Wyoming High School Boys Basketball Rankings: Jan. 21, 2015

With teams starting to settle into conference business, the intensity of games will pick up, regardless if a team is ranked in the coaches/media polls or not.

There's not much on the schedule for 4A, in terms of ranked team vs. ranked team goes, but since it's the start of conference play, an unranked team can give a ranked team a huge wake up call. Cheyenne East is still on top, followed by Kelly Walsh. Evanston jumps back ahead of Gillette for the #3 ranking, thus bumping the Camels to #4, while Sheridan is back at #5 after beating previous #5 Natrona last week. Some may ask why is Gillette ranked with a losing record. The answer most likely is that of their 6 losses, 5 of them are against non-Wyoming opponents. Laramie has given the Camels problems in past years, especially at the start of the conference schedule.

Musical chairs continue in 3A. The same teams are ranked from last week, just in a different order. Douglas is now on top, because they have recent victories against #2 Rawlins and #3 Wheatland. Cody won the state championship rematch vs. Glenrock, and move up to #4, thus the Herders fall to #5. Wheatland is the team with the tough schedule this week, as they host the #5 Herders on Friday, then travel to the #2 Outlaws on Saturday, for big conference games.

Things are not as quiet as they appear in the 2A rankings, because there's 1 unranked team that's waiting to pounce. That team is Big Piney who missed out on the rankings, despite beating now #5 Lyman last week. The Punchers have huge back-to-back home conference games this weekend, with #3 Wind River and #1 Wyoming Indian. BP is not afraid, because they won these games on their home court last year. Elsewhere Pine Bluffs has moved to #2, while Rocky Mountain holds steady at #4. Both teams have some tough unranked opponents, going up against Lusk and Greybull respectively this weekend.

There's 1 new team ranked in 1A. That would be Kaycee ranked at #5, by 1 vote ahead of Cokeville, and there's a chance to move up, because they have a big northeast conference home game vs. #2 Upton this Friday. Burlington remains on top of the rankings, while Little Snake River moves ahead of Lingle-Ft. Laramie for #3.

Disclaimer: The polls have no official say or use on post-season positioning, and are only to be used as a measuring stick on the regular season. Please don’t read too much into the rankings.