Despite Riverton's hot start, West Jordan and Bingham are more talented on paper and should be the favorites in Region 3. West Jordan is led by Nebraska signee Rayes Gallegos and Boise State signee Mason Sawyer as well as two other returning starters. As for Bingham, last year's runners-up to Lone Peak, it returns starters Ben Clifford and Remington Peck and several other contributors from last season.

Region 4 should be equally as strong, but it definitely has a clear-cut favorite. Led by Haws and Nate Austin, each of whom has committed to BYU, the Knights are more than capable of winning their third straight state title and their fourth in five years.

Nonetheless, Lewis hasn't been too pleased with his team on the offensive side of the ball.

"I thought we'd hit the ground running because we had such a good spring and summer, but what we found out is we have a bunch of kids who haven't played a lot of varsity," said Lewis.

Lehi and Pleasant Grove are realistically in a battle for second place, but Lehi would seem to be the favorite with a much more impressive preseason so far.

In comparison to the rest of the state, Region 1 appears to be the weakest.

Davis was unanimously tagged as the team to beat in the northern region despite zero returning starters. Not surprisingly, the Darts have taken their lumps already with losses to Jordan, Alta and West Jordan, but they do have an impressive win over Bingham.

"We return very little game experience," said Davis coach Jay Welk. "We are not very tall but have fairly good quickness, strength and athleticism."

While Region 1's coaches were unanimous in projecting Davis as the team to beat, there's no consensus after that, with five different teams receiving second-place votes.

Coaches' region predictions

Region 1

1. Davis

2. Viewmont

3. Syracuse

4. Northridge

5. Fremont

6. Clearfield

7. Weber

8. Layton

Region 2

1. Skyline

2. Alta

3. Jordan

4. Brighton

5. Hillcrest

6. Taylorsville

Region 3

1. Bingham

1. West Jordan

3. Riverton

4. Copper Hills

5. Hunter

5. Kearns

Region 4

1. Lone Peak

2. Pleasant Grove

3. Lehi

4. American Fork

5. Timpanogos

6. Spanish Fork

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com