CS8
1) Lanphier – We took a straw poll in the office after Tuesday’s loss to MacArthur and two of the the three of us still had Lanphier as the No. 1 in the power rankings. We’ll let you guess who the hold out was (rhymes with Merker). A rescheduled road conference loss to an up and coming Generals team isn’t really that bad of a loss for the Lions. Their resume to this point in the season is strong enough to keep them up top.
2) Southeast – The Spartans are actually on a four game losing streak. The Spartans dropped their last two at Collinsville to legit 4A power Edwardsville and then fell by one in OT to Jeremiah Tilmon’s East St. Louis. Then, after falling at home to Eisenhower last Tuesday, they traveled to Indiana on Saturday where they fell 66-62 to Berkmar High School out of Georgia. Berkrmar features Indiana 2017 commit Al Durham. You can make the case that Southeast should have tumbled down this list as a result, but we’re happy to reward a team that takes on that kind of schedule. Southeast cares more about getting THROUGH a super sectional this year than winning a CS8 crown. This schedule will help them when it comes to that, no doubt.
3) MacArthur – Nobody is rising in these ranks like the Generals right now. MacArthur put the exclamation point on a solid last month by beating 3A No. 1 Lanphier in Decatur on Tuesday. Early in the year we were skeptical about Amir and Armon Brummett’s supporting cast. We mentioned last week that Adrian Williams has stepped up to contribute and now a whole cast of characters is joining the mix. Randy Thaxton, Keenan Ingram and Zach Briggs were instrumental in Tuesday’s win. If they can draw attention away from the twins, there’s no reason MacArthur can’t make a run at the conference title.
4) Eisenhower – There are four teams with just one loss in the CS8. Lanphier, Southeast MacArthur and Lincoln are all tied in the loss column for the top spot in the league, but three loss Eisenhower beat Lincoln at the Collinsville Holiday Tournament so head to head gives them the nod here. Ike’s intensity was the reason for their win over Southeast and it had Lanphier on the ropes before the Lions made five straight 3-pointers late in the third quarter last Friday. This team can get any other CS8 team on any given night. They’ve proved that.
5) Lincoln – The Railers main issue is well documented at this point. They’ll play you tough on the defensive end but they are offensively challenged. Three of Lincoln’s next four games come against teams that currently have losing records in conference play, though. Those sounds like the kind of games that Neil Alexander has a REALLY good record against in his career.
6) Jacksonville – Don’t fall asleep on the Crimsons just yet. Jacksonville has won five of six and is one win away from pulling to .500 in CS8 play (3-4). Steven Albers is locked in at point guard now and the “getting to know you” stage of the Cliff Cameron era has come and gone. Still the Crimsons are all but out of the conference race and we’re still skeptical how they’ll fare against teams that turn up the pressure.
7) Springfield High – Springfield’s only game since last week was a 47-39 home loss to Lincoln. The Senators, like Southeast and Lanphier are off until City Tournament kicks off next Thursday.
8) Glenwood – The Titans picked up a nice win against SHG and we got our best look at freshman Jason Hansbrough. Losing guys like Parker Allen this season may have cost the Titans a chance at repeating as co-CS8 champs, but it gave Todd Blakeman the chance to invest in Glenwood’s future. We’re not wearing shades yet, but the glow is growing in Chatham.
9) Sacred Heart Griffin – The Cycs are reeling a bit, having lost four of their last five including a 21 point loss to Jacksonville at Belz Gym on Friday. They have City tune ups against QND and Champaign Centennial this week.
10) Rochester – The Rockets beat St. Thomas More on Tuesday. Something to build on with an upcoming schedule against Jacksonville, Eisenhower, Lincoln and MacArthur.
Area
1) Williamsville – The Bullets were sweating Monday’s County Tournament opener against Riverton after nearly getting clipped at Illini Central last Friday. Williamsville gave up just five first half points in that game and reasserted their defensive dominance. Until someone gets them, the Bullets are our No. 1.
2) New Berlin – The Pretzels lost at Auburn last Friday but rebounded to get them in their County Tournament opener on Monday. In all, they took two of three from the Trojans over the last three weeks. You’d have been hard pressed to find many people who would have given New Berlin ONE win over Auburn at the beginning of the season. Both leading scorers, Max Day and Hunter Stockton, are juniors. So don’t expect the Pretzels to go anywhere anytime soon.
3) Pleasant Plains – The Cardinals beat Pawnee twice in the past week and they’re starting to look more like a team that returned 60% of a starting lineup that played in the 2A super sectionals last year. We’ll get a better idea of where they are on Thursday when they play Athens in the County Tournament semifinals against Athens. Those two teams are currently riding opposite trajectories.
4) Auburn – The Trojans are 4-0 in Sangamo play with their one win over New Berlin coming as an official Sangamo matchup. They’ve also got the marquee win over Athens from their Sangamo opener. The two losses to New Berlin just have us wondering what the consistency level will be from this team from here out.
5) PORTA – The Bluejays schedule is probably the weakest of anyone on this list, but all you can do is play the teams in front of you. While everyone else is at the Sangamon County Tournament this week, PORTA is the No. 1 seed at the Winchester tournament and suffice it to say, the depth of quality teams out west isn’t what it is at LLCC.
Honorable Mention
Athens – After losing two starters for the season, the question with Athens is whether that might have been a matter of addition by subtraction. The Warriors struggled in their county tournament opener to Tri-City, trailing by double digits at one point. They’ll have to pull out of this tailspin quickly if they want to have a chance to meet the expectations set on them early in the year.
