Top St. Louis Large and Small boys high school basketball rankings 11/29

Pre-season basketball rankings are somewhat of a crap-shoot, but then again, the Post Dispatch rankings don't always make sense in mid- or late season.  I am not sure how they figure those other than looking at records and watching some games but I feel fairly confident that they are not based on actual head-to-head comparisons in a statistically significant manner.

So, occasionally, I will throw out my rankings compared to the P-D Poll and here is the first of several comparisons.  Remembering that a number of teams have yet to step out on court, there is a whole lot of speculation built into both the polls and my algorithm-based rankings.

A few large school teams, like McCluer North, De Smet and Vianney, have played and looked quite impressive in the box scores.  De Smet could be the sleeper here with big men Keita and Gassamma, dominating the low post.  Belleville West, Chaminade and East St. Louis are strong again and it will take some time to see how Webster Groves handles the loss of Gordon and Ramey.

In the small school rankings, Parkway Central, Alton and McCluer all looked great in their first couple of games.  Parkway Central, despite losing a large part of their offense from last year and their long-time coach Rick Kirby, could be the surprise in the small school group, although I don't know who will be able to keep pace with lightning fast Vashon and a dominant Jennings team.
 
It will be interesting to look back on this post in a couple of months and see who tops the list and who have dropped off.

Boys basketball large school schools - 11/29		Rating	P-D Rank
1	Belleville West	135	1
2	Chaminade	133	2
3	Webster Groves	130	5
4	East St. Louis	127	4
5	Francis Howell	127	6
6	Collinsville	126	9
7	McCluer North	125	NR
8	Marquette	119	NR
9	Hazelwood East	118	NR
10	Ladue	118	NR
11	Hazelwood Central	117	7
12	Eureka	116	NR
13	De Smet	115	NR
14	CBC	115	3
15	Vianney	113	NR
16	Fort Zumwalt South	112	10
17	Lafayette	112	NR
18	Kirkwood	110	NR
19	Hazelwood West	110	NR
20	Parkway South	109	NR
Boys basketball small school schools - 11/29		Rating	P-D Rank
1	Parkway Central	128	NR
2	Jennings	126	2
3	Vashon	124	1
4	Whitfield	123	7
5	Alton	120	NR
6	Trinity	120	3
7	Confluence	119	10
8	McCluer	117	NR
9	Cardinal Ritter	115	4
10	Liberty Wentzville	114	NR
11	Duchesne	113	NR
12	Highland	112	8
13	St. Francis Borgia	111	6
14	St. Mary's	111	NR
15	Park Hills Central	110	NR
16	Christian (O'Fallon)	110	NR
17	Riverview Gardens	109	NR
18	John Burroughs	108	NR
19	University City	108	NR
20	Lift for Life	107	NR

2021 Watch list - St. Louis Area Boys Basketball

While waiting to get more basketball scores in to my ranking algorithm, I wanted to take a look at the class of 2021, of which my grandson and his Larry Hughes Basketball Academy teammates, are part of.  It is quite an accomplishment for a freshman to make a varsity basketball team and I have compiled a list of sophomores that did play last year.

I ranked the players by their total points for the 2017-2018 season.  Take a look at the future stars of the St. Louis area high school basketball scene.  Yeah, there are great juniors and seniors but these are the up and comers.

I have added a few that did not play for their varsity teams but will have a significant impact this year, including Sekou Gasamma of De Smet.  Fun to watch these guys play.

2021 Player Rankings - Sorted by Total Points 2017-18
Varsity offense statistics - overall
#	Name	School	Height	GP	Pts	Avg
4	Myles Estrada	Francis Howell Central	6'0"	26	294	11.3
13	Sharrod Alexander	O'Fallon Christian		30	290	9.7
35	Jonathan Brown	Hazelwood East	6'0"	25	274	11.0
24	Yaya Keita	De Smet	6'9"	26	273	10.5
12	Chevy Brenson	O'Fallon Christian		30	217	7.2
24	Rico Singleton	Lift for Life	6'1"	27	210	7.8
10	Jeremiah Walker	De Smet	6'1"	26	209	8.0
20	Ryan Hoerstkamp	Washington	6'3"	26	209	8.0
21	Demarcus Sanford	Lift for Life	6'1"	27	208	7.7
11	Jaylen Phipps	Kirkwood	6'0"	27	195	7.2
34	Cylis Cox	Staunton	6'0"	28	190	6.8
32	Sam Thompson	Francis Howell	6'9"	29	172	5.9
23	Kalin Black	O'Fallon Christian		30	166	5.5
2	Cameron Gunter	Bayless	5'11"	23	161	7.0
32	Ryan Sauvage	Pacific	6'2"	28	160	5.7
2	Terry Lowe	Hazelwood East	6'1"	23	152	6.6
31	John Wilson	St. Charles West	6'5"	26	149	5.7
2	Keashon Petty	Parkway North	5'7"	24	142	5.9
10	Tevon Wiley	St. Louis College	6'0"	23	134	5.8
50	Harrison Wilmsen	Priory	6'5"	24	111	4.6
1	Ethyn Brown	Althoff	5'11"	27	108	4.0
12	Phillip March	Soldan	5'8"	21	98	4.7
40	Anthony Lewis	St. Dominic's	6'0"	23	92	4.0
1	Robert Dorsey	Bayless	6'4"	14	89	6.4
5	Jonathan Dunn	Chaminade	6'5"	27	86	3.2
32	Darnay McDonald	Riverview Gardens	5'10"	23	82	3.6
23	Ethan Lattimore	Vianney	5'8"	27	80	3.0
10	Adrian Taylor	O'Fallon Christian		29	77	2.7
33	Holden Ash	Hermann	5'10"	25	75	3.0
10	Max Meyers	Borgia	5'7"	20	74	3.7
22	Jack Pronger	MICDS	6'6"	24	73	3.0
2	Jake Karolczak	Was St. Dominics		23	73	3.2
12	Rico Barfield	De Smet	6'0"	26	72	2.8
20	Brandon Lightfoot	Parkway North	6'5"	24	72	3.0
25	David Creath	Grandview Hillsboro	5'10"	14	60	4.3
44	Shaun Riley	O'Fallon	6'5"	13	57	4.4
35	Adrain Evans	Hancock	6'0"	16	54	3.4
32	Justin Holland	University City	5'11"	10	45	4.5
22	Derek Williams	Windsor		15	43	2.9
10	Jaden Winfield	Chaminade	6'3"	23	40	1.7
1	Don'TA Harris	Pacific	6'2"	17	39	2.3
5	Luke Deakos	Fr. McGivney		24	34	1.4
50	Mitchell Haake	Mater Dei ILL	6'5"	6	34	5.7
32	William Mennerick	Metro	6'1"	22	34	1.5
25	Jailen Maxey	Du Bourg	5'7"	15	33	2.2
15	Nate Parker	Eureka	6'3"	14	33	2.4
24	Brendan Deters	Troy Buchanon	6'1"	16	31	1.9
12	Collin Reando	Festus		22	30	1.4
50	Travion Ford	Lutheran St. Charles		13	27	2.1
20	Sonny Amabile	Windsor	5'7"	19	26	1.4
11	Colby Ott	Jefferson	5'10"	16	25	1.6
12	Trevon Love	Jennings	5'9"	12	21	1.8
23	Omarion Henry	Normandy	6'6"	3	21	7.0
34	Anthony Phiffer	Webster Groves	6'1"	20	20	1.0
42	Landon Ball	Liberty Wentzville	6'1"	22	19	0.9
35	Trey Davis	Northwest Cedar Hill	6'1"	14	18	1.3
10	Eddie Simon	Whitfield		13	17	1.3
32	Luke Schueler	Vianney	6'1"	25	15	0.6
23	Chasen Neuman	Winfield	6'0"	7	15	2.1
32	Gary Ford	Webster Groves	5'10"	15	13	0.9
3	Isaiah Alexander	Whitfield	6'9"	13	13	1.0
32	Ryan Dawson	Wood River	6'3"	7	13	1.9
11	Nate Hall	Alton Marquette		2	12	6.0
32	Cortez Harris	Alton Marquette		5	10	2.0
30	Logan Wich	Parkway West	6'6"	13	9	0.7
24	Jai Graham	Hazelwood Central	6'4"	10	7	0.7
5	Aahmod Scarbrough	Hazelwood Central	6'0"	7	6	0.9
2	B. Gray	Farmington	6'2"	1	5	5.0
20	Jackson Neidenbach	De Smet	5'10"	7	4	0.6
12	Andrew Dupy	Fr. McGivney		17	4	0.2
10	Justin Wenos	Fr. McGivney		14	4	0.3
10	Illyas Harris	Marquette	5'9"	6	4	0.7
42	Karl Moore	Jennings	6'3"	3	2	0.7
25	Jack Ellis	Webster Groves	6'1"	4	2	0.5
13	Thomas Redmond	De Smet	6'4"	6	1	0.2
30	Sekou Gassamma	De Smet	6'10"	0	0	0.0
33	Michael Carroll	Parkway Central	6'6"	3	0	0.0
5	Luke Laudel	Eureka	5'6"