Three Dallas-area teams left San Antonio this past weekend with state titles, and while the region will have time to celebrate, it’s never too soon to look ahead to next year.
Here are five way-too-early storylines for the 2022 season:
Duncanville isn’t going anywhere
Three-straight state titles is nice, but Duncanville is in perfect position to make it four-in-a-row next year.
While the 6A state champions will graduate key pieces of this year’s title team (five-star recruit Anthony Black, the state championship game MVP) and cornerstone players from the last four years (Davion Sykes and CJ Ford), Duncanville still has riches.
Five-star junior Ron Holland — the state’s top recruit who holds offers from Memphis, Arkansas and Kansas — can finish his senior year with three rings. Same goes for classmate Cameron Barnes, a four-star forward with offers from Baylor, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Three-star junior forward Ashton Hardaway, the son of NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway, hit big shots for Duncanville this past tournament and will return, too.
Freshman Kayden Edwards already holds three Division I offers, and juniors Evan Phelps and Aric Demings shined off the bench.
No boys basketball teams in Texas have won more than three-straight state titles since Snook won six in a row (at the state’s smallest classification) from 1979-84. Duncanville can become the first team to ever win four in a row at the state’s highest classification. We could be talking about a fifth straight championship had the 2020 state tournament not been cancelled due to COVID-19.
If Duncanville isn’t already a dynasty, it’s certainly in sight.
“There’s levels to the things we’re doing right now,” head coach David Peavy said.
Which team can make a McKinney-esque run?
Of the six Dallas-area teams that played in last week’s state tournament, five had won at least one state title in the last decade. McKinney, which had not made the final four since 1928 and has never won a state title was the outlier.
Lake Highlands made its lone state tournament appearance (and, won its lone state title) in 1968. It could find even more postseason success in 2023, though, and it may look awful familiar to the way in which McKinney did.
McKinney finished as the state-runner up because of an elite guard (four-star junior Ja’Kobe Walter) and the right mesh of complimentary players around him (Alex Anamekwe, Thatcher McClure, Jacovey Campbell and Devin Vincent). Lake Highlands boasts one of the nation’s best sophomores (five-star guard Tre Johnson) and will return two first-team All-District players (junior Samson Aletan and freshman BJ Davis) to surround him.
Don’t be surprised to see Lake Highlands (32-5 this season) add a few more wins to that total in 2023.
Who’s set to break out?
There will be big shoes to fill on the Dallas-area basketball scene next winter, as three McDonald’s All Americans and seven top 100 recruits (according to 247′s national rankings) will be graduating this spring.
Some players — like Lake Highlands’ Johnson and John Paul II’s Liam McNeeley — have already established themselves as bona fide stars with two years of high school basketball left.
Who else could become a household name next year?
If he isn’t already, Frisco Memorial junior Drew Steffe could be with a big senior season. The four-star Texas Tech pledge led Memorial in scoring in the regular season at 16.5 points per game, and was one of five players on the team who averaged double digits. With three graduating, expect the 6-5 shooting guard’s scoring to see a bump.
Ditto for Micah Robinson, a four-star sophomore recruit at The Greenhill School. The 6-7 forward averaged 13 points per game and 6.5 rebounds in the regular season, but like Steffe, will likely see more opportunities due to graduations. Four-star Vanderbilt signees Noah Shelby and Lee Dort were first and second on the team in points per game.
Kimball junior T’Johnn Brown, a three-star recruit, showed flashes this season for the 5A state semifinalists and earned the nickname “Clamp God Jr.”. The graduations of five-star Texas signee Arterio Morris, Clemson signee Chauncey Gibson and three-star forward Trae Clayton will only mean more minutes for the 5-9 guard.
Mentioned above, Barnes, Hardaway and Demings from Duncanville could take steps up as the team chases a fourth-straight title.
John Paul II is the early favorite to run it back in TAPPS
John Paul II won its second TAPPS 6A state title in three seasons thanks largely to the play of its three leading scorers.
All three are set to return next season.
Junior R.J. Jones (offers from Texas A&M, Cal and Illinois) averaged 19.8 points per game in the regular season. Sophomore Liam McNeeley (a five-star recruit) averaged 16.8 points and 9.1 rebounds, and junior Gabe Warren (offers from TCU, Rice and UT-Arlington) averaged 16.5 points.
Assuming all three return to the Plano private school for one last run together, John Paul II will be a tough out.
The impact of realignment
The rap on North Texas’ 6A districts following February’s realignment was that not much had changed from the previous arrangement. And while that’s largely true, there will be some interesting additions to some already-powerful districts.
Highland Park’s promotion to 6A does create a formidable District 7-6A, though. Lake Highlands (which projects to be one of the state’s top-ranked 6A teams next season) and Richardson (a nationally-ranked program in 2021-22) will be joined by Highland Park, which has won 20-plus games in seven straight seasons.
As Duncanville looks to extend its title window, it’ll have a new in-district challenger. Mansfield Legacy — a 5A team since 2014 — will rise and join the likes of Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill in District 11-6A for the next two seasons. Legacy went 24-9 this year, and is set to return four-star junior power forward Isaiah Manning, who holds offers from Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and TCU.
Argyle won a 3A state championship in 2012, a 4A state championship in 2021 and will now try to do the same at the 5A level. If Argyle has its eyes on another run to San Antonio, it’ll need to advance out of Region I, which includes five of this season’s top 15 teams in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ statewide 5A rankings this season.
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