We’re going to hold off on publishing the weekly Union-Tribune basketball poll, because games Monday night would dramatically alter the Top 10, the deadline of which for voters is 10 a.m. on Monday.

The poll’s timeliness often is in question at this time of year, because clubs are involved in the annual series of one-night stands and specially promoted events on various dates before league play permanently locks in.

Torrey Pines hosted a Martin Luther King doubleheader  and the No. 3-ranked Falcons defeated La Costa Canyon, tied for No. 1 with Foothills Christian, 68-42.  Francis Parker, No. 10, topped St. Augustine, No. 7, 65-55, on the undercard.

Most impressive, at first glance, was Morse’s 96-88, double-overtime victory over Riverside John North in the MLK Classic at La Salle High in Pasadena.

Justin Davis had 42 points and 13 rebounds and 6-foot, 11-inch sophomore Brandon Davis added 27 points for the 16-5 Tigers, who dealt the North Huskies their first loss in a 16-1 season.

Two of North’s starters did not play, according to Cal-Hi Sports.

FOOTHILLS UP AND DOWN

Enigmatic Foothills Christian, ranked 17th in the state, continued to roll with 6-foot, 11-inch T.J. Leaf, in and out of the lineup since an ankle injury in the Under Armour event at Torrey Pines in December.

The Knights were stunned, 48-41, by unranked The Bishop’s but defeated La Jolla Country Day, 76-52, in Coastal League contests which Leaf sat out.

Foothills took a 45-36 lead over state No. 6 Redondo Beach Redondo Union but were outscored, 22-12, in the final  quarter and beaten, 58-57,  by the 14-4 Seahawks in a MLK event at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Leaf, who has missed seven games, scored 21 points and had 16 rebounds against Redondo.

NEAR THE PARK 

Balboa City is a prep school located on the former Hawthorne Elementary campus at Second Avenue and Hawthorne Street.

The team plays  other prep squads and high school opponents and is coached by school principal Zack Jones, the formerly successful mentor at Horizon.

Jones is assisted by Ollie Goulston, who built a powerful program and won more than  250 games at Hoover before being pushed out by a principal who soon moved to La Jolla High.

(The principal has since incurred the disfavor of a group of  Vikings football alums who say they are at odds with the administrator on where a plaque could be placed honoring the late Vikings coach and beloved figure Walt Harvey).

Balboa City has a 7-6 record and dropped its most recent game, 65-40, to Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, in the Flyin’ To The Hoop Tournament in Kettering, Ohio.  St. Vincent-St. Mary is the alma mater of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Lebron James.

The order of  the Union-Tribune Top 10 was unchanged after the fourth vote of the season, but there will be changes next week.

No. 1 Foothills Christian was beaten, 48-42, by The Bishop’s at Cuyamaca College last night in what is evolving into a tough Coastal Division race.

Foothills’ 6-foot, 11-inch T.J. Leaf did not play as the Patriots fell to 10-7, while The Bishop’s improved to 10-4.

UT-San Diego poll #4:

*Awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. NR–Not ranked.

Others receiving votes: Kearny, (11-6) and Grossmont (11-2), 8 each; Escondido (7-5), 5; Vista,  (13-4), 3; Steele Canyon (12-4), 1.

Eleven San Diego County sportswriters and broadcasters, and a CIF San Diego Section representative vote each week. The panel includes John Maffei and Kirk Kenney (UT-San Diego), Terry Monahan (UT-San Diego correspondent), Bill Dickens (eastcountysports.com), Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), John Labeta (CIF San Diego Section), Bodie DeSilva (sandiegopreps.com), Aaron Burgin (fulltimeshoops.com), Rick Willis (KUSI Chl. 51), Rick Smith (partletonsports.com), Drew Willis (sdcoastalsports.com).

John Kovac, the first head  football coach at Mesa College and coach of Coronado’s 1955-56 Southern California basketball championship team, passed away at age 89.

Services for Kovac, who moved from San Diego to Palm Springs in October, will be Jan. 20 at St. Brigit’s Parish, Pacific Beach, on Jan. 20 at 11 a.m.

Kovac opened the Mesa program in 1964 and posted a 30-14-2 record until he stepped down to become the college’s athletic director after the 1968 season.

The 1966 Olympians squad posted a 9-1 record and scored a 12-0 victory over San Bernardino Valley in the Elks Bowl game in the Northern city.

Kovac succeeded George Schutte as head coach at San Diego Junior College and his teams were 11-15-1 from 1961-63.

Kovac was a graduate of Penn State University and was the freshman coach at Penn State for future NFL Hall of Famer Lennie Moore and future Pro Bowl defensive lineman Roosevelt Grier.

Kovac’s first coaching position was as  basketball coach at Coronado High.  From 1953-56 his teams posted a record of 63 wins and 15 losses, going 15-8, 21-4, and 27-1, respectively.

The Islanders were the first County team to score at least 100 points in a game when they routed Rancho del Campo, 103-34, in 1953.

Coronado reached the Southern California small schools finals in 1954-55 but was beaten, by Azusa Citrus, 63-58, in front of more than 2,000 persons at Point Loma High.

Kovac’s small, quick Islanders won a championship rematch, 60-54, before another turnaway crowd of 2,300 at Azusa in the 1955-56 season.

Coronado, whose tallest player was 6-foot, 1-inch Roger Nix,  held Citrus star Billy Kilmer to 19 points, several points below his school-record average, and outplayed the Cougars’ starting five, which averaged 6-foot-3.

The Islanders’ only defeat that season was an early December decision, 49-45, to Hoover, which posted a 25-5 record and was the third-place finisher in the Southern California large-school playoffs.

CHULA VISTA STAR

Bob Lusky, who played on Chula Vista’s 1953 and ’54 Southern California small schools champions that had a combined, 23-1 record.

Lusky was all-Metropolitan League in football and baseball for the Spartans and pitched for San Diego State’s 1958 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship squad.

Lusky taught and coached many years in the South Bay and at Palomar College in San Marcos.

SET CARLSBAD SCORING RECORD

Bob Wueste held the Carlsbad High single-game scoring record of 40 points for several years and was a standout on coach Dimitri Poradowski’s 1961-62 squad that posted a 15-4 record and tied for first in the Palomar League.

An error in compilation of our list of coaches with at least 100 career victories omitted a 40th member of that club.

Monte Vista’s Ed Carberry posted a 100-59-3 record in 14 seasons, with a .626 winning percentage.

Carberry became the Monarchs’ coach in 1989 and was 72-51-2 through 1999.  Page Culver coached the Spring Valley team in 2000. Carberry returned in 2001 and closed with a 28-8-1 mark through 2003 and then moved on to Southwestern College.

Carberry’s teams won seven league championships and two San Diego Section titles in three appearances.  He is the fifth coach from the East County to win 100 games.

Helix’ Jim Arnaiz was 213-77-11 (.726) from 1973-99,  Steve Sutton, 131-91-1 (.587) from 1989-2010 at West Hills and Valhalla, Matt Oliver, 128-56-3 (.693) from 1999-02 and 2004-14 at Christian, and Ladimir (Jack) Mashin, 125-66-19 (.640) from 1923-47 at Grossmont.

Oliver is the only coach from the East County group still active.

Rory Trup, the San Diego Section 880-yard run champion in 1970 at Mission Bay, passed away.

Trup, 62, of Encinitas ran 1:55.3 to win the Section title at Balboa Stadium and was timed in 1:55.1 in the State trials at Edwards Stadium on the University of California campus in Berkeley.

Trup finished third in the 1971 San Diego Section finals but ran his all-time best, 1:54.4.

Trup ranked 15h all-time among County half-milers at conclusion of his high school career.

Foothills Christian is No. 1 in the UT-San Diego poll, but the Knights  got there wondering what if.

Foothills is 8-6 and has a “woulda-coulda” lament.

The Knights forfeited two early, blowout victories because of the ubiquitous and Dreaded Administrative Glitch involving player eligibility and they’ve dropped two of their last three following the loss of their star.

Coach Troy Leaf’s team has not been the same since Leaf’s 6-foot, 10-inch son, T.J., went down with a sprained ankle with two minutes remaining in the first round of the Under-Armour tournament at Torrey Pines.

Leaf had scored 22 points with 13 rebounds, and seven assists in the 67-49 victory over Los Angeles Westchester, then was unavailable as the Knights were mauled by Corona Centennial, 73-51, and Brooklyn Thomas Jefferson, 77-47.

With Leaf still out, Foothills then scored an unexpected, 49-47 win over La Costa Canyon.

But the  10-4 and second-ranked Mavericks had some injury problems of their own.  They played  without 6-8 Travis Fuller, who is averaging 17 points.

Foothills Christian’s other losses were 84-75 to state ninth-ranked Chino Hills and 66-59 to state third-ranked Long Beach Poly.

The El Cajon school will take another shot at a California powerhouse when it meets No. 5 Redondo Beach Redondo Union Jan. 17 at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

The Knights open Coastal League play this evening at home against 9-5 Santa Fe Christian. Leaf, averaging 28 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists, will be welcomed back.

La Costa Canyon has a nonleague game Wednesday night versus Escondido, 7-5.

Late December tournaments and intersectional games shook up the Top 10.  Five teams changed positions since the last vote.

UT-San Diego poll #3:

*Awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. NR–Not ranked.

Others receiving votes: Kearny, 9 (9-5); Grossmont  (11-2), Escondido (7-5), Cathedral (7-5), 3 each; Vista, 2 (11-4); Mission Hills, 1 (8-4).

Eleven San Diego County sportswriters and broadcasters, and a CIF San Diego Section representative vote each week. The panel includes John Maffei and Kirk Kenney (UT-San Diego), Terry Monahan (UT-San Diego correspondent), Bill Dickens (eastcountysports.com), Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), John Labeta (CIF San Diego Section), Bodie DeSilva (sandiegopreps.com), Aaron Burgin (fulltimeshoops.com), Rick Willis (KUSI Chl. 51), Rick Smith (partletonsports.com), Drew Willis (sdcoastalsports.com).