One of Lexington’s best basketball players chooses his college. He’s staying in Kentucky.
One of Lexington’s best basketball players in recent years is switching high schools for his senior season, but he will be staying in state for college basketball.
Armelo Boone — a 6-foot-4, 175-pound shooting guard who previously starred for three seasons at Frederick Douglass High School — announced his college commitment to Western Kentucky this month.
“It feels great,” Boone told the Herald-Leader last week at Peach Jam — the season-ending Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) event in South Carolina — about choosing to commit before his senior high school season.
“WKU, I went and visited, (and) it was very good. I like it. ... When I went there it felt like home, and it’s not far from home, so it felt really good.”
Boone is the first player in the class of 2025 to commit to WKU, which is under new leadership for the third straight season.
The Hilltoppers won the end-of-season Conference USA Tournament in March to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. But following a round-of-64 exit as a 15 seed to 2 seed Marquette, Steve Lutz left the WKU program after just one season as the head coach to become the head coach at Oklahoma State.
Hank Plona, a former standout junior college coach who was an assistant at WKU under Lutz, is the new head coach for the Hilltoppers and has a four-year contract with the school that will pay Plona $500,000 annually.
Boone picked WKU over several other scholarship offers, including from fellow in-state schools Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State and Murray State.
“He communicated well, I talk to him every day,” Boone said of his relationship with Plona. “He wants me to be great. He wants to help me become a better person and a better player.”
A Herald-Leader All-City high school boys basketball first team selection in both 2023 and 2024, Boone will be changing high schools for his final prep basketball season before joining the Hilltoppers.
He will trade the 11th Region for the 8th Region and spend his senior season at Woodford County.
“I feel like Woodford County is going to develop my game,” Boone said. “(I hope) to get bigger and get stronger.”
Earlier this offseason, Murray Garvin was announced as the new boys basketball head coach at Frederick Douglass, making him the fourth different coach in four years at Douglass.
Boone —who is ranked by 247Sports as a three-star prospect and as the third-best prospect in Kentucky in the 2025 recruiting class — was part of the 2022-23 Frederick Douglass team that reached the Sweet 16 state semifinals.
Douglass has won five consecutive 42nd District championships.
A key part of this recent run of success for Douglass has been Boone, who led the Broncos in scoring last season with nearly 21 points per game.
“I play hard, I bring energy,” said Boone, who added that he’s hoping to show off his ball handling and shooting skills during his senior season.
On the Nike EYBL circuit, Boone wrapped up his travel basketball career last week playing for Team Thad, a Memphis-based grassroots basketball program that was co-founded by 17-year NBA veteran Thaddeus Young.
One of Boone’s teammates on Team Thad was Jasper Johnson, the five-star class of 2025 guard who is among the most coveted college basketball recruits in the country.
Boone is one of several local basketball stars who are changing high schools
The Central Kentucky high school boys basketball landscape will look a lot different when the 2024-25 season begins.
That’s because several of the best players in the area are changing schools.
Boone’s move from Frederick Douglass to Woodford County isn’t the only switch of note.
Former Woodford County standout guard Santonio Waide announced in early August he would be transferring to play his senior season at SFBA Trinity Prep in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Another former Woodford County star, 6-foot-3 class of 2025 guard Jaunte Jenkins, is transferring to Frederick Douglass.
Woodford County is also reportedly adding Chudier Dorar, a 6-foot-11 class of 2025 prospect who recently announced a Division I scholarship offer from Cal State-Northridge.
All of this player movement occurred while a potential bombshell loomed in the background.
Johnson, the aforementioned five-star prospect who spent last season at Missouri prep school Link Academy, was rumored to be considering a return to Woodford County for his final high school season. Johnson previously played three seasons at Woodford County, where Johnson’s father, Dennis, is the head football coach and athletics director.
The younger Johnson led the Yellow Jackets to the semifinals of the Sweet 16 state tournament in 2023.
But the potential for a high school homecoming for Johnson has been quashed: In July, it was announced that Johnson would be transferring to the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program for his final high school season.
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
