Gramp's St. Louis Area Metro Boys basketball ratings - 1/21/2023

Updated 2/16/2023

It looks like the Metro East large schools are taking up the top spots in Gramps St. Louis Metro Large School rankings but it is a real dogfight in that conference with O'Fallon (9-3, 21-7) leading the conference and East St. Louis (19-8), Belleville East (25-5), and Edwardsville (20-9) are all tied at 7-4 for second.  Collinsville (6-5, 19-11) has beaten East St. Louis twice but lost both games to Belleville East and Edwardsville.  It is a tough and topsy-turvy conference that has supplanted the MCC this year.

It is really hard to put a rating on these teams because they keep beating each other so I have not weighted any games and used a straight-up average game rating for all of these teams.  So the whole top ten is highly debatable (which is one reason I put these ratings out there to get people talking "Braggin' rights buckets").

Squeezing in between the Metro and MCC teams are Troy Buchanan and Kirkwood, who took their first loss this week against St. Dominic.  Despite the Pioneer's first loss, both of these teams seem to be peaking at the right time.

In the MCC, De Smet (18-5, 5-1), CBC (13-10, 5-3), Chaminade (16-8, 4-3), and SLUH (15-8, 3-4) have been knocking each other off on a weekly basis.  The teams are very comparable but none stand out the way past MCC teams have dominated.

A well-rounded Ladue squad (19-5) that rounds out the top ten, could make some noise in class five post-season.

Also of note, Webster Groves (10-12), continues to climb out of the 4-9 hole that was caused by injuries and a lack of team chemistry.  Despite losing by six to the Ladue team this week, the defending class five state champion Statesmen may be ready to challenge again in districts.

Small schools are below the Large School ratings.

In Gramps St. Louis Metro Small school ratings, there is Vashon and then all the rest.  Cardinal Ritter is a solid second, Westminster third, and Park Hills Central and Miller Career just behind.  

 

Posted 1/21/2023

Circle February 11th on your calendar.  St. Louis Metro boys basketball braggin' rights will be decided between two of the perennial basketball powers in the St. Louis area when they clash at Vashon HS. 

East St. Louis started the season a little slow and has picked up steam in the Large school ratings while Vashon has been off playing around the country and keeping Gramps guessing at a good Missouri school rating for them.  The next couple of weeks will solidify both of these teams' spots at the top and then they can decide on the Vashon court who's the best in St. Louie.

Here's the Large and Small metro area teams.... all of them within about 60 miles of downtown St. Louis (if I have your team in the wrong class or I missed you on the area map, give me a hollar).  You won't find anyone rating every team in the area, will ya?

 Updated 1/22/2023

Triad, with a student population of 1198, was moved from small to large school ratings

Posted 1/08/2023

My latest Metro area large and small school boys ratings don't look too much different from the Post-Dispatch other than the teams are in a different order.  Chaminade has been hot lately and dropped down two spots in the P-D poll while they moved to #1 in Gramp's ratings.

I am hard-pressed to not put Vashon on top of the small school metro ratings but, to be honest, they play so many national teams in the first half of their season, I cannot get a good read on their rating until they kill the local talent in late January.  A big game will be Staley coming into the Wolverine's house for a game on January 28th.

I updated the small school metro ratings to include Valley Park, a team that has improved significantly this season.  I appreciate that coaches, like the Valley Park staff, are actually looking for their team in Gramps ratings.  Hope I have not missed someone else too.

Posted 12/06/2022

 It has been nearly five years since grandson Nate Parker made his varsity debut at Mehlville HS on January 5th, 2018.  He had a great JV game, scoring 18 points to lead the Cats to a victory over a good Mehlville JV squad and he sat out a quarter because coach Kirby thought he might see some action for the varsity.  He almost did not.  At half time of the JV game, the student manager came to Nate and asked for his varsity jersey because Hassan Haskins, the starting power forward, had left his jersey at home.  Nate told him "No".  Kirby wouldn't have let anyone take Nate's jersey and so Haskins sat (Haskins went on to more memorable moments at Michigan as a running back).

The first half was fairly uneventful.  Eureka led by one at half and Parker got his first varsity bucket during a couple of minutes in the second quarter.  The third quarter came and it was all Panthers, with Mehlville going up 39-31 after three.  Parker played the last minute of the third quarter and went out to start the fourth.  Kirby usually puts the five that ended the first and third quarters back in the game but he never took him out.  Parker played all eight minutes, got three steals, a couple of baskets and a key one-and-one and the Cats outscored Mehlville 19-2 to win 50-41.  It was an auspicious start for the freshman.

Eureka travels back to Mehlville tonight.  It's been five years since Grandma and I have been there because of schedules and covid and it could be an interesting game.  Nate's little brother, Andrew (6'4"), is now playing varsity.  It would be nice to see the kid have a good game, like his brother, and see the Cats get back on track after a tough overtime loss to a very good offensive and defensive Borgia team.  The Cats have to light it up from three or figure out how to include the inside men in their offense.  You can live and die on the three some nights and it doesn't make for a great season.  Mehlville, who have been up and down, with a couple of great years with Bradford and Branson, are on the way back up with Marcus Jacobs and Brady Sights.  It should be a tight contest.

So who are the best teams in the Metro St. Louis Area?  It is probably too early to tell with some teams having not played or only played a game or two, but I will throw my metro ratings out for large and small schools.  It may not be worth the paper you print it on but it will get better with more games.  Gramps picked over 80% of all the district, sectional and state game outcomes based on my ratings last winter and that is pretty darn good for 1100 boys and girls games, all classes.

I will post an updated Metro St. Louis rating about every two weeks.  My class one through six ratings will probably start at the end of the month when I have a chance to get the rest of the state's games for those 550 boys and 530 girls teams into the algorithm.  

My definition of metro St. Louis is approximately 60 miles give or take from downtown St. Louis.

Here's the large school St. Louis Metro (all schools over 1000 or class 5 or 6):

Here's the small school St. Louis Metro (all schools under 1000 students or class 4 to 1):