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By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine

For the next several weeks, Maddox Huff will be working out and practicing for the annual Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Game series.
And the two-time all-stater from Harlan County High School is very excited about the opportunity to play with and against the top basketball seniors from both states. He will be the first player from HCHS to participate in the annual series.
“It’s awesome. It’s a great honor,” said Huff, a 6-foot-3 guard from Baxter. “I know there’s been many, many great players to play in that game. I was fortunate to play in the (Kentucky-Indiana) Junior All-Star game last year, which is not as big deal as a senior. In the senior one, we have practices and stuff. I think there are five total practices before the (first) game. But getting to play with other kids going to college, Division I players, and against highly-rated and highly-recruited players is super exciting, and I’m looking forward to playing.”
The first game of the series will take place on Friday, June 6 at Lexington Catholic High School with the second game on Saturday, June 7 in Indianapolis.
One of Huff’s teammates on Kentucky’s all-star roster includes future UK player and prep All-American Malachi Moreno of Great Crossing High School, who has been named Mr. Basketball for the state of Kentucky.
After the all-star games, Huff will be focusing on East Tennessee State University in Johnson City where he signed with the Buccaneers to play basketball. ETSU is coming off a 19-13 season, one of the best in program history.
Asked what attracted him the most to play at ETSU, Huff said there were many factors that went into his collegiate decision.
“If I had to pick one, I would probably say the main one was just Coach (Brooks) Savage, the head coach,” he said. “I feel like the relationship with the head coach is a really big important thing. I feel like me and Coach Savage have a great relationship. He was the only head coach who visited my house and heavily recruited me himself.
“Usually, it’s assistant coaches trying to sell you on the head coach, but in this situation, it was the head coach telling his assistants, ‘This is our guy.’ So I’m really, really excited to play for him. He’s super high energy, super intense.
“But outside of that, it’s a great area, a great spot, not too far from home. I know my parents don’t want me to go too far. And they’ve (the Bucs) had some great success in the past few years so I hope to continue that down there.”
Johnson City is less than a two-hour drive from Harlan.
“A lot of people have told me they’re going to come down and watch, so I’m excited for that,” said Huff, an academic star who excels in the classroom, earning a 4.0 GPA and a strong score of 27 on the ACT.
When he is on the hardwood floor, Huff said he would prefer playing as a point guard rather than shooting guard. But he said either position, or whatever coach Savage needs, is fine with him.
“I feel like I’ll be playing a little bit of both while I’m there because I feel like playing as a two or shooting guard that can handle the ball is a plus to have on the floor,” said Huff, who recently was named the 13th Region Player of the Year.
“Growing up, I was always a point guard really until after my junior season and into AAU that season. I was just a straight point guard. I didn’t play anything other than point guard. But in AAU last season and then this past season in high school, I didn’t play much of it because I was in more of a scoring role. Playing with Trent (Noah) all those years, he was our main scorer, and one of my main jobs was to find him and get him the ball so he could score.
“If I had to pick one (position), I would probably say point guard because I like making plays for other people. I like scoring and shooting threes, but making plays, seeing plays develop is something I enjoy and I feel like I’m good at.”
By the way, Noah, a former Harlan County High standout who recently finished his outstanding year as a freshman at UK, is Huff’s first cousin. They both played together for a long time, including four years at Harlan County High.
Huff was asked about his favorite memory about Noah.
“There are tons of memories with the team and with just him,” smiled Huff, who averaged 29.4 points and 7.9 rebounds last season while leading Harlan County High to a 25-9 mark. “Going through workouts every day can get really draining and exhausting, but having somebody going through it with you is awesome, knowing that they’re going for the same goals and stuff is super cool, and you push each other through that.
“But if I had to pick one story, it’d probably be one time we were going in the morning to shoot before school at about 5:30 a lot of days in a row. I think we were doing it too much and we ended up falling asleep in the locker room before even getting to shoot and woke up to the bell ringing for school. So that’d probably be my favorite or funniest memory that I have of him.”
Huff said his all-time favorite moment as a high school player took place at Rupp Arena during his junior year.
“I would have to say probably playing in the Elite Eight of the Sweet 16 when we beat Campbell County (85-71 in 2024),” Huff said. “We were down, I think 17 with two minutes left in the third quarter, and ended up going to overtime and then coming back to win that game. It was just a special moment for all of us. Everybody kind of thought the season was over. That was super special and that run we had when I was a junior was just a special time.”
In that game against Campbell County, Noah and Huff were sensational, gunning in 48 and 22 points, respectively. Both also grabbed nine rebounds each.
Harlan County later finished as the state tournament runner-up, dropping to former UK player Travis Perry and Lyon County in the championship game.
This past March, the Black Bears, after winning the 52nd District Tournament title, came close to making their second straight trip to the state tourney, but they lost in the 13th Region semifinals in Corbin.
“We got beat by North Laurel, who ended up going to the Elite Eight of the state tournament,” said Huff. “They’re a good team. You know you’re going to have games where you’re going to have things go your way. Like my junior year when we made that big run, we had a lot of games, single-digit games, possession-by-possession games that the ball just bounced our way. At the end of that North Laurel game, it just didn’t bounce our way. I don’t think there was much we could have done differently. I just think that was the plan for us, not to make it that way. But still we had a great season and a great team that we lost to.”
Huff also made several trips to Rupp Arena to watch Noah play for the Wildcats, including No. 15 UK’s 75-64 victory over No. 5 Tennessee in mid-February. Noah hit 11 points, including 3 of 4 three-pointers.
“It was just awesome to see him do that in such a big-time game,” said Huff of Noah. “Tennessee was ranked in Top 10 in the nation so to see him do that against them was awesome. Super happy for him and grateful that I’m able to be there and watch him with my schedule going on and everything.”
Growing up, Huff said his favorite athlete was his brother, Cameron Carmical.
“I’m not sure if you know Cameron, but he played at EKU for four years (2017-21) and I watched him through high school (at Harlan County),” Huff said. “He did what I wanted to do and seeing him do that. That kind of made me want to do the same thing as him, and that’s where I got the dream of going D1 (NCAA Division I) and playing college basketball. He was my favorite athlete.”
Huff’s grandfather, Charles Perky Bryant, also played football at UK during the early 1960s.
In addition to basketball, Huff said he enjoys listening to a lot of music and playing a lot of video games. “That’s something not many people know,” commented Huff. “They probably think that basketball is all I do, but outside of that, I do a lot of video games and music.”
And you can add golf to his hobby list.
“Me and my brother and Trent are going to go play golf in the morning. So I’ve started playing golf a little bit,” Huff said with a smile.
Huff, who has taken a few dual-credit classes at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, isn’t sure about his academic plans at ETSU.
“It’s still something I’ve thought about,” he said. “My brother is in accounting right now at UK and he enjoys that, so I can see something in that field for sure. But still undecided right now. I’ll probably just do some general courses and stuff to kind of feel out what I want for sure.”
ETSU is looking forward to having Huff on the floor this fall.
“Maddox is a winning player,” said coach Savage in November when Huff signed with the school. “His love for the game, work ethic and desire to come to ETSU makes this a great fit. His toughness, passing and shooting will undoubtedly add value to our program. He comes from a great family and plays for a terrific coach in Kyle Jones at Harlan County. We are excited to have Maddox join our program.”
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Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.