Gramp's Braggin' Rights 2023-2024 Missouri Boy's Basketball Ratings - Class Five

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 with any one of the top ten teams fully capable of winning a state title.  I expect that any of those teams might be in next year's final four.  I wouldn't be surprised in the least.

Congrats to all.

Updated March 12th, 2024

It could be an all-MCC Class Five boys basketball final with De Smet and Vianney next Saturday.

And then, once again, it might not.

Not that I do not believe both teams are worthy of being in the championship.  I am sure that both Winnetonka and Jefferson City will have something to say about that but Vianney has so much upside, IF they can keep their emotions in check.  And that is a big IF.

There was another bru-ha-ha during the Sikeston-Vianney game at Vianney.  I have no details other than emotions ran too high and teams, coaches, and benches had to be separated.  I would hate to see Vianney go down to Jefferson City because they blew their cool and suffered technical fouls that lost the game.  Or, just as bad, won the game but had technical disqualifications that kept a star player from playing in the championship game.  Teams and individuals play with emotion but sometimes too much emotion gets in the way of performing at your peak.  And emotions can cause eruptions and confrontations that ruin the game for one or both teams.

Beside Vianney's emotional issues, Jefferson City has something to prove.  Having to forfeit thirteen games due to a transfer student paperwork issue.  They come into the semi-final with an 11-19 record when it could have been 24 and 6.

Winnetonka won't be a pushover for De Smet but I think the Spartans will click on their three-ball and make it a Metro Catholic Conference final with Vianney.  The Griffens have lost three times to De Smet but it is tough to beat a team four times in a season when you are so closely matched.

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Updated February 28th, 2024

Wow! There are a couple of loaded Class Five Boys Basketball districts.  Districts 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 are loaded with talented teams but none may be able to hold up to Sikeston in District 1.  Here's a run-down on the eight districts:

District 1 - Sikeston should handle an up-and-down Cape Central team 

District 2- St. Mary's is the #1 seed but I think the district winner comes from Vianney or Webster Grove in the lower bracket.  It depends upon whether St. Mary's foe can figure out how to defend indomitable Zyree Collins and keep him under 35 points for the game.  I am picking the Statemen.

District 3 - Ladue and De Smet should have a showdown in the final.  Can De Smet get off three-point shots and beat the three-quarter court press.  If the Spartans can do both of those things offensively, kiss Ladue's Cinderella season goodbye.  I think Ladue advances.

District 4 - Fort Zumwalt South should handle all opponents in the weakest district by far.

District 5 - Helias and Jeff City, which self-forfeited 13 games due to improper player transfer paperwork, in the final with Helias taking the crown.

District 6 - Rolla could upend Parkview but I am sticking with the ratings

District 7- Man, O, Man.  Toss Grandview, Webb City, Raytown, and Raytown South in a hat and draw a winner.  About as good as Gramps predicting Grandview to win.

District 8 - Winnetonka has an edge on Smithville, Kearney, William Chrisman, and Platte County.

Updated January 21st, 2024

January is a time of rivalry and league games that set the tone for February.  Teams are getting their kinks worked out fine-tuning offensive sets and sharpening defensive strategies.  It is a time when the rubber hits the road and teams define themselves.

For some teams, the progress is breathtaking.  For some teams, the season is unraveling.  That happened Friday night at De Smet where the Spartans took on league rival, Vianney, and made a statement with an 85-48 win, hitting an astounding 20 of 28 three-point shots.  Vianney has struggled with two losses in their last three games and is trying to right their ship before it hits an iceberg.  De Smet is 4-0 in January, beating CBC, Chaminade, and Vianney in league games, since their five-point loss to Webster Groves in the Coaches vs. Cancer championship game.

Webster has continued to roll, winning eight in a row before losing by two to an outstanding Blue Valley Northwest Kansas squad and #1 Sikeston continues to dominate with a 14-0 record and 35-point winning margin.  Ladue and St. Mary's have both put great seasons together in the St. Louis area, too.

There are some great talented teams on the other side of the state with Parkview, Helias, and Winnetonka.  I am struggling with some district ratings, like District 8, where Kearney, Smithville, Platte County and William Chrisman keep bumping each other off.  It's hard to rate one over the others when they keep upsetting each other.

But the ratings are fairly sound at this point and I don't see a lot of movement.  The rest of the bragging rights in January games will probably shift a few team's ratings.  We shall see.....

Updated January 8th, 2024  

I wonder if anyone can touch Sikeston right now.  They are lights out, whomever they play.  Right now Gramp's has them about eight points better than any other class five team.  The only negative I see is that they have not gotten around to playing some really tough opponents, similar to the schedules De Smet, Vianney, and Webster Groves have done.  Will a lower Strength of Schedule hurt them come playoff time when they will end up taking on either Webster or Vianney in the first round of the state tournament?

Webster Groves and Vianney are two interesting teams in contrast.  Webster Groves has what I have called "lunch pail" athletes.  These guys are talented but they play like a bunch of construction workers.... just knocking out a day's work with no fanfare.  Superb, hard-nosed defense and workmanlike offense.   Their on-court and bench behavior is all business.  No show-boating or antics.  Just get it done.

Isaac Newton's law of motion said that for every action there is a reaction.  Isaac Newton should have been a basketball coach. How teams react to their opponent's behavior can affect the outcome of the game and season.  Webster seems to handle the antics of other teams and just keep their head in the game on what matters.... winning.

Conversely, Vianney is drifting along like the Titanic, ready to hit an iceberg and sink at any moment.  Great athletes in Walsh, Smajic, and Ghai along with a host of other great three-point shooters but their on-court, in-your-face antics and bench behavior are sometimes out of control.  That's not to say they are at fault, but how they react to the opponent's antics is getting them in trouble.  There have been too many meltdowns and technical fouls and, if they don't clean it up, it will sink them down the stretch.  You can be competitive without being confrontational.  

I do not know what to think about St. Mary's.  I mean that they have Zyree Collins, who seems to be nearly unstoppable but the team is young and not all that tall.  They seem to beat everyone (17-1 record with their only loss to Marion, AR) by just a few points, no matter what their rating.  They have signature wins over Webster Groves (+2), John Burroughs (+4), Lee's Summit North (+10), and Edwardsville, Illinois (+2) but then they just get by winning over sub-par teams by five or ten points.  The Dragons are an annoying team to rate statistically because of some of their lackluster wins.  Maybe the coach clears the bench early?  I ended up rating them behind Webster Groves and Vianney.  It will be interesting to see how Class Two District Two turns out with those three teams.

De Smet and undefeated Ladue are two other great teams in Class Five, District Three.  The talent in districts one, two, and three is unbelievable and at least the MSHSAA state bracket has district three in the bottom bracket so that these strong teams are not facing each other in the quarterfinals.  

Ladue is another "lunch pail" team with hard-nosed defense and workmanlike offense.  The MBCA has Ladue at #2 but they are #10 on Gramp's statistical ratings.  Ladue has beaten Francis Howell and class four John Burroughs once, and MICDS twice, Ladue is 13-0 but their unremarkable strength of schedule hurts their overall rating.  Webster, Vianney, and DeSmet have all played significantly stronger schedules, which should help them down the stretch. The Rams might still be undefeated when they play Lindbergh on February 6th or Webster Groves on February 13th.  Winning those games would vault them into the top five.

De Smet is very talented across the board.  It will be an interesting District Three final, too.

Over on the West side of the state, Parkview and Rolla in District Six, Grandview and Webb City in District Seven, and Winnetonka, Kearney, and Platte County in District Eight, could all make some noise come state tournament time.

The MBCA coaches poll is fairly accurate except for De Smet, which did not even get an honorable mention in the December 25th poll and is now 10th after beating Vianney and losing a close one to Webster Groves.  I assume that will change with future polls.  For some reason, Helias is not getting much interest in the coaches poll but I think they are just a half-step behind the top five.

Enough pontificating on Newton's Laws.  Here are my Braggin' Rights Class Five statistical ratings:

Posted December 13, 2023

 It is awfully early to prognosticate but Sikeston appears to be the top dog in Gramp's Braggin' Rights Missouri boys class five basketball ratings.

There are a bunch of great teams chasing Sikeston, including Helias, Grandview, Vianney, Webster Groves, DeSmet, Ladue and Parkview.  I can't get a good read on Parkview because a number of their games have been Arkansas teams but it is what it is.

Not too far behind in the top 20 are Webb City, St. Mary's, Jefferson City and Rolla.  Any of these teams from #2 to #15 could be in a class five final four.  It is just a deep and competitive class this year.

(Note: I have moved Borgia to class 4 and added St. Charles, who were inadvertently overlooked with all the MSHSAA class changes).