An introduction to SoCal’s Top 30 boys’ hoops teams

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Unlike many of his counterparts, Harvard-Westlake boys’ basketball coach David Rebibo didn’t send his team into “fall league” competition until a few weeks ago.

But when the 2023-24 Wolverines did take the court, notably at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas (the Oct. 13-15 Border League); at St. Francis  in La Canada (the Oct. 20 Beat Cancer Challenge) and, this past Saturday, at Heritage Christian in Northridge (the Core Prep Fall Classic), they made this abundantly clear with the “real” season set to start on Nov. 13:

Until someone from within the state knocks them off, they should be locked into the top spot of any Southern California or state ratings.

The core members of Rebibo’s squad — seniors Trent Perry, Robert Hinton and Christian Horry, and junior Nikolas Khamenia — are skilled, sound and mature enough to be able to be dropped into the rotation of a lot of high-caliber college programs right now.

Two other key elements during the team’s 33-2, state open division championship run of last season, center Jacob Huggins and forward Brady Dunlap, are expected to get significant playing time as freshmen at Princeton and St. John’s, respectively.

But the steady and significant improvement of the foursome, as well as that of a sophomore class that includes posts Dominique Bento and Barron Linnekens, and guard Amir Jones — from spring to summer and thru what remains of the fall — offers a strong suggestion that this team has a chance to reach the same level of efficiency by March that last season’s squad played at.

Hinton (committed to Harvard), Khamenia and Perry (committed to USC) — pictured, left to right, in social media picture from Pangos All-American Camp last June — should be securely on any Top 10 list of the best players in California regardless of class.

  Hinton could have the most immediate impact of any freshman in the Ivy League a year from now.

The 6-foot-8 Khamenia, along with Brayden Burries (of No. 5-ranked Roosevelt), figures to offer the stiffest challenge to Elzie Harrington of St. John Bosco (last season’s BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal sophomore of the year) for “top junior” honors in the coming season.

And Perry, last season’s BurlisonOnBasketball Junior of the Year, goes into this season as the “Senior of the Year” favorite even with the Corona Centennial duo of Arizona-bound Carter Bryant (a transfer from Sage Hill) and UCLA-bound Eric Freeny (the Huskies’ only returnee who played significant minutes last season) and cousins Mercy Miller (Notre Dame) and Vyctorius Miller (back at Crean Lutheran after a year at Compass Prep in Arizona) chasing him.

St. John Bosco, with five of the top seven players that helped the Braves win the Trinity League championship, outright, and split a couple of playoff games with Harvard-Westlake, is clearly the top threat to prevent the Wolverines from winning the CIF Southern Section Open title and earning another trip to Sacramento for the state title game.

Coach Matt Dunn’s squad (which upset the Wolverines on the road in the sectional playoffs and lost to Centennial, at the buzzer, in the sectional Open finale in the Honda Center) has its own dynamic “foursome” by way of senior Jack Turner; juniors Harrington and Kade Bonam and sophomore Brandon McCoy.

McCoy may be the best sophomore in Southern California — and beyond.

And that’s no throwaway compliment with a regional class of 2026 that could be as deep and gifted as any in the country, notably by way of McCoy, Jason Crowe Jr. of Lynwood (the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Frosh of the Year, as well as the MaxPreps National honoree for the class, last season), Brannon Martinson (Mater Dei), Tajh Ariza (St. Bernard), Alijah Arenas (Chatsworth), Max Adams (Serra), Zachary White (Notre Dame), Kaiden Bailey (Crean Lutheran) and S.J. Madison (Redondo).

Of the eight-team field in the CIF Southern Section Open Division last February (the Wolverines and SJB were joined by current No. 4 Centennial, No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 10 Sierra Canyon, No. 15 St. Bernard, No. 16 West Ranch and Bishop Montgomery), only the last program within the parenthesis seems a longshot, at best, to return to the Open playoffs in 2024.

Coach Doug Mitchell’s Knights lost their starting lineup and return just one key sub in 6-2 junior Denis Woods.

Mater Dei — with its best player, Martinson, sidelined much of past two months with a sore Achilles — struggled against quality opponents in the fall.

But, among the many things that can be said about the Monarchs since Gary McKnight took over the program 42 years ago, foremost is that the team that he puts on the floor in the summer and fall is going to play a lot better come early spring.

And with four starters and two key reserves from their Southern Section D-1 championship games along with transfer Brandon Benjamin (the Orange County Player of the Year as a Canyon sophomore), you won’t be going out on a long limp projecting the Monarchs to return to the Open playoffs in February.

Along with Carter Bryant, Vyctorius Miller, Brayden Burries (who was at Riverside Poly as a freshman and ineligible as a sophomore at Roosevelt) and Benjamin, other key Southland “newcomers” include junior guards Issac Williamson (Riverside Poly) and Myles Walker (JW North) at Roosevelt; senior guard David Mack (twice all-L.A. City at Fairfax) at St. Pius X/St. Matthias; sophomore guard Rodney Westmoreland III (Dougherty in NorCal) at Santa Margarita; forward Bishop Brooks (Taft) and center Tracy Bryden (Faith Baptist) at West Ranch; and freshmen Josiah Nance (Heritage Christian), Gene Roebuck (La Mirada), Chris Sanders (Redondo), Carter and Isaiah Barnes (Crespi), Zaire Rasshan (Damien) and Sloane Harris (Etiwanda).

I’ll look at the early season games and “events” to watch next week.

But, for now . . .

 

The SoCal Top 30 boys’ basketball team ratings for 2023-24 season

School                                     ’22-23              League/CIF Division

1. Harvard-Westlake             33-2              Mission/CIF SS D-1
2. St. John Bosco                     26-7                 Trinity/SS D-1
3. Mater Dei                             29-7                 Trinity/SS D-1
4. Corona Centennial         30-4                      Big VIII/SS D-1
5. Eastvale Roosevelt        23-7                         Big VIII/SS D-1
6. Damien                           26-5                        Baseline/SS D-1
7. Windward                         23-8                 Gold Coast/SS D-1
8. Campbell Hall               14-13              Gold Coast/SS D-2AA
9. S.O. Notre Dame.        27-10               Mission/SS D-1
10. Sierra Canyon              23-11               Mission/SS D-1
11. Crean Lutheran         22-8                 Empire/SS D-1
12. Heritage Christian     20-12               Olympic/SS D-2AA
13. Pius X/St. Matthias   30-5                 Del Rey/SS D-1
14. Santa Margarita           21-9                 Trinity/SS D-1
15. St. Bernard                  22-9                 Del Rey/SS D-1
16. West Ranch              29-3                     Foothill/SS D-1
17. Redondo Union         20-10               Bay/SS D-1
18. SJC JSerra                 22-9                 Trinity/SS D-1
19. La Mirada                25-10               Gateway/SS D-1
20. Etiwanda                 26-6                 Baseline/SS D-1
21. Mira Costa              28-4                 Bay/SS D-1
22. Los Alamitos        23-7                 Surf/SS D-1
23. Rancho Christian 24-11               Ivy/SS D-1
24. Crespi                    18-12               Mission/SS D-2AA
25. Rancho Cucamonga 26-6             Baseline/SS D-1
26. Riverside Poly        17-11               Ivy/SS D-1
27. Newport Pacifica Christian 27-10   San Joaquin/SS D-1
28. Foothill                  24-6                 Crestview/SS D-1
29. Anaheim Canyon 25-7                 Crestview/SS D-1
30. Long Beach Poly 13-16               Moore/SS D-2A

NEXT 10/Honorable Mention (alpha listing)

Bosco Tech 27-7; Bishop Montgomery 28-5; Brentwood School 24-6; Crossroads 22-9; Fairmont Prep 19-9; Lynwood 27-11; Rancho Verde 19-12; Rolling Hills Prep 23-6; St. Anthony 14-14; and St. Bonaventure 26-10.