WW girls - wk of Dec 31

As we turn the corner into the New Year, with about 4 weeks of basketball left before the girls' state tournament begins, this year's girls' Winless Watch finds eight teams with the 0 around their necks for the season so far, as two of the last week's winless teams dropped out with wins last week. Both squads finding themselves solidly in the middle of last week's rankings.

First, congratulations to the LaVille Lancers, last week's #4 team in the WW rankings. The Lancers were on the cusp of victory on a couple of occasions this season, and finally broke their 10-game winless skid to start the season with a 6-point victory over Culver in the third-place game of the Caston Tournament last weekend.

Also, congratulations to last week's #5 Muncie South, who snapped their 11-game losing streak in the consolation game with a win over Guerin Catholic at Monroe Central's holiday tournament. The Rebels almost broke through earlier in the day with a three-point loss to Northeastern before sealing the deal over the Golden Eagles.

Two of the three teams I alluded to above with my "three-team horse race" comment are neck-and-neck, and the slightest change in strength of schedule can cause the two teams to switch positions. Such is the case this week, with last week's top two teams Wes-Del and Gary Wirt trading places despite the fact that Wes-Del didn't play last week, while the Troopers improved their average margin of defeat with a 29-point loss to Gary Roosevelt.

With that, here are this week's Winless Watch rankings, with records and average margin of defeat, as well as last week's results and upcoming games, included for informational purposes only:

1. Gary Wirt (0-7 record, avg margin -33.7 points per game) – Last week's ranking: 2. Lost 62-33 to Gary Roosevelt. Will face Gary Wallace (1-10) on January 4.
2. Wes-Del (0-10, -25.2) – Last week's ranking: 1. No games last week. Will play Cowan (5-6) on January 3 and Knightstown (5-6) on January 5.
3. Fort Wayne Blackhawk (0-9, -24.1) – Last week's ranking: 3. No games last week. Will play Fort Wayne Canterbury (6-4) on January 4.
4. Morristown (0-8, -21.5) – Last week's ranking: 6. No games last week. Will play Triton Central (9-1) on January 3.
5. Southridge (0-11, -15.2) – Last week's ranking: 7. No games last week. Will play North Knox (8-4) on January 3.
6. Mount Vernon (Posey) (0-8, -16.7) – Last week's ranking: 8. Played Washington (3-5) last week, no score reported. Will play Mount Carmel (IL) (15-3) on January 3 and Vincennes Lincoln (11-2) on January 5.
7. Fort Wayne Northrop (0-10, -14.3) – Last week's ranking: 9. Lost 59-41 to Fort Wayne North. No games this week.
8. Southport (0-10, -25.1) – Last week's ranking: 10. Lost 49-24 to Whiteland. Will play Indianapolis Pike (4-6) on January 5.

The WW formula (explained here last week) shows that, if things continue down their current course, the race for WW Team of the Year will come down to the top 3 teams, as #4 Morristown has a very solid strength of schedule and thus quite a bit of distance from the top 3. Still, all of these teams have half or more of their schedule remaining to play, and there will be solid opportunities for each team to garner that first win of the season.