Prep Boys’ Basketball- The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) released their fourth edition of the official boys’ basketball top 10 rankings, and an overall quiet week of play keeps the top four of each class mostly unscathed.
Class 4A
Cedar Falls is the only team left undefeated in the class and are honored with the #1 spot for another week. Dubuque Senior went perfect last week but a more impressive two-point victory over Indianola for Ames had the Cyclones leapfrog the Rams for the #5 spot.
Muscatine had everything in front of them but a 63-61 road loss to Assumption last Friday ejected the Muskies out of the top ten and reinserted the 9-1 Council Bluffs Lincoln Lynxes after notching a pair of double-digit wins.
Class 3A
The top six remained constant in Class 3A with undefeated Ballard in the driver seat, Clear Lake in the passenger seat, and Storm Lake getting a captain’s seat at #3. The bottom four were tossed around after Xavier dropped a tough one to Class 4A’s #9 Linn-Mar to fall to #8 in the rankings.
Oskaloosa could be holding on for dear life after clinging to the #10 spot despite a 66-52 loss to Norwalk last week. Keokuk is knocking on the door and a Monday night showdown in Oskaloosa could decide who gets to keep a spot in the rankings. Amazingly, everyone kept their spot.
Class 2A
Unity Christian kept their spot on the thrown and Regina Catholic is still #2. All right, now what happened to Western Christian? The Wolfpack was #3 in the land a week ago with just one loss on the season. Since then, they have loss two in-a-row, including a 70-52 loss to Unity Christian. Now, they are #7 in Class 2A.
Kuemper Catholic continues their climb up the rankings, sitting at #3. #9 Aplington-Parkersburg and #10 Monticello are the new teams in the rankings after Denver loss to the Falcons 59-48 and Cascade dropped a game to Class 1A’s #8 Bellevue, 65-55.
Class 1A
There was no change amongst the top 10 with St. Edmond, MMCRU, and Burlington Notre Dame rounding out the top three. The Nikes continue to be a scary team, having knocked off one ranked opponent already and owning a 14-0 record.
While their strength of schedule might be lackluster, the Nikes are beating their opponents by an average of 28.4 points per game. The one part of their game that can be approved is defense. They have allowed more than 50 points in four of their games. In fact, their 47.9 points per game allowed ranks 31st in Class 1A.
Still, this is an offense shooting 51.3% from the floor and 68% from the free throw line. Add in Shay Stephens, who is pouring in 26.2 points per game and dishing out nearly seven assists per game and maybe you do not need a lockdown defense.
More Information
For a full look at the top ten of each class, follow this link: IHSAA Top Ten 4th Edition