Status of my predictions:
No conference games have been played, but Gallatin boys have looked good until they ran into North Andrew. This might say more about North Andrew than Gallatin. Gallatin sits at 4-1. Right now, Princeton is the only unbeaten team left. They have looked very strong. South Harrison and Milan could present problems for Gallatin and Princeton, but I think it will come done to the winner of Gallatin and Princeton for the East title.
Stanberry has struggled early. They are 2-3. I think they are still going to be really good, but SJCS, Albany, Pattonsburg, Worth County and North Andrew all have looked good early. I think it could be a 6-team race in the West.
On the girls side, Milan girls are still the top team in the East at 3-0, but Polo has looked very good winning their first 5 games by an average of 33 points. Maysville and Princeton are probably a notch below those two, but could play the spoiler role.
Albany and Stanberry are the class of the East and the winner should play for the title. Both lost their first game (Stanberry to Cameron, Albany to Platte Valley), but have since bounced back and dominated every game.
The top scorer for Boys right now is Isaac Bird of Gallatin at 23.8 pts a game. Dom Dabney is right behind him at 23.7. My preseason predicted leader - Collin Sager currently sits at 7th with 19.0 pts a game.
For the girls, Cady Pauley is leading by a mile with 31.3 pts a game, which is 10 better than Webby Bailey of Pattonsburg who has 21.3 pts a game.
For most improved on the boys side, Trenton has had a couple of good wins, but has been short-handed to start the year. They also have faced some very stiff competition early. The schedule does not get any easier for Trenton as their first three conference games are against Princeton, South Harrison and Gallatin. Other candidates are Maysville and King City.
Trenton won 4 last year - now 2-4
Maysville won 3 last year - now 3-3
King City won 0 last year - now 2-5
For girls, I think it will be between St. Joseph Christian (my pick), Maysville and North Andrew. SJC has had a few early season injuries which has hampered them. Their next 4 games before the holiday break will go a long way to finding out if my prediction has a chance of coming true.
SJC won 8 last year - now 2-2
Maysville won 8 last year - now 3-2
North Andrew won 9 last year - now 2-1
You can see GRC stats at
http://grandriverconference.com/boys_stats.html and
http://grandriverconference.com/girls_stats.html.
And click on the menus for other GRC information.
