SoCalHoops High School News

Today's National "Rankings"
Are No Big Surprise--(Jan 5, 1999)

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for the latest installment of the "Super 25" from Dave Krider at USA Today.  No big surprises here, as Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, VA) stays at No. 1 in the country, followed by Christ the King of Queens, NY at No. 2, DeMatha at No. 3, and so on.  The big surprise is that Mater Dei is ranked No. 10 in the United States.  Are they really the 10th best team in the country?  Well, we don't know, but they are pretty good this season.  Should they be ranked ahead of No. 11 Mt. Zion whose only losses are to No. 2 Christ the King and No. 1 Oak Hill?  We would have loved to have seen a Mt. Zion v. Mater Dei matchup in Vegas to find out, and unfortunately the two teams won't play.   USA Today does note that Mater Dei last week defeated Santa Margarita, the defending California State Division II Champions at the Orange Holiday Classic by a score of 57-44, and that   Mike Bayer scored 19 points in the game and was selected MVP.   We didn't know that.  We also didn't know that Steve Scoggin had 14 points in the game, but given his great outside shooting lately, that's no big surprise.

According to USA Today, the No. 12 team in the country is Compton Dominguez, which, as we all know, defeated Verbum Dei to win the Best in the West.   Wow, that's a huge and wild swing for Dominguez.  When they played Oak Hill in Vegas they were ranked as high as No. 2, then after losing to Mater  Dei and Oak Hill the Dons dropped all the way down to No. 19 in Krider's poll.  Now, after beating unranked Verbum Dei, last year's California State Division IV Champions, they move up again all the way to No. 12.   Go figure.  We think the rise to No. 2 was precipitous, and the drop all the way to No. 19 was undeserved.   Louis Johnson of the Long Beach P-T today wrote an excellent piece about Dominguez, and in particular about Tyson Chandler's defensive coming out party at the BIW, and we agree with his assessment:  Tyson is finally becoming the defensive force that everyone thought he would be last year when he first exploded on the high school scene after astonishing the 14-U crowd as a member of the Southern California All-Stars.  We won't reprint all of Louis' article; it's up at the P-T's website if you want to read it in full, but here's the portion about Chandler:

Dominguez High boys basketball coach Russell Otis said it was a long time coming, and judging by the fact that it took nearly 13 games, you might even say he was right. Otis had been waiting for 7-foot sophomore center Tyson Chandler to become a dominant presence on the court. And while he was happy that his team had just won the Best in the West Invitational title by defeating Verbum Dei in the championship game last Wednesday at Long Beach State, the coach was absolutely giddy about the play of Chandler, who in the final two days of competition became the force Otis and so many others expect him to be. "When he stepped up, the rest of the team seemed to feed off of it," Otis said. "We turned him loose defensively, and he responded in a big way." 

Chandler blocked a season-high nine shots and changed several others as the Dons held off Clovis West in the semifinals. In the championship, he added seven blocks while turning in his best offensive performance (13 points) of the tourney. Dominguez's Keith Kincade, Keith Brooks and Ron Jackson were named to the all-tournament team, and deservedly so. Verbum Dei senior Marlon Parmer, who in the eyes of some scouts has overtaken Compton's Tito Maddox as the premier point-guard prospect in the state, was unquestionably the tournament's Most Valuable Player and was given that honor. But the Dons were able to win their third BIW title in the last five years because Chandler emerged as their MVP, which is all Otis asks for. "When he plays like that, we're pretty tough to beat."

Also not a big surprise in the USA Today Super 25 is the fact that Artesia dropped to No. 14, continuing a steady slide which had the Pioneers two weeks ago at No. 4, then after losing one game and winding up 5th at the City of Palms Tournament in Ft. Myers, Florida, in a game which saw Jason Kapono score 33 points and record nine rebounds beating Northwest Christian of Miami, 71-67, they dropped all the way to No. 8.  Now, after losing to Verbum Dei in the Best In The West last week in a semifinal game, they drop yet again.   Artesia's win over Clovis West in the third place game, in which Apolinar Fernandez and Jack Martinez each scored 14 points and nine rebounds, did apparently persuade Krider not to drop the Pioneers farther than he did.  Louis Johnson also had a take on Artesia this morning:

Artesia was the preseason No. 1 team in the area, and despite its loss to Verbum Dei last week, the Pioneers are still capable of defeating any team in the state. However, Artesia coach Wayne Merino must get better play from his guards to alleviate some of the pressure on the team's powerful frontline, led by All-American forward Jason Kapono.

Agreed and then some.  It's clear that Kapono and the two most talented sophomores (Tyson Chandler and Scott Borchart (6'-9" So. PF/C) of Chaminade notwithstanding) Fernandez and Martinez aren't enough to carry the team.   Andre Hazel and Aaron Hamilton will have to step up some, and Jon Steffanson, and the rest will also have to increase their focus as well if they hope to knock off some of the other D-I favorites.

As for USA Today, those are the only SoCal teams "ranked" in the Super 25. 

When it comes to the West Regional rankings, though, we expected far better.  Here's what Krider has for "West" regional rankings:

1. Mater Dei (15-2)
2. Dominguez (11-2)
3. Artesia (11-2)
4. Mercer Island, Washington (8-0)
5. Gilbert, Arizona (13-1)
6. La Cueva, Albuquerque, NM (7-0)
7. De La Salle, Concord, CA (7-0)
8. St. Ignatius, San Francisco, CA (13-1)
9. Mt. Vernon, Washington (8-0)
10. Brighton, Sal Lake City (7-2)

We haven't seen some of the out of state teams, but we'd say that right about now, Simi Valley, which is 11-2, and which has finished as the runner up (showing at least as well as Artesia) in two national tournaments, would rank as high as St. Ignatius; they might not be as well coached, but we'd love to see these two teams play against each other.  De La Salle is good, but are they really better than Inglewood, Inglewood, which at 13-2 won the San Diego Nike National Prep Classic American Division, and finished 9th at the 54 team Reebok Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic? 

Just goes to show you that rankings aren't everything, and really, in the long run mean very little.  Bottom line: The best in SoCal are still very, very good, and there are a lot of "unranked" teams out there which will end up giving some of the "ranked" teams lots of trouble this year at playoff time. 

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