About the Top 25

Jewish Hoops America presents a weekly Top 25 poll - our voters' take on the best Jewish boys' high school basketball teams among the nearly 80 across the US and Canada that we track.

It is a fun project - but we know we don't always get it right.

If your team doesn't make the cut and you think it belongs, we want to hear about it. If you want to know why your cross-town rival is seven spots ahead of you when you split both your games last year, ask us about it.

The more input we get, the better the chances that we get it right - or as close to right as anyone can be in these kinds of things. Take note, though, that sometimes schools don't make the poll because their coaches or ADs haven't stayed in touch with us and haven't updated us on their results. To a large extent, our knowledge of most teams is only as good as our communication with the coaching staff.

Comparing teams who never play each other and have few common opponents is not a simple task. And there's nothing scientific about what we do. We rely on word of mouth, games we happen to see, the game tapes that (many, but not enough) coaches are good enough to send in and games we simply hear about.

A lot of getting it right depends on schools playing as many other Jewish schools as they can. Obviously, that's done in the Yeshiva League in New York and tournaments in Toronto, Memphis, Baltimore, Houston and elsewhere certainly help tell us who's where on the pecking order. But we encourage all coaches to schedule whatever games you can against the other Jewish high schools in your area.

The poll follows the Associated Press format for college football and basketball (just with fewer voters). Each 1st place vote is worth 25 points, 2nd place is 24 points, etc. After the Top 25, we list all the schools that received votes.

The voters are spread out around the country, all with solid hoops resumes. Some are former or current college players, others have coached high school ball and the some are just lifelong fans. We try to limit how many come from the same area and the only disqualifier is that a voter cannot currently be affiliated (coach, assistant coach or athletic director) with any school we track.

Again, fans can get involved by following the poll and weighing in as often as possible. Hope to hear from you.

About

The mission of Jewish Hoops America is to further enhance Jewish basketball in North America and Israel.

J-Hoops America began with a simple concept of creating exposure and a forum for Jewish high school basketball teams and players from around the country.

At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, J-Hoops America launched a new website (formerly JVElite.com) aimed at covering Jewish high school basketball across North America. The website features weekly rankings of the Top 25 teams nationally, daily updates of scores and records, scoring leaders, previews of big games, and coverage of Jewish tournaments.

J-Hoops America is constantly working on projects to further enhance Jewish basketball. If you have any thoughts or contacts that you feel may be of interest to J-Hoops America in achieving this goal, feel free to contact us by emailing info@jewishhoopsamerica.com