Craig Wind has written for Rivals.com along with his own recruiting service . Wind weighs in on 810 Varsity events and Kansas City metro area players through the year.

#10 - The KEY to ‘back to back’ 6A state championship trophies for Blue Valley Northwest HS could be ANDREW BABALOLA 6’9” 2025 and weighs probably 260+. Didn’t see him as part of Aaron Ihm’s rotation this quickly. He is SO huge! The Huskies look like a D2 team with AB on the floor.
And don’t get me wrong. They aren’t small without him on the floor. If he continues to improve and plays well, it could be a Northwest repeat.

#9 - North Kansas City saved the day for the Missouri side in this ‘Border War’ festivity in 2024, and HERB BASS 6’3” 2024 who transferred from Truman played really well today and can score it. I love his upside. As good as Samuel Dada 6’9” 2024 is at the center position, Bass could be an instrumental piece in a championship run.

#8 - Piper has a really young team with all five of their guards in the rotation coming back next season. The Pirates had a great Saturday morning of basketball and as good as their young guards are, I thought the key to victory was DEVIN KERR 6’6” 2024, D J THOMAS 6’5” 2024 and  GANNON ROTH 6’4” 2024 on the baseline, with their length and athleticism blocking shots and
rebounds and dunking the basketball, it was impressive

#7 - It’s hard to shine when you lose your one and only game on the day. Center didn’t have their junior shot-blocker Xavier Byers due to sickness/health issues. But every once in a while, a ‘diamond-in-the-rough’ surfaces and gets the opportunity and JAYLEN PETTY 6’4” 2026 did that for me. He was long and bouncy and made some nice finishes in the paint for the Yellowjackets. As his perimeter game develops, the sky is the limit. Nice upside for Jaylen.

#6 - Every time I see Blue Valley Southwest play, for 3 years now, this kid JACKSON BONCZYNSKI 6’0” 2024 plays tough and feisty and makes play after play after play, scoring the basketball and working his rear end off for the good of the Timberwolves basketball team. His numbers must be consistently good . He is a gamer!

#5 - They lost to North KC, but Mill Valley shows incredible depth and size in the paint when MASON KEMP 6’8” 2024 and GUS HAWKINS 6’8” 2024 give them 10 fouls at the 5-position and blocked shots and rebounds are their calling cards.
The Jaguars are a very skilled basketball team with all the pieces they’ll need to compete in March for a 5A state championship. And having that kind of size and muscle in the paint on the low block is a true treasure for this basketball team.

#4 - We’ll get to Cameron Barnes in a moment, but in the meantime, when the sky was falling on the Titans and they were turning it over and missing bad shots in the first 8 minutes of Saturday night’s finale, it was DJ CHILDS 6’4” 2026 who just played harder than BVN and scored it in the paint and silenced the
pro-Mustang crowd with stellar paint. He needs to grow some (and it was his older brother, Elijah, who played at 6’7”), but for now, a Childs shall lead them!

#3 - This is a proto-typical Falcon boys basketball team under head coach Dan Morrow’s leadership. Tough and feisty. They play hard and shoot the trey ball well. The posterboy for Falcon success then in the Morrow regime may well be MATTHEW CORRALES 6’3” 2024. He’s playing against the ‘bigs’ more this season because they lost all their 6’6” guys from a couple of years ago when had good size. But Corrales and the two other senior guards JOSIAH POLYNICE and JORDAN MASON will lead this team to a winning record. 

#2 - One of my favorite players in the state, JAKE FRITZ 6’4” 2024 is also one of the most improved players in Kansas in the last 3 years. He’s a tough customer on both ends of the floor with excellent combo skills to score the basketball for Blue Valley Northwest one possession down the floor, then make a great pass to set up another score the next time down the floor. He probably
would have been my MVP for the day for the state of Kansas. Vastly underrated around the Midwest!

#1 - So who won Round 1? In the first HS version of BIGGIE VS. WILL, Cameron Barnes' Lee’s Summit West team won by 2 over Will Davis Jr. of BVN. So he won Round 1. It will be fun to watch and see how this rivalry matures and excels. At 6’8” with enough athlete to be very dangerous and all the poise and composure in the world for 14 year old young men, what impresses me most is
how they ‘blend in’ and sacrifice their game for the good of the TEAM.

Great stuff at Blue Valley North HS at the return of the BORDER WAR!!