It's hard to get a ranking around here

I'm disgusted right now.

The high school basketball season has been underway for two weeks now, and maxpreps.com doesn't have any girl's team rankings for California. Nor does the LA Times. The only site that does have something is calpreps.com, and theirs are all segregated. They have statewide rankings and league-by-league rankings, but no SoCal and NorCal predictions, which is important because those two divisions face off for the state championship.

Someone on socalpreps.com posted a supposed list two weeks ago that they said they found on calpreps, but I can't locate it. The list put Washington first, Chatsworth second, Taft third, and then Fairfax and View Park Prep. The list went all the way up to 25, and I have no idea where they got that. This is only the state with the most basketball teams in the freakin country; you'd think someone would be paying attention.

So I guess I'll have to do this myself.

calpreps lists the top teams in the state as:

1. St. Mary's of Stockton
2. Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco
3. Long Beach Poly
4. Brea Olinda of Brea
5. Cajon of San Bernardino
6. Mater Dei of Santa Ana
7. Summitt of Fontana
8. Clovis West of Fresno
9. Wilcox of Santa Clara
10. Foothill of Santa Ana

So 60 percent of the top 10 teams are from SoCal......and this is why people have apparently been calling for years for a different way to break down the state playoffs, as NorCal is generally weaker than SoCal. But anyway.

St. Mary's lost last weekend to Kentwood High School of Kent, WA. So they're not infallible.

I saw Long Beach Poly play in October, and they don't look like all that the way they used to. They did lose quite a few players last year.

Brea lost the championship game of its own tournament last week for the second year in a row.

Perhaps these teams should all be taken down some notches for their recent losses? The other teams could well have had losses by this point too, but I haven't looked them up yet (unfortunately I already have a fulltime job).

Last year's Los Angeles city champion runner-up Chatsworth is ranked 14 on this list.

Los Angeles City Section

There are 14 leagues in the city section, but only 10 are legitimate contenders. The other four are fledgling new leagues thanks to the glut of charter schools that have opened up in LAUSD the last several years.

According to calpreps.com, these are the rankings for the 10 big-time leagues:

Coliseum

View Park Prep
Crenshaw
Dorsey
Locke
Fremont
Jefferson
Manual Arts

I tried to go see View Park Prep today, but they'd cancelled the game. I'm going to see Crenshaw and Dorsey Friday, and I'm looking forward to that. Crenshaw was good last year, but Dorsey wasn't.

Locke used to be decent, but that was a while ago. The other teams are crap.

East Valley

Grant
Poly
North Hollywood
Van Nuys
Verdugo Hills
Arleta
Canoga Park

This is one of the two leagues I know least about, so I won't comment on it. I saw North Hollywood play a couple years ago, and I've seen Verdugo Hills. But those were light years ago in kid years.

Valley Mission

Monroe
San Fernando
Reseda
Sylmar
Kennedy
Panorama

Sylmar and Reseda used to be the business two years ago. I guess the balance of power has shifted.

Eastern

Garfield
Bell
Southeast
Roosevelt
South Gate
Huntington Park
Jordan

This is one list where calpreps really missed the boat. The buzz since the summertime has been around Southeast, which begun the season beating defending city champs Narbonne at a tourney. I went to watch them two weeks ago, and they've got the hustle and the ball movement down. They also make their shots. Some have predicted they'll take the league title, and I'm jumping on that bandwagon. Their coach is a hard-working, knowledgeable person.

Garfield, Bell and Roosevelt will fight it out for the next three positions, as they used to take turns dominating the league. I predict Huntington Park last because they always suck, and because Jordan has begun the season much better than usual.

Marine

Narbonne
Washington
Carson
King-Drew
Banning
San Pedro
Gardena

This is another list where they screwed it up. This entire league lost so many seniors from several teams last year to graduation. The top two, Narbonne and Washington, lost eight seniors a piece. The league won't be the same for a while.

I've seen Narbonne play, and they look bad this year. So far they're 0-4 on the season. I saw Washington play Monday, and they have some serious work to do as well. One of Carson's best players transferred to Narbonne, so that team is hurting a bit this year too. King-Drew has had flashes of brilliance in the past, but nothing worthy of the top of the league. Banning, San Pedro and Gardena are all pretty bad.

Northern

Wilson
Marshall
Eagle Rock
Lincoln
Franklin
Belmont

Eagle Rock must have lost people, because they used to be the top dogs. I'm surprised to see Marshall that high. I need to go check them out.

West Valley

Chatsworth
Taft
Granada Hills
El Camino Real
Birmingham
Cleveland

This is one scary league. Chatsworth is no joke, and Taft won the city championship in 2007. Granada Hills and El Camino Real have also been ranked the last few years. I have no idea what the top four are bringing, but wouldn't it be fun if they all slugged it out for the top spot?

Southern

Bernstein
Hollywood
Elizabeth Learning Center
West Adams
Bravo
Los Angeles
Contreras
Santee

This is the league of schools that are new, having been built in the last 3-5 years or so. Bernstein took many of Hollywood's students, which might explain why they're at the top. This is going to be an interesting league to watch as it takes shape, because it's too young to have traditions or regular league champs yet.

Valley

Sherman Oaks
Northridge Academy
Fulton Prep
Vaughn
Discovery Prep
East Valley

Like, ohmigawd, I never get out to the Valley so like, I have no idea what this league is about. It's a little far to get there from South Central, so I'll probably settle for just reading about it unless one of those teams has the next Candace Parker on it.

Western

Fairfax
LACES
Palisades
University
Westchester
Venice
Hamilton

Another gigantic league. Fairfax is in the top five mix in the city every year; LACES is a really tough team of girls who play physical, brutal ball; Palisades has a long reputation for producing good teams. This is one league where calpreps got it exactly right. They will finish in this order unless every single Fairfax girl gets injured.