Paris Baird and No. 16 Windward are one of many teams just starting the 2011-12 season.
File photo by Dennis Lee
Though the Turkey Jamm in Memphis shook up the national rankings, many of the other top teams in the country have yet to play a game. In fact, No. 18 Shabazz of New Jersey just started practice on Monday – while No. 5 MacArthur of Texas has already played nine games.
So the teams that didn't play obviously didn't move much, but those that were involved in the Turkey Jamm got shuffled around fairly dramatically. Previous No. 3 Memphis Central dropped all the way out of the rankings by losing to previous No. 8 Incarnate Word of Missouri, which doesn't seem like that disastrous of an outcome, except for the fact that Incarnate Word lost to North Little Rock of Arkansas, which is unranked and already has a loss to another unranked team.
So Memphis Central, due to the head-to-head result, must be behind Incarnate Word, and for the same reason Incarnate Word must be behind North Little Rock – which must be behind Parkview, the team that beat the Lady Charging Wildcats. Parkview, though, isn't yet a candidate for the Xcellent 25, so Memphis Central, Incarnate Word and previous No. 11 Twinsburg, which lost to Memphis Central, all have to drop out.
That opened the door for Northern California's strongest program, St. Mary's of Stockton, to jump in at No. 24, and Our Lady of Good Counsel, from the same league as No. 4 St. John's of Washington, D.C., to get in at No. 25. Both teams will be at the Nike TOC (Dec. 19-22 in Phoenix), which will mean 11 teams from the Xcellent 25 will go at it in the same 16-team bracket.
McEachern of Georgia, which knocked off both Memphis Central and Norcross to vault into the No. 6 spot, won't be one them, and neither will Nazareth of New York, which also got a boost when its three elite transfers were all declared eligible to play by New York officials.
For most of the rest of the ranked teams, though, it was more anticipation than action, and it won't really be until the Christmas tournaments that we see the kind of movement we saw this time. There is one big game on tap, though: No. 10 Norcross of Georgia and No. 13 Hoover of Alabama will play on Saturday in a big test for both once-beaten teams.
MAXPREPS XCELLENT 25 NATIONAL GIRLS BASKETBALL RANKINGS PRESENTED BY THE ARMY NATIONAL GUARD
Maya Singleton and Riverdale Baptiststay atop the rankings this week.
File photo by Chris Pondy
1. (1 last week)
Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.) (0-0)
2. (2)
St. Mary's (Phoenix) (0-0)
3. (6)
Bolingbrook (Ill.) (2-0)
4. (4)
St. John's (Washington, D.C.) (0-0)
5. (7)
MacArthur (Irving, Texas) (9-0)
6. (nr)
McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.) (4-0)
7. (9)
Spring Valley (Columbia, S.C.) (0-0)
8. (18)
Nazareth (Brooklyn, N.Y.) (0-0)
9. (10)
Riverdale (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) (3-1)
10. (5)
Norcross (Ga.) (2-1)
11. (13)
Dr. Phillips (Orlando, Fla.) (3-0)
12. (14)
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) (0-0)
13. (12)
Hoover (Ala.) (3-1)
14. (15)
Buford (Ga.) (0-0)
15. (16)
Whitney Young (Chicago) (0-0)
16. (17)
Windward (Los Angeles) (1-0)
17. (19)
Potter's House Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.) (3-0)
18. (20)
Shabazz (Newark, N.J.) (0-0)
19. (21)
Detroit Country Day (Beverly Hills, Mich.) (0-0)
20. (22)
Marion County (Lebanon, Ky.) (1-0)
21. (23)
Central Catholic (Portland, Ore.) (0-0)
22. (24)
Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) (0-0)
23. (25)
Providence Day (Charlotte, N.C.) (1-0)
24. (nr)
St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) (0-0)
25. (nr)
Our Lady of Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) (0-0)
Dropped out: No. 3 Memphis Central
No. 8 Incarnate Word
No. 11 Twinsburg
