jan 26 rankings

As you may know from reading our articles here at SoCalHoops, 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. So here are this week's Los Angeles Times and Daily News Rankings for the week of January 26 through February 1, 1998. We don't necessarily agree with this stuff, but since some of you asked, here it is. And unlike last week, the teams once again appear to have different records, even for the same schools. And as usual, the Daily News is behind a game.

Consensus: Well it seems that the Times and Daily News have chosen to agree to disagree about the No. 1 pick. Remember, in the Daily News, Simi move up after losing to Newbury Park, while Chaminade moved down after beating Harvard-Westlake? Go figure. Anyway, they've still got it the same way this week after nothing in particular happened in the past week.

Daily News Poll: No big changes except that everyone from No 6 on down has moved up from the prior week with the exception of Hart and Cleveland. Hart is now ranked No. 10, while Cleveland dropped out of the poll entirely after it's 68-67 loss to Granada Hills last week. Oh, and La Canada also dropped two spots, from No. 6 to No. 8, while Harvard-Westlake moves up one from 7 to six, and Moorpark moves up two from 9-7.

Times Poll: Cleveland has also dropped out entirely, having been ranked No. 5 last week by the Times. Montclair, which won twice last week, moves up two, from 7 to 5, Channel Islands, which also won two, moves up two, from 8 to 6, Harvard-Westlake, winner of two, moves up three, from 10 to 7. In addition to Cleveland dropping out, so does La Canada. Valencia drops from No. 9 to No. 10, after winning one and losing one. . . tough crowd at the Times. New to the Times' Poll are Santa Paula and Taft. Hey, what about Grant?

Daily News Boys' Rankings January 26, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Simi Valley	18-3	1
2	San Fernando	17-2	3
3	Chaminade	16-1	2
4	Newbury Park	17-4	4
5	Montclair Prep	18-3	5
6	Harvard-Westlake	16-4	7
7	Moorpark	17-4	9
8	La Canada	17-5	6
9	Grant	13-6	10
10	Hart	13-8	NR

LA Times Boys' Rankings January 26, 1998
No	School	Record	Last Week
1	Chaminade	17-1	1
2	Simi Valley	18-3	2
3	San Fernando	17-2	3
4	Newbury Park	17-4	4
5	Montclair Prep	19-3	7
6	Channel Islands	15-3	8
7	Harvard-Westlake	16-4	10
8	Santa Paula	16-4	NR
9	Taft	10-4	NR
10	Valencia	16-5	9

Yes, these truly are mythical rankings. They actually mean nothing. At least if you look at the stats leaders.

Like the prior two weeks in the Southern Section it's still Ruben Douglas of Bell-Jeff.

He continues to lead all scorers in the region, and in 12 games, he's compiled 706 points --this time with a margin of 164 over the next leading scorer in Southern Section, Mark Hull of Hoover, who has knocked down 542 points. Ruben is now averaging 33.6, down another .07 from last weeks 34.3 average; for assists, he's still off the Times' stats list, but his teammate, Chris Jones, the freshman point guard is still the leader at 167 assists total, and in 21 games, he's averaging 8.0 per game. Defensively, Ruben has dropped a bit in steals, from second to fourth at 87 in 21 games, for a 4.1 average. And Luther Staine of Newbury Park, who led last week with 80 steals in 18 games, has been toppled, and the new No. 1 Steals leader is Mario Grimm of Quartz Hill who is tied with Stain, at 88 steals in 20 games, for a 4.4 per game average. On the boards, Douglas is now ranked in the last spot in the Times reboundng list, at No. 32 with 173 boards in 21 games for an 8.2 per game average. The new rebounding leader is Ruben's teammate, Mike West of Bell-Jeff, who is averaging 14.1 per game (296 rebounds in 21 games). So Bell-Jeff, which is neither winning as a team, nor ranked by either poll, leads in three out of four stat columns. The lesson in this? Team ball works better than me ball any day, even if you're forced to play 1 or 2 on 5 out of necessity, as in Bell-Jeff's case.

In the City Section, Gilbert Arenas, still leads in scoring, assists, and steals, and is second in rebounds.

Gilbert has scored 586, only up 42 from last week, and in 19 games he now has a 30.8 ppg average, down a full two points from last week. He would still be the second overall leading scorer behind Douglas in the entire region. Gilbert has gone from second in steals to No. 1, and is now averaging 4.5 per game, well ahead of DeJon Lee of North Hollywood, who is in the number two spot. Gil has 86 steals in 19 games, averaging 4.5, while DeJon has 70 in the same number of games, and is averaging 3.9 per game. In fact, Gilbert is ahead of everyone in the region in steals, including Grimm of the Southern Section's Quartz Hill.

Gil moved way up in rebounding, from fifth last week, all the way up to No. 2, with 173 boards in 19 games, for a 9.1 average, just behind Charles Harper of Canoga Park who is averaging 9.9 per game (179 in 18 games, one less game than Gil's 19). Both Gil and Harper though are well behind West's 14.1 average, and in fact their 9.9 and 9.1 average boards would rank them only about 15 and 16 overall in the region behind a whole bunch of other really good rebounders in the Southern Section.