Mighty 9: Trinity on top
That's right, call me bold or call me audacious, but I have indeed moved Trinity to the top of the Mighty Nine boys poll after the Bulldogs went to 13-0 with a convincing victory over Andrews on Wednesday night. My story on Trinity's impressive start elicited a hilarious email response from Asheboro coach Brian Nance, whose team plays Trinity again Jan. 17.
From the story:
"Hey, these boys ain't Asheboro!" Kelly bellowed to his players. "They're not going to quit."
So Nance's subject line was this: I surrender.
Calling himself General Cornwallis, Nance went on to thank me for providing him with pregame speech material when his team gets its shot at redemption for last week's 86-49 loss to Trinity.
Good stuff.
Of course, we made Tim Kelly's career record even more remarkable than it already is. Forgetting the typo, Friday's story should have him at 363-128 in 18+ seasons.
Here's the new boys poll, which will be updated again on Tuesday:
1. Trinity 13-0 3 (last week) / 2. Greensboro Day 16-2 1 / 3. Dudley 9-2 2 / 4. Ragsdale 10-2 5 / 5. Graham 8-0 NR / 6. Andrews 9-2 7 / 7. Grimsley 9-3 8 / 8. Williams 8-1 NR / 9. Page 8-3 4. Dropped out: Reidsville (was 6th), Glenn (was 9th).
Quick explanation on the change at the top of the poll: Trinity is one of two area teams that remain unbeaten -- the other, 8-0 Graham, went from unranked to No. 5 after beating Cummings 80-79 last week -- so it slid up from No. 3. It would be easy to leave Greensboro Day at No. 1 after it beat No. 2 Dudley (now 3) in the Little Four finals, but I dropped the Bengals a spot because of losses to Arden Christ School and Raleigh Ravenscroft before the holidays and after our last poll update. Christ School, with its three tall-tower Plumlee brothers, is probably the best private-school team in the state, so that 59-55 loss alone couldn't knock GDS down from No. 1. But paired with a loss to Ravenscroft, I felt justified.
Dudley held its own with Oak Hill in Arizona on Dec. 22. It would be great if we get to see the Panthers take on Trinity again this March -- the Bulldogs beat Dudley for the '04 3-A state title.
There are a few key games in the next few days that could shake up the rankings: No. 8 Williams is playing Greensboro Day and High Point Central faces No. 6 Andrews in two hours. Trinity is at No. 5 Ragsdale on Monday. Two other big games tonight: Reidsville, with its state-champion football players now in basketball shape, at Grimsley; and Northern Guilford at Northeast, which is just on the outside of the poll despite two wins over No. 9 Page. Looking at the whole picture, the Pirates seem to be the better team right now despite their two close head-to-head losses to the Rams.
Complaints and other comments welcome.
Comments (3)
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OK, I didn't want to seem as though I was coming down hard on Asheboro by including that friendly jab from Tim Kelly in that story. It should be pointed out -- and coach Nance did so -- that Asheboro is now 9-4. And those four losses were to Trinity, Graham and twice to Williams (three teams that have combined to lose just one game this season).
Posted on January 7, 2008 10:48 AM
I was just looking over the mighty nine girls poll and I am wondering how Rockingham County can drop two places after only one defeat. The team that they lost to should also be in your poll. They are as good of a team as any one that is listed. The girls at Rockingham are made up of one senior, five juniors, and the rest of the team are sophmores and one freshman. So, in my opinion with a record of 11-1, they should be ranked higher in the poll. Oh well, I guess you make what you want to out of polls. All they are is a way for the people who do not attend these games to get a feeling of who is doing what. I guess what I am saying is, they are worthless.
Posted on January 8, 2008 9:02 AM
Baseballcrazy, clearly they're not worthless. Half the reason for doing polls is to measure top teams against one another; the other half is to generate debate. So I consider this week's rankings a success.
As good as I think Dudley will be -- maybe by playoff time this season -- before the win over Rockingham, they'd shown potential but at 4-3, not great results. When I did that poll, I couldn't justify putting the Panthers in ahead of any of the ranked teams, including 11-1 Rock Co. All those rankings are always subject to change. Stay tuned.
Posted on January 9, 2008 1:51 PM