Statewide Rankings - Week 12

[DragonFire]

I waited in vain for the media poll.  If they announced they weren't releasing it this week, I sure missed that news.  Given the whole reason for that poll in the first place was because of the historic lack of reliability from the old AP poll, just failing to release one the last week of the regular season (and therefore the last one they'd likely release) seems to be a slightly dark omen.   A shame, too, because it has been much better than its predecessor.

But for those who actually did release this week....

 

 

[DragonFire]

*Great Crossing remains a unanimous number 1.  As they won their last regular season game earlier this week to finish 29-1 (and undefeated against Kentucky competition, suffering their only loss in the final of the prestigious Beach Ball Classic in double overtime), it's safe to say they'll remain so for any polls that might be released. Also, if they manage to run the table at state and finish with 38 wins, I believe that will be the most in the state since Marion County also posted 38 wins in 1993.  Something to watch out for.

*36 teams were rated in at least one poll, up one from a week ago.

*Eastern (Nations Elite 21, KYHSZ 24), LaRue County (Nations Elite 24), and Central Hardin (KYHSZ 25) each joined the rankings this week.  Elizabethtown and University Heights both dropped - UHA only managed to stay for a week, knocked out thanks to a bad loss to Paducah Tilghman.

*Seven unicorns this week (teams rated by only a single outlet) - Spencer County (Nations Elite 19), Lloyd Memorial (KSR 20), Wayne County (KYHSZ 22), Bell County (Martin Media 23), and Oldham County (KSR 23) joined LaRue County and Central Hardin in that regard.  Big Things Kentucky is the only outlet that did not have a unicorn, but that likely owes to the fact that they only rate 20 teams.  

*15 teams were rated by every outlet, down one from a week ago (despite having one fewer outlet):

Great Crossing
Lexington Catholic
Newport
Lyon County
Covington Catholic
Bowling Green
St. X
Evangel Christian
George Rogers Clark
Trinity
Harlan County
Manual
North Oldham
Woodford County
Danville Christian

*I'm going to assume Big Things Kentucky meant Harlan County at #11, and not the very real team of Harlan that also exists with a far worse record than the one listed.

*Big Things Kentucky continues to be the only one that doesn't rate DeSales. The Colts have now reached 12th in two outlets.  DeSales would likely drop in a subsequent poll after losing to Male yesterday, and it definitely isn't going to get them rated by Big Things Kentucky who also doesn't rate Male.

*Henderson County was another narrow miss - they were ranked as highly as 14th by KSR, while Kentucky High School Sports Zone had them out entirely.  They did suffer a surprising loss to Owensboro last week, and KYHSZ barely had them in to begin with, so it's not surprising that they were dropped.

*George Rogers Clark is up to 15th in the Nations Elite poll, finally closing that sizable gap.  They're still 4 spots worse than the next lowest outlet (KSR 11th), but that's down from the 9 spot gap they had been at.  

*In general, there were less outliers this week, perhaps due to the loss of the media poll.  No team that was ranked in all five polls had a disparity of more than 8 spots from their best rank to lowest.  Evangel Christian was rated #8 by both Nations Elite and KSR but just 16th by Big Things Kentucky (the only outlet to not have them in the top 10), and North Oldham (Big Things 9th, KSR 17th) and Woodford County (Nations Elite 10th, KSR 18th) were the other two with eight spot differences.  

*You could somewhat count Bryan Station, which was rated as highly as 13th by both Martin Media and Big Things Kentucky, but totally out of the Nations Elite and KSR polls.  So at least 13 spots difference there....

*But that isn't even as big as Cooper, which KSR has ranked #10, and both Martin Media and Big Things Kentucky have out entirely.  That's three straight weeks that Cooper has been unranked by only those two.  But hey, they only have won 10 of 11 games with wins over Covington Catholic, Lloyd Memorial, and Campbell County (CovCath being consensus ranked and some outlets having the latter two), with their only loss being by 6 to Newport.  Their only bad loss was by 5 to Ryle, and it was a month ago.

*We were back up to four consensus top 5 teams this week, with Great Crossing, Lexington Catholic, Newport, and Lyon County all rated in the top five of each.  Covington Catholic, Bowling Green, and St. X were not only consensus top 10, they were also all consensus top 7, so the polls agree - those are your seven best teams.  Up to five of that group could make it to the Sweet 16.

 

[rerun]

Danville Christian?  Ranked by all outlets?  I saw them play in the AIT and they were treated roughly.  I thought maybe some quality wins later in the season but after a quick look at their schedule their best win may have been against Morgan County (in the AIT)??  As always, I may be wrong....

[LethalPG]

58 minutes ago, rerun said:

Danville Christian?  Ranked by all outlets?  I saw them play in the AIT and they were treated roughly.  I thought maybe some quality wins later in the season but after a quick look at their schedule their best win may have been against Morgan County (in the AIT)??  As always, I may be wrong....

They've added another 6"11 kid their last 4 games (Avg. 10 PPG/12 RPG).  He plays more as a stretch 4, and more skilled than the center.  Quite the addition late for them, but it def. makes them top 25 caliber, and definitive favorite to be @ Rupp Arena from the 12th Region.

[DragonFire]

1 hour ago, rerun said:

Danville Christian?  Ranked by all outlets?  I saw them play in the AIT and they were treated roughly.  I thought maybe some quality wins later in the season but after a quick look at their schedule their best win may have been against Morgan County (in the AIT)??  As always, I may be wrong....

Their best win was over North Oldham last week, and I'm fairly certain that's why they got the full ranking treatment this time around.  Kentucky High School Sports Zone was the only one that has consistently ranked them the last several weeks, but this week everyone jumped in.  They did it on a back to back as well, having played McCreary Central the night before.  As @LethalPG noted, good chance that's due to the addition of the new player.  They've won 8 in a row, 15 of 16 games, with the lone loss coming to Newport in the All A.  They haven't exactly played a murderer's row in that time, but Wayne County and Washington County are not bad additions as well. 

[24Rocks]

1 hour ago, rerun said:

Danville Christian?  Ranked by all outlets?  I saw them play in the AIT and they were treated roughly.  I thought maybe some quality wins later in the season but after a quick look at their schedule their best win may have been against Morgan County (in the AIT)??  As always, I may be wrong....

They were ahead of Ashland at halftime in the AIT and had a bad second half.  Just a few days ago they beat North Oldham (top team in the 8th region and with only 3 losses at the time) at their place by 16.  They just beat Wayne County (#2 team in the 12th) by 19 and limited them to 37 points, their lowest output of the year.  That was without a 6-10 player who just became eligible and may be the most talented player on the roster.  

[theguru]

1 hour ago, DragonFire said:

I waited in vain for the media poll.  If they announced they weren't releasing it this week, I sure missed that news.  Given the whole reason for that poll in the first place was because of the historic lack of reliability from the old AP poll, just failing to release one the last week of the regular season (and therefore the last one they'd likely release) seems to be a slightly dark omen.   A shame, too, because it has been much better than its predecessor.

What a disappointment.  I wonder what that means for the future of the media poll(s)?

[DragonFire]

4 minutes ago, theguru said:

What a disappointment.  I wonder what that means for the future of the media poll(s)?

Hopefully just a one-time thing, but I was incredulous.  I looked on Frakes' Twitter page, found no mention of what his ballot would be (which he does most/all weeks), no mention of the poll coming out, nothing in the paper.  Looked at last week's article, couldn't find anything about it not happening this week.  My hope is that there was someone that just hadn't sent in what they were supposed to and they don't want to release it without everyone's input, but who knows.  The product has been much better than the old AP poll, hopefully they figure it out and hit the ground running next year.  I guess they could in theory release one next week, but I don't remember them ever releasing a poll during the postseason before.

[theguru]

3 minutes ago, DragonFire said:

Hopefully just a one-time thing, but I was incredulous.  I looked on Frakes' Twitter page, found no mention of what his ballot would be (which he does most/all weeks), no mention of the poll coming out, nothing in the paper.  Looked at last week's article, couldn't find anything about it not happening this week.  My hope is that there was someone that just hadn't sent in what they were supposed to and they don't want to release it without everyone's input, but who knows.  The product has been much better than the old AP poll, hopefully they figure it out and hit the ground running next year.  I guess they could in theory release one next week, but I don't remember them ever releasing a poll during the postseason before.

I commend all those media personalities for putting in the work but like we have mentioned before and we know from experience, it is extremely difficult to deliver week after week, year after year.  Hopefully this is just a hiccup and not an ending.

[DragonFire]

I've been told that the last media poll is going to come out on Monday, to coincide with the postseason start (at least for most districts - there's a couple with games before then).  So at least it clears that mystery and isn't something too dire.  Just wish it had been more publicized!

[rerun]

54 minutes ago, 24Rocks said:

They were ahead of Ashland at halftime in the AIT and had a bad second half.  Just a few days ago they beat North Oldham (top team in the 8th region and with only 3 losses at the time) at their place by 16.  They just beat Wayne County (#2 team in the 12th) by 19 and limited them to 37 points, their lowest output of the year.  That was without a 6-10 player who just became eligible and may be the most talented player on the roster.  

Not that it matters but I remember them being down at halftime so I checked on Mytowntv and the score was Ashland 29  DCA 13 at the half.  The final was 60-37. Ashland did not have a good shooting night but had a nice defensive performance. I'm sure with the addition to the roster DCA is a formidable team and has good things to come. 

[24Rocks]

1 hour ago, rerun said:

Not that it matters but I remember them being down at halftime so I checked on Mytowntv and the score was Ashland 29  DCA 13 at the half.  The final was 60-37. Ashland did not have a good shooting night but had a nice defensive performance. I'm sure with the addition to the roster DCA is a formidable team and has good things to come. 

My mistake.  That must have been Corbin I was thinking about.  They’ve lost five games, all to good teams.  Woodford, Evangel, Corbin, Ashland, and Newport.  They were ahead at halftime against Corbin and Newport.  They were within 2 with a minute to go against Woodford and had to foul.  
 

Once the 6-10 kid became eligible they replaced a 6-2 player averaging 3 points and 2 rebounds with 10 points and 12 rebounds.