Jerry Palleschi’s South Dakota Class AA Basketball Top Five 12-26-17

There is no South Dakota Prep Basketball Media Poll for this week due to the holidays, but Jerry Palleschi is here with his top five rankings for Class AA boys and girls.

Most teams this week will stay idle with games resuming on Friday and Saturday in Class AA. The annual Mike Miller Classic takes place on Friday and Saturday between the Sanford Pentagon and Mitchell Corn Palace.

With no official rankings for this week, Jerry Palleschi has provided a look into what his votes would have been for this week.

Boys

1. SF Lincoln (5-0), #1 Last week
2. Harrisburg (3-0), #2 Last Week
3. O'Gorman (3-1), #3 Last Week
4. Rapid City Central (6-0), #4 Last Week
5. Rapid City Stevens (5-1), Unranked Last Week

Quick Hits:

• LHS for sure ahead of the pack right now with wins over Brandon Valley, Washington, O'Gorman, and Roosevelt. Very strong start for Jeff Halseth's crew.
• Harrisburg has opened up their ESD conference schedule with a 3-0 record. The Tigers have an incredible group of talented kids that could easily make a run to nobody's surprise in March.
• O'Gorman's lone setback was to the top team in the state. Don't penalize them as heavily as other's might. Quality win over Rapid City Stevens in the opening game of the year.
• RC Central - By virtue of record I'll place them at 4th with many questions surrounding them. They have only played three South Dakota schools, and those three have a combined 4-10 overall record. Lot will need to be proven by Central in the coming weeks.
• RC Stevens - Was very close to putting them above Central based on strength of schedule, but they lost a tight game to O'Gorman and rebounded back to beat Roosevelt. Have wins over Mitchell, Huron, and Spearfish in terms of in-state teams.
• Brandon Valley - I'd get a lot of people crushing me for putting them in the top five and for me they are right in the conversation. Yes, they are 2-3 but the opponents they have played are a combined 14-4. If they would have defeated Yankton at the Pentagon and were 3-2 at this point, I would have placed them in the top five.

Girls

1. Aberdeen Central (4-0), #1 Last Week
2. Harrisburg (3-0), #2 Last Week
3. RC Stevens (6-0), #3 Last Week
4. SF Lincoln (3-1), #5 Last Week
5. Brandon Valley (3-1), #4 Last Week

Quick Hits:

• Aberdeen Central continues their great run with all the talent they return from last season. Their last win over Brandon Valley puts them above Harrisburg for me as of now.
• The Tigers are impressive also with wins over Pierre, Brookings and Roosevelt. They are right behind Aberdeen for me, almost tied, with the difference being that Brandon Valley win for the Golden Eagles. More to be determined with Aberdeen playing Roosevelt at the Mike Miller Classic this upcoming weekend.
• Rapid City Stevens brought almost everyone back from last season and that has shown in the early parts of this year. Wins over Roosevelt, O'Gorman, Huron, Mitchell, and Spearfish have made people around the state pay attention. Put January 6th down on the calendar as an important date when they face Aberdeen Central
• SF Lincoln is a squad that not many people are talking about, but they'll start to have to. Matt Daly's team is 4-1 with their lone loss being to an incredible St. Michael-Albertville team out of Minnesota. Lincoln will have a battle with Washington on January 2 to start the new year.
• The stats have been very impressive for the Lynx in the opening set of games, but they suffered a loss to the Golden Eagles. Trinity Law and Danica Kocer helped lead the Lynx to a big win over Washington. They are a young(er) team with just one senior on the roster. We'll see if that plays a factor for this season, but the future is extremely bright for this Lynx squad.

Agree/Disagree? Miss any. Let us know!