High school basketball: Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 rankings for Jan. 2, 2022

A look at where things stand after all the holiday tournaments.

By Michael O’Brien

Glenbard West basketball players react after winning the 2021 Jack Tosh Holiday Classic Tournament Championship game against Lyons.

The rankings are usually a little easier to do after the holidays than most weeks. I start with a clean slate. No one cares where anyone was ranked before all these games were played. What matters is what happened in all the tournaments.

So it was a bit shocking that the top five remains the same after all of last week’s action. I don’t ever remember that happening after holidays. It shows how solid that group is right now. It appears that the top six teams may be a notch above everyone else in the area.

Holiday tournament winners got huge jumps in the rankings, obviously. Burlington Central joins for the first time this season after winning in Plano. The Rockets beat Yorkville Christian and well-regarded Peoria Notre Dame.

Homewood-Flossmoor and Hyde Park, two teams that were unranked last week, won at Hinsdale Central and the Big Dipper. Both teams have been in and out of the Super 25. They are back now. Hyde Park knocked off the Vikings the first week of the season so they wind up a spot higher.

Mount Carmel won at Pekin and Larkin won at Jacobs. I know that the Caravan hasn’t played one of the area’s elite teams this season. And they just squeaked by De La Salle and Morgan Park. But I’ve seen them play a number of times and I’m confident in them. DeAndre Craig is a star and the supporting cast around him is exactly what you want in a high school basketball team. They are a really unselfish, hard-working group too.

Super 25 for Jan. 2, 2022
With record and last week’s ranking

1. Glenbard West (14-0) 1
York champs

2. Kenwood (12-2) 2
Proviso West winners

3. Simeon (10-1) 3
Won title at Pontiac

4. Glenbrook South (13-1) 4
Cruised at Wheeling

5. Curie (15-1) 5
Lost to Simeon

6. Young (7-4) 6
Lost to Kenwood

7. Mount Carmel (15-0) 12
Won Pekin title

8. Larkin (14-1) 23
Champs at Jacobs

9. Hyde Park (9-3) NR
Won the Big Dipper

10. Homewood-Flossmoor (9-2) NR
Won Hinsdale Central title

11. New Trier (15-2) 13
Lost to Simeon in OT