The high school basketball season is only a little more than two weeks old, but already some trends are starting to emerge.

Basketball season in Butler County is always intriguing. There are so many unknowns from year to year and without fail someone always comes out of nowhere to have a big season.

Here are some early observations from this prep hoop season.

•

It could be a shallow playoff pool.There may not be a whole lot of March Madness in Butler County this spring, just a lot of March Sadness.Granted, we’re only a handful of games into the season, but things already don’t look good for a slew of area teams.No WPIAL boys basketball team is more than one game over .500 and only one, Summit Academy, is unscathed in section play.Things are just as bleak on the girls side in the WPIAL. Seneca Valley is 4-1, but it’s 0-1 in the section. The only other team with a winning record is Butler at 3-2, but the Tornado already have a section loss.Elsewhere, the Union boys look good. So do Grove City and Moniteau.Girls? Well, Slippery Rock is 2-0. Grove City is off to a good start and ... there’s still a lot of season left.•

Players who are starting fast.In Slippery Rock, where Bre Northcott is out for an extended period of time with another knee injury, sophomore Nicole Papley has picked up the slack.Papley, a 6-footer, has become the perfect complement to slashing Morgan Siebka, averaging 13 points and 5.5 rebounds in the first two games.In Butler, where Caitlin Baxter is shelved for the season with her own knee injury, senior Mackenzie O’Donnell has shown marked improvement from last season.O’Donnell is averaging 13.2 points per game and has been a solid presence inside.On the boys side, Union’s Brody Pollock and Taylor Smith are scoring more than “Watson” on Jeopardy. Tucker Preston and Tyler Kepple at Karns City are also giving scorekeepers carpal tunnel.•

Speaking of injuries ...There have been a rash of them.Nothing throws a monkey wrench into a high school hoop season faster than an injury bug.How much better would the Butler girls be with Baxter, who had her junior season stopped cold because of a fluke knee injury at the end of practice in November?The Karns City girls, a very young team showing promise, lost freshman point guard Annie Hegedus for an unknown amount of time with a busted hand.•

Top names.Each year brings new players onto the scene and some of them, well, have ultra-cool names.Some of the best: Carli Shrecwitch (Freeport), Alyssa DiPippa (Butler — it’s so much fun to say) and Sunny Munn (Summit Academy).