WW boys - wk of Dec 31

Last week, the Indianapolis Star alluded to the fact that at one time, the Hall of Fame Classic was pretty much the only game in town as far as getting your high school basketball fix over Christmas break.

No longer. While the prestigious one-day, four-team tournament still features four of the top teams in the state (both boys and girls), all playing at the world's largest high school gymnasium in New Castle, the Hall of Fame Classic now shares the stage with any number of tournaments large and small (35 total just this week).

This proliferation of holiday classics, shootouts and invitationals not only fills a two-week scheduling void over Christmas, but also oftentimes counts as only one game against a team's 20-game limit, even if they play 3 or 4 games during the course of the tourney.

All of this is well and good, but as far as Winless Watch is concerned, the primary benefit of these tourneys is that they allow teams to shed their "winless" label for the season! Don't believe me? A whopping eight teams played their way off the WW list last week, six of them taking part in these holiday tournaments.

The #3 team in last week's Winless Watch rankings, South Putnam, won its first game of the season over North Vermillion in its own tournament. Also, last week's #6 and #7 squads, South Vermillion and Bethesda Christian, scored their inaugural wins in the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic. South Vermillion opened up the tournament with a one-point win over Riverton Parke, while Bethesda knocked off Linton one night later.

Meanwhile, Randolph Southern, who found themselves at #13 last week, scored a big win over Seton Catholic in the Franklin County Tournament, while Boonville edged out one-win South Spencer in the PSC Holiday Classic, an eight-team affair in the far southern part of the state. And Elkhart Central broke its 10-game losing streak to start the season by blasting Mishawaka Marian in the seventh-place game of the Northern Indiana Conference Tournament.

In addition, North Posey, last week's #19, pulled off a moderate upset over Evansville Bosse – last year's Class 3A runner-up - in a regularly scheduled contest, less than a week after the Bulldogs steamrolled through the eight-team Toyota Classic, while then-#15 Hammond Morton almost doubled up Lake Station to snag its first win of the season.

Congratulations to all of these teams on their maiden victories for the season!

All of this shuffling leaves 18 winless boys basketball teams in the state. While it appeared that last week's #1 team, Evansville Day, would have a stranglehold on the #1 spot thanks to its defeats of 57 and 66 points in the Graber Post Buildings Classic, the teams that trounced Day School in those losses (North Daviess, Southwestern (Hanover)) raised the Eagles' strength of schedule to the point where they fell from the top spot all the way to #3.

This opens the door for a new #1 in this week's Winless Watch rankings; however, they'll likely just keep the seat warm for Terre Haute Holy Cross, whose 0-4 record includes an average margin of defeat of 48 points per game. The Knights don't play again until January 5 against a non-IHSAA outfit called the Tippecanoe Tornadoes; a loss will almost guarantee them the top spot in the WW rankings, while a win would keep them off the list this season. (As a reminder, WW requires a minimum 0-5 record for inclusion in the rankings.)

This week's Winless Watch, with records and average margin of defeat, as well as last week's results and upcoming games, included for informational purposes only:

1. Shoals (0-6, -34.2 points per game) – Last week's ranking: 2. No games last week. Will face Washington Catholic (1-7) on January 4 and Wood Memorial (4-6) on January 5.
2. Whiting (0-8, -22.0 ppg) – Last week's ranking: 4. No games last week. Will face LaCrosse (6-2) on January 4 and Lake Station (3-5) on January 5.
3. Evansville Day (0-11, -39.4 ppg) – Last week's ranking: 1. Lost 72-15 to North Daviess, lost 84-18 to Southwestern (Hanover), lost 66-28 to Washington Catholic. Will face Mount Carmel (IL) on January 5.
4. Eminence (0-7, -11.4) – Last week's ranking: 5. No games last week. Will face South Putnam (1-7) on January 5.
5. Hamilton (0-6, -18.2) – Last week's ranking: 9. No games last week. Will face Westview (7-1) on January 4.
6. Adams Central (0-9, -18.1) – Last week's ranking: 10. Lost 68-50 to Bellmont. Will face Garrett (4-4) on January 5.
7. North Harrison (0-8, -20.1) – Last week's ranking: 8. Lost 69-45 to Perry Central, lost 61-52 to Corydon, lost 48-38 to South Spencer. Will face Austin (4-5) on January 4 and Scottsburg (4-4) on January 5.
8. Milan (0-6, -11.5) – Last week's ranking: 11. No games last week. Will play Batesville (6-2) on January 3 and either Jac-Cen-Del (6-0) or South Ripley (2-4) on January 5.
9. Pioneer (0-7, -10.2) – Last week's ranking: 12. No games last week. Will play Frontier (4-4) on January 4 and Rensselaer Central (3-4) on January 5.
10. Sheridan (0-5, -19.8) – Last week's ranking: 14. No games last week. Will play University (2-5) on January 4 and Fountain Central (3-4) on January 5.

The rest (in order of WW ranking): Tri-Central, Highland, Lebanon, Greenfield, Indianapolis Scecina, Westfield and Lawrence Central.

There is still plenty of basketball left to play, and plenty of opportunities for these teams to play themselves off this list.