Ocoee now No. 1 in region as Seminole slips to 2nd
Orlando Christian Prep has the area’s top power rating
Ocoee has replaced Seminole as the No. 1-seeded team in Class 7A, Region 1 boys basketball heading into next week’s district tournaments.
Seminole’s varsity is 21-1 on the court and riding a nine-game winning streak. But the Seminoles slipped to No. 2 in the region ratings posted Tuesday by the Florida High School Athletic Association because they must count losses incurred by their makeshift second team that played in the school’s December holiday-break tournament as a fill-in.
The Seminoles added that squad, made up mostly of junior-varsity players, as the eighth team in the tournament after another school dropped out. The “B” team went 0-3.
The FHSAA ruled that because the games were played against varsity competition they must count on Seminole’s varsity record, dropping the ’Noles to 21-4 officially and lower in the power ratings that will be used to seed next week’s district tournament and region play.
Seminole, striving to reach the boys basketball state tournament for the first time since 1980, is still the top seed for the District 2 tournament at Port Orange Spruce Creek. But the ’Noles’ adjusted rating means a potential region final matching Seminole against Ocoee could be hosted by the Knights as the higher-rated team.
Ocoee, champion of the Metro Conference West Division, was 18-6 with 10 consecutive wins going into a Tuesday night home game versus Wekiva. The Knights are No. 2 in the 7A statewide power ratings behind West Palm Beach Forest Hill (23-2) and will be the top seed for next week’s loaded District 3 tournament at Apopka.
Seminole coach Sylvester Wynn said Tuesday his team, which had been No. 1 in the 7A rankings since early in the season, will not be shaken by having to surrender the top-seed position this week.
“I had a good talk with the guys,” Wynn said. “Whoever we play, wherever we play … that’s all we’re going to focus on is each game. We just need to be prepared. If you lose, you go home, so that’s what it’s all about.”
It is possible that Seminole could move back to the top slot in Region 1. The ratings that will determine seeding for all eightteam region tournaments, which open Feb. 20, will be updated after next week to include this week’s final regular-season games and district tournament results.
The district tournament champions in each region will be seeded one through four. The remaining four regional berths, for seeds five through eight, will go to at-large qualifiers determined by the FHSAA power ratings.
If Ocoee is not a district champion, it should qualify for region play as a wild card, but the Knights could be seeded no higher than No. 5 in that scenario.
District 3 has six of the eight highestrated teams in Region 1 — Ocoee, Apopka (three), Dr. Phillips (four), West Orange (five), Evans (six) and Olympia (eight). That league is in position to sweep all four of the available at-large spots and put five teams into regional play.
No. 7 in the 7A, Region 1 ratings is Oviedo, the top seed for the District 4 tournament at Winter Park.
Other area schools that are top-seeded in their district are Oak Ridge and Kissimmee Osceola in 7A; Jones in 5A; Lake Highland Prep in 4A; Windermere Prep in 3A; and Orlando Christian Prep, Central Florida Christian Academy and Lake Mary Prep in 2A.
OCP (20-2) is the highest-rated 2A team in the state and leads all area schools with a 20.484 power rating. Ocoee is next on that list at 18.255, followed by Seminole (17.695) and Windermere Prep (17.079).
District pairings are set to be finalized Wednesday.
The region pairings are scheduled to be unveiled by the FHSAA on Feb. 16.