High school basketball rankings: Link Academy wins GEICO Nationals, finishes No. 1 in final 2022-23 National Top 10

Missouri program captures national title in second season.

Thumbnail image of this articles writer: Jordan Divens
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Apr 3, 2023, 9:00am
The 2023 GEICO Nationals didn't disappoint as three days of high-level competition resulted in Link Academy (Branson, Mo.) capturing its first title with a 73-55 victory over No. 3 AZ Compass Prep (Chandler, Ariz.) in the championship game.

Link Academy (27-1), which came into the event as the No.4 seed, defeated MaxPreps Top 25 No. 6 Paul VI (Chantilly, Va.) 68-65 in its first-round GEICO Nationals matchup and took down No. 4 Sunrise Christian Academy (Bel Aire, Kan.) 67-61 in the semifinals.

First-year head coach Bill Armstrong leaned on his five-star duo of senior Baylor signee Ja'Kobe Walter and junior North Carolina commit Elliot Cadeau all weekend. Cadeau set an event record with 29 assists over the course of three games and averaged 9.7 points, 9.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game. Walter tallied a team-high 21.3 points per contest while shooting 58 percent from the field.

Senior LSU signee Corey Chest Jr. (8.3 points, 5.7 rebounds), four-star junior Tyler McKinley (8.7 points, 3.7 rebounds), senior Tennessee signee Cameron Carr (9.7 points ) and five-star sophomore Aaron Rowe (5.3 points) also made major contributions.

Link Academy captured the City of Palms Classic Signature Series and Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions titles during the regular season. In their first year of competition, the Lions finished 34-2 in 2021-22 and reached the GEICO Nationals title game.

The Lions finished the season with a record of 27-1 in Bill Armstrong's first year as head coach of the program.

Prior to the 2021-22 season, MaxPreps adopted a split approach to the rankings. The MaxPreps Top 25 is a measure of public and private schools belonging to the recognized governing bodies that compete for state championships. The National Top 10 encompasses a broad spectrum of sub-collegiate programs that in most cases are not full members of state-level governing bodies and do not compete for state championships.

See the final National Top 10 of the 2022-23 season below.
Graphic by Ryan Escobar
Graphic by Ryan Escobar
Final National Top 10 basketball rankings

Record: 27-1 | Last week: 2
GEICO Nationals champion.

Record: 23-3 | Last week: 1
GEICO Nationals participant. National Interscholastic Basketball Conference champions.

Record: 24-7 | Last week: 6
GEICO Nationals finalist.

Record: 21-8 | Last week: 4
GEICO Nationals semifinalist.

Record: 18-8 | Last week: 5
GEICO Nationals semifinalist.

Record: 35-2 | Last week: 3
GEICO Nationals participant. Grind Session champions.

Record: 33-5 | Last week: 7
Grind Session runner-up.

Record: 18-10 | Last week: 8

Record: 19-10 | Last week: 9

Record: 21-10 | Last week: 10

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