You are correct. I've been told that Chester will nab the top seed, followed by Pennsbury and Norristown.  Pennsbury's lone loss did come to the Xavier Henry-led Putnum City squad. Henry, a 6-foot-6 guard, is the nation's second-best recruit in the Class of 2009, according to Rivals.com.  Pennsbury's statement win came against Lower Merion, a team in the running for the fourth seed.

Communication Tech's Scootie Randall, Bartram's Novar Gadson, Paul Robeson's Brandon Penn, Frankford's Malik Tinsley and Strawberry Mansion's Dwayne Davis are my five finalists. I really like Overbrook's Nurideen Lindsey. He's averaging over 30 points a game. It's just hard to make him a finalist when his squad is riding a nine-game losing streak.

Scootie Randall would be my player of the year no matter when the season ended.  

Brandon Penn is a fine player. He is unquestionably one of the Public League’s standouts. Standing 6-foot-6, the senior swingman usually has a height advantage over opposing guards. He’s a great scorer that loves to attack the basket. Penn had a few unforced turnovers when I saw him play. But that only happened when he tried to force things. The Rider recruit’s best basketball is ahead of him.

Having experienced guards ahead of him has a lot to do with it. Junior Maalik Wayns (a Villanova recruit) and senior Courtney Stanley (Loyola-Chicago) are one of the better guard tandems in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Wayns is recognized as one of the nation's premier point guards regardless of class. He even backed up Doodles Sims two seasons ago. More often than not, the Roman Catholic way is to wait your turn.  How can you argue with that formula when the Cahillites have produced five McDonald's All-Americans and won 28 Catholic League titles?

 Rick O'Brien is our girls' basketball writer. He would be the right person to answer that question.  But, I do know that Brittany Hrynko of Engineering and Science, Nyderra Lee of Prep Charter, Tiffany Johnson of Cheltenham and Devin Gold of Council Rock North are all very good freshmen point guards.