Leading off today: As long as the calendar gods are slipping an extra day into February this month, I thought I'd toss in an extra blog installment today after having posted about the wrestling wildcards early this morning.
Here's an exchange I had recently with an overly enthusistic girls basketball father (perhaps the most annoying species of sports parent on the planet, by the way).
· · · ·
(Name omitted to spare his daughter) (Feb. 20): How is it possible that you can have Burke Catholic (Section 9) remain 4th ranked after losing to (then 14th, now 12th ranked) Sullivan West last Friday night at Lake Huntington. Maybe because you haven't kept up with actual team records?
You still have Burke as undefeated! The only two 'losses' that Sullivan West has on their record are clouded by bad officiating... and we have the tapes to prove it! But getting past that, Burke kept their ranking after losing to a 'lesser' team?
I would think that when a 4th ranked team loses to a 14th ranked team, the 4th ranked team would drop at LEAST one or two rankings. Come on guys, we appreciate you bumping us up two spots, but Burke should have dropped by at least that much.
Being underrated by the Orange County newspapers is bad enough, but when the State Sportswriters Association does this type of thing, it doesn't bode well for your reliability or your integrity. Try and give us a fair shake, will you?
NYSSWA (Feb. 21): The Burke-Sully West game took place too late (by only a few hours, unfortunately) to be included in the most recent rankings. The game will be reflected in the next set of rankings, which is being compiled tonight and will be released in a few days.
