Gramps 2024 Boys Girls MO HS BB ratings

 Let the games begin.  Go and cheer and enjoy this last few weeks of Missouri boys basketball. Gramps is hanging it up after this season and looking for a few good "men" to take over the reins.  I will teach anyone interested in doing Gramps ratings, or whatever you want to call them, but it probably needs to be split up because this is a full-time job for one old man. My first option is to hand it over to some coaches who have left the MBCA and want something better.  Well, getting 85 to 90% of all the boys and girls district games correctly is way better than anyone else can do.  In fact, most polls are only 10 or 15 teams deep. I am thinking of having a Zoom call to show the program and solicit interest.  If you or a group might be interested, shoot me an email to grampsbbratings@gmail.com. If I could find a dozen folks, they could divide up the calculations between the six boy and six girls classes and keep this marvelous ratings thing going. Nuf said about that. Here'

 The girls play the games.  What Gramps says does not mean "S#it" but I throw these out there to determine whether the ratings hold water.  If the bucket leaks, you go back to the drawing board.  So far the buckets seem water-worthy and Gramps is getting about 85% of the girl's district games correct based upon my last ratings post for each class. It gets tougher now as the competition heats up and if I get 65 or 70% correct, I will be doing just fine.  But don't take this very seriously.  Let the girls compete and enjoy the high level of basketball being played.  It just gets better every year. All of my comments are based on statistical comparisons.  Go to Earl Time Podcasts for an in-depth analysis of players. I have listed the Class One through Four State tournament teams with their rating and the favorite (with the spread in the right-hand column).  Classes Five and Six are still playing in the District finals. Class One - Delta takes on scrappy NE Cairo in one s

 Gramps has been hitting on about 85% of his game predictions (posted ratings vs. actual outcome) but there was one game yesterday that made me a little sad. Yep, the Meadville Girls, who had won 59 straight games, and were my odds-on favorite to win Class One again, lost to Northeast Cairo, by 13 when they had been favored to win by 16.  That's a 29-point reversal, based upon Gramp's ratings. I take a neutral, statistical stance on these occurrences. Still, Meadville celebrated every one of their victories with a shout-out to Gramps and several other basketball authorities and I have become emotionally attached to their successes.   I have seen it before.   Teams have had perfect seasons come to an abrupt end with an upset in the finals or semi-finals of a Cinderella season.  I have not lived in a small town but the high school team usually becomes the center of the town's focus and the townspeople live and die with the success of that team, boys or girls. There must be so

 KCI Conference ( @KCI_Athletics) replied to the new MBCA coaches poll where Lathrop, who is 22-0, has been #4 in the Class Three girls basketball poll for the past month or so. I have had Lathrop at #10 in Gramps ratings but not necessarily a top 5 team.  But how good is Lathrop?  There are few undefeated teams in Missouri and Lathrop is one of those few remaining undefeated teams. Lathrop's Girls Coach Greg Keith chimed into the conversation to answer KCI Conference with " No disrespect to your intent, but at the end of the day, esp this late in the season, it doesn’t matter. I appreciate the MBCA for putting out these polls. It’s fun for the kids, and it’s fun to debate who should be where and why. Our girls know what matters starts next week! " And Coach Keith is right.  The rubber hits the road next week for all these teams. I decided to take some time out to look at Lathrop and my #1 and #2 teams in class three, Fair Grove (17-7) and El Dorado (21-3).   I will go th

 I know a lot of people think Ladue is the best team in the St. Louis Area.   I know my friend, John Hough, over at Gateway Sports Venue, is a strong believer in the Rams, as he is a graduate and faithful follower of their program.  I have told John several times, that we must "agree to disagree". Ladue's schedule was not all that tough.  I felt it was more like a small school schedule, playing great small schools like John Burroughs and MICDS but avoiding the big dogs like Vianney, De Smet, Chaminade, Vashon, Cardinal Ritter, and the Metro teams on the east side like Collinsville, East St. Louis, and Belleville East.  They have recently played Francis Howell and Lindbergh. I think any team that is 20-1 is awfully darn good, no matter what their schedule, unless they are playing home school teams and Christian Academies that don't qualify for MSHSAA accreditation.    Ladue is very, very good and just knocked off their second top-ten large school opponent last night, L

 Happy Groundhog's Day.   I woke up this morning, thinking about Bill Murray's weatherman character in "Groundhog Day" who hates his assignment to the celebrations in Punxutawney, Pennsylvania, and wakes repeatedly to find out it is still February 2nd and he is still in Punxutawney.  He tests this endless cycle, from punching people to killing himself by a variety of means, until he finally figures out a way to end this purgatory by being nice. Do you ever have days like Murray's Groundhog Day experience?  Do you think this day is just a repeat of the "same-old" that happened yesterday or the day before? When I get up, I usually take a quick look at Twitter activity and I usually find that I have been part of a post by a team that had a big win the night before.  They brag on their win and how they beat a higher-ranked team, ie. the #5 team in the state.  The only problem is that these posters are quoting the MBCA coaches poll, not Gramps Braggin' Ri

 I have had several inquiries about team ratings and I have patiently answered them.  On two of them, I found another error in my reporting form where the team rating did not transfer over from the spreadsheet.   I appreciate people asking because I make mistakes with over 1100 teams to rate and the multiple forms I use to report these ratings.  Sometimes, a cell value from one spreadsheet falls off the table and I am misreporting the team's rating. Other times, I simply lose interest in a team.  Halfway through the season, I see no reason to continue calculating their ratings because it probably won't change much and they are mired deep in the class or district rankings.  Sorry folks.  Gramps spends more time on the top dogs than the pack but it is a fact of life.  Time marches on and I drop mediocre teams to focus on the best. Occasionally, a team comes on strong and I have missed them.  Brent Bradley brought up Father Tolton Girls and I cavalierly asked him to calculate thei