Statewide Rankings: Week 11

[DragonFire]

-NextUp Recruits did not release a ranking this week, nor did Martin Media.  But Big Things Kentucky Youtube did, so we have six ranks to analyze this week.

Beginning with the Elite 16 rankings:

1. Covington Catholic [15 First Place Votes]
2. Daviess County [1]
3. St. X
4. Madison Central
5. George Rogers Clark
6. Warren Central
7. Frederick Douglass
8. Jeffersontown
9. North Oldham
10. McCracken County
11. Ballard
12. North Laurel
13. Male
14. Butler
15. Boyd County
16. Highlands
17. Bryan Station
18. Bell County
19. Caverna
20. Lexington Catholic
21. Manual
22. Eastern
T-23. Lloyd Memorial
T-23. Pikeville
T-23. South Oldham

 

[DragonFire]

-Glad to see Big Things Kentucky back in after a several week absence, but they cannot possibly have meant for Boyle County to be #12, or probably in the rankings at all, right? That HAD to have been Boyd County and then Boyd was inserted in at #23 later? Boyle County is 12-10, and 6-8 in their own region.  This is the first time all year they've been ranked by anyone.  

-For the second straight week, Covington Catholic was the near unanimous choice at #1, with five outlets having them at first, and even among the Elite 16 rankings, there was only one person that voted for someone other than Covington Catholic.  The Colonels have won 20 in a row following their win over Moeller last night, and haven't lost since December.  They've got a big game coming up at Madison Central - if they win that one, given Daviess County's loss to Grayson County last night, they may be a totally unanimous selection at the top next week.  Only NextGen Prospects had someone else at #1, ranking Daviess County in that spot and Covington Catholic at #2.

-Only three teams were consensus top five choices, with Covington Catholic and Daviess County joined by Madison Central in being rated in the top five by every outlet.  George Rogers Clark just missed this group, as Nations Elite has them rated 8th. That outlet dropped the Cardinals two spots after a week in which they won two games by a combined 69 points, which seems... odd.  North Oldham moved ahead of them after winning three games over Collins, Shelby County, and Franklin County.  All big margins, but the teams no more impressive.  No idea what all that is about.

-St. X dropped to their lowest consensus rank yet, one week after setting their previous low, falling to #5 overall.  They missed the top five in half of the outlets here.

-In all, seven teams were consensus top ten choices, with Covington Catholic, Daviess County, Madison Central, George Rogers Clark, St. X, North Oldham, and Frederick Douglass appearing in all six top tens.  Frederick Douglass is an interesting one as they are just ninth overall in the average consensus rankings, behind two teams that missed 1-2 top tens (Ballard and Jeffersontown).  But their consistency, even at the bottom, keeps them in all the top tens.  Jeffersontown and McCracken County just missed, extempted from only one outlet apiece.  

-Focusing on McCracken County, I'm going to continue to make Kentucky HighSports Zone my pinata.  They are rated as high as THIRD in the rankings, that coming from Nations Elite.  Now, that might be a bit of a ridiculous outlier, but every other outlet but the KYHSZ has them in their top ten.  KYHSZ nudged them up two spots to 22nd.  That's 19 spots disparity from high to low, which is an absurd number.  I get it's their rankings, and maybe they're not looking to anyone else, but maybe at some point you should check in a bit with others?  They're the only ones who have Butler as a top ten team, the only ones with Bell County as a top ten team (one outlet has them unranked), the only ones that didn't have Jeffersontown as a top ten team.  All year long these guys have marched to the beat of their own drum, and sometimes it is just egregious. 

-Among other teams that appear in all polls, the largest disparity is from North Laurel and Boyd County.  I'm pretty sure Boyd County's is due to a misrank.  NextGen Prospects dropped North Laurel from 12th a week ago to 21st this week. They did suffer two straight loses in that time, and it's now three, but they're all pretty good competition (Madison Central, Bell County [in overtime], and now George Rogers Clark.  NextGen is the only one to have Bell County unranked, which perhaps informs their decision.  It just seems like a steeper drop than one would expect. 

-Three teams make their rankings debuts this week, one probably unjustifiably.  Lloyd Memorial jumped into two rankings, slotting in at 23 in the Elite 16 and 24 in the Kentucky High School Sports Zone ranks.  The Juggernauts are riding a nine game win streak, and their road win over Highlands is likely the reason for the rank.  Trinity finally shows up, coming in at 24th in the Nations Elite rankings.  That was despite a 14 point loss to Henderson County on the Saturday before. Then of course there's the totally legitimate ranking of 12th for Boyle County by Big Things Kentucky.....  That brings our total teams ranked at least once this year to 53. 

-No teams returned from being unranked to rank this week.  North Hardin exits the ranks one week after their debut, thanks to a blowout loss to Manual, despite knocking off Warren Central on the road.  Covington Holy Cross also exits the ranks entirely for the first time this year.  They usually didn't have more than 1-2 outlets, but someone was always in their corner.  And what a week to do it - the margins were big but their losses were to Covington Catholic and Highlands. 

-We havd five unicorns this week (teams rated in only a single poll. Boyle County (BTYT 12), Johnson Central (KYHSZ 23), South Oldham (Elite 16 23), Tirnity (NE 24), and Clinton County (25).  

-There were four reverse unicorns (rated in all but one poll) - Manual (KYHSZ), Bell County (NextGen), Lexington Catholic (NE), and Eastern (KYHSZ) all just missed consensus.  Lexington Catholic was the only one of those who had been consensus the previous week, but the poll that exempted them (Nations Elite) had not released one a week ago.  The last time they'd released one, LexCath was 19th.  In the interim they beat George Rogers Clark and Madison Central, losing on the road to Trinity (who Nations Elite ranked) and Frederick Douglass (a top ten team, albeit who beat them by 30).  The rank seemed a bit odd in that context.  Of course, LexCath lost to Danville Christian last night, so maybe they were on to something.  

-Only 15 teams were consensus ranked this week:

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

-The top ten by consensus among these rankings was the exact same ten teams that are at the top of the Massey Ratings (albeit in a different order there) - Covington Catholic, Daviess County, Madison Central, George Rogers Clark, St. X, North Oldham, Ballard, Jeffersontown, Frederick Douglass, Warren Central.  In fact, 14 of the top 15 in the consensus media rankings matches the top 15 teams in the Massey. Only Manual in the Massey and Boyd County in the consensus don't match, with Boyd County being 15th in the consensus, but 16th in the Massey, and Manual being 11th in the Massey and 16th in the consensus (and absent from one rank entirely).  The two are pretty much in lockstep.

-Great Crossing solos as the outlier this week, as they're the only top 25 Massey team not ranked by any media outlet, which remains the case since mid-December.  Ironically, Trinity, who was an outlier last week, exits the Massey top 25 (falling to 26) right as they finally get ranked by a media outlet.

-We'll see how many ranks we get next week! This is either the last or the penultimate thread of the year on this!

 

[4 Quarters]

I've said all along Davies County was too high, and Grayson County has proved my point.