Pupule: Top 10 shuffles except Kona

Pupule thoughts on today’s Star-Advertiser Girls Basketball Top 10. Here’s the poll (coaches and media) followed by my lonely little ballot.

THE TOP 10
Voted on by coaches and media from around the state. First-place votes in parentheses. Ten points for first-place votes, nine for second, etc.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Team PTS. PVS.
1. Konawaena (9) 99 1
2. Roosevelt (1) 87 2
3. Lahainaluna 79 3
4. Maryknoll 68 4
5. Punahou 46 5
6. Hilo 43 6
7. Kamehameha 39 8
8. Mililani 37 7
9. Kailua 23 10
10. ‘Iolani 21 9
Also receiving votes: Kaiser 4, Leilehua 2, Nanakuli 1, Hawaii Baptist 1.

Pupule ballot
BKG 1/19/15
1. KON (22-1, 6-0 BIIF, No. 21 nationally by MaxPreps)
2. LAH (15-2, 12-0 MIL)
3. MS (15-1, 8-0 ILH)
4. ROS (13-2, 9-0 OIA)
5. KS (6-4, 4-4 ILH)
6. PUN (7-4, 6-2 ILH)
7. HIL (8-3, 6-1 BIIF)
8. IOL (8-6, 4-4 ILH)
9. MIL (8-1, 8-0 OIA)
10. KAIL (11-3, 8-1 OIA)

Close, but…
HBA (19-3, 10-0 ILH D-II). Lost to Kaiser and Radford.
Kaiser (16-5, 8-1 OIA). Lost to Hilo and Kailua.
Leilehua (8-7, 6-2 OIA). Lost to Radford.
Farrington. (7-3, 7-2 OIA). Nice win over Kahuku last week, but lost to Leilehua and Kaiser.
Nanakuli (6-2 OIA). Lost to Leilehua and Mililani.
Radford (7-3, 6-2 OIA). Lost to Nanakuli (at home).

On the whole, the strength of Lahainaluna’s preseason play is a plus in its favor. Same with Maryknoll, which has only one loss — to uber-powerful Bishop Gorman (Nev.). Roosevelt is a state semifinal team at this point. Like Maryknoll, its only losses were to mainland teams (St. Mary’s and Miramonte). Unlike Konawaena, Roosevelt’s L’s during the ‘Iolani Classic were lopsided.

That makes a Maryknoll-Roosevelt battle very intriguing, if it happens.

As of last week, we still had two voters casting their top spots for Punahou. I could interpret that to some extent with a bit of logic. Not much though. As good as Punahou can be at times, there’s work to be done. A 42-31 loss to Kamehameha some days ago showed that. It’s a rough ILH, as usual, which means growing pains, tough competition most nights, and potentially a springboard into states. Iron sharpens iron.

Kamehameha’s win over the Puns (which the school refers to itself as from time to time) is why I pushed the Warriors to No. 5. The Warriors are fairly young, but Coach Joseph Cho is putting a lot of trust in their talent. A 45-31 loss to Maryknoll made it a clarifying week. Between Punahou (lost at Maryknoll 47-46), Kamehameha (4-4, but just beat Punahou) and ‘Iolani (4-4), there’s scarcely time to breathe in the ILH.

Hilo is solid, but a 36-point loss to Konawaena verified the status of the BIIF Division I race. The Lady Vikings also played Ka‘u last week and won by 38. It’s been a lot of years since the days of Coach Augie Cabudol, who coached his daughters on the Ka‘u Action team back in the 1990s. I wonder if the new gym has been completed.

The 10 spot on my ballot was a dilemma. Initially, I liked Kailua there, but the Surfriders lost to Farrington recently. Farrington? The Lady Govs have a blazing-fast transition offense, but have losses to Leilehua and Kaiser. Leilehua has a loss to Radford, which I saw lose at home to Nanakuli over the weekend. Nanakuli has losses to Leilehua AND Mililani. I can live with the Mililani loss; the Lady Trojans gave Konawaena a fairly competitive game on the Big Island a few weeks ago. Kaiser? Getting better and better, but the early losses to ‘Iolani and Hilo showed where they were at the start of preseason. Then came a recent loss to Kailua.

So there, Kailua is the best of the rest. In a 3-on-3 game, there aren’t a lot of teams that would be better.