Back2back Final Missouri Boys Class Five Basketball Ratings - March 22, 2021
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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 teams Cardinal Ritter beat, leading up to the state finals, are ahead of the teams in the final four. Bolivar gave Ritter a good final game but the Van Horn game was better and Van Horn's dismantling of Lutheran South in the third-place game tells me that Van Horn should be ahead of Bolivar. Just the luck of the draw.
It wasn't easy for Ritter. They had the tough road to the final. There is a nice article by Steve Overbey over at the Post. De Smet gave Ritter an equally difficult time in the Super-Sectional but their schedule was the toughest in the state, playing Chaminade, CBC, SLUH, and Vianney twice in league games. With a better playoff system, the final four should have had U City, Van Horn, De Smet, and Ritter but it did not. Still, Ritter had to beat U City in the district final, beat De Smet in the Super-Sectional, and Van Horn in the final. No one will be able to ever say Ritter had an easy path to their championship. They fully earned it. No easy road here.
And Ritter did all of that without starting point guard Luther Burden, a five-star wide receiver, who left the basketball team at the end of January to enroll at East St. Louis, so that he could play the Spring football season. The team pulled together. People stepped up and stepped in.
Impressive. The hardest road to a championship without your floor leader. I respect that. Back2Back this year. Back2Back2Back might be next year's slogan.
Here are my class five final boy's ratings (adjusted 3/22, 10pm):
I don't understand your rankings. I can't for the life of me understand how you would have a Conference champ and District champ in Ruskin be lower than Grandview who is in the same Conference and District and Ruskin beat them twice head to head and lost to them at Grandview by a point. Oh...that same Ruskin team beat head to head Platte County and Warrensburg (at Warrensburg for the District 5 title).
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback. You make a good point. All three teams split games and I applaud Ruskin for their late run into the playoffs with a district championship. When I did a side by side comparison of all three teams, the ratings pretty much come out similar to the final ratings. I think the biggest factor was how the three teams did against other teams, where Platte Co and Grandview seemed to do a little better. If I took the time to develop weighted ratings on all 545 boys teams I would put Ruskin a shade better than Grandview but I don't have time and I use simple ratings on the bottom two thirds of the teams . I did not factor any of the teams Kansas team opponents. I will weight Ruskin and repost. If you want the side by side, post your email address and I will send it to you.
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