Boys basketball rankings: Coffee, GAC, St. Francis move up to No. 1

Greater Atlanta Christian head coach David Eaton celebrates beating Jenkins, 67-53, to win the Class AAA boys basketball championship game on  March 8, 2018, in Macon. Eaton’s Spartans are No. 1 again, riding an 11-game winning steak with recent victories over No. 10 Shiloh of Class AAAAAAA and Independence of Charlotte, the defending champion in North Carolina’s Class AAAA.

Greater Atlanta Christian head coach David Eaton celebrates beating Jenkins, 67-53, to win the Class AAA boys basketball championship game on March 8, 2018, in Macon. Eaton’s Spartans are No. 1 again, riding an 11-game winning steak with recent victories over No. 10 Shiloh of Class AAAAAAA and Independence of Charlotte, the defending champion in North Carolina’s Class AAAA.

Coffee, Greater Atlanta Christian and St. Francis are new No. 1-ranked boys basketball teams after a volatile week in which 37 of last week’s 80 top-10 teams lost at least one game.

Among those losing were previous No. 1 teams Lakeside-Evans in Class AAAAAAA, Morgan County in AAA and Mount Bethel Christian in A.

Coffee moved to No. 1 from No. 2 in AAAAAA. The Trojans have won 12 straight games. They’ve lost to only one Georgia opponent, Campbell of AAAAAAA, in early December.

Previous No. 1 Lakeside-Evans lost to Heritage-Conyers on Tuesday and fell to No. 2. Though unranked, Heritage had a good week. The Patriots also beat former No. 1 Evans (19-3) and knocked the Knights out of the rankings.

In AAA, defending champion Greater Atlanta Christian has won 11 straight games. Those include victories last week over No. 10 Shiloh of AAAAAAA and defending North Carolina Class AAAA champion Independence of Charlotte. GAC has gone 19-1 since starting the season with losses to Peachtree Ridge, Sandy Creek and Wheeler.

Morgan’s 15-game winning streak was ended Monday in a game against unranked but defending AAAAAA champion Langston Hughes. Morgan beat No. 6 Hart County on Saturday night to clinch the No. 1 seed in Region 8.

Morgan County’s only other loss is against Wenona, the No. 1 team in Alabama’s Class 5A, but GAC is now the hotter team and the reigning champion. GAC defeated Morgan County in last year’s semifinals in route to its fifth state title in nine seasons.

The Class A private division suffered the most losses last week. In fact, only one top-10 team in the Class A private division didn’t lose. That was St. Francis, which moved up from No. 2 to regain the top position that it has held most of the season.

Previous No. 1 Mount Bethel Christian lost back-to-back games to Woodward Academy and Mount Paran Christian after beating St. Francis on Jan. 19. Mount Bethel fell to No. 4.

In the highest class, McEachern beat another nationally ranked team, Rancho Christian of California, on Monday and is now 22-0. McEachern is ranked No. 1 by Blue Star Media and No. 2 by four other national media outlets.

But to win a national title – something no Georgia boys team has done in 40 years – McEachern would have to do something that it has never done, and that’s win a state championship.

Class AAAAAAA 

McEachern  (22-0)

Meadowcreek  (18-4)

East Coweta  (23-1)

Grayson  (20-3)

Norcross  (17-7)

Pebblebrook  (15-8)

Wheeler  (15-9)

Newton  (17-5)

Discovery  (20-3)

10 Shiloh  (15-7)

Class AAAAAA 

Coffee  (20-2)

Lakeside-Evans (20-3)

Chattahoochee  (20-3)

Sprayberry  (20-3)

Douglas County  (18-5)

Tri-Cities  (18-6)

Alexander  (18-7)

South Cobb  (16-5)

Tucker  (20-4)

10 Cambridge  (16-8)

Class AAAAA 

Buford  (20-2)

Fayette County  (20-4)

Southwest DeKalb  (17-6)

Eagle's Landing  (18-3)

Woodland-Stockbridge (19-3)

Jonesboro  (16-8)

Lithonia  (15-8)

Kell  (19-5)

Paulding County  (20-3)

10 Warner Robins  (18-6)

Class AAAA 

Upson-Lee  (21-1)

Sandy Creek  (19-3)

St. Pius (20-3)

Americus-Sumter  (18-3)

Henry County  (22-2)

Carver-Columbus (18-5)

Woodward Academy  (15-8)

Baldwin  (14-8)

Druid Hills  (15-7)

10 Thomson  (16-4)

Class AAA 

Greater Atlanta Christian  (19-4)

Morgan County  (22-2)

Dawson County  (19-4)

Cedar Grove  (13-7)

Pace Academy  (16-7)

Hart County  (17-6)

Johnson-Savannah (16-6)

Windsor Forest  (19-4)

Monroe  (16-6)

10 Central-Macon (16-5)

Class AA 

Woodville-Tompkins  (23-0)

Therrell  (18-5)

South Atlanta  (18-4)

Vidalia  (20-3)

Glenn Hills  (20-3)

Butler  (16-3)

Northeast  (18-4)

Washington County  (17-5)

Elbert County  (19-3)

10 Spencer  (19-3)

Class A (private) 

St. Francis  (19-4)

Eagle's Landing Christian (15-7)

Greenforest Christian (16-5)

Mount Bethel Christian (17-6)

Holy Innocents' (13-10)

Walker  (16-6)

Riverside Military (17-4)

Wesleyan  (17-6)

Lakeview Academy  (16-7)

10 Mount Pisgah Christian  (12-10)

Class A (public) 

Calhoun County  (22-0)

Hancock Central  (17-4)

Treutlen  (21-1)

Terrell County  (20-2)

Wilkinson County  (14-9)

Irwin County  (18-2)

Wilcox County  (18-2)

Greene County  (16-5)

Pelham  (17-4)

10 Montgomery County  (13-7)