Cyclones looking to be a sleeper in Upper Lakes

BY IVAN SANDERS STAR CORRESPONDENT

The Elizabethton Cyclones don’t mind if the other teams in the Upper Lakes are not counting on much from the boys from ‘Betsy this season on the hardwood and that is perfectly fine with the Cyclones because its not always the level of talent that a team has that is important but what a team does with the talent it has.

Cyclone head coach Lucas Honeycutt likes playing from the underdog role even though he believes he has the pieces to catch a lot of teams off guard this season while taking some road wins in the process.

“We have three kids that return in Dalton Mitchell, Nate Stephens, and Mason Ball,” said Honeycutt. “They are twosport athletes who all got minutes during the season last year. We had games where at least two of the three started so that gives us a little bit of resemblance of knowing what is going on.”

HEAD COACH: Lucas Honeycutt Assistant Coaches: Gary Harrison, Tee Blevins, and Matt Clemson.

And while the Cyclones graduated players like Jake Roberts, Bryson Rollins, Seth Carter, and Nicholas Wilson, the Cyclones have some players that have seen a ton of time on the court both in varsity and junior varsity play.

“Luke Whaley and Eli Blevins and some younger guys that are playing as well that we are excited about,” said Hon- eycutt. “We are a heavy junior class. Will Churchill and Mac Paulson - we are expecting a lot out of those two who have played for us in the past. Andrew Barnett, who is a sophomore, will step in and handle the point some for us and he shoots the ball really well.

“Jackson Hobbs is a guy that transferred in and has some size that we were lacking. We can get big at times as Hudson Smith is a 6’6 sophomore who is playing his second year while Zach Bates who probably is one of our best shooters - it won’t take long for people to find that out. We have a lot of kids that are equal while not standing out so to speak.”

Honeycutt is happy that from an effort standpoint the Cyclones have been able to play a lot of guys and from a coaching perspective there is not much more a coach can expect than his team getting better each and every day.

The Cyclone skipper is also excited about his big freshmen class.

All those guys have been working hard and we will have a full slate for the freshmen, junior varsity, and varsity,” said Honeycutt.

When it came to picking the pecking order for the Upper Lakes Conference, Honeycutt said the league is very top heavy.

“Volunteer and Tennessee High are going to be right there together while some will look at us and East as rebuilding and that is fair,” said Honeycutt. “It’s not always how much talent that you have but what you do with that talent. I don’t think any of those top two will look at the bottom three and think they can take the night off. It’s very top heavy I would say in the top three and there is a gap right now between us and Sullivan East.”