After about 3 weeks in action going into Thanksgiving break, everything might seem more uncertain than when the season started.
A couple of things I look at when a team loses, is what they do to bounce back and how close did they lose by and the quality of teams they are playing.
Quality of teams can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Coaching has a lot to do with the large picture but who has the main guns that can take over a game at a moments notice. Who has the kids that can go to work when the game is on the line?
Brennan is the top team in the area in any classification because they simply have more attributes that make up a good/great team. It makes it hard for a team to capitalize on a teams weaknesses when they don't possess many.
So you can also turn it around and say what weaknesses and how many does a team possess to gauge how good they really are?
Coaching, go to players, skilled and talented players, experience for both coaches and players, inside presence, outside shooters, ball handlers, chemistry, overall team athletism are some strengths and/or weaknesses in no particular order.
If I focus on the strengths and/or weaknesses of teams on paper and what I have seen, I come up with the following rankings.
Honorable mention: Roosevelt, Jay, Southwest, Madison
10) Clark- Has two loses to Churchill and a win over Johnson. Who is the go to player on this team? Come District time, is the coach going to depend and wait for someone to get hot? A lot of depth, but it might get tough in a close game if the team is waiting for someone to step up and get hot.
9) OConnor- Dropped down with loses over the weekend and (not a good showing) loss to Johnson. They are lacking depth in the bench. They are a fun team to watch. You get the feeling something is going to happen at any moment. Maybe good, maybe bad.
8) Stevens- Had a close loss to Judson after a good weekend tournament showing in West Texas.
7) Brandeis- Took care of business in Floresville Tournament with relative ease. Beat Madison pretty handily. Shook off back to back losses from last week.
6) Churchill- They are slowly but surely building confidence. Their schedule has been soft but are still taking care of business. Thats what good teams do.
5) Wagner- Had a close loss to Brennan. Not much action.
4) Johnson- Beat OConnor pretty handily but turn around and get beat by Clark. If they can play the way they did against OConnor, they are tough to beat. They hit both offensive and defensive boards with reckless abandonment and attacked the basket with the same determination.
3) Reagan- Have a loss to Steele but win against Jay.
2) Judson- Beat Johnson and Stevens. They control the tempo with their rebounding and defense. You need to be patiently aggressive to beat their press and zone coupled with some timely shooting to beat this team.
1) Steele- They beat Reagan. Not much action. Gearing up for a good showing in December when they play some of the top teams.