Statewide Rankings: Week 6

[DragonFire]

We got a veritable rankings explosion this week, as two others have released! As always, we start with the Elite 16 media rankings:

Media Rankings

1. St. X [11 First Place Votes]
2. Male [3 FPV]
3. Madison Central [1]
4. Covington Catholic
5. Daviess County
6. Warren Central [1]
7. George Rogers Clark
8. Frederick Douglass
9. North Laurel
10. North Oldham
11. McCracken County
T-12. Boyd County
T-12. Jeffersontown
14. Ballard
15. Lexington Catholic
16. Butler
17. Bryan Station
18. Eastern
19. Pikeville
20. Highlands
21. Caverna
T-22. Bell County
T-22. Seneca
24. Covington Holy Cross
25. Evangel Christian

A new one Martin Media:

Another new one: Next Gen Prospects

 

[DragonFire]

-NextGen Prospects got off to a very rocky start.  They released the graphic you see there, featuring Warren Central's Armani Byrd.  The rankings they originally released with it had Warren Central nowhere to be found.  That's why Woodford County is in there at 26th (and not considered for my post here as truly ranked) - they had to get Warren Central properly slotted in at 4th.

-We have a new #1, a familiar face, as St. X returns to the top spot after a week away.  Male, the #1 by every ranking last week, fell by one point on the road to Jeffersontown, which was enough to drop them as low as five in some rankings.  St. X is consensus #1 across the board, albeit with five dissenting voters from the media poll who ranked someone other than St. X at the top.  

-I still don't know what Warren Central could have done to be considered #1 by someone, as they still got a first place vote.  They're good, but ranking them ahead of X just feels odd.  Male (3 first place votes) and Madison Central (1 first place vote) feels more palatable.

-We remain just shy of a full consensus top five, as four teams are ranked in the top 5 by every outlet.  Those are St. X, Madison Central, Male, and Daviess County.  As usual, Covington Catholic is the one on the outside.  Both Kentucky High School Sports Zone and NextGen Prospects have them on the outside (7th and 6th respectively).  NextGen gets a pass, they're new.  Kentucky High School Sports Zone remains the one that doesn't make sense.  Last week, Covington Catholic was ranked 5th by them.  CovCath played one game last week, a 74-45 win over Beechwood.  Now, CovCath is significantly better than them but they are also a respectable 11-4.  An odd choice to dock them two spots for that.   The team that replaced them in the top 5 for that ranking was George Rogers Clark, coming in at 5th.  Last week, they had them 9th.  They beat Frederick Douglass, who they had 7th.  They also beat Ashland, who they had 19th (the only ranking who had them at all that week).  Impressive? Sure.  A combination worthy of a four spot jump ahead of Covington Catholic? I'm skeptical.

-With the additional polls, we drop from 8 teams in the consensus top ten to only 7.  In addition to the four teams in the consensus top 5, we also have Covington Catholic, Warren Central, and George Rogers Clark who were in the top ten in every media ranking.  There was a much wider scatter of the other teams that were ranked in the top ten by at least one ranking, but Frederick Douglass came the closest to still being in the consensus, as Kentucky High School Sports Zone and NextGen Prospects had them 12th and 11th, respectively.  There were three others that really stood out though...

-We'll start with Bell County, who Nations Elite had ranked 9th.  No other publication had them above 13th (KSR), and they were the only other one who had them about 16th.  They were ranked as low as 22nd, that coming in the Elite 16 media rankings.  Their 13 spot disparity is the widest of any team that was ranked in every poll.  Still, only four spots higher than their next highest ranking isn't so wild.

-Jeffersontown was ranked 10th by Kentucky High School Sports Zone, clearly on the strength of their win over Male.  They were only a spot or two ahead of a couple of other rankings, so not crazy there either.  This one is more about our two new entries.  NextGen Prospects had them 25th, which is seven spots lower than any other publication who had them ranked (Nations Elite had them 18th).  That would be crazy on its own.  Martin Media did not have them ranked AT ALL.  Keep in mind, Jeffersontown was 8-2 at the time of these rankings, winners of eight in a row, and had just beaten Male.  You don't have to have them in the top ten, but UNRANKED?  It feels like they're being dinged for losing to two teams that Martin also has unranked.  Those being PRP and Bryan Station.  Now, no one has PRP ranked, but that was the first game of the year.  Bryan Station, on the other hand....

-Bryan Station is all over the place here.  Kentucky High School Sports Zone has them ranked ninth, which is eight spots higher than the next highest.  They're AN outlier and maybe still the worst.  The others who have them ranked have a range of 17-23 and three of them have them in the 20s.  Still, it is surprising to have both Martin Media and NextGen Prospects to have them unranked entirely.  There's not a single team that Bryan Station has lost to that isn't ranked by someone.  Their lack of higher quality wins seems to be what is holding them back for some of the polls.  Of course, they did beat Montgomery County, and as usual, that's why Kentucky High School Sports Zone probably has them so high, since they refuse to let go of MoCo in the ranks.

-Which brings me to what I consider the most egregious non-rank of the week.  McCracken County is rated as high as 10th, by KSR and NextUp Recruits.  Four of the other six outlets have them 11th, or 12th. So six of seven outlets are pretty close to agreement that they belong 10th-12th.  The only one who doesn't? Kentucky High School Sports Zone.  THEY DON'T HAVE THEM RANKED AT ALL.  This was true last week as well, it's just becoming more glaring as more voices are added. They last had them ranked back on December 22nd, when they were 24th.  So we now they know that McCracken County at least exists.  McCracken County's losses to Kentucky teams are to Boyd County (KYHSZ 11) and Daviess County (KYHSZ 2).  I honestly have on idea what in the world the person/people who run that rank are thinking in not having McCracken County somewhere in the ranks.  It defies explanation.

-One team returned to the rankings after at least one week away, although it kinda doesn't count since it's for a new ranking.  Russell was last in the ranks on December 22nd (by KYHSZ), and Martin Media brings them back into the polls by slotting them 16th.  That 64-60 loss to 6-7 Morgan County must have been mighty impressive.

-Three other teams were ranked for the first time this season.  Martin County (Martin 19th, NextGen 18th), Adair County (KYHSZ 23), and Manual (NUR 25) all broke in for the first time. 

-Adair County and Manual would be unicorns (teams ranked by only one outlet), as is the previously mentioned Russell squad.  There were five others who qualified - Montgomery County (KYHSZ 20th, still hanging on), Clinton County (KYHSZ 22), South Oldham (KYHSZ 24), Evangel Christian (Media 25), and Woodford County (Martin 25).  KSR is still the only outlet who has yet to be on an island by themselves.  They've got a good sense of the consensus, and by that token, may be the most reliable ranking.

-Some reverse unicorns (teams that appear in all rankings BUT one) have been touched on already - McCracken County and Jeffersontown.  Seneca joins that group, with only KYHSZ keeping them out.

-Is there any doubt that Kentucky High School Sports Zone is the worst of these rankings? Every week there are more and more polls that disagree with them, and I don't think it's because they're the right one. I include them because it's fun to have more variety, but they usually range from tolerable to outright terrible.

-Danville Christian, PRP, and Pulaski County all left the ranks entirely this week. Other than our new entries, Woodford County (Martin 25), Evangel Christian (Media 25), and South Oldham (KYHSZ) are the ones that are most vulnerable to drop.  Woodford County got a stay of execution thanks to the new ranking. 

-Despite having two new polls, we bounced back to 15 teams that were ranked by all outlets, up by two from last week.  Those teams are (ordered by average rank):

St. X
Madison Central
Male
Daviess County
Covington Catholic
Warren Central
George Rogers Clark
Frederick Douglass
North Laurel
Boyd County
North Oldham
Ballard
Butler
Bell County
Lexington Catholic

-As with last week, the Massey Ratings are in lockstep with the consensus.  There are seven teams ranked in the top ten of every poll, and the Massey Ratings have those teams as the top seven.  

-Manual is less of an outlier this week, ranked 9th, as now there's at least a media outlet that put the Crimson into the top 25.  Perhaps now Lloyd Memorial could be considered the worst outlier, coming in at 22 in the Massey while no outlet has them ranked now or has at any point. Their win over Covington Holy Cross is the likely culprit for that.  Still, 22nd isn't particularly egregious.