So sayeth the state media poll conducted by the one and only Mr. Hoops.
Team (2008 rec)(1st place)……….Pts……….Last
1. Trinity Catholic (24-4) (7)………….404………..2
2. Windsor (25-2) (5)…………………..392……….3
3. Crosby (26-1) (2)……………………352………..1
4. Hillhouse (16-6)……………………..313……..NR
5. Hartford Public (19-6)………………254……..NR
6. Lyman Hall (21-7)…………………..191………10
7. Bloomfield (15-10)………………….171………NR
8. Harding (20-7)……………………….166……….6
9. Torrington (18-6)…………………….132………NR
10. St. Joseph (19-6)………………….121………NR
Dropped out: Maloney (4), New London (5), Stratford (7), Wilbur Cross (8), Notre Dame-West Haven (9).
Others receiving votes:
11. Sacred Heart (16-8), 115;
12. East Catholic (19-4), 93;
13. Notre Dame-West Haven (21-4), 84;
14. Wilbur Cross (24-1), 76;
15. East Hartford (11-10), 71;
16. Kolbe Cathedral (21-7), 70;
17. New Britain (10-12), 62;
18. New London (24-2), 61;
19. Glastonbury (16-5), 55;
20. Maloney (21-6), 53;
21. Cromwell (18-6), 51;
22. Bassick (18-6), 42;
23. Greenwich (17-7), 35;
24. E.O. Smith (17-9), 30;
25. Northwest Catholic (19-6), 29;
26. Holy Cross (18-6), 28;
27. Hyde (19-6), 26;
28. New Canaan (19-5), 21;
29. Stratford (22-6), 17;
30. Notre Dame-Fairfield (17-6), 14;
31. Xavier (17-6), 9;
32. Capitol Prep (19-7), 8;
33. Norwich Free Academy (22-3),
34. Norwalk (7-13) and Staples (8-13), 7.
The following voted: Marc Allard, Norwich Bulletin; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Matt Doran, Norwalk Hour; Scott Ferrari, Greenwich Citizen; Ned Griffen, The Day of New London; Mark Jaffee, Waterbury Republican-American; Ken Lipshez, New Britain Herald; Joe Morelli, New Haven Register; Paul Nichols, Middletown Press; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; John Silver, Journal Inquirer of Manchester; Ben Talbott, Bird’s Eye Sports; Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant.
Not too much to disagree with on this list. I had a different No. 1, and I had considerably more NVL teams on the docket. Also: Am I the only one voting Kolbe Cathedral in the top 10? I didn’t rank Lyman Hall that high, either…. so blame me Trojans for your No. 6 (and not 4th or 5th) place rank. I think the SWC’s top two teams, KC and Stratford are getting slightly bad raps. No Pomperaug, either.
Whatever, it’s an opening poll. And polls, on the whole, are dumb.
(…they’d be less dumb if they were controlled by a strong, but significantly neutral entity. Consider this the first of many pushes to get Ken Lipshez at the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance to move this sucker into neutral hands, along with every other big poll, next year. You hear me Kenny?! ;)
AHEM Our 2008-09 previews will be out tomorrow.
Rankings- First of all St Joes beat windsor and Hillhouse in a scrimmage. St Joes beat wilbur cross by 28 pts in a scrimmage. Wilbur cross will have a down year this year. They should not be rank 14th. They only have 1 returning varisty player . Holy cross should be ranked in the top 15. They will be the best team in the NVL. Harding is defiantly not no top 10 team. Seen them play they are very small and not that good. Bassick is a better team than Harding. Lymann hall is not a top 10 team either. Stratford high is defiantly underrated. Crosby will be good but not a top 5 team. They lost 2 good ones even though they have Ireland they are very small.
How about Platt Tech…? They have an excellent point guard and a very tall center. Plus a good mechanic who can fix sneaker malfunctions. They would kill Trinity Catholic.
excuse me L we dont count scrimmages on these blogs .they dont count according to the football bloggers. Ansonia has a tournament tested veteran team returning,with some atheletes but coaching is
very questionable-as obvious vs.kolbe last year in tourney.watch out for torrington-2 all-staters,one going to maryland,and sacred heart.the nvl is loaded.
T.C. is gunna be tough to beat when they have the best player in the state…tevin baskin
Trinity Catholic is like the New York Yankees-they have no Shame. They have recruits coming in from New York as well as CT. How could a team like Wright Tech or Darien compete against Trinity.
….who ever did the rankings yall do not know what yall talking about bassick is # 1 now here is my boy…….first off whoever wrote the rankings smeat stinks real bad and yall can eat a can of meats for breaksfast all the way to lunch now heres my boy…..
Ruger bassick got spank by 14 pts at home against Ludlowe. No 1 please.
Ray Brown- Fiorst all Torrington onloy have Jor dan williams no one to pass him the ball. They have no guards. Sacred heart will blow it. Ansonia please stick to Football. Come down to the Cadet gym. St Joesd is force. NVL is loaded Holy cross best team in that lead but FCiac is battle tested every night.
L u cant possibly think the fciac is better than the nvl….. st joes would definately contend in the league but the nvl is much better than the fciac
Joe- Maybe last year NVL was better than Fciac not this year. Crosby is not same team as is Torrington, Wilby. NVL top half is good with Holy Cross, sacred heart, Crosby, Torrington but overrall The FCiac is tough night in and night out.
the NVL is not as good as it was last year. but it is still loaded, and i will take the top 4 in the nvl against any other leaugue in the state. sacred heart may be the best team in the state this year. they are loaded, and have the size speed and talent to matchup with anyone. and the one thing they lacked last year was teamwork which seems to be their team philosphy this season. they are the real deal
Basketball season has arrived and, with it, terrible spelling and unintelligible ramblings. (For prime example, please see ruger’s post above).
Ray Brown, how could you blame Ansonia’s coaching for the loss to Kolbe last year? Kolbe smashed everybody in the tournament except for the title game.
The FCIAC Battles in the 1970′s…McMahon, Westhill, Staples, Trumbull, Norwalk, and one year, Wilton, were battles to behold. The finals, that were held at the time, the new and modern Wilton Fieldhouse, were always packed with fans and the games were wonderous,,,for the ages!
ray brown the only thing obvious here is you know as little about basketball as you do football maybe even less.
what could ansonia have done diffrently vs kolbe???? kolbe was just the better team and ansonia couldnt hit a shot. no coaching adjustments in the world would have made a difference in that game.
As I said before Crosby and Torrington will not be as good last year. Sacred heart handle crosby easy by 15 pts. So that goes to say Crobsy is no #3 rank team. Sacred heart also beat Torrington as once said before they dont have anything outside of Jordan Williams.
the CCC is the best conference in the land of CT, followed by the NVL and FCIAC…the CCC has 5-6 teams that are legit top 15 squads and will beat up on each other all year…the NVL is very top heavy with Sacred Heart, Holy Cross, Torrington, and Crosby but its a small league and these heavy hitters all play each other twice…DiBart gets my vote as the best pure shooter in the state
MEDIA POLL is garbage…they need a new and more accurate ranking system…the local yocal [save SPB and Hoops] see no one outside their area