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David Price's first comment to me after his Dudley team fell to Greensboro Day in the Little Four final Friday: "OK, you can put them back at No. 1 now."

He caught himself, remembering that I never actually released a Mighty Nine poll Christmas week, meaning the Bengals remained at No. 1 even after losses to Ravenscroft and the Christ School. Not that early-season rankings mean much but I do feel kind of bad for not giving the Panthers at least a short stay at No. 1. Dudley was in prime position to move up, but with a not-so-bad loss to nationally ranked Oak Hill and a tough defeat to GDS, it's hard to see a climb from No. 2 now. I'm off to see Trinity tonight to see how Tim Kelly's Bulldogs (13-1 with only a loss to Raleigh Wakefield) look against another Mighty Nine mainstay, Andrews. We'll try to post a New Year's Mighty Nine (boys AND girls) by Friday.

Andrews is coming off a thrilling 65-63 win over EJ Abrams-Ward (35 points) and Thomasville in the Wachovia Classic's American bracket finals. Or was that the National bracket? Stan Kowalewski said today that the tournament will be leaving High Point for Northern Guilford -- where he is now boys varsity coach -- in 2008. You can read more on that in my Friday high school notebook. The Nighthawks (6-3) made a strong showing in this year's event, giving Thomasville a good game in the semifinals, and they promise to be really tough next year when point guard Jonathan Frye is a junior and 6-7 Jacob Lawson is bigger and stronger as a sophomore.

Also, how about Southeast Guilford sweeping boys and girls titles Monday in the NewBridge Christmas Classic at Ledford? The Falcons girls (9-4) are looking particularly formidable.