"Luv2ball", your analogy numbers 2 and 3 seem to be correct and number 1 is correct in a sort of way and not correct in another. There always seems to be a York region player on this list that can be considered questionable. Nicole Cecchini ( St Theresa Liseaux) made this fab five a few years back and that ruffled a lot of feathers. Imgrund has gone in here and said he always casts a vote for a kid from his region. This tells me that he is not putting the best players down but rather making sure his region is represented. Not a good reason.
Two Toronto kids ( Nofuentes and Stephens) made the fab five but once again the selection committee got it wrong. One played 34 games and the other 8.That is plain and simple, a joke. It is a slap in the face of the deserving players who are already on the list(Panchan and Nofuentes) and the deserving players who didn't make the list (Jamie Liang).
Again I must ask one of the voters to come on here and give their criteria for voting like this. Academics should always play a role in the sense that if the student is academically eligible, then she belongs on the list. If she isn't, then she shouldn't be playing ball for her school in the first place until she cleans up her marks.
I do not believe that a graduating player should get a vote over a younger player if the younger player is having a better season. Shotbolt( Grade 11) and Sigurdsun( Grade 10) are definitely in the top ten and are certainly more deserving then 3 of the picks. I've heard arguments that 5th year players should not be considered because they have an extra year under their belts but to me they are still high schoolers and they deserve the opportunity to be voted in.
In my opinion, the criteria to be put on the fab five should be:
1) The student/athlete is in good academic standing. A student with a 90 % average should not hold an advantage over a student who has a 70. This is a basketball all star team not an academic all star team. As I said before, if a student is not in good standing academically, then she should not be playing in the first place. Education is first and that responsibility falls on the student, the school and the coach.
2) The obvious performance based reasons. Scoring, rebounding, assists etc always has and always will play a part in choosing these teams. Certainly if a kid has scored 57, 52 and 52 points in three separate games it is no fluke and a no brainer lock in choice. Oh yeah, not in the Toronto Star Fab five.
3) Transfer- If a kid transfers for basketball reasons, this should exempt them from being chosen. I read that Nunes still travels from home and back and it takes up 4 hours a day. She had to sit out last year due to the transfer rule and that in itself should rule her out. Kids who transfer for the right reasons do not have to sit out a year and in that case, I would not believe it to hurt their chances of making the fab five.
4) Level of competition- If a player is playing in Tier 2, that should exempt them from being chosen. If a player plays in a very weak league such as Toronto South and racks up the points, that should not help her credentials. There are plenty of tournaments that a player can go to and play against quality competition. Other than Eastern Commerce, Maddie played against very inferior competition. The best game description on all players except Lindsey Panchan was downright embarrassing. For all her accomplishments this season, the Star decides to list Cassandras best game in a 80-14 victory over Jefferies. She scored less points (Barely) against top level competition so why not mention that.
5) Minimum number of games played- There is no reason that a player should make the fab five with 8 total games under her belt. It is harder to continue to be consistent when a student plays over 30 games such as Panchan and Nofuentes. This means that these girls have to play one or two league games during the week and then play extremely difficult schools in weekend tournaments, which in most cases is another 3 games. That shows a students toughness to continue to play at a high level as the body is aching. It shows the mental toughness needed to play through the pain. I say that 15 games would be the minimum required to be eligible.
6) Get a group of people to vote who have a clue about the high school basketball game. Many of them are on here and many would cast fair and deserving votes based on the criteria listed above. You have between 20-30 voters who list a top 10 on their ballots in order. Points are distributed in the order. For instance, my top 10 would be
1) Cassandra Nofuentes- 10 points
2) Lindsey Panchan- 9 points
3) Jamie Liang- 8 points
4) Chloe Levy- 7 points
5) Vaniel Simpson- 6 points
6) Dakota Whyte- 5 points
7) Lindsey Shotbolt- 4 points
Mackenzie Sigurdsun- 3 points
9) Jasmine Harris- 2 points
10) Loysha Morris- 1 point
The winner would be Miss Basketball Toronto and the next four are the fab five. Trust me when I say the correct players will be voted in. Just my idea.
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