Anonymous wrote:Did STA or GDS play any of these schools competitively? One can ascertain from both being last in their respective conferences that they are clearly inferior but is it glaring? Or could they turn it around in the next few years with good recruiting and coaching/suppport?

Yes, STA and GDS are glaringly bad.

Anonymous wrote:IAC did not show well tonight.

SSSAS losing was expected, but perhaps the margin of victory was more than I thought.

Bullis losing was surprising.

Bullis lost?

IAC did not show well tonight.

SSSAS losing was expected, but perhaps the margin of victory was more than I thought.

Bullis losing was surprising.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget SSSAS beat SAES this season. That's your 2nd ranked team losing by 10 to your 8th team. SSSAS did lose to Sidwell by 9 - although the game was close until the 4th. SSSAS also swept Georgetown Prep, so it would make sense for them to be ranked higher than Prep for our purposes here.

Bullis beat Potomac by 39 points this season. Potomac and SSSAS play tonight.

I've seen all of the teams we are discussing play this season. My ranking would be as follows:

Sidwell
Bullis
Landon
SSSAS
SAES
Prep
Potomac
......

Yes, I think any of those IAC teams would have finished 2nd in the MAC this year.

Earlier somebody said the MAC has been better than the IAC for several years now. That's just demonstrably false, in my opinion. I think Sidwell would have barely beaten SSSAS last year - but it would have been close. Prior to last season, there wasn't a team in the MAC that could hang with SSSAS since 2018.

This is a fun discussion. I like debating folks with good knowledge of our awesome local hoops scene.

Potomac struggled this season. But any team can have 1 bad game. SSSAS has had at least 12 bad games this season. They had some ups (beating SAES) and downs (losing to EHS in playoffs was sad). Let's see how they do against PVI, a team that lost to MAC champ Sidwell.

Interesting that SSSAS losing to EHS (a huge rivalry and the third time they've played this year) was sad but Sidwell losing a 10 point lead to SAES in the final minute of a one-point loss isn't. SAES is over ranked and frankly Sidwell should have won that game going away a month ago. Also Jimmy Fitzpatrick is a hell of a coach and always gets EHS up for SSSAS. Look at last year when they beat them thanks to John Laughlin's 43 point game.

Last night SSSAS jumped out to a 20-point first quarter lead and then committed about 23 turnovers to let Potomac get as close as 8 points, and then never really looked back. Potomac was a team you had ranked much higher than SSSAS. Just sayin'...

SSSAS has a new coaching staff and they were wildly inconsistent this year. They have about three guys that average 15 combined turnovers per game. Those same three guys are also capable of going off - which one of them did last night. The sum of the parts was greater than the whole this year, and hopefully the coaches can figure it out by next season.

I was really impressed with #2 from Potomac last night. He kept them as close as he could.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget SSSAS beat SAES this season. That's your 2nd ranked team losing by 10 to your 8th team. SSSAS did lose to Sidwell by 9 - although the game was close until the 4th. SSSAS also swept Georgetown Prep, so it would make sense for them to be ranked higher than Prep for our purposes here.

Bullis beat Potomac by 39 points this season. Potomac and SSSAS play tonight.

I've seen all of the teams we are discussing play this season. My ranking would be as follows:

Sidwell
Bullis
Landon
SSSAS
SAES
Prep
Potomac
......

Yes, I think any of those IAC teams would have finished 2nd in the MAC this year.

Earlier somebody said the MAC has been better than the IAC for several years now. That's just demonstrably false, in my opinion. I think Sidwell would have barely beaten SSSAS last year - but it would have been close. Prior to last season, there wasn't a team in the MAC that could hang with SSSAS since 2018.

This is a fun discussion. I like debating folks with good knowledge of our awesome local hoops scene.

Potomac struggled this season. But any team can have 1 bad game. SSSAS has had at least 12 bad games this season. They had some ups (beating SAES) and downs (losing to EHS in playoffs was sad). Let's see how they do against PVI, a team that lost to MAC champ Sidwell.

When are they playing them?

SSSAS travels to PVI tonight. It should be an easy win for PVI - especially if SSSAS commits as many turnovers as they did last night.

Anonymous wrote:DC state championships -
Quarterfinals are this evening

Neither of those schools are in DC

DC state championships -
Quarterfinals are this evening

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget SSSAS beat SAES this season. That's your 2nd ranked team losing by 10 to your 8th team. SSSAS did lose to Sidwell by 9 - although the game was close until the 4th. SSSAS also swept Georgetown Prep, so it would make sense for them to be ranked higher than Prep for our purposes here.

Bullis beat Potomac by 39 points this season. Potomac and SSSAS play tonight.

I've seen all of the teams we are discussing play this season. My ranking would be as follows:

Sidwell
Bullis
Landon
SSSAS
SAES
Prep
Potomac
......

Yes, I think any of those IAC teams would have finished 2nd in the MAC this year.

Earlier somebody said the MAC has been better than the IAC for several years now. That's just demonstrably false, in my opinion. I think Sidwell would have barely beaten SSSAS last year - but it would have been close. Prior to last season, there wasn't a team in the MAC that could hang with SSSAS since 2018.

This is a fun discussion. I like debating folks with good knowledge of our awesome local hoops scene.

Potomac struggled this season. But any team can have 1 bad game. SSSAS has had at least 12 bad games this season. They had some ups (beating SAES) and downs (losing to EHS in playoffs was sad). Let's see how they do against PVI, a team that lost to MAC champ Sidwell.

When are they playing them?

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget SSSAS beat SAES this season. That's your 2nd ranked team losing by 10 to your 8th team. SSSAS did lose to Sidwell by 9 - although the game was close until the 4th. SSSAS also swept Georgetown Prep, so it would make sense for them to be ranked higher than Prep for our purposes here.

Bullis beat Potomac by 39 points this season. Potomac and SSSAS play tonight.

I've seen all of the teams we are discussing play this season. My ranking would be as follows:

Sidwell
Bullis
Landon
SSSAS
SAES
Prep
Potomac
......

Yes, I think any of those IAC teams would have finished 2nd in the MAC this year.

Earlier somebody said the MAC has been better than the IAC for several years now. That's just demonstrably false, in my opinion. I think Sidwell would have barely beaten SSSAS last year - but it would have been close. Prior to last season, there wasn't a team in the MAC that could hang with SSSAS since 2018.

This is a fun discussion. I like debating folks with good knowledge of our awesome local hoops scene.

Potomac struggled this season. But any team can have 1 bad game. SSSAS has had at least 12 bad games this season. They had some ups (beating SAES) and downs (losing to EHS in playoffs was sad). Let's see how they do against PVI, a team that lost to MAC champ Sidwell.

Bullis was far and away best team in IAC. They beat rest of conference by an an average of 18 points per game. But who was their best win all year? Jackson-Reed by 2? The MPSSBT is a chance for for Bullis to show they deserve the #3 ranking in the DMV. Landon got an at-large bid and it will be good test for them too. They already proved they can beat (and get blown out by) Bullis. And SAES has to prove it is deserving of #12 ranking from WaPo.

Anonymous wrote:Did STA or GDS play any of these schools competitively? One can ascertain from both being last in their respective conferences that they are clearly inferior but is it glaring? Or could they turn it around in the next few years with good recruiting and coaching/suppport?

STA is looking good right now for the next few years, as long as the middle schoolers don’t transfer out.

Don't forget SSSAS beat SAES this season. That's your 2nd ranked team losing by 10 to your 8th team. SSSAS did lose to Sidwell by 9 - although the game was close until the 4th. SSSAS also swept Georgetown Prep, so it would make sense for them to be ranked higher than Prep for our purposes here.

Bullis beat Potomac by 39 points this season. Potomac and SSSAS play tonight.

I've seen all of the teams we are discussing play this season. My ranking would be as follows:

Sidwell
Bullis
Landon
SSSAS
SAES
Prep
Potomac
......

Yes, I think any of those IAC teams would have finished 2nd in the MAC this year.

Earlier somebody said the MAC has been better than the IAC for several years now. That's just demonstrably false, in my opinion. I think Sidwell would have barely beaten SSSAS last year - but it would have been close. Prior to last season, there wasn't a team in the MAC that could hang with SSSAS since 2018.

This is a fun discussion. I like debating folks with good knowledge of our awesome local hoops scene.

Did STA or GDS play any of these schools competitively? One can ascertain from both being last in their respective conferences that they are clearly inferior but is it glaring? Or could they turn it around in the next few years with good recruiting and coaching/suppport?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to the PP above for the thorough breakdown. Understand where the WCAC is in the basketball hierarchy but is there a difference between the IAC and MAC? And also, just curious where GDS would fall on your list. Are they below STA for basketball (no need to discuss academics, that’s not the question). Thanks!!

MAC is usually not as competitive as the IAC, but it’s still good. The conferences schools generally have better academics than the WCAC and st Andrew’s and Sidwell are both in the MAC which for the last couple years have had better teams than any school in the IAC.

MAC basketball has been better than the IAC for more than a decade.

This was the weakest year for IAC basketball in a while. But yes, the MAC has had stronger basketball teams last few years.

I just don't believe this. In 2022 and again in 2023, Sidwell has been the class of either league.

After that, you've got Landon and Bullis that are better than any other MAC team this year.

Beginning in 2018, and going through the 2021 season, SSSAS was clearly the class of either league.

Top to bottom, the IAC has beaten the MAC during their challenge for several years running, I believe.

But I do agree the IAC was down this year - yet they still beat the MAC 4-2 during their Challenge.

DP.
This year:
Landon lost to Potomac
Landon lost to Maret
Landon beat GP

Bullis arguably dominated the IAC, I’d put them on par with SAES

SSSA beat GP and Landon but lost to Episcopal in playoffs (after winning twice in regular season)
Episcopal lost to Flint Hill, Landon, Bullis, Sidwell, GP

I could go on.

Based on the above my combined rankings would be

Sidwell
St Andrew’s (SAES beat Sidwell and only just lost to them in playoffs by 5)
Bullis (did not face Sidwell or SAES but SAES leads them for being only local team to beat Sidwell)
Maret, Potomac tied (Maret beat Landon, Potomac beat SAES, and they split with each other)
Maybe Landon and/or GP tied (maybe SSSA)

Based on Sidwell and SAES alone, I think MAC has slight edge this year. We shall see what next year brings.

O'Connell?