By: Luke McGrath
1. Morin (6-0): Morin had two very impressive wins this weekend. First they beat Ruhl by 8 with Shaw scoring 23 and then on Monday night, in one of the more highly anticipated games of the season, Shaw dropped a cool 31 and got the W against a very high-scoring team Meyer. Ryan is still consistently scoring and passing better then any guard in the league. Facing another challenge this weekend against Smith they may be able to prove that they are truly unstoppable.
2. Smith (4-1): With Meyer losing to Morin this weekend, Smith was able to hop them in the rankings with a solid win over a not so good Riela team. Cj continues to put up very good scoring numbers with 16 this week and looks to be their main scoring threat. Cord will need to score more this weekend against Morin for Smith to have a chance. Also Shuff, Declan “Deco” Gardner, and McGrath will need to continue to put up decent numbers. In the game vs. Morin this weekend, Smith will need it’s defense to be very strong to fight off Shaw and Ryan.
3. Meyer (4-2): In a tough game on Monday night, team Meyer showed some of their weakness. They struggled to defend an elite offensive team and seemed to score a majority of their points on the fast break. Avery looked to be in mint MVP form but even that was not good enough to beat Morin. Moiz and Kevin will need to score more against good teams in order for Meyer to win. Having only combined for just above 20, it was not enough to compete with Morin.
4. Bersani (4-2): After a tough loss to Morin last week, Bersani had a good win against Philbrook. Ryan looked good in an 18 point showing and proved that maybe this team has scorers outside of Correnti. Saying that, I am still far from convinced that this team can score enough to beat any of the other top 4 teams. Nichols and French will need to put up a lot of points to keep some weight off of Correnti’s shoulders.
5. Hillier (3-2): Eugene and Liu looked like they finally may be finding their stride beating Mac by 13. Eugene’s 22 showed that this team may actually have the talent to score with the best of them. Liu will need to be better in upcoming weeks and the playoffs if they want to beat any of the top 4 teams. In the few upcoming weeks, Hillier will need to keep winning if they want to separate themselves from the other middle of the pack teams.
6. Barry (3-2): After losing to Smith last week, Barry suffered a pretty bad loss to Team Kelley. While a lot of people are saying that this loss should be disregarded because both Jackson and Fitz didn’t play but these people seem to overlook that Kelley won this game without their main scorer Max Polich. Next week with Fitz and hopefully Jackson back, team Barry will need to prove that they are still an elite team and hope that the depth that their team seemed to have earlier in the year reappears.
7. Vanheest (4-2): The Amadors, especially Greg, continue to keep looking better and better every week. Although they have not beaten any top tier teams, if they can keep their momentum going, they will probably be able to make a run in the playoffs. Tommy also seems to be improving and if he could start to make some of his free throws he could be a high scorer for this team.
8. Ruhl (3-3): Ruhl had a tough two games this week and having beat Kelley and put up a good fight vs. Morin (only losing by 8), Team Ruhl continues to look decent. The biggest takeaway from their games this weekend should be Mo finally starting to score with 31 combined points. It seems that Mo and Marty will have to be the primary scorers for this team to win and will need Wong to have around 10 each game to compete with some of the better teams. They will move up in the rankings if they continue to win.
9. Kelley (3-3): This team is probably the most confusing and hardest to gage team in the league. After a great team win against Barry on Sunday, they follow it with a really poor performance vs. Ruhl on Monday night. Mespelli and Schelak are going to need to score in order for this team to win. Parent and Polich and have continued to put up ok points but they will need more role players to step up.
10. Mac (2-3): It seemed to be more of the same from team Mac this week. After beating Riela last week and going up against a very beatable team Hillier, Mac continued to underperform. WIth Walthal scoring 15, Horsefall needs to be putting up more then 10 to help his team. This team maybe able to beat one of the bottom four teams but it seems like the do not have the determination to beat any team that is above them in the power rankings.
11. Guilbeau (2-4): Sam Lis finally had a decent game but they will need Lis, Tmac, and Bongi to all be playing well together in order to succeed. If they could not do that against Vanheest this weekend it seems like it will be hard for them to put together enough points to beat anyone above them in the power rankings. However, with their Big 3 this team may still be able to pull off an upset in the playoffs.
12. Riela (1-5): After seeing it first hand on Sunday, I can officially say that it is too late for team Riela. While Vondy may be a great driver, he just cant do enough from the outside to make himself a duel threat. Riela keeps playing well but will need to hit threes and will ned Lucas’ help to give this team any sort of jump shooting ability.
13. Khoury (1-5): Khoury had a tough matchup this weekend against a very good team Meyer. Jalen only had 10 and Gonzo had less then that. Without these two scoring, this team just does not have any real offensive fire power. I still am hoping that this team will be able to grab a few more wins but they will need to play another bottom four team to have any chance.
14. Philbrook (0-6): Finally getting Burke back did not go as well as planned mainly because Jrod was out. Burke had to do a lot of work and his only help came from Barrett. I still think that once this team has Jrod, Burke, and Barrett going strong they could possibly win a few games. Until this happens though, Team Philbrook will continue to lose.
