Winless Watch Team of the Year (Boys): A no-brainer?

Sorry for the lack of Winless Watch updates ... it's been on my to-do list, but it's not quite as exciting to do a horserace analysis of what ended up being two teams.

Yes, out of almost 400 basketball-playing high schools in the state of Indiana, only two teams ended up winless for the year. One was Tindley, which just completed its first season of IHSAA basketball with an 0-17 record (three game results are still unreported to John Harrell). Granted, the Tigers were outscored by an average of 83-27 in the 16 games played on the court (a 2-0 forfeit loss not counted in that result). That's 56 points a game, which makes last year's Cannelton games seem like barnburners by comparison. So, they should be hands-down the WW Team of the Year, and a favorite for WW Team of the Decade if I'm still doing this three years from now, right?

Not so fast. I'm not going to pile on Tindley. A first-year class A school who still played one of the comparatively stronger schedules in the state (164th strongest schedule out of almost 400 schools, ordained the latest Sagarin numbers), who played more 4A and 3A schools than schools in its own class ... it'd be rude of me to highlight their shortcomings more than I have already.

Which brings us to North Newton.

The Class 2A Spartans went 0-21 against the 374th toughest schedule in the state. They played 12 schools in the smaller class A and only played schools in a bigger class twice, which may not be a problem of scaredy-cat scheduling so much as it is a problem with geography. But they did lose by an average of about 28 points a game.

Against common opponents, North Newton fell by 5 points to Lafayette First Assembly, while Tindley fell by 32 and 15 to the same team. Again - hands-down to Tindley, right?

But I'll tell you how my theory of common opponents panned out for *me* this year: in the Evansville Courier-Press' High School Basketball Challenge, where you picked the outcomes of 14 games per week throughout the season, I was 730th out of about 750 contestants heading into sectional before a respectable showing in the sectional (i.e., using common sense to select teams) rocketed me up to almost 700th in the standings. So, you know, poop on my "common opponents" method of picking games.

Due to Tindley's extenauting circumstances and brave scheduling, I'm going to let them slide - besides, if they're not even eligible for postseason play yet, then they shouldn't be eligible for WW ignominy, either. This makes (by default) the North Newton Spartans your 2006-07 Winless Watch Boys Team of the Year!