High school girls basketball: Nebraska's Top 10 most improved teams

Now that the Nebraska high school girls basketball season is nearing subdistrict play, we've crunched the numbers to determine which girls basketball programs have made substantial climbs in our MaxPreps Nebraska Computer Rankings over a year ago.

Having improved its won-loss record by a remarkable 12 games, Hay Springs came up the winner after climbing 132 rungs to 137th in MaxPreps' Nebraska rankings Thursday. Ron Olson's Hawks, who turned in a 6-17 record and No. 269 Nebraska ranking a year ago, have won 16 of 19 games this winter.

Lincoln North Star, this week's No. 2 club, improved its won-loss record a whopping nine game over last season and moved up 130 rungs to 63rd while Centennial's 111 spot improvement to 77th is good for third. Alliance and Centura, meanwhile, round out the Top 5 after climbing 106 and 100 spots to 91st and 33rd respectively.

Every school in this week's Top 10 improved its ranking by at least 94 spots over a year ago. Of this week's Top 10, No. 9 Lincoln Christian is the highest ranked club at No. 10 after climbing 94 spots.

Every classification in Nebraska is represented in this week's Top 10. McCool junction tied with Lincoln Christian and Arlington for the ninth and tenth spots, but came up short in the Top 10 after improving their won-loss record four games compared to 11 ½ and seven game improvements for the Crusaders and the Eagles respectively.

As you browse through this week's Top 10, each school is listed on the top line along with the number of rungs it improved in Thursday's rankings over its final 2021-22 ranking. Line two is reserved for last year's final MaxPreps Nebraska ranking and the school's final won-loss record in parenthesis while line three lists the school's Nebraska ranking from Thursday and its record to this point in the season.

Nebraska's Top 10 most improved girls basketball teams

1. Hay Springs, +132
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 269th (6-17)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 137th (16-3)

2. North Star (Lincoln), +130
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 193rd (5-19)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 63rd (11-7)

3. Centennial (Utica, +111
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 188th (9-16)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 77th (14-8)

4. Alliance, +106
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 197th (7-17)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 91st (12-9)

5. Centura (Cairo), +100
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 133rd (11-12)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 33rd (18-3)

6. Seward, +99
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 155th (6-19)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 56th (13-8)

7. Wilcox-Hildreth (Wilcox), +99
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 177th (10-13)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 78th (16-6)

8. Hartington-Newcastle (Hartington), +96
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 234th (5-18)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 138th (11-9)

9. Lincoln Christian (Lincoln), +94
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 104th (9-15)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 10th (19-2)

10. Arlington, +94
2021-22 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 195th (7-17)
2022-23 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 101st (12-8)