Warren Central highlights King of the Bluegrass field

Defending state champion Warren Central High School and three other teams that advanced to last season’s Sweet 16 highlight the field for the 2023 Chad Gardner Law King of the Bluegrass Holiday Classic.

The annual boys basketball showcase is set for Dec. 19-23 at Fairdale High School.

Warren Central won last year’s King of the Bluegrass on the way to taking the state championship. The Dragons lost four starters off that squad to graduation but return senior guard Kade Unseld, a first-team All-State selection.

Male (Seventh Region), Newport (Ninth Region) and Frederick Douglass (11th Region) are the other defending regional champions in the 16-team field. The other teams from Kentucky will be Bowling Green, Butler County, Fairdale, Great Crossing, Harlan County, North Oldham, Spencer County, Taylor County, Trinity and Washington County.

Rounding out the field will be Little Rock (Arkansas) Central and Chicago

De La Salle.

Unseld is one of seven players in the field who received Courier Journal AllState honors last season. The others are second-teamers Ty Price of Butler County, Armelo Boone of Frederick Douglass and Trent Noah of Harlan County; third-teamer Malachi Moreno of Great Crossing; and honorable-mentions Cole Edelen of Male and Drae Vasser of Trinity.

Noah has committed to South Carolina.

Other top recruits from Kentucky in the field will be Bowling Green’s Mason

Ritter, Harlan County’s Maddox Huff, Great Crossing’s Vince Dawson, Newport’s Taylen Kinney, Washington County’s Beau Baker and Gabriel Weis and Trinity’s Jayden Johnson and Julius Edmonds.

Little Rock Central’s Annor Boateng, a 6-foot-5 guard, was Arkansas’ Gatorade Player of the Year last season and has committed to Missouri.

The tournament bracket will be released next month.