The Coach Martin rumors have been going on for several years and yet nothing ever happens. I don't see any changes at the top even if St. X has another bad year in basketball. For goodness sakes he has gotten X their only State Basketball championship, been to the Final Four multiple times, and has numerous district championships. However, even with that said, anything, but a Top 10 finish in the city and at least a 2nd place finish in the GCL South will be a major dissapointment for this year's team. This year's team definitely has the talent. In the starting lineup X will have two D1 scholarship players in Hadden and Mills, their leading scorer back in Blink, and plenty of seniors and juniors to pick from to round out the starting 5. Coach Martin heavily relies on his seniors to produce and last year's group of seniors (which was only 3) gave him little to nothing. This year's squad should be comprised of 8 or 9 seniors. The other issue with last year's team is they had nothing coming off of the bench. This year's X team will have plenty of shooters and height coming in as role players with the capabilities of carrying a team if they get hot. Last year's JV team won the GCL South and there is plenty of talent for Coach Martin to pick from. I expect 1 or 2 of the juniors from this group (besides Mills) to start making a name for themselves. They have the talent.
In regards to Benzinger and Muchmore, St. X will have a lot of other people to worry about at Moeller than these two. Specifically Davenport, Watkins, Wrencher, and Fowler.
I believe Lasalle will have a down year. They just don't have as much talent as they have had in the past and the lack of height is finally going to catch up to them. Yes I know they now have Simpson, but he is just not that good no matter what some rankings say about him. Moeller figured him out which is why he left. Simpson was not in Moeller's plans.
The Top 3 teams in the city this year for D1 (in no particular order) will be Moeller, Winton Woods, and Walnut Hills. St. X should easily be able to be in the next best group of 4 to 5 teams. This should be the year that St. X basketball is revelent again and the rumors about Coach Martin stop. I hope that is the case, because if Martin can't at least get back to winning ways with this group then I'm not sure how he will ever be able to get back to winning ways.