Regional and state champs are starting to be topped and for groups in energy states, there’ll inevitably be a roadblock put out on the highway by one other workforce within the newest version of the FAB 50 Nationwide Staff Rankings powered by Ballislife.com. There may be some motion this week plus one newcomer, No. 50 Pascagoula (Pascagoula, Miss.).
By Ronnie Flores
Good workforce have a gaggle of life like targets it units firstly of every season. One is to win league or convention titles and go on to seize regional or sectional titles. The large prize for a lot of, clearly, is a state championship.
For some, these targets have been realized this previous week and for an additional highly-ranked membership the dream got here to fruition on Monday night.
One membership that’s truly exterior the newest FAB 50 Nationwide Staff Rankings powered by Ballislife.com is bubble membership Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.). The Gaels took some lumps early, however avenged losses to Liberty (Henderson, Nev.) and Coronado (Henderson, Nev.) to seize the Nevada Interscholastic Actions Affiliation (NIAA) Class 5A state title.
Coach Grant Rice’s membership defeated Coronado within the state championship sport, 63-60, as senior Noah Westbrook, taking part in highschool basketball for the primary time, had 13 factors and 9 rebounds and did his greatest to thwart Coronado junior huge man Tee Bartlett. Bishop Gorman would not fairly have a resume sturdy sufficient to crack into the FAB 50, however its closing positioning will not be decided into all the outcomes of the season are full. For now, Gorman and different state champions who’ve competed its season is listed by an asterisk (***).
Rice has now coached the Gorman program to 14 state titles, and its first since 2020 proper earlier than the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rice has coached many FAB 50 ranked state champs, however regardless that this workforce is a notch beneath its nationwide competitors, this is among the most satisfying of the 14 state titles contemplating the place this system started final fall with participant defections and a younger roster.
Hawaii has additionally topped its state champs and after this week Mississippi will even be full. This week’s lone newcomer is No. 50 Pascagoula (Pascagoula, Miss.), the Mississippi Excessive College Actions Affiliation (MHSAA) top-ranked Class 6A membership that’s two wins away from a coveted state crown. On Wednesday, the Panthers tackle 23-9 Ridgeland (Miss.) and can face both Olive Department (Miss.) or Terry (Miss.) on Saturday for the title in the event that they win within the semis. Pascagoula has avenged its solely loss to Madison Central (Madison, Miss.).
For some groups that took a current loss, similar to No. 19 Archbishop Stepinac (White Plains, N.Y.), the season will not be over and people groups will look to bounce again within the regional or state playoffs. Stepinac fell to unranked St. Raymond (Bronx, N.Y.), a workforce it had already overwhelmed twice, within the New York Archdiocesan Class AA Championship and can look to bounce again within the upcoming Intersectional AA tourney after dropping two spots this week.
Final season, Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.) captured the coveted California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Open Division state crown after bouncing again from dropping within the CIF Southern Part Open Division pool play format and failing to advance to the part title sport. This 12 months, one of many Wolverines’ essential targets was to win the Mission League Match (which they did) and repeat as state champions whereas capturing the sectional crown.
The No. 10 ranked Wolverines accomplished purpose No. 2 by defeating then No. 21 Roosevelt (Eastvale, Calif.), 54-47, within the CIFSS open title sport at Cal Baptist College in Riverside to seize this system’s first ever part open crown. As has been the case within the post-season, Harvard-Westlake clamped down on protection and labored the boards, holding Roosevelt to 30 % taking pictures from the sphere whereas limiting star guard Brayden Burries to 4-of-14 taking pictures from the sphere in a 14-point efficiency. Doing alot of the work defensively on Burries was junior ahead Nik Khamenia, who has drawn many robust assignments within the playoff the previous two seasons and got here up with passing grades. Khamenia had 15 factors and 7 rebounds, whereas Harvard-bound Robert Hinton additionally had 15 factors, together with two free throws that iced the sport with 13 seconds to go after a unfastened ball foul was referred to as on the snake-bit Mustangs off a Harvard-Westlake missed free throw.
Harvard-Westlake is now the No. 1 seed within the upcoming CIF SoCal Open Regional Playoffs, which get underway on Wednesday. The Mustangs are available because the No. 2 seed and FAB 50 No. 26 Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) is the No. 3 seed. The highest seed within the NorCal open playoffs is No. 36 Salesian (Richmond, Calif.), which has solely misplaced to No. 35 St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), the highest seed within the CIF SoCal D1 regional event.
The highest two seeds in each the NorCal and SoCal open regional have byes. The open regional finals are set for March 5 with the CIF Open State Championship set for March 9 on the Golden One Heart in Sacramento.
League/Convention titles are large in lots of areas of the nation, and never many are extra prestigious than the Washington Catholic Athletic Convention (WCAC) event title. The WCAC title sport was held on Monday night time, so its outcome will not be credited till subsequent week’s FAB 50, however the result’s greater than newsworthy now.
FAB 50 No. 3 Paul VI (Chantilly, Va.) captured its second WCAC title in three seasons with a 63-51 victory over No. 16 Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) at American College. Duke-bound Darren Harris led the way in which with 20 factors and 7 rebounds for a program that’s within the thick of the FAB 50 nationwide title race.
With the win, Paul VI is the primary workforce to go unbeaten in WCAC play and seize the event title in the identical season since 2011-12. That season, Paul VI pulled off the WCAC double along with profitable the Virginia Impartial Faculties Athletic Affiliation (VISAA) title when it completed No. 12 within the FAB 50.
In what spot will the Panthers end this season?
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Up to date FAB 50 Nationwide Staff Rankings
Powered by Ballislife.com
(tenth ballot of 2023-24 common season; By video games performed on Sunday, February 25; *Signifies forfeit wins, forfeit losses not included; **Signifies forfeits and defaults not included; ***Signifies season full.)
| No. | Prev. | Excessive College (Metropolis) | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) | 27-0 |
| 2 | 2 | Columbus (Miami, Fla.) | 25–4 |
| 3 | 3 | Paul VI (Chantilly, Va.) | 29-2 |
| 4 | 4 | Lengthy Island Lutheran (Glen Head, N.Y.) | 17-4 |
| 5 | 5 | Plano East (Plano, Texas) | 35-0 |
| 6 | 6 | Stony Level (Spherical Rock, Texas) | 34-1 |
| 7 | 7 | Myers Park (Charlotte, N.C.) | 24-2 |
| 8 | 8 | Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif.) | 29-5 |
| 9 | 9 | Hyperlink Academy (Branson, Mo.) | 20-6 |
| 10 | 10 | Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.) | 29-3 |
| 11 | 11 | Central Cabarrus (Harmony, N.C.) | 27-0 |
| 12 | 12 | AZ Compass Prep (Chandler, Ariz.) | 23-5 |
| 13 | 13 | IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) | 15-8 |
| 14 | 14 | Wisconsin Lutheran (Milwaukee, Wis.) | 24-0 |
| 15 | 15 | Fishers (Fishers, Ind.) | 22-1 |
| 16 | 22 | Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) | 27-4 |
| 17 | 16 | St. Rose (Belmar, N.J.) | 25-2 |
| 18 | 23 | De Pere (De Pere, Wis.) | 23-1 |
| 19 | 17 | Archbishop Stepinac (White Plains, N.Y.) | 22-4 |
| 20 | 18 | Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) | 25-3 |
| 21 | 20 | McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.) | 24-5 |
| 22 | 24 | Roman Catholic (Philadelphia, Pa.) | 22-2 |
| 23 | 19 | Mix Academy (Lincolnton, N.C.) | 21-2 |
| 24 | 21 | Roosevelt (Eastvale, Calif.) | 30-3 |
| 25 | 29 | St. Mary Prep (Orchard Lake, Mich.) | 20-1 |
| 26 | 26 | Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) | 26-3 |
| 27 | 27 | La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.) | 22-4 |
| 28 | 28 | Brewster Academy (Wolfeboro, N.H.) | 24-7 |
| 29 | 30 | Nice Crossing (Georgetown, Ky.) | 29-1 |
| 30 | 31 | Oak Ridge (Orlando, Fla.) | 26-3 |
| 31 | 32 | Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) | 29-3 |
| 32 | 39 | Ridge View (Columbia, S.C.) | 25-2 |
| 33 | 40 | Grayson (Loganville, Ga.) | 27-2 |
| 34 | 33 | Patrick College (Elizabeth, N.J.) | 24-4 |
| 35 | 34 | St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) | 24-7 |
| 36 | 35 | Salesian (Richmond, Calif.) | 29-1 |
| 37 | 36 | North Mecklenburg (Huntersville, N.C.) | 24-3 |
| 38 | 37 | Millennium (Goodyear, Ariz.) | 24-4 |
| 39 | 43 | Bartlett (Bartlett, Tenn.) | 28-4 |
| 40 | 41 | John Marshall (Richmond, Va.) | 22-3 |
| 41 | 42 | Westfield (Westfield, Ind.) | 19-2 |
| 42 | 25 | Cordova (Cordova, Tenn.) | 28-2 |
| 43 | 44 | Kell (Marietta, Ga.) | 25-3 |
| 44 | 45 | Jackson-Reed (Washington, D.C.) | 32-2 |
| 45 | 46 | Bullis (Potomac, Md.) | 25-2 |
| 46 | 47 | Sidwell Buddies (Washington, D.C.) | 24-4 |
| 47 | 48 | Huntsville (Huntsville, Ala.) | 32-2 |
| 48 | 49 | Curie (Chicago, Sick.) | 29-2 |
| 49 | 50 | Winter Haven (Winter Haven, Fla.) | 27-1 |
| 50 | NR | Pascagoula (Pascagoula, Miss.) | 29-1 |
Dropped Out: Earlier No. 38 Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia, Pa.).
Bubble Groups: Alexander (Douglasville, Ga.) 27-2; Bay Shore (Bay Shore, N.Y.) 21-0; Bellevue West (Bellevue, Neb.) 23-1; Bishop O’Connell (Arlington, Va.) 23-8; Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) 24-5***; Bolingbrook (Bolingbrook, Sick.) 26-4; Brennan (San Antonio, Texas) 30-4; Camden (Camden, N.J.) 25-2; Christian (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 19-2; Dale (Dale, Okla.) 26-2; Dearborn (Dearborn, Mich.) 22-0; De Paul Prep (Chicago, Sick.) 30-2; East Lansing (East Lansing, Mich.) 20-2; Edmond North (Edmond, Okla.) 20-3; Fort Bend Clements (Sugar Land, Texas) 32-0; Garfield Heights (Garfield Heights, Ohio) 21-1; Homewood Flossmor (Flossmor, Sick.) 28-4; Hoover (Hoover, Ala.) 32-4; Imhotep Constitution (Philadelphia, Pa.) 23-3; Kennedy (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 22-0; Kokomo (Kokomo, Ind.) 22-3; Lake Taylor (Norfolk, Va.) 23-1; Lawrence North (Indianapolis, Ind.) 21-3; Lexington (Lexington, S.C.) 27-2; Lexington Catholic (Lexington, Ky.) 28-2; Liberty Magnet (Baton Rouge, La.) 29-4; Lincoln Park (Midland, Pa.) 21-3; Madison Prep (Baton Rouge, La.) 27-3; Millard North (Omaha, Neb.) 20-2; Mt. St. Joseph (Baltimore, Md.) 35-4; Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia, Pa.) 21-3; Newport (Newport, Ky.) 27-3; Noblesville (Noblesville, Ind.) 20-2; North Crowley (Ft. Price, Texas) 32-3; Northwest (Shawnee Mission, Kan.) 20-0; Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) 20-4; Pewaukee (Pewaukee, Wis.) 20-4; Reidsville (Reidsville, N.C.) 23-0; Southern Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.) 26-1; St. Ignatius (Cleveland, Ohio) 19-3; St. Peter’s Prep (Jersey Metropolis, N.J.) 24-2; St. Pius X-St. Matthias (Downey, Calif.) 24-6; St. Raymond (Bronx, N.Y.) 22-5; Thornton (Harvey, Sick.) 27-4; Union (Tulsa, Okla.) 23-2; Varina (Richmond, Va.) 21-1; Vashon (St. Louis, Mo.) 20-6; Veterans Memorial (San Antonio, Texas) 37-1; Volcano Vista (Albuquerque, N.M.) 25-1; Wasatch Academy (Mt. Nice, Utah) 14-4; Wayzata (Plymouth, Minn.) 24-1.
Notice: The FAB 50 powered by Ballislife.com is a continuation of the Nationwide Sports activities Information Service rankings that started in 1952. These have been the primary nationwide highschool rankings and the late Artwork Johlfs of Minnesota compiled them. They have been compiled for a few years by the late Barry Sollenberger of Phoenix, who merged them into the FAB 50 24 years in the past.
Ronnie Flores is the nationwide Grassroots editor of Ballislife.com. He might be reached at [email protected]. Do not forget to comply with him on Twitter: @RonMFlores