Semifinal sites set

Here’s the semifinal times/dates:
Class 6A
Jenks vs. Southmoore, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Putnam City Stadium
Tulsa Union vs. Broken Arrow, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, University of Tulsa
Class 5A
El Reno vs. Carl Albert, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Putnam City Stadium
Bixby vs. Guthrie, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Stillwater High School
Class 4A
Weatherford vs. Douglass, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Yukon
Star Spencer vs. Sallisaw, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sapulpa
Class 3A
Seq. Claremore vs. Cascia Hall, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Collinsville
Berryhill vs. Dewey, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Skiatook
Class B
Garber vs. Laverne, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Woodward
Ryan vs. Canton, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Norman
Class C
DC-Lamont vs. Timberlake, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Enid
Seiling vs. Forgan, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Woodward


Rankings Preview: Nov. 15

For one more time before the playoffs end, here’s the rankings in all their glory:

EDIT: I’ve got to get this in above the jump: I messed up in my Class 2A rankings this week. I initially (and in Sunday’s paper) had Washington above Lindsay. Lindsay beat Washington comfortably during the regular season in a win that started the Leopards on a 7-1 run that has them going to Heritage Hall for a second-round playoff game.

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#11-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#10-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#9-2
4. Southmoore (4)#10-1
5. Midwest City (5)#9-2
6. Bartlesville (6)#9-2
7. Lawton (8)#9-2
8. Edmond Memorial (9)#8-3
9. Putnam North (10)#7-4
10. Mustang (7)#7-4

The top six teams here all win and remain the same. I seriously considered switching Southmoore and Midwest City and would’ve if the Bombers would’ve been more convincing in their win. Mustang drops from No. 7 to 10 after a 38-7 loss to Edmond Memorial. Lawton and Edmond Memorial each moved up a spot. Putnam North, despite the loss, moved up a spot to No. 9.

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OKRankings.com Girls Basketball Poll

The OKRankings.com Preseason Girls Basketball Coaches’ poll has been released. These are the rankings that eventually go toward deciding playoff pairings. So here they are (first-place votes in parentheses):

Class 6A
1. Midwest City (18)
2. Tulsa Union (1)
3. Norman
4. Edmond North
5. Edmond Memorial
6. Edmond Santa Fe
7. Lawton
8. Del City (2)
9. Norman North
10. Putnam City North
11. Jenks
12. Broken Arrow
13. Sapulpa
14. Owasso
15. Ponca City
16. Yukon
17. Enid
18. Southmoore
19. Bixby
20. Choctaw

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Know of a player signing?

With signing day coming up Wednesday, The Oklahoman is once again compiling a list of players across the state who have signed to play college athletics at any level.
If you have a signing to report, e-mail it to Ryan Aber at raber@opubco.com ro post it on the comments section here (on the main high school blog at http://blog.newsok.com/highschoolsports )

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Rankings preview: Nov. 8

Sorry for the delay from my usual late Friday night posting. Combination of a long drive back from Glenpool and trying to piece together the playoff brackets left me too tired to think straight last night by the time I would’ve been able to work on them So here they are in all their glory with a little different format this week (and I hope to do Class A-C in a similar format a bit later):

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#10-0
Why they’re not lower: Because the Trojans are the only team to go 10-0 in Class 6A.

2. Tulsa Union (2)#9-1
Why they’re not higher: Because the Redskins lost head-to-head to Jenks.
Why they’re not lower: Because their only loss is to Jenks (a two-point win) and they beat Broken Arrow — and everyone else — on their schedule.

3. Broken Arrow (3)#8-2
Why they’re not higher: Because the Tigers only two losses came to Jenks and Tulsa Union.
Why they’re not lower: They beat everyone else, including Bartlesville last night. They also own wins over Owasso, Claremore and Tulsa Washington.

4. Southmoore (4)#9-1
Why they’re not higher: Because they’re the only team of these top four to lose to a lower-ranked team. The SaberCats have also found themselves in more close games than any of the top four.
Why they’re not lower: An impressive list of wins in non-district and 6A-1: Edmond Memorial and Midwest City in non-district and Del City, Lawton and Mustang in district play. Other than Jenks, Southmoore has the best list of wins.

5. Midwest City (5)#8-2
Why they’re not higher: The only thing keeping the Bombers this low is non-district losses to Del City and Southmoore and its hard to vault them over the SaberCats with their previously discussed credentials.
Why they’re not lower: They’ve gone through a relatively weak district and done exactly what a really good team should — destroy everyone. The Bombers closest district game was a 22-7 win over 6A-2 runner-up Edmond Memorial. None of the others were decided by less than 29 points.

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Rankings preview: Nov. 1

Here’s the weekly preview for the rankings.

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#9-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#8-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#7-2
4. Southmoore (4)#8-1
5. Midwest City (6)#7-2
6. Bartlesville (7)#8-1
7. Mustang (9)#7-2
8. Del City (5)#7-2
9. Lawton (10)#7-2
10. Edmond Memorial (NR)#6-3

The main shift here came with Del City dropping three spots to No. 8. Midwest City and Bartlesville move up a spot each, while Mustang jumps up two spots. Edmond North drops out after losing for the second time in three games, and not looking particularly impressive in the one win during that stretch. Lawton moves up a spot to No. 9. Edmond Memorial makes its debut. I considered Owasso for that spot, and went back and forth but Memorial’s streak and the way the Bulldogs’ defense has played this season, even in losses, wins out over the Rams.

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What are the most impressive streaks in state HS sports?

With Shattuck about to break Morrison’s record of 90 consecutive wins, I’m wondering what are the other streaks in the state that are most impressive?

Here’s a few I’ve come up with. Let me know, either through a comment here or an e-mail (raber@opubco.com), if you have any others.

I’m sure there are plenty more I’ve missed but here are a few:

- Morrison and Shattuck’s 90-game winning streaks in football
- Tulsa Union’s and Jenks’ stranglehold on the 6A football title
-Asher and Owasso baseball dominance
-McGuinness girls cross country
-Bethel girls basketball state tournament streak
-Bartlesville boys swimming
-El Reno wrestling
-McGuinness girls tennis
-Cascia Hall boys tennis


Rankings preview: Oct. 25

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#8-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#7-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#6-2
4. Southmoore (4)#7-1
5. Del City (5)#7-1
6. Midwest City (6)#6-2
7. Bartlesville (7)#7-1
8. Edmond North (9)#7-1
9. Mustang (10)#6-2
10. Lawton (NR)#6-2 

The top seven stay the same here. Bartlesville still No. 7 after a loss? Yes. The Bruins did score 40 points on Jenks, the first team to do that in regulation since Tulsa Union scored 44 early in the 2005 season (Jenks won that game 48-44). Bartlesville lost but still put together a good showing. They do need to blowout Tulsa Memorial next week, though, and at least hang with Broken Arrow to keep that spot. Edmond North and Mustang move up a spot each. I think Mustang would beat Edmond North head-to-head now, but I’m not going to leap the 2-loss Broncos over a 1-loss Edmond North when the Huskies won the head-to-head earlier this season. It came down to Owasso and Lawton for the final spot, and I even had Owasso written in at one time, but went back and looked at both team’s schedules. Lawton has 2 losses; Owasso has 3. The Wolverines’ most impressive win was a 27-14 victory over Mustang. The Rams was … a 30-8 win over Choctaw? 20-0 over Muskogee? 19-13 over Enid? Not a whole lot to be blown away by there. The Rams are playing much better than they were before the season but Lawton has impressed more to this point. Putnam North was the team that fell out of the rankings after their 46-14 loss to Mustang.

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Got a question for Ed Sheakley? Ask it here

I’m going to visit with Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association executive director Ed Sheakley early this week. Do you have a question for him? Leave it as a comment here or e-mail me at raber@opubco.com. I’ll pick a few to ask him and we’ll have his answers this week in The Oklahoman.


Rankings Preview: Oct. 18

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#7-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#6-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#5-2
4. Southmoore (5)#6-1
5. Del City (6)#6-1
6. Midwest City (8)#5-2
7. Bartlesville (9)#7-0
8. Putnam North (10)#6-1
9. Edmond North (4)#6-1
10. Mustang (NR)#

A lot of shuffling here with Southmoore and Del City each moving up one spot and Midwest City, Bartlesville and Putnam North each bumping up two spots. The big fallers were Edmond North, dropping from No. 4 to No. 9 after losing 42-13 to Midwest City. Why so much? They hadn’t been convincing in wins they should’ve dominated and their schedule hadn’t been that strong to this point. So their first really big test was against Midwest City and the Bombers dominated, especially against Edmond North’s ground game. Norman North also fell big, going from No. 7 to out of the rankings after dropping a second consecutive game, this time to Del City 42-29. Norman North’s similar to Edmond North. The Timberwolves got a good win against Putnam North in the third week of the season but other than that hadn’t played a team considered among the top in 6A before two weeks ago and the got manhandled by Mustang and then beat by 13 to Del City on Thursday. So Mustang benefits from Norman North’s struggles of late. It’s not like the Broncos had a big test in beating Moore 42-6 but sometimes its just being in the right place at the right time. Lawton was also considered but after their offensive struggles last week, I’m certainly not going to move to Wolverines into the rankings after a loss. I’m still not too convinced on Bartlesville but 7-0 is 7-0. The next three weeks will tell the tale on them. I expect the Bruins to go 1-2, dropping games to Jenks and Broken Arrow, but if Bartlesville can at least stick tight in one of both of these games, it’ll show the Bruins aren’t just a product of their schedule.

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