WASHINGTON — High school basketball rankings are tricky.
Even in a day and age when top programs schedule fellow powerhouses for a few games a year, there is still plenty of subjectivity in how to rate thousands of schools. But no matter to whom you talk, one thing is certain this season — the Washington area has two of the top teams in the nation, both of whom are competing for a title in what may be the toughest league in America.
This is nothing new for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, which has graduates scattered all around Division I basketball.
“It does seem like there’s more nationally-ranked teams this year,” says Gonzaga Athletic Director Joe Reyda, who has run the tournament for the last 15 years.
MaxPreps compiles the various rankings, each of which rate both of the two schools anywhere between 7th and 16th nationally. The composite leaves St. John’s 9th, DeMatha 10th.
Since a two-point home lost to DeMatha on Jan. 9, St. John’s has won 11 of 12, including the road rematch with the Stags, a 61-54 Cadets win in Hyattsville. Besides the loss to St. John’s, DeMatha has only one other blemish in its last 16 games, a 73-70 defeat at home to Gonzaga.
But just because those teams have high national regard doesn’t mean they can coast through to an inevitable meeting in the league finals. Three other schools in the league rank in the top 160 nationally, and the top six are all capable of beating each other any given night.
Upsets are hardly unprecedented. The eight seed has toppled the top seed multiple times in years past. And before Gonzaga can even think about potentially taking down either St. John’s or DeMatha, it has to get past Paul VI, a team that beat the Eagles once and took Gonzaga to overtime in their other matchup.
“You can look at the 10 teams on the boys’ side, and six of them are very capable of winning it,” says Reyda, who is in charge of running the tournament. “It just shows you how well-balanced the league is.”
It’s also full of talent. Over at Paul VI, Louisville-bound V.J. King was recently named a McDonald’s All American. So was DeMatha’s Markelle Fultz, who is heading to Washington next year.
“I think leaguewide on any given night you might see a Division I coach sitting in the stands,” says Reyda, who says four or five Gonzaga students are being looked at closely, with juniors Chris Lykes and Eddie Scott drawing plenty of attention.
Quarterfinal games will take place at the higher-seeded schools this year, with all four games being played Friday. The semifinals will move to American University’s Bender Arena on Sunday, with the final being played at 8 p.m. Monday. That final could be a matchup of two of the country’s top 10 teams. But there’s certainly no guarantee that either will survive the gauntlet in front of them.
