Large and Small St. Louis Area Boys Basketball ratings and a few other thoughts January 26, 2021

 I have indicated, a number of times, that you won't find more extensive Missouri boys or girls ratings anywhere in the state.  But I also think, and this is not bragging, that you find more exacting and quantitative ratings anywhere.

Yesterday, I posted game predictions for the slate of Monday night games, with winners and spreads.  I missed one game, the St. Louis Blue Knights at Herculaneum.  I only had a couple of games to rate the Blue Knights so I will take that one and toss it like salt over the shoulder.  On the other 94% of games, I had the winner and was not that far off the spread.  You can see the results below and, if you still don't believe in these ratings, then I don't know what to tell you.


But you didn't click on this link to hear me brag.  You dropped in to see the latest St. Louis area large and small school ratings for every team in the area (and maybe a few more). So here are the ratings and few comments about upcoming games.


Large Schools:

Key games this week include the following:

Jackson at Troy Buchanan - two evenly matched teams, could go OT.

Kirkwood at Parkway West - are the Longhorns contenders or pretenders.  The tough Kirkwood team will test West.

Eureka at Francis Howell - can the Cats compete with the big dogs?  If they don't shoot well and block out, it won't be pretty.  And can the Cats hold down Sammy Thompson and Preston Fortner?  Howell comes off a quarantine... are they rusty or ready? 

Vianney at Webster Groves - a good, knock-down neighborhood fight with LHBA teammates Lattimore (Vianney) and Phiffer (WG) facing off.

South Iron at CBC - can the Panthers compete in this David vs. Goliath match-up?  Might be close but the Cadets are on a roll.

Fort Zumwalt Tournament - Will it be a faceoff of MICDS and FZN in the championship final? Can KJ Lee and company compete with the MICDS balanced attack?



Small Schools:

Key games this week include the following:

Vashon at Soldan - we will find out how good Soldan really is.  If they can stay within 20 of the top school in the state, I would say they are really good, but that just tells you how good Vashon is.

U City at Jennings - can the combo of Shanklin and Moore, hold down the Lions?

Priory at MICDS - can Priory's Wilmsen compete with the multiple weapons of MICDS' Hendricks, Roper, Spann, and Mitchel-Day?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Missouri Boys class one high school basketball ratings 12/22/2020

Image
 Class one clearly belongs to the vaunted South Iron squad.  The only thing keeping the Panthers from winning a state championship trophy this year would be the pandemic, which could, unfortunately, end the season at any time. Last year, Dora "upset" the Panthers in the sectional game.  I honestly believe that South Iron would beat Dora this year, except that Dora was moved to class two and Coach Luna and his four sons are now in Viola Arkansas and Isaac Haney transferred to Kickapoo.  South Iron's coach Dinkins has taken on an aggressive schedule with Vashon, CBC, Cardinal Ritter, Helias, and several other top-rated schools in class five and six.  Hats off to the Panthers for taking on the big dogs. In class two, Dora will be lucky to win ten games.  I don't know the specifics on Rick Luna's firing last spring but the school board's kids are getting a lot of playing time this season with the Luna family in Arkansas and Haney gone to Kickapoo.  Viola, under co
Read more

Back2back Final Missouri Boys Class Five Basketball Ratings - March 22, 2021

Image
                                                                     Back2Back                                                 Photo by Paul Halfacre, Post Dispatch Respect.   That is the word I am thinking of right now.  Cardinal Ritter has been one of my favorite teams all year long, statistically because they played well against a tough schedule, but emotionally because I have watched a lot of these players compete in the Grassroots program against my grandson's Larry Hughes Basketball Academy.  You watch a group of talented athletes perform against your team and you respect that talent.  I really respect the talent on the Team Ramey teams and the guys that won their fourth state title in eleven years on Saturday.  Coach Ryan Johnson took the Ramey group to a new level this winter. While it is clear, the Lions are the #1 team in class five, what is not clear is who should be the next five or six.  With no disrespect to the MSHSAA playoff system or final four, I find that the tea
Read more

Predictions and more Predictions - March 13th, 2021

Image
Corrected March 14th I had the Pembroke Hill -Richmond score reversed.  Thanks to the observant reader for pointing that out to me.  I think I took the score off a Tweet that had it reversed.  It was a good night for Gramps last night.  While I have talked about my prediction percentage going down as the tournament progresses, I was on a roll last night with 18 of 20 right, or 90%!  Both of my misses were in class five boys where Lutheran South continued their hot post-season playoff run and Bolivar "upset" Nevada.  I really did not expect Lutheran South to get by a very strong North County team, but the former LHBA super subs, Jonathan Prange and Jack Lawson, and Company built a strong third-quarter lead and held on against a hard-charging North County squad. Here's where I am at on boys and girls predictions... I didn't do as well on the girl's side, but I will address that tomorrow after today's round of girl's games. I am actually astounded that the mo
Read more