by Alex Schwartz

About a week and a half ago, the high school basketball season came to an end in the United States for just about every major team out there. The last few big-time games were the seven played as a part of the inaugural ESPN National High School Invitational, an eight-team postseason tournament that was set up in hopes or declaring a true national champion. Although most states do not let their state champs play past the state championship level, prep schools were allowed to participate, and ESPN found eight of the nation's finest for its field and seeded them for the single-elimination tournament: #1 Oak Hill Academy (VA), #2 Findlay Prep (NV), #3 Montrose Christian (MD), #4 St. Benedict's (NJ), #5 St. Frances (MD), #6 Friends Central (PA), #7 Mountain State Academy (WV), and #8 Pinewood Prep (SC). Of the teams, three (Oak Hill, Findlay, and Pinewood) had a McDonald's All-American, while another (Montrose) had a Jordan Classic All-American. Two other teams (St. Ben's and Mountain State) had possible future McD's AA selections. Oak Hill and Findlay both entered undefeated, while Montrose Christian and St. Benedict's came in with two losses apiece (both of Montrose's were to Oak Hill). Clearly this was a star-studded field, with the teams playing for much more than bragging rights.

After the top seeds all advanced through the first round, four of the top 10 teams in the nation remained. Oak Hill Academy and Findlay Prep both took care of business, setting up the dream matchup. The Warriors of OHA and the Pilots of Findlay entered the tournament as the consensus top two teams in the nation is basically every major poll, yet there was still some controversy over who the number one ranking should belong to. Well, a game between the consensus top two teams in the nation would certainly decide that, as the winner would be able to basically claim that they were the true national champion—or would they?—not the "mythical national champion," as the #1 ranked team is usually called. So, when Head Coach Michael Peck's #2 seeded Findlay Prep Pilots defeated Head Coach Steve Smith's #1 seeded Oak Hill Academy Warriors by a score of 74-66, the boys from the Silver State school were obviously ecstatic. Led by Texas-signee Avery Bradley '09, UNLV-bound Carlos Lopez '09, Illinois recruit DJ Richardson '09, Cory Joseph '10, and Texas-pledge Tristan Thompson '10 amongst others, the team, which is in just its third year (the previous season, in its second year, the team finished with one loss, which came in the Prep National Championships title game) became, in the minds of many, the true national champion.

It is tough to label the Pilots the undisputed national champion, despite being the unanimous #1 ranked team in America. The reason is that there were six other teams in the Rivals High 100 who were also undefeated: #8 Hopkins (MN) at 31-0, #9 Bloomington South (IN) at 26-0, #17 Lake Clifton (MD) at 28-0, #21 Fayetteville (AR) at 30-0, #45 Ames Senior (IA) at 26-0, and #87 Greenway (AZ) at 30-0. The final of those, Greenway, was not even ranked amongst the top 20 teams in its own region by ESPN Rise and its state is not really a basketball hotbed, so it's tough to say that the team could be the national champion, which is shown by the fact that it' snot even ranked in the Rival High top 60 and that there were multiple teams with 7+ losses ahead of it. Ames Senior is another school that plays in a weak state and that also shows, as the Little Cyclones, led by top ten junior Harrison Barnes, are not in the top 40 from either ESPN Rise or Rivals High. They too would be tough to label as a national champion. That leaves Hopkins, Bloomington South, Lake Clifton, and Fayetteville as other contenders. Although Findlay would probably beat all these teams—especially Lake Clifton and Fayetteville, which aren't really at the same level as the others—unless these teams had an opportunity to play in the NHSI or some other tournament, it's hard to label Findlay Prep the true national champion, so the Pilots will have to settle for the same old label as mythical national champions.

Note- photo is of the official ESPN National High School Invitational logo, and is from http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/index, which is where all tournament information is from as well