feb 4 rankings

Ok, so the Times was a day late. They published their Boys' Basketball Top 10 on Wednesday this week instead of Tuesday along with their stats report. Yesterday, we told you we'd fill in the changes as soon as they arrived, so here they are.

Remember that last week, both the Times and Daily News agreed to disagree about the No. 1 pick. The Daily News had Simi moving up after losing to Newbury Park, while Chaminade moved down after beating Harvard-Westlake. We couldn't figure it out, and the Times obviously disagreed with the DN, and instead dropped Simi to No. 2 while elevating Chaminade to No. 1, even though Simi had beaten Chaminade in mid-December at the Simi Valley Tournament.

This week it's still the same: The Daily News Poll still has Simi at No. 1, while the Times perhaps more sensibly ranks Chaminade at No. 1, notwithstanding the December loss.

Daily News changes: Moorpark, formerly No. 7, which lost, dropped out of the poll entirely. Also dropping completely out was Harvard-Westlake (formerly No. 6) which lost to St. Francis on Saturday, and just last night lost to Loyola for the second time this year. Moving up are Grant, La Canada and Hart. New members of the Top 10 Daily News Poll are North Hollywood and Valencia, which has reentered after dropping out a few weeks ago. Still unchanged are the 1-5 rankings.

Times Top 10 Changes: Everything from 1-5 stayed the same, as all the favorites kept winning. Channel Islands drops from 6 to 8. Harvard Westlake disappears entirely as does Taft. Valencia moves up from 10 to 6, while Santa Paula moves from 8 to 7. New to the Poll this week is Cleveland, the only team besides San Fernando from City Section to be rated.

Daily News Boys' Rankings February 3, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Simi Valley	20-3	1
2	San Fernando	19-2	2
3	Chaminade	18-1	3
4	Newbury Park	19-4	4
5	Montclair Prep	20-3	5
6	La Canada	18-5	8
7	Grant	14-7	9
8	Hart	14-8	10
9	Valencia	17-5	NR
10	North Hollywood	15-7	NR

LA Times Boys' Rankings February 4, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Chaminade	18-1	1
2	Simi Valley	20-3	2
3	San Fernando	19-2	3
4	Newbury Park	19-4	4
5	Montclair Prep	20-3	7
6	Valencia	17-5	10
7	Santa Paula	17-4	8
8	Channel Islands	15-5	6
9	Antelope Valley	15-7	NR
10	Cleveland	14-7	NR

Yes, these truly are mythical rankings. They actually mean nothing. And that's even more true if you compare who the stats leaders are in the region.

The Times also published it's stats on Wednesday as well. The stats leaders are really not very different from those in the Daily News, with the exception of the Assist leaders, Steals leaders, and Blocked Shots leaders which the DN doesn't publish (they only put out shots and rebounding). So let's look at the new stat leaders:

In the Southern Section the assist leader is O.H. Thomas of Channel Islands who is tied with Chris Jones of Bell-Jeff (who just keeps passing to Arizona-bound Ruben Douglas, who is scoring 33.4 ppg), and both are at 7.9 assists per game.

In SS Steals, it's Mario Grimm, of Quartz Hill who has overtaken last week's leader Luther Stain of Newbury Park, who is now in second. Grimm is averaging 4.4 steals per game with 88 in 20 games, while Staine has the same average, with 96 over 22 games. Ruben Douglas is still in fourth place with 4.0 per game, right behind Daniel Bobik who has signed with BYU and is averaging 4.2 steals per game.

Finally the CIF-SS leader in blocked shots is Brandon Duplessie of St. Bonaventure, which is in dead last in the Tri-Valley League at 0-5 and 9-10 overall. He's averaging 7.3 blocked shots per game in 19 games, which just goes to show that scoring is a whole lot more important than shot blocking if the team record means anything. St. Bonaventure has no one listed among the top 35 scorers in the region.

To prove this theory even more, look at No. 2 in blocked shots: Chris Christofferson of Nordhoff. At 7'-0" you'd expect this Oregon-bound senior to be blocking a lot of shots, and he is averaging 5.2 per game with 73 in 14 games. But Nordhoff is also in last place in its league, the Frontier League, with a record of 1-5 in league and 8-11 overall.

Want more proof that shot blocking must actually be a hindrance to a team's record? Who's No. 3? It's Bas Van Rhee of Thousand Oaks, averaging 4.1 per game, with 87 over 21 games. How's the team doing? Not quite dead last, but they are 6 games out of first place with a record of only 4-6 in the Marmonte League.

The only team which seems to be immune from the curse of "bad record to shots blocked ratio" is Agoura, which has the No. 4 shot-blocker in the area in Marcus Helfman who is averaging 3.9 per game with 71 blocked shots in 18 games, and his team is .500 in league at 5-5 and 11-9 overall, but was still 5 games out of first with virtually no chance to win the Marmonte League.

So what's the lesson we learn from this stat? That a team's win-loss ratio will increase as it's shots blocked per game by a single player decreases. So coaches listen up: Tell your big men to knock it off, let the little guys shoot if you want to improve your record. Better yet, don't play any defense and just watch your record soar. Seriously. The stats prove it.

In City Section stats, the scoring and rebounding are pretty much the same. What about steals, assists and blocks?

Gil Arenas is second in assists at 5.9 behind Fahim Hassankhail of Birmingham with 8.5 per game. In Steals, Gil Arenas of Grant continues to lead with 4.5 per game, compiling 4.5 per game, just ahead of Dejon Lee of North Hollywood who is stealing 4.0 times per game. Finally, in blocked shots, it's Jammie Harris of Canoga Park with 3.3 followed by his teammate Charles Harper who is averaging 2.5. How's Canoga doing? 3-3 in league, and 6-14 overall. See, what did we tell you, a losing record.

We won't reprint the Daily News Stats leaders again. If you want to take a look at them, they're here.