Gramps 2024 Boys Girls MO HS BB ratings

FINAL UPDATE MARCH 17TH, 2024 Did anyone think that a team with a 4-10 record in mid-January could win the Class Six Missouri boys basketball championship? I can only think of three or so people that might have had that thought.  Coach Ryan Johnson (and maybe his players and staff), Earl Austin, Jr. and Gramps. Cardinal Ritter played a very difficult early schedule which hardened the team into one heck of a juggernaut.  They were solid at all five positions, played extremely hard defense, and learned how to win by learning from their early losses.   No one else gave them a second thought.  The MBCA poll did not even mention them until mid-February when they ranked them 10th.  Gramps had them fourth in his mid-January ratings when they were 4-10.  I checked out their competition and developed a rating (which meant rating a lot of nationally ranked teams that they played).  I knew they would challenge and they certainly did. The other state finalist...

FINAL UPDATE MARCH 17TH. 2024 It was a great weekend of basketball and the MO Class Five final four was a great one to watch.   Those young, De Smet Spartans got hot at the right time and blew the doors off the arena with their three-point shooting, beating a very good Winnetonka squad last Wednesday and a solid Jeff City team on Thursday.  Vianney, who I expected to be in the final, came back after a disappointing loss to Jeff City in the semi-final, to blow away Winnetonka in the third-place game. I expect both De Smet and Vianney, from the Metro Catholic Conference in St. Louis, to be back next year but probably not in the same class.  I don't know what MSHSAA might do, but expect De Smet to be back in class six, while Vianney stays in class five.  Vianney is also a younger team and they should vie for a state title, as long as they can keep their emotions in check and play the kind of basketball they are capable of. It was a solid class five field this year ...

FINAL UPDATE MARCH 17TH, 2024 Was there ever any doubt about Vashon winning another MO Class Four boys basketball championship?  I do not think so. Vashon has established themselves as the premier team in the state of Missouri and they deserve all the accolades possible.  Congrats to Coach Tony Irons and his gifted team.  I wish them continued success. While I knew what was going down in the final between Vashon and John Burroughs, I was secretly hoping that Coach Peewee Lenard and his Bombers would hang on and keep it close.  As I said in the column below, I got to watch Peewee as he coached the St. Louis Magic.  He tirelessly coached three or four teams that included two of my grandsons.  I always was impressed with Peewee's approach.  He hollared and screamed at those kids all throughout the game, sometimes with a few choice words that you don't usually use around kids but when the game was over, he loved them all.  They ended the game with the...

Updated March 12th, 2024 Gramps Final Missouri Boys Class Three Basketball ratings are no surprise.  New Madrid County Central has been on top of the heap all season long and the rest of the top ten is really no surprise to Gramps, although the Coaches poll was a real mishmash. I was looking back at the MBCA Coaches poll from February 5th and wondered what they were smoking in their Class Three rankings.  Their top ten included Lafayette County (#2 vs. Gramps #14), KIPP KC (#5 vs Gramps #18), Palmyra (#6 vs. Gramps #15), and Malden (#10 vs. Gramps #20).  Summit Christian Academy, the Runner-up finisher, and Montgomery County (the fourth-place finisher), were not even honorable mentions in the coaches' poll. Lafayette County, KIPP and Malden did not even win their districts.  Ouch! Gramps had Summit Christian at #6 in the February 13th rating and #11 in the January ratings.  I guess the coaches are not reading Gramp's blog.   Maybe the MBCA should just ...

Updated March 8th, 2024 Final Missouri Boys Class Two ratings Hartville, Weaubleau, Salisbury and Eugene have been on top of the Missouri Class Two Boys Basketball ratings all season, but it would take an exciting tournament to sort out who was the best.   I had my money on Salisbury, with Dude, Cooper Francis, leading the way and Coop did not disappoint, with 31 points in the semi-final loss to Weaubleau and another 37 points in the second-place game with South Pemiscot. The Dude from Weaubleau, Gage Johnson, lit up the scoreboard with 32 of his 39 points in the win over Salisbury.  Gage had more help on his team than Coop did.  A team with a Dude and more balance will generally beat the Dude from the other side. But it was tradition-rich Hartville with excellent defensive and offensive team play on both ends of the court that won out.  Hartville put the clamps on Eugene in the first-round game and then rolled over South Pemiscot and Weaubleau in the semi-final...

Updated March 12th, 2024 The Chadwick girls teams had to travel 240 miles to play their first-round game in Delta, Missouri and lost by five to eventual third-place Delta team.  The Chadwick boys got to stay home and take on South Iron in their home gym, coming away with a six point win over the Panthers. That discrepancy in travel for the first round of the class one tournament might have been the difference between Chadwick bringing home both the girl's and boys state titles.  The 3-and-a-half-hour trip to Delta makes little sense but then, neither did South Iron traveling all the way to Chadwick, a 3-hour, 175-mile trip. Chadwick was in the hunt all season, with Green City, South Iron, and Platte Valley and they won when it counted.  Not bad for a town of 460 people and a school of 123 students, 7-12th grade.   Hats off to the Chadwick Cardinals.  Maybe both boys and girls will win out next year? Updated 2/25/2024 District 1: Cooter, Clarkton, Delta Deer...