Boys basketball rankings: Norcross, Tri-Cities, Centennial, South Atlanta trending at tourney time

All eight No. 1 teams in the boys basketball rankings held their positions this week on the eve of region tournaments, but some minor shuffling behind them might offer a glimpse of trending teams entering tournament time.

Still No. 1 are McEachern (Class AAAAAAA), Coffee (AAAAAA), Buford (AAAAA), Upson-Lee (AAAA), Greater Atlanta Christian (AAA), Woodville-Thompkins (AA), St. Francis (A private) and Calhoun County (A public).

McEachern, Woodville-Thompkins and Calhoun County are undefeated, each at 25-0. Coffee (22-3) remained No. 1 despite a loss to Tift County, a higher-classification team.

Some fast-rising teams to watch this week in tournament play might be Norcross, Cambridge, Tri-Cities and South Atlanta.

Norcross, ranked No. 5 in AAAAAAA, is only 18-7 but has won eight straight games and defeated previous No. 2 Meadowcreek 66-57 on Friday night to avenge its only Region7 loss. The two teams met in the 2018 state final, which Meadowcreek won. They’re likely to meet again this week in the region-tournament final at Meadowcreek. The cross-town rivals finished the regular season with 11-1 region marks.

In AAAAAA, Cambridge and Tri-Cities each beat higher-ranked teams in their regions to finish as No. 1 seeds for their region tournaments.

Cambridge (17-8, 13-3) defeated previous-No. 3 Chattahoochee 78-72 on Monday to snag Region 7’s No. 1 seed and move up four spots to No. 6 in the rankings. Cambridge, which opened in 2012, has been in the past two state tournaments but never advanced.

Third-ranked Tri-Cities (19-6, 14-2) beat previous Nol. 4 Douglas County 81-78 on Tuesday to finish first in Region 5, a tough league that also includes No. 4 Alexander and No. 10 Langston Hughes, the defending state champion. Tri-Cities has been a state quarterfinal team the past two seasons but never gone further.

In AA, No. 3 South Atlanta beat No. 2 Therrell 59-49 on Friday night to force a tie for first in Region 6, each with a 13-1 region record. The two swapped places in the rankings with South Atlanta now at No. 2. Both were in the state quarterfinals last year, and South Atlanta won a state title in 2017.

The team that suffered the most last week was Monroe of Albany. The Tornadoes’ 16 victories are expected to be wiped off the board by the GHSA after Monroe reported an academically ineligible player.

Because Region 1-AAA does not have a region tournament as do most GHSA regions, there is no opportunity for Monroe to atone for those losses. Previously No. 9, Monroe is out of the rankings, its season over.

Class AAAAAAA

1 McEachern (25-0)

2 East Coweta (24-1)

3 Meadowcreek (19-5)

4 Grayson (22-3)

5 Norcross (18-7)

6 Pebblebrook (17-8)

7 Shiloh (16-7)

8 Wheeler (15-10)

9 Newton (18-6)

10 Discovery (20-5)

Class AAAAAA