Church League Power Rankings: Week 5

The Church League Power Rankings for week five will first start with an apology. I apologize to all consistent readers of these power rankings, as I was unable to post power rankings for last week. Not posting for week three, as it was winter break and only a handful of teams played, was understandable, but last week was not. I’m not going to waste time with a long and lengthy apology, but I’m just going to say that, due to my schedule, putting out a power rankings for week four was not my number one priority. It won’t happen again.

So… Power Rankings! This was a pretty wild week, and we are getting a better idea of who the best teams are.

1. First Presbyterian (3-0)

Dethroning SFX Kuchler definitely puts First Presbyterian in the number one spot. Like I addressed in my last power rankings, First Presbyterian has the best starting five in the league, and that starting five came through for them on Sunday night. However, I have some long term concerns for this team. Beyond the starting unit, FPCLG is not that strong. Knowing this, they play their starting five for most of the game and that can present some problems when teams have deep benches and pick up the pace, keeping FPCLG starting five running.

2. SFX Dillon (4-0)

And then there were two. It’s amazing there only five weeks into the regular season and there are only two remaining unbeaten teams. But First Presbyterian and Dillon have weathered the storm and are both certainly deserving of their records. While Dillon’s win this weekend was against a far less notable opponent than FPCLG, some things stood out about their victory. SFX Dillon is the best team in the league at perimeter defense, and with that great ability they are a devastating team in transition, creating fastbreaks at an alarming rate. Offensively, Dillon is flawed. The team has many able scorers, but at time the offense stalls in ways that it wouldn’t with other top teams. SFX Dillon deserves this spot, but you have to wonder how they’ll perform against the more offensive teams in the league.

3. SFX Kuchler (3-1)

Despite their loss to FPCLG, there is nothing to suggest that this team can’t be the offensive juggernaut that they seemed to be. From what we’ve seen so far they can blowout some of the weaker teams in the league, but if you put SFX Kuchler in a close game, they don’t seem to be able to pile on the points. Week four’s slim victory over GLC had an asterisk next to it with players on Kuchler missing, but this loss to FPCLG does not.

4. SJC Light Blue (3-1)

While SJC Light Blue suffered its first lost of the weekend, it came without Mike Owens (Naz) playing. Its no secret that size wins in Church League, and Owens’ size is exactly why I’m so confident in the success of Light Blue. SJC Light Blue is a contender with Owens on the court, so this loss doesn’t give any real cause for concern for Light Blue.

5. Grace Lutheran (3-1)

After just sneaking into the last rankings and gathering a lot of negative feedback from opposing teams, Grace Lutheran has done a lot to show that they deserve to be considered a top team. First there was the narrow, last second loss to SFX Kuchler (who only had seven players attend the game), a convincing victory over SJC Maroon (without key player Tim Murphy ‘16) and upset of an Owens-less SJC Light Blue. It’s a shame that most of GLC’s big games come with an asterisk next to them and we’ll have to wait for another matchup to determine if GLC is a contender or just a solid team. From what we’ve seen from them so far, you have to assume the latter.

6. SJC Dark Blue (3-1)

In my first rankings, I wrote off SJC Dark Blue, whose young core of great athletes only narrowly defeated a Congo team who seemed like their heads were focused on something else. But they’ve kept winning and deserve some recognition for their play. That being said however, I still have my worries about SJC Dark Blue. Yes, they have some high quality athletes, but their strength of schedule has been weak and none of their wins have been that convincing. This SJC Dark Blue team is good, but I feel if some teams that fall below them in this week’s rankings played them when it really mattered, they would not come away with the W.

7. SFX Hickey

I’m not quite sure what happened to SFX Hickey. They have (in my opinion) the best player in the league, tons of surrounding athletes who are very capable players. It seemed like they would be a Ferrari racing a dozen Priuses. But lately? SFX Hickey has come to a screeching halt. They tied a Congo team who only managed to put up 28 points in an game that went to overtime, and lost to SFX Panosh (without Hickey), a team SFX Dillon calmly beat, leading by seven to 10 points the entire game. Do they have tons of talent? Yes. Will they recover? Probably. Does this stretch of games lead to serious questions about SFX Hickey’s status as one of the more dangerous teams in the league? Definitely.

8. SFX God Squad- (1-2)

The God Squad is by no means anywhere close to the teams that are ranked above them, but they’ll do with the eight spot. A couple things stand out about the God Squad that have improved their ranking despite the fact that all they’ve done since my last rankings is lose.

1. Their only victory, over SFX Panosh, becomes increasingly valuable as SFX Panosh plays well against top teams and posts a respectable 2-2 record.
2. Their nine-point loss against FPCLG looks a little better as FPCLG rises to number one and defeats the third ranked SFX Kuchler team by a five point margin.

That being said, none of that means that the SFX God Squad can post a record a winning record. It just means that they are just one of the better teams in the lower tiers of the league.

9. SFX Panosh- (2-2)

            SFX Panosh grabs the 9 spot after unseating SFX Hickey a couple of weeks ago, and staying close with a SFX Dillon team, who missed a couple opportunities to make the game a blowout. But it wasn’t a blowout and SFX Panosh narrowed the lead to five at one point in the last five minutes. All that being said, SFX Panosh has posted a solid record despite their really tough schedule.

10. Congo (1-3-1)

Just as I was ready to throw Congo out of the rankings, they win a game and impress by tying SFX Hickey. Of course those, nice games were complemented with Congo being on the wrong side of a blowout against SJC Light Blue. Between now and the last time I wrote these power rankings, Congo gave us a sobering reminder of all that they can and can’t be. It seems like Congo has emerged from their woods with mental clarity, ready to take the league by storm with one of the potentially most dangerous offenses in the league. At this point, it is obvious that this isn’t the dominating Congo team I thought I’d be dealing with at the start of the year. To maintain this ranking though, they don’t have to be. They just need to win.

Finally, I just wanted to say something. A couple weeks ago, Jack Cushing put a comment on the LION webpage, in which he stated his annoyance with some of my rankings, especially the fact that his team was not ranked. I wanted to address that comment right now. I was overjoyed with the comment. I love the idea of having people starting a conversation over the rankings, stating who they think is overrated and underrated. Having more of these on the power rankings would be awesome. I have no problem with people disagreeing with my opinion, as long as the conversation remains civil and thoughtful. I don’t want arguments to turn ugly. Comments that follow these guidelines will be posted on the power rankings and I welcome them. Disagreement is part of every ranking, from major media companies covering professional sports to high school newspapers covering an intramural basketball league that plays in the gyms of elementary schools. So comment away.