Here are the first Boys Rankings of the 2014-15 basketball season.
The Girls rankings will be coming soon.
Some team’s reports their results better than others and with all the tournaments going on, this is a crap shoot at best. But it will shake out as the season goes on.
The records are unofficial.
The rankings are top ten and include all the teams in the NBL, SCL and NCL World. The report has the rankings followed by notes of almost anything at the bottom of the page, along with the Player of the Week.
No. 1 Cardinal Newman (7-0)…Two tournament championships along with some nice wins that will help them come seeding time for the playoffs.
No. 2 Montgomery (4-2)…Both of the Vikings losses are to Division 1 Folsom who is 8-0. The closest win for Folsom was the trip to Montgomery.
No. 3 Windsor (5-2)…The losses are to teams with a combined record of 12-2, including a close loss to Cardinal Newman. This is a dangerous three point shooting machine.
No. 4 Piner (4-2)…The two losses were to teams with a combined 11-5. One was to Division 1 San Lorenzo on a debatable buzzer beater.
No. 5 Elsie Allen (5-3)…The Lobos would be a favorite in the SCL if it wasn’t for the fact that last year’s leading scorer Joe Hoeup broke an ankle in a pre-season scrimmage. It still looks like they will contend.
No. 6 Willits (7-1)…After losing opener, the Wolverines have won seven straight. Willits was the highest ranked team in the NCL world last season reaching as high as No. 4.
No. 7 Cloverdale (6-2)…After dropping two of three to start the season they have won five straight. The losses are to teams with a combined record of 15-3 and they were by a combined four points. The Eagles have some nice wins that will help come playoff seeding time. Unlike the football team, the Eagles are in Division 4 for basketball.
No. 8 Casa Grande (2-4)…Loss to Windsor was a disappointing finish to the Callan Memorial Tournament. The Gauchos lost the first two games of the season by a combined six points. One of the losses was to Division 1 Foothill who is 6-2.
No. 9 Ukiah (6-4)…There schedule hasn’t scared anyone. They don’t have a win over a team that is at .500. Three of the wins are over winless teams.
No. 10 Middletown (5-1)…Just like football it is looking like an interesting NCL I race.
POWER RANKINGS
The power rankings for basketball showed up on Monday. I didn’t see them until after the YSN365.com rankings were decided.
TOP TEN POWER RANKINGS
No. 1 Montgomery
No. 2 Cardinal Newman
January 7th—NBL opener Cardinal Newman at Montgomery. Get in line now.
It might be a good idea to revisit the JC venue again.
No. 3 Windsor
No. 4 Cloverdale
No. 5 Piner
No. 6 Casa Grande
No. 7 Elsie Allen
No. 8 Roseland University Prep
No. 9 Middletown
No. 10 Santa Rosa
GO LOCAL
The first Sonoma County Classic in 1982 was just that, a Sonoma County Classic. All eight teams in the tournament were from Sonoma County.
Those days are long gone. Now at some local tournaments the only local team is the host school.
The closest to having an all local tournament is the REIBT tournament in Healdsburg.
One team that has a local theme to its tournament schedule is the Cardinal Newman Boys. With its name and reputation they could travel where ever they want, to any tournament they want to.
They don’t do that.
They are in three tournaments this holiday season. The first one was the Rose City, which they won and their were three other North Bay League teams in it. The farthest trip for the other two tournaments is down 101 to Petaluma for the Brett Callan Memorial Tournament at Casa Grande High School. The third tournament is the Sonoma County Classic at Piner High School.
Most teams travel out of the area for their tournaments, to get a tougher schedule that could help them come seeding time.
Actually, Cardinal Newman got the best of both worlds. They stayed local and they have at least three wins that will help them come playoff seeding time.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A GAME MAKES
I reported in the game article of the Callan Championship Game between Cardinal Newman and Washington that there were more than a few fouls. The game before that for third place, which Windsor defeated Casa Grande 51-43, was completely different.
I am not sure if I had seen a situation like this before. Windsor had a big third quarter and had around a five point lead for most of the fourth quarter. Casa Grande was sitting with no fouls. I know I have never seen a team go a half without a foul. With Casa Grande behind I was pretty sure it wouldn’t happen this time either because they would start fouling to try to catch up.
Casa Grande committed its first foul with 2:09 left. It wasn’t an intentional foul, but not too long after that they started fouling to get Windsor to the foul line. They needed to get to seven for that and they did with :41.6 left. They committed seven fouls in 1:28 or one foul every twelve seconds.
FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND
I can’t say I followed the state football playoffs once the local teams were eliminated. It was an immediate move to the basketball season for me. Looking at tweets and my Facebook page, local people did too
This was the ninth year of the state playoffs. The first couple of years the South won more games than the North. That has changed recently and is more balanced. The North won four of five games this season. Overall the South has a 22-19 lead. The North has won the most games in three of the last five seasons.
The only North loser was Clayton Valley, which was their first loss of the season. They lost to Redlands East Valley 34-33. T he difference was a blocked extra point after Clayton Valley’s last touchdown.
They lost the game despite Miles Harrison rushing for 324 yards and four touchdowns on 50 carries.
Camplindo rallied from a 28-7 deficit to defeat El Capitan 35-28. The winning touchdown will live forever. It was an 85 yard fumble return with less than a minute to go by Adam Ramotto.
De LaSalle won its sixth State Title with a 63-42 win over Centennial. De LaSalle has been to the state championship game every season and is 6-3.
Folsom quarterback Jake Browning threw six touchdown passes to give him a national record 91 on the season. There should be an asterisk after this record. He broke the record on a 65 yard screen pass in a game that was in the fourth quarter with the clock running. The touchdown gave Folsom its last score in a 68-7 win.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Connor Rubattino, Cardinal Newman
Averaged over 20 points a game and was named MVP of the Brett Callan Memorial tournament. That includes scoring 26 in the overtime win over Washington of San Francisco in the championship game.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net
FIRST BOYS BASKETBALL RANKINGS OF THE SEASON
