Optional AAU Rant Rankings #5

 With no basketball again this weekend, and one kid at a sleepover Saturday night, and both at a pool party, Sunday, it was a relaxing weekend.   Sure, I only got about an hour on the painting bench, but I decided to brave the heat wave to open the pool for the kids.  Most of the weekend was spent enjoying the new air conditioner for my office, and churning out THREE Star Wars d6 Actual Plays.  

It also allowed to do data entry on my two AAU Girls age groups I follow with tournaments in six states affecting the Power Index I maintain.  

A lot of inactivity actually allowed some teams index number to rise (some teams finally have a shot to win two or more games in a weekend, hence their winning percentage goes up, influencing the index numbers.)  Worse yet, some teams won their respective tournaments, but against a poor schedule, the index penalized them with a 20-30 point drop.

You'll also note the undefeated #15 team from last week dropped out of the standing altogether.  Another tournament championship for them this weekend, but their level of competition is repetitive and inferior.   Treat this as a mid-major college team, or a team that's only played DIII schools as a warm-up.  Some of these teams never leave their local comfort zone.  

They're also all in 5th grade. 

Many in the 7th grade Division partook in a giant three-day tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey this weekend.  Fifty (50) teams participated, of which at 45 would be considered "quality" competition that teams would want to travel 3+ hours to play against.   All those teams did beat up each other, so the indices will all go down... unless you win out.

The nine game minimum moves up to ten for next week.  I'm assuming most programs should have five tournaments for a season (March-June), so is 15 the baseline for the end of the season?