team that gets out in transition and have five shooters that space and put it on the floor. Defensively, they’ll look to scrap and take charges.
Witherspoon has been with the program for four years now, a JV coach in years prior.
“This was the group I started out with,” Witherspoon said. “They’re sponges, competitors and very high IQ guys on and off the court. We’re also going to build our young guys up and get them some varsity experience. We’ll get three freshman some run and have a budding sophomore.”
The goal for the Greendevils is to be at the top of the NKAC Division III standings and be more competitive in district play.