The toughest blows in sports aren't close losses, no matter how painful or how lucky that halfcourt banked-in 3-pointer at the buzzer. The hardest hits are injuries, and former No. 1 McEachern simply couldn't overcome the loss of star forward Caliya Robinson to a torn ACL and has now dropped out of the Xcellent 25.
Fremont of Nebraska was just about to muscle its way into this select group when its star power forward, Jess Shepard, tore her ACL, and though it's still possible Fremont might make an appearance, the odds got a lot longer.
For most coaches, the biggest worry isn't about what set to run against a 3-2 zone, or which play to run down one in the last minute, but rather keeping their team healthy and enthusiastic through a long season. And health, of course, isn't just doing their best to avoid major injuries, it's also trying to keep one girl with a cold from becoming six girls with a cold, or dodging the flu themselves.
Exacerbating the problem for the Xcellent 25 teams is travel over the Christmas holidays, as there's nothing like sleeping in hotels, eating at fast-food restaurants and disrupting the normal routine to push everyone to their limits -- and beyond. And next up will be the Martin Luther King Jr., weekend, which is the time for shootouts and one-day extravaganzas that also usually involve at least a long bus ride and sometimes another plane flight.
Put all this together, and one thing becomes clear: It's not always the best team that wins, sometimes it's just the healthiest.
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Girls Basketball Rankings presented by the Army National Guard
1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), 12-1Unbeaten North Torrance, coming off a bracket championship at the West Coast Jamboree, is next on the schedule, followed by another tough opponent in Redondo Union, which lost to No. 14 Long Beach Poly by just one.
2. (2) Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia), 7-0MeMe Jackson, Blackman
Photo by Mark Jones
There's a rumor going around that Neumann-Goretti and No. 3 Potter's House Christian may play at some point this season. But remember the sage advice to believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.
3. (3) Potter's House Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.), 20-1As is almost always the case, Potter's House is on the road, playing good teams far from Florida. This weekend, the Lions are off to New Jersey to play some of the best teams in the Garden State.
4. (4) Blackman (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), 13-2Blackman had little trouble with Smyrna, winning 65-42 on the road, but in Tennessee it's never easy. Crosstown rival Riverdale is 14-2, and that's where Blackman will play on Friday.
5. (5) St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), 10-1Modesto Christian won a state title last year, but has slipped this season, so expect St. Mary's to add to its win total this weekend. The competition will be stiffer over MLK weekend, though.
6. (6) Archbishop Molloy (Queens, N.Y.), 8-0Coach Scott Lagas has a top 10 team and a newborn baby -- so to say he's not sleeping that well is probably an understatement.
7. (7) Bedford North Lawrence (Ind.), 15-0Evansville Central is 12-1, but that loss was to Princeton -- which Bedford North Lawrence beat by 31. In other words, don't expect an upset.
8. (8) Whitney Young (Chicago), 11-1Heritage Christian is right on the bubble of the national rankings, as the third-best team in Indiana -- so the Saturday game between Whitney Young and Heritage Christian definitely counts as a big one.
9. (9) Northside (Fort Smith, Ark.), 14-0This week's league play shouldn't prove to be too much of a challenge for Northside, which has no more out-of-state games.
10. (10) Long Island Lutheran (Brookville, N.Y.), 6-2Up next is Eastside from New Jersey, a strong team with a win over highly regarded Capital Prep. That's Saturday, and Sunday, Long Island Lutheran takes on the Academy of the Holy Cross from arguably the nation's toughest conference, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference.
11. (11) Miami Country Day, 16-1Miami Country Day has a relatively easy stretch before a challenging MLK weekend.
12. (12) Elizabethtown (Ky.), 13-2Da'Jah Jackson, Long Beach Poly
Photo by Mark Jones
Elizabethtown jumps right into the Kentucky fire, with games against 10-2 Adair County (at Adair County) and 13-1 Homestead this week.
13. (13) Paul VI (Fairfax, Va.), 12-1For most ranked teams, league play is a stretch of glorified scrimmages, but not so in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. Paul VI gets Bishop McNamara and Our Lady of Good Counsel this week, plus a nonleague game thrown in just for the heck of it.
14. (14) Long Beach Poly (Calif.), 9-2After spending the week before Christmas in Arizona and the week after Christmas in Florida, the Jackrabbits hop back to Southern California and settle in to league play.
15. (15) Rock Bridge (Columbia, Mo.), 7-3Without star forward Cierra Porter, Rock Bridge couldn't handle No. 18 Leavenworth, but she'll be back soon so a Missouri state title is still within reach.
16. (16) Myers Park (Charlotte, N.C.), 10-1The definition of mismatch: Independence is winless and its closest loss was by 19 points -- to a team that has only won one game. Hopefully some better opponents will appear for Myers Park over MLK weekend.
17. (18) Lawrence North (Indianapolis), 14-0Even though Lawrence North already beat Pike by 11, this week's game is at Pike -- and it's far from an easy win.
18. (20) Leavenworth (Kan.), 5-0Knocking off previous No. 15 Rock Bridge 46-39 justified Leavenworth's place in the Xcellent 25 -- but unbeaten Shawnee Mission Northwest is on tap this weekend.
19. (NR) New Hope Christian Academy (Thomasville, N.C.), 20-1New Hope's only loss is to No. 3 Potter's House Christian, by three, and No. 16 Myers Park shows up on the schedule on MLK weekend.
20. (19) Gonzaga Prep (Spokane, Wash.), 8-0A couple of league games against middling opponents won't test Gonzaga Prep. In fact, just keeping sharp might be the toughest challenge.
21. (21) Konawaena (Kealakekua, Hawaii), 18-1Tatyana Perez, Cy Woods
Photo by Jim Redman
No worries for Konawaena … it should be a Hawaiian holiday until postseason.
22. (22) Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.), 11-1Edina has only lost twice, both times by one point, so when Hopkins takes the floor for the first time this year, it shouldn't be a walkover.
23. (23) Braintree (Mass.), 4-0Massachusetts teams don't like to exhaust themselves. Eventually Braintree might play as many games as some Texas teams play in a week.
24. (24) Cypress Woods (Cypress, Texas), 17-1League play starts for Cypress Woods, which means it should be an easier ride than heretofore. There are lots of very good teams in Texas, but no great ones, apparently.
25. (25) Desert Vista (Phoenix), 10-3Desert Vista is Arizona's best, but this is a good year for the Grand Canyon State, so a state title is far from a lock.
Dropped out: No. 17 McEachern