I’m starting work on the pre-season rankings for 2014-15. I’m basing these off the end of season rankings found here.

If a B (or lower) team is ranked, I’ll address them with the A team when the time comes.

200. Oakville A (MO) – A team that’s season’s highlight was arguably finishing second at Ladue’s LIST, this was a team that very heavily depended upon Mike Menkhus (who averaged 137 PPG at the University of Missouri’s Tiger Bowl VI). Given that he has graduated, this team will have a hard time succeeding like the team did this year.

Expected performance next season: significantly down

199. Acton-Boxborough A (MA) – This team, which won the Central Massachusetts Fall Tournament and the fifth Connecticut Invitational is losing 3/4 of their A team from PACE NSC (which finished tied for 67th in their NSC debut), including lead scorer Victor Pavao. While they had a solid B team that played often and are all returning, I still think you can expect them to have a drop off from this past season.

Expected performance next season: down

198. Darien A (CT) – After their first season appearing in the rankings, this team returns lead scorer Michael Borecki and their #2 player, Molly Bell, for next year. Given that neither player will be entering their senior season, I expect their performance to continue to improve. It would not shock me if they broke the top 100 at some point next year. This team finished third the Yale Fall Academic Tournament and won the NAQT Connecticut State Championship; it seems likely they’ll be state champs again.

Expected performance next season: up

196. Portsmouth Christian A (NH) – Another team making their first appearance in the rankings, they’re losing their two lead scorers, John Marvin Sipp and Jonah Abraham, to graduation. However, this is a team that just finished its third season playing pyramidal questions and finished second at both the Pre-Holiday Academic Tournament and NAQT Vermont State Championship, so the potential to bounce back is there if they have younger players who are interested in improving.

Expected performance next season: down

195. Del Norte A (CA) – They return 3 of their four leading scorers from this past season. No reason to expect anything but improvement from here. Their best finish was tied for 7th at the Cobalt Invitational, though they had strong statistics throughout the year.

Expected performance next season: up

194. Bainbridge A (GA) – this team was carried by two main scorers, Jakob Thorn and Amanda Wooten. With both graduating, I doubt they’ll do as well next year, but they should be proud of this past season, where they finished 2nd at the Class 5A GATA State Championship

Expected performance next season: down

193. Lexington A (MA) – they return the vast majority of their scorers from their best regular season performances at the Connecticut Invitational, only losing their David Yuan, who did well but only played half their games. They tied for third at the Connecticut Invitational and took second at the Central Massachusetts Fall Tournament.

Expected performance next season: up

192. East Chapel Hill A (NC) – this team depended almost entirely on Salman Iftikhar on their way to performances like a tie for third at the Demon Deacon Challenge and fifth at the NCATA Championship, and Iftikhar graduated this year. A drop off in performance would not be surprising at all.

Expected performance next season: down

191. Altamont A (AL) – This team took second at the Hoover Elite Meet and tied for fifth at the ASCA State Championship. But with the graduation of lead scorer Jonathan Hurowitz, this team will have a hard time duplicating their success next year.

Expected performance next season: down

Edit #1: corrected error with John Marvin Sipp’s name; I had previously listed it as “John Michael Sipp.” Apologies for the mistake.