Summing up the state polls, local blogs and more

The state high school basketball polls released this week by the Associated Press show almost the exact same results as the first polls a year ago.

Last year, eight boys teams and six girls teams from across Southeast Missouri were in the first statewide poll of the season from the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, almost identical to this year when eight boys teams and five girls team were in today's first rankings of the season.

None of our region's teams are No. 1, but a couple are No. 2 (the South Iron and Bell City boys teams) are No. 2 in their classes, and the boys teams from Scott County Central, Charleston and Sikeston join the Naylor and Portageville girls teams in the top five.

A few other quick hits:

• If you haven't checked out Mark Unterreiner's blog, click here to see his take on last week's Sikeston-Notre Dame boys game, which set off several days of debate that hasn't let up. The rivalry between Notre Dame and Sikeston has become one of the most intense ones in the region, and there's a good chance the two teams will meet up again in the district tournament.

• The final list of area high school football leaders will finally find its spot online by the end of the week. The list is the only one to include all 33 high school football teams in the region.

• Last but not least: As part of our new high school scoreboard page (which followed the demise of the ticker on the home page), there's also a new e-mail to send local scores from the 80-plus schools in the area — scores@semosportsweb.com.

We'll also have a new number to send scores via text message on your cell phone in time for the Christmas tournaments that begin Dec. 26.

A big weekend for high school basketball -- on the court and off

Back-to-back championship nights highlight high school basketball this weekend, and it only gets busier from here through the end of December.

After knocking off the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Top 25, Charleston and Jackson face off at 8:30 p.m. tonight for the championship of the SEMO Conference Tournament. It's a game that should help set the schedule for the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament later this month; coaches meet Sunday to determine the bracket.

On Saturday, coaches meet early to pick the bracket for the 16-team Bloomfield Christmas Tournament, where Hayti has a slight edge over what shapes up as a remarkably competitive field.

Also Saturday, championships are on the line during the afternoon at the Chaffee Invititational for girls basketball teams, and finals are Saturday night at the Gene Steighorst Tournament for boys basketball teams at Hillsboro.

The busy weekend paves the way for a long list of tournaments and spotlight games through the month. Campbell, Clarkton and Ellington all host Christmas tournaments in the next two weeks, followed by traditional holiday tournaments at Park Hills, Bloomfield, Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau for boys and at Twin Rivers for girls. Single-day events include the Perryville Hoopfest on Dec. 15 and the startup Pepsi Showdown at the Show Me Center on Dec. 22. Click here to follow schedules for local tournaments in our forum.

• Joe Bowling's new sports radio show on KYMO-FM 105.3 has already grown from a two-hour format to three hours in just three weeks on the air. This week's lineup includes the usual format with call-ins and discussion with local sports media and coaches, along with details about this weekend's Marshall County Hoop Fest in Benton, Ky. The event features 10 games Saturday, highlighted by top-ranked Oak Hill Academy and Chicago Whitney Young, which features Michael Jordan's son on the roster.

The show airs from 9 a.m. to noon each Saturday.

Wow, what a run so far for high school hoops

One of Missouri's longest losing streaks ended. An even longer one almost did.

The No. 1 team in Southeast Missouri lost. So did No. 3. And the new No. 10 team wasn't even on the radar before the season started.

Two weeks into the high school boys basketball season, it's starting to look like a repeat of the college football season, where the most unlikely teams rise to the top, fall, rise. Then fall. And rise. And on and on.

First, the streaks: Delta C-7 ended a losing streak with its first win in 42 tries, a 63-52 defeat of Senath-Hornersville in Senath's own tournament Friday. It's the first win for the Chargers since a win over Risco in February 2005; they were 0-18 last season and 0-20 the year before.

At the Caledonia tournament, Kingston came within five points of ending its losing streak at 93 games, the longest recorded in Southeast Missouri (the previous was 92 by the former Arbyrd High School, which combined with Cardwell to form Southland).

According to the published recap, Kingston cut the lead to a point with 1:20 to play, but Bismark hit four of its final six free throws to pull away. Kingston's last win was in February 2003 against Bunker, and now an intriguing home date with Grandview (0-5) awaits Dec. 11.

• We've already seen surprises in the high school boys basketball season, but Salem's defeat of Jackson for the Farmington Invitational title is, hands down, at the top of the list so far. Salem was seeded No. 6, Jackson was seeded first. Salem was unranked in our Top 25, Jackson was No. 3 (although that changed with our new Top 25 posted Sunday night, which featured Salem at No. 10). That sends Jackson into this week's SEMO Conference Tournament with a loss, and the schedule is hardly forgiving. Click here for the full lineup this week at Sikeston High School.

On Friday, No. 1 Scott County Central lost to Bell City in the Oran Invitational finale, adding more changes to the Top 25. It's shaping up to be an anything-goes season among teams across the region, and that should mean a Top 25 with a lot of changes as the season progresses.

• We'll have a new poll on the SemoSportsWeb home page this week, but the last poll asking for the area's high school football MVP puts Waylon Sparkman of Perryville out in front of Ryan Sawyer of Fredericktown. We'll post the final results this week, along with the final top 10 leaders in four categories (passing, rushing, receiving, tackles) among the 33 high school football teams in our area.

Riverbend Classic, state championships and the week ahead

Scott County Central and Bell City looked in midseason form, but Charleston's form was a little less definite during the weekend's Riverbend Classic.

You had to wonder what former Charleston coaches Bobby Spencer and Lennies McFerren were thinking from their seats in the New Madrid County Central bleachers as they watched the Bluejays commit almost two dozen turnovers against Memphis Central.

Charleston coach Danny Farmer was probably right when he told the Standard-Democrat that Memphis Central might be the toughest team in the event — maybe one of the toughest teams on the Bluejays' schedule. But to see a Bluejays squad slip and slide through an early-season game was rare, regardless of the opponent.

• Look for a pair of photo galleries by Joe Bowling and Al Jones from two of Friday's games on our home page. They're the first two galleries from what we expect to be a busy basketball season, so check back regularly for new galleries.

• Eminence has turned into the first surprise team of the season with a pair of wins at Van Buren's Current River Shootout. Wins over Clarkton on Friday and Doniphan on Saturday vaulted coach Pete McCluer's Redbirds up the newest SemoSportsWeb Top 25 poll.

• Waynesville defeated Belton for the Class 5 state football championship Saturday in St. Louis, probably not much comfort to Jackson fans who watched their team drop a 25-14 game at Waynesville in the semifinal round. MICDS, which knocked New Madrid County Central out of the playoffs in the quarterfinals, lost to Harrisonville in the Class 3 championship. Thayer, which eliminated Hayti in Class 1, lost to Orrick in the title game.

Click here for a full recap of the playoffs in each class.

• Although boys basketball events at Arcadia Valley, NMCC and Van Buren kicked off the season last week, a full week of tournaments usher in the season with gusto this week. See the schedules here for several of this week's events. If you have schedules and brackets that we're missing, add them to the forum or send an e-mail to jhall@semosportsweb.com.

Our first poll of the season has a familiar team at No. 1

It really does seem like old times with Scott County Central at No. 1 again.

Our first SemoSportsWeb preaseason Top 25 basketball poll was posted on our home page today after several days of conferring with area coaches, fans and athletes, not to mention hours of looking through stats, records and rosters for more than 80 local boys basketball teams.

The consensus? Well, there really wasn't one. Notre Dame was mentioned as the No. 1 team among plenty of folks heading into the season. Sames goes for Charleston, Jackson, Sikeston and Festus. All them got a push for the No. 1 spot before the final poll was settled.

That kind of split vote should lead to another anything-goes season much like the one we saw last year, and don't be surprised to see teams like Festus, Poplar Bluff, Hayti and Cape Girardeau Central climb back into the top tier of local basketball after sub-par seasons a year ago.

Just like last year, our Top 25 poll (expanded from a Top 20 poll last season) will be updated every week. And as always, leave us your feedback on our message board, through an e-mail (jhall@semosportsweb.com) or on our MySpace page (myspace.com/semosportsweb) — it just might be enough to sway our rankings next time around.

• Southeast's football season is finished, and only one team from the region remains alive in the high school football playoffs (that team is Thayer, which plays at noon Saturday for the Class 1 title in St. Louis). But if you're up for more college football in person instead of on TV, Southern Illinois (10-1) hosts Eastern Illinois (8-3) in Carbondale in the first round of the FCS (formerly Division I-AA) playoffs at time to be determined Saturday.

Heeb overcomes a tough introduction to new job in Illinois

How's this for an introduction to college coaching: David Heeb, the former Bell City and Scott County Central boys basketball coach who took over at Robert Morris College in Springfield, Ill. this season, arrived on the job in August to find that he had four players on his team. He added three more, and another player was granted a fifth year of eligibility.

The roster stands at nine players now, including Latoya Gipson, a freshman from Sikeston.

The Eagles are 2-3 so far and make their closest stop to Heeb's former schools Dec. 8 against Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Ill.

• Former SEMO men's basketball player Paul Paradoski is saying good things about his transfer from SEMO to Missouri-St. Louis. He described to the Post-Dispatch this week that he and coach Scott Edgar "butted heads" and "didn't get along," leading Paradoski to transfer after last season.

Paradoski, a Vianney grad, started 53 games as a guard during his first two seasons at SEMO, then saw his playing time dwindle when Edgar arrived before last season.

"It's a whole new world," he said, "school-wise and basketball-wise."

• Goreville (Ill.) High School senior Kenton Parmley signed with Southeast Missouri State on Wednesday. A career .415 hitter with 121 RBIs in 132 games, Parmley considered Central Arkansas, Eastern Illinois and junior college Oskaloosa-Walton. Parmley is a 6-foot-1, 175-pound shortstop.

Another Southern Illinois standout is going to the Big 12: Luke Hileman, an all-conference star in football and baseball, signed to play baseball with Baylor.

• Look for the SemoSportsWeb Top 25 preseason poll for boys basketball Monday with updates to follow each Monday through the season. Want to submit your votes for our Top 25? Send your preseason rankings to me at jhall@semosportsweb.com and they'll be tabulated into our first poll.

Time to start thinking hoops: Help us pick our Top 25

The high school football playoffs are still ahead for a few local teams, but it's already time to start work on SemoSportsWeb's preseason Top 25 boys basketball poll.

And that's where we're looking for your input. We know Scott County Central, Charleston, DeSoto, Jackson, Farmington, Notre Dame and a few others will rank toward the top, but who else? Leave a comment here with your picks for our preseason poll (leave us your Top 25 or just a few, your choice), or send an e-mail to feedback@semosportsweb.com and see the final results when our poll is announced Monday, Nov. 19. Check back every week through the end of the season for the new rankings.

For a refresher on last season, click here to see SemoSportsWeb's final Top 20 poll for the 2006-'07 season.

• On the subject of polls, Perryville fans turned out in big numbers over the past week to push Waylon Sparkman into the lead ahead of Fredericktown's Ryan Sawyer as Southeast Missouri's football MVP. We'll keep the poll open on the SemoSportsWeb home page until the final local team has finished its playoff run, so don't forget to vote on our home page.