Trevor John and Grant Jackson have been two of the top players so far for head coach Nick Jones’ team at Monte Vista. Photo: Ronnie Flores.
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It was a great start to the season for preseason NorCal No. 1 Bishop O’Dowd with a runner-up finish at the national-level Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas. Even though the Dragons followed up with three losses at the Under Armour National Classic in San Diego, they remain the No. 1 team in the Bay Area and top the first Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area boys’ top 20.
Monte Vista of Danville has been one of the state’s surprise teams so far and checks in at No. 2. The Mustangs’ big win came in the finals of the Modesto Christian tourney with a 66-49 triumph over defending NorCal Open Division champ Archbishop Mitty. The Monarchs’ only other loss is to North Little Rock, Ark., and they also have a win over Modesto Christian, which was No. 9 in the preseason state rankings.
El Cerrito also starts this week unbeaten at 14-0 and is ranked only behind O’Dowd, Monte Vista and Mitty. The Gauchos, who have been led by Tyrone Allcorn with 18 points per game, won on Saturday night 78-54 over Pleasant Grove of Elk Grove, which won last year’s CIF Division I state crown. El Cerrito also has a big game this week against 9-3 St. Joseph Notre Dame.
Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 7 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco and throughout the week on Comcast SportsNet.
Here are this week’s Bay Area boys’ top 20 (after games of Saturday, Jan. 4):
1. Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 5-3
2. Monte Vista (Danville) 12-0
3. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 8-2
4. El Cerrito 14-0
5. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 8-1
6. St. Francis (Mountain View) 10-0
7. San Ramon Valley (Danville) 11-1
8. Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) 7-3
9. Salesian (Richmond) 8-3
10. St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 7-1
11. Campolindo (Moraga) 9-4
12. Castro Valley 8-3
13. St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 9-3
14. De La Salle (Concord) 6-3
15. Leigh (San Jose) 9-1
16. Drake (San Anselmo) 10-3
17. Burlingame 7-2
18. Freedom (Oakley) 10-4
19. Berkeley 10-0
20. Mills (Millbrae) 10-2
On The Bubble:
Branson (Ross) 10-3, College Park (Pleasant Hill) 7-2, Dougherty Valley (San Ramon) 9-3, Menlo-Atherton (Atherton) 7-4, Montgomery (Santa Rosa) 8-4, Piedmont Hills (San Jose) 8-2, San Benito (Hollister) 11-1, Serra (San Mateo) 7-3.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports
4 Comments
Where is Newark Memorial?
Didn’t see them too high in East Bay. Will double-check for them for next week.
Newark can smack half of these teams off the list anytime. This is not a good representation of nor cal talent. Cougars will be DII rep at state again.
WCAL league begins tonight so we’ll see some shakeup amongst the WCAL teams in next week’s rankings. Should be more of a balanced league this year with the graduation of Aaron Gordon, Caruso, et al.