The winter break is a great opportunity to take stock early stock of the NEPSAC boys basketball season, and this year’s break comes at a good time. Because there’s plenty to digest after another wild week across the region.
The holiday tournaments – specifically the Basketbull HoopsFest and St. Andrew’s Holiday Classic, the latter of which I spent my weekend – gave us plenty to think about as teams around New England departed for Christmas and the holidays. The week included several Top 10 matchups and more clarity about what the picture of the Class AAA and AA hierarchy looks like. At the same time, the results sent my rankings into a pretzel.
This is a good reminder – especially given the weekend’s outcomes – that the rankings are not solely based on head-to-head results. It’s certainly a part of my process – and a tiebreaker in some cases – but I’m also including overall resume, current form and the old-fashioned eye test in my personal, subjective formula. We’ve reached a point in the season when it would simply be impossible to do rankings based solely on head-to-head matchups; in Class AA, where everyone is beating each other, this is especially true. That may make some fanbases and teams annoyed or confused, but that’s OK. The point of these rankings is to give a general sense of the best teams at the moment, and create some fun chatter. It’s never going to be perfect. And hey, if you don’t like where you’re ranked, that can be added motivation to keep winning.
With all that said, I expect continued movement over the next two months heading into the playoffs in March. There is so much parity in NEPSAC right now, and that’s a great thing for the region. There is talent everywhere, and you’re getting a great test every night no matter the opponent.
