Oak Hill Academy of Virginia and La Lumiere of Indiana remain in the top spots in the first FAB 50 Team Rankings powered by Ballislife.com of the 2016-17 regular season. There are eight newcomers to the rankings led by No. 23 Simeon of Chicago and No. 27 Vashon of St. Louis, both whom were regionally-ranked in the preseason.<\/b><\/p>\n
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By Ronnie Flores<\/strong><\/em> Just as we didn't penalize Oak Hill Academy when it dropped an early game last season after Harry Giles<\/a> (Duke) went down with injury, the theme of the first regular season FAB 50 National Team Rankings<\/strong> powered by Ballislife.com<\/em> is to not overreact to an early-season loss by an elite team. Last season we knew Oak Hill had a very good team (even without Giles) and it eventually adjusted without him and went on to post a 45-1 record and No. 2 FAB 50 finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n This year, preseason No. 4 Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.) dropped a 69-67 contest to regionally-ranked Vashon (St. Louis, Mo.) at the Holiday Hoopsgiving<\/em> in Atlanta. Vashon is a quality club and the Wildcats bounced back to defeat preseason No. 6 Greenforest Christian Academy (Decatur, Ga.) 53-42 at their own Wheeler Hoops Classic<\/em>. With so many strong teams in Georgia, and because Wheeler plays such a loaded schedule and was not afraid to take on tough competition before December, it only drops two spots in the updated FAB 50 to the spot Greenforest previously occupied.<\/p>\n Wheeler hits the road to take on No. 32 Westlake of Atlanta (which has only lost to No. 19 Greenforest) on Friday before playing new No. DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, Md.) at the National High School Hoops Festival<\/em> on December 9 at DeMatha. In 2004-05, the only loss for eventual FAB 50 national champion Niagara Falls (N.Y.)<\/a>, led by future Syracuse players Johnny Flynn<\/strong> and Paul Harris<\/strong>, came against Vashon, which is the second highest-ranked newcomer in this week's FAB 50 at No. 27.<\/p>\n New Early Season Trend: Big-Time Matchups <\/strong><\/p>\n With events such as the Holiday Hoopsgiving and the Thanksgiving Hoopfest in Dallas growing in prestige, many big intersectional games involving FAB 50-ranked teams are beginning to take place in November, which was a rarity 10 or 15 years ago. The emerging trend is going to gain in significance in future seasons as state associations push up the beginning of their winter sports calendars. As rankings compilers, the will cause us to adjust our criteria when it comes to early losses. We want to reward teams for taking early risks when their teams might not be jelled and not overly punish a loss, especially for team that have other games with FAB 50 ranked foes coming up.<\/p>\n We didn't drop Bishop Montgomery (Torrance, Calif.) too far after it lost to unranked Bishop O'Dowd, 70-63, in the marquee game of the NorCal Tip-Off Classic <\/em>on November 26. The Knights, the preseason No. 1 ranked team in the state according to Cal-Hi Sports<\/em>, played without junior starter Davy Singleton<\/a> and with San Diego St.-bound Jordan Schakel<\/strong> severely limited by a lingering injury. We gave Bishop Montgomery the benefit of the doubt by dropping them only three spots, as it did bounce back to win the Trevor Ariza Tip-Off Tournament<\/em> at Westchester (Los Angeles) for the sixth consecutive season over the host Comets, but it clearly doesn't have as much wiggle room as Wheeler because of the comparative strength of schedules. It also caused Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.), which opens it season this week at its own tournament, to leapfrog the Knights in the FAB 50. Led by Mr. Basketball USA candidate Marvin Bagley<\/a> and UCLA-bound Cody Riley<\/a>, Sierra Canyon faces top-ranked Oak Hill Academy on December 15 in a game televised by ESPN.<\/p>\n
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