High school basketball: Michael O’Brien’s rankings for Dec. 12, 2021

Bloom is back and in the top 10, and two teams make their season debuts in the rankings.

By Michael O’Brien

Glenbard West’s Andrew Dauksas (12) reacts after drawing a file as the Hilltoppers play Yorkville Christian.

This was a tough week with the rankings. I’ve seen most of the teams that are in the Super 25 play now and it hasn’t always been very instructive.

What do you do when a ranked team loses by 30 at home? New Trier survives this week despite that loss.

I don’t like penalizing teams for losing to good opponents. But it gets tricky when a team has lost to pretty much all of its good opponents. Basically, it is really early and every team is still figuring themselves out. I would bet we aren’t going to see too much consistency until after the holiday tournaments, if at all.

Hyde Park, Batavia and Yorkville Christian all dropped out this week. Batavia lost two games and Hyde Park lost to Yorkville Christian by 16 points.

Bloom is back in the rankings and jumps into the top ten. The Blazing Trojans beat Thornton in Harvey and then took down Evanston a night later at the Team Rose Classic.

Oak Forest and Leo join for the first time this season. I was able to see both teams this weekend and was impressed. The Bengals are a really solid group with two excellent players, Robbie Avila and Fred Robinson. It will be interesting to see how they hold up against some better competition.

Super 25 for Dec. 12, 2021
With record and last week’s ranking

1. Glenbard West (9-0) 1
Survived without Paxton Warden

2. Kenwood (5-1) 2
Lost to Texas team

3. Simeon (5-0) 3
No. 2 seed at Pontiac

4. Glenbrook South (7-1) 5
Dominated at New Trier

5. Young (2-1) 4
Hosts Clark Wednesday

6. Curie (9-0) 6
Jeremy Harrington playing well

7. Hillcrest (7-1) 9
Isiaiah Green is one to watch

8. Bolingbrook (8-0) 8
Beat Marian Catholic

9. Bloom (6-2) NR
Beat Thornton, Evanston

10. Brother Rice (9-1) 13
Young and dangerous

11. Orr (5-1) 14
Leontae Lilly can play