COMMERCE 14U: Power Rankings | Mice Men go down

A new #1! Mice Men go down! Also, the playoff picture begins to take shape with The Bulls and Snearker Heads trying to hang on to the last two spots.

1) Payroll (5-1, Last week #2) – Game 1 against Mice Men: Lose by 16 pts. Game 2 against Mice Men: Win by 3 pts. That is what we call improvement and that is what gets you the #1 ranking this week. Alex Kashmikha’s monster game (17 pts, 18 reb) helped Payroll out rebound Mice Men by a +30 margin (48-18). Not many games will be lost when you dominate the glass like that.

2) Mice Men (5-1, Last week #1) – The Mice Men finally lose a game after starting off the season on a 5-game winning streak. Phil Qarana and Nicholas Denha had solid but unspectacular games in the 3-pt loss. I expect Mice Men to win their next 3 games (1 playoff game) to setup a rubber match against Payroll for the ship.

3) Bulls (3-3, Last week #3) – Big revenge win over The Sneaker Heads this past week put The Bulls on a 3-game winning streak. Joseph Hermiz and Samson Kadambi led the way offensively while Michael Houbba and Bailey Hannawa cleaned up the glass. They look like the definite 3rd best team, however, there remains a large gap between them and the top 2.

4) Sneaker Heads (3-3, Last week #4) – 3 losses in a row, this one to the Bulls. I’m not saying the Sneaker Heads won’t make the playoffs, because I think they will get in. I’m just saying there is no way they win a game once they get there.

5) Young Ballers (2-4, Last week #5) – Big W for Julian Essak (21 pts, 11 reb) and company to stay alive in the playoff race. While not eliminated yet, I don’t see another game that they can win on their schedule.

6) Team Sonny (0-6, Last week #6) – Getting doubled up (68-34) by the 2nd worst team is not what Team Sonny needed. They may have just lost their best shot at winning a game. The playoff dreams are now dead and Team Sonny will just be playing for pride at this point.