rankings 217

Just when the polls get "sane" and do what we think is the right thing, what happens? The regular season ends, that's what. Ok, so before the playoffs begin with the wildcard games in CIF Southern Section, here are the LA Times and Daily News Regional polls for Northern LA and Ventura counties.

And just like the last few weeks, the Times and Daily News agreed on the No. 1 pick. The Daily News had Simi moving up after losing to Newbury Park for the first time, 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. Last week it was still the same.

But this week, apparently the Daily News has finally become a believer. Simi is gone from the top spot having lost to Newbury Park twice this year.

Taking a cue from our suggestions published last night, the Daily News finally dropped Simi to No. 4 last week, while moving Newbury Park up to No. 3, San Fernando to No. 2 and Chaminade to No. 1 to make it a consensus No. 1 pick for the first time last week. This week, the top 5 in each poll are unchanged, and with Simi losing again last week, we're not sure we agree with this, but fourth is probably not a bad spot. We would have liked to see La Canada move up a bit higher with the same overall record as Simi, and in this case we think the DN is also a bit more realistic in their rankings.

The only truly wierd thing about the two polls is that they can't seem to agree on how many games Chaminade has played, or Hart either for that matter, or San Fernando either.

Daily News Boys' Rankings February 17, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Chaminade	21-1	1
2	San Fernando	22-1	2
3	Newbury Park	23-4	3
4	Simi Valley	22-5	4
5	Montclair Prep	23-3	5
6	La Canada	22-5	6
7	Hart	16-9	8
8	Moorpark	20-6	10
9	North Hollywood	18-8	NR
10	Taft	15-5	NR

LA Times Boys' Rankings February 17, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Chaminade	23-1	1
2	Newbury Park	23-4	4
3	San Fernando	23-2	3
4	Simi Valley	22-5	2
5	Montclair Prep	23-3	5
6	Taft	15-5	10
7	Moorpark	21-6	8
8	La Canada	22-5	9
9	Hart	17-9	NR
10	Valencia	20-6	6

In the Times poll, Channel Islands drops out, while Hart moves in as the only previously unranked team. Moorpark moves up from 8 to 7, while La Canada moved up one also. But the biggest move was with Taft and Valencia switching spots. Valencia lost one and won one, while Taft won its last two games to improve to 15-5. We disagree a little with Faft at No. 6, and North Hollywood actually has a better record at 18-8, and this is the one time that we probably think the Daily News Poll is a more accurate assessment of the teams in the area. Of course this also includes agreeing that Grant should probably not be ranked as it lost last Friday to NoHo, and also gave up a share of the league title to the Huskies, and in the DN poll, the Lancers, who will play Crenshaw on Friday at Crenshaw in the first round of City Playoffs, have dropped out as expected.

As we keep reminding everyone, 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. Check out our brief report on Ruben Douglas and on the "Player of the Week" series where we detail the leading players. We may actually get around sometime to printing up all the stats and just dumping them online. Look for it at the end of the season, because frankly, it's way too much to type when the stats are changing through the playoffs. We'll have them soon.