jan 13 rankings

We don't really put too much stock into "rankings", but a bunch of our readers have been e-mailing us with requests to put up the newspapers rankings each week. We've resisted so far, but because both the Times and the Daily News put them out today at the same time, it's pretty convenient to list them. So here they are, side-by-side, for Northern LA County (San Fernando Valley and Ventura County). We don't necessarily agree with this stuff, but since some of you asked, here it is. Please note that the two polls have the team records recorded differently. It's not a typo, for example that the Daily News has Chaminade at 14-1, while the Times has them at 13-1. We attribute the differences to press lead time. Or you can just complain to Sondheimer. But don't blame us.

Daily News Boys' Rankings January 13, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Simi Valley	15-2	1
2	Chaminade	14-1	2
3	San Fernando	13-2	3
4	Harvard-Westlake	14-4	4
5	Newbury Park	13-4	5
6	Moorpark	14-4	6
7	Montclair Prep	14-3	7
8	Cleveland	10-5	9
9	Taft	7-2	10
10	Hoover	11-5	NR

LA Times Boys' Rankings January 13, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Simi Valley	15-2	1
2	Chaminade	13-1	2
3	San Fernando	13-2	3
4	Harvard-Westlake	13-3	4
5	Newbury Park	13-4	5
6	Cleveland	10-5	6
7	La Canada	14-4	7
8	Montclair Prep	13-4	9
9	Hoover	14-3	10
10	Channel Islands	11-5	NR

So there it is. The mythical "rankings". Doesn't really mean much, especially if you're looking at players and their individual abilities. For example, let's look at the same region (Valley, Northern LA County, and Ventura) and look at who's leading in the stats.

In the Southern Section there's no doubt about this one. We've told you about "the machine" before, but it's Ruben Douglas of Bell Jeff.

He's leading all scorers in the region, and in 16 games, he's compiled 562 points (131 more than the next leading scorer in total points, Kevin Lawrence of Moorpark, who's managed to hit for 431 in 18 games). Ruben is averaging 35.1 points per game. Amazing. Ruben does rank way down on the list in assists (principally because it's tough to pass to yourself), but he's still managing to average 3.8 assists per game, and has 61 in 16 games. Actually, Ruben's teammate, freshman point guard Chris Jones leads the Southern Section in the region with 137 assists in 16 games, averaging 8.6, passing mostly to Ruben we'd bet. And Ruben is second in steals, only 3 behind the Southern Section region leader Luther Staine of Newbury Park, who has 71 steals in 15 games-- Ruben has 68 in 16 games, and is averaging 4.3 per game. Ruben is also averaging 7.5 rebounds per game, having collected 120 boards in 16 games.

In the City Section, guess who's leading? If you said Gilbert Arenas, then you've been paying attention.

Gilbert has scored 493 points in 15 games, and is averaging 32.9 points per game. He's also second in assists, with 94, and is averaging 6.3 assists per game. Oh, and what about steals? Gilbert is leading the City Section in that category also, with a total of 65 in 15 games, averaging 4.3 per game. Amazingly, for a guard, Gilbert is also ranked fourth in rebounding average--he's actually got the second most rebounds in City Section with 136 in 15 games-- and he's averaging 9.1 rebounds per game.

We'll try to put up all the stats for the leaders if we can get our scanner to cooperate, so that you can see for yourself that these mythical "rankings" are probably not worth the paper they're written on. We know that Bell-Jeff is a team in transition, and probably as a team doesn't really merit ranking, but Grant, with a 9-6 record is at least as good as Hoover, Channel Islands, and some of the other teams who have received "rankings."

Anyway, since some of you asked we thought you should know. That's just the way we are at SoCalHoops. Really cooperative. And thorough. At least we're trying.