Foothills Christian, a weekly, unanimous No. 1 in the San Diego Union-Tribune  poll, went “national” this week when it landed as No. 17 in the USA Today rankings.

The thrill-a-minute Knights achieved the honor with another roller-coaster performance against Connecticut’s Waterbury Sacred Heart, which was 17th in USA Today the previous week.

The Knights defeated the Hearts, 82-80, in the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts, but not before they gave up a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Foothills needed a couple free throws in the closing seconds to put the game away.  They led, 69-50, at the end of three quarters, according to the Max Preps line score.  T.J. Leaf had 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 7  assists for the Knights.

LEAF AND WALTON, CONT.

A friend chided me this week when he thought I was writing last week that Leaf was a better player  than Bill Walton at a similar stage in their careers.

The 6 foot, 10-inch Leaf is a power forward with an outside shooting touch.  The 6-11 Walton was an old school center who scored at will and guarded the area around the basket the way a lioness protects her cubs.

And Walton could score whenever he chose.

To show the regard Walton had with college scouts during his senior year at Helix was what they were saying after  the Covina Tournament, then the preeminent high schools hoops event in California.

UCLA assistant coach Denny Crum, who witnessed Walton’s scoring 50 points and taking down 34 rebounds in a 110-68 victory over Pasadena, reported to Bruins coach John Wooden.

NO ONE BETTER

Crum:  “The greatest high school player I ever saw.”

An intrigued but skeptical Wooden:  “Better than Lewis (Alcindor)?”

Crum:  “Yes.”

Wooden, taken aback, looked around:  “Step into my office. Keep your voice down.”

The legendary coach wanted to make sure that he had heard Crum correctly and that no else was privy to this startling statement.

Walton would go  on to UCLA, win two national championships and also lead the Portland Trail Blazers to an NBA title.

U-T BOYS’ POLL

Cathedral, augmented by 6-11 Morse transfer Brandon McCoy, jumped to second after a 56-53 win over St. Augustine before almost 2,500 persons at Point Loma Nazarene.

First-place votes in parenthesis. Won-loss records through Monday.

*Forfeited 57-37 victory Dec. 5 over Horizon.

Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Others receiving votes, including record: Mission Bay (13-4, 7), Grossmont (16-3, 5).

Eleven media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.

Foothills Christian lost its rematch with Chino Hills but continued as a team of statewide import, still not yet gone “national,” in the eyes of major U.S. ratings entities.

The Adidas-influenced Knights will travel again this week, to Springfield, Massachusetts, for the Hoophall Classic and take on Connecticut’s No. 1, 8-0 Waterbury Sacred Heart, averaging 89 points a game.

After losing to Chino Hills by 20 in December, the Knights did a better job against the Huskies’  press in the Sierra Canyon event in the San Fernando Valley last week and took the USA Today No. 1 squad to the wire before bowing, 85-83.

T.J. Leaf  put Foothills ahead, 83-82 with a basket with 13.3 seconds remaining in the game, but coach Troy Leaf’s scrappers from El Cajon couldn’t hold on.

Foothills Christian’s regular-season, intersectional tour won’t be complete until Feb. 6, when it heads up the I-5 Freeway for a game against Santa Ana Mater Dei, ranked No. 4 in California this week by Cal-Hi Sports.

Foothills is No. 1 in the Union-Tribune weekly poll and No. 5 in Cal-Hi‘s Top 20.  St. Augustine and Army-Navy earned  on-the-bubble status.

The U-T No. 2 Saints have a rivalry game with Eastern League title implications against No. 7 Cathedral Saturday night at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Get there early.  Parking is brutal.

LEAF AND WALTON?

After converting 20 of 24 shots from the floor, scoring 43 points, and knocking down 21 rebounds against the team from Chino, Leaf was described as the best prospect out of San Diego since Bill Walton in 1970.

Writer Frank Burlison, who made that observation, has virtually seen them all from his base in the Long Beach area for the last 40 or so years.

I was able to place Walton in Sports Illustrated‘s  “Faces in the Crowd” when Walton hit the national landscape.

Walton scored 50 points and had 34 rebounds in a 110-68 victory over Pasadena in the Covina Tournament and led  Helix to a 33-0 record. The Highlanders’ greatness wouldn’t be tested, because there were no Southern California or state playoffs in the Walton era.

Walton, a 6-foot, 11-inch center, was an enthusiastic, game-changing defender and unselfish, facilitating offensive player who still averaged 29.1 points a game.

The 6-10 Leaf, averaging 30.6 points, is a power forward and may have a more wide-ranging offensive game but  not had Walton’s impact on defense.

ON THE GIRLS’ FRONT

The Bishop’s (15-1), Mission Hills (11-3), and La Jolla Country Day (11-3) rank 10, 11, and 12, respectively, in the latest Cal-Hi Sports poll.

Junior Destiny Littleton of The Bishop’s has scored 605 points and is averaging 37.8 points.

U-T BOYS’ POLL

First-place votes in parenthesis. Won-loss records through Monday.

Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

NR—Not ranked.

Others receiving votes, including record:  Grossmont (14-3, 8), Mission Bay (11-4, 3), San Ysidro (14-2, 1), Vista (10-5, 1).

11 media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.

Foothills Christian, blown off the court, 40-13, in the first quarter and a 106-86 loser to Chino Hills a  couple weeks ago, will have another try at the USA Today No. 1 Huskies in the Sierra Canyon Super Showcase in Chatsworth Saturday.

The pressing piranhas of 13-0 Chino Hills, averaging  93 points a game, were champions of the recent City of Palms Tournament in Fort Meyers, Fla., where many eastern big shots competed.

Foothills (8-2) took a step back last week in the Under-Armour event at Torrey Pines.

After an impressive, 85-63 victory over St. Augustine, the Knights fell, 67-52,  to Corona Centennial, the same team Foothills defeated, 69-61, on Centennial’s home court the day before it met Chino Hills.

St. Augustine (11-2), also in the Sierra Canyon field, snapped a two-game losing streak last night, leading from opening tip to final buzzer in a 62-52 win over visiting Bellflower St. John Bosco (13-2), ranked 21st in the state by Max Preps.

Coach Mike Haupt’s Saints, 18th in California, according to Max Preps,  will play Mission Hills Bishop Alemany (9-5) Saturday.

Lincoln is host for a shootout Saturday that includes La Jolla Country Day (15-0) taking on Woodland Hills El Camino Real (5-8) and the Hornets (9-2) meeting Lynwood (9-4). Other squads also are involved.

Teams in the Union-Tribune Top 10 opened league play last night or will Friday.

First-place votes in parenthesis. Won-loss records through Monday.

Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.                                                                             NR—Not ranked.

Others receiving votes, including record: Lincoln (9-2, 12), Grossmont (12-3, 11), Vista (8-5, 1).

11 media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.

New Year’s and league play await, but  holiday action continues, most notably with the Under-Armour event hosted by coach John Olive and the Torrey Pines Falcons.

Play begins Saturday with seven of the Union-Tribune Top 10 clubs competing.  Foothills Christian, St. Augustine, and Army-Navy are in the elite National Division.

Foothills, No. 1 in the latest Union-Tribune poll,  plays Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, and No. 2 St. Augustine takes on Bellevue Washington in first-round games Saturday. No. 6 Army-Navy meets Pebblebrook of Mabelton, Georgia.

No. 2 El Camino and No. 4 Cathedral will be in other major tournaments, the Wildcats in Palm Desert for the Max Preps and Cathedral near Chicago at the Proviso West event.

Brandon McCoy, the 6-foot, 11-inch Cathedral transfer from Morse, will be the featured performer in the late game against New Trier Winnetka on Saturday.  McCoy was born in the Chicago area and lived there until moving to San Diego as a sophomore.

Pairings:

Foothills Christian, No. 1 in the first Union-Tribune basketball poll, was 4-0 before being savaged by a piranha-like attack from the Chino Hills Huskies in finals of the Battle Zone Tournament at Corona Centennial Saturday night.

Final score, 106-86.

Foothills’ T.J. Leaf scored 44 points and was 21 for 27 from the field, but the Knights were swamped at the outset by  a withering, all-court press and trailed, 22-5, in  the first four minutes.

It was 40-13, at the end of the first quarter.

The El Cajon squad actually outscored the Chino Hills, 73-66, over the last three quarters, but it never really was in it, getting no closer than 18 points at 67-49.

The Huskies, aggressively rebounding at both ends of the court,  answered any attempted Foothills incursion with breakaways or some sharp three-point sniping.

Foothills Christian won its first four Battle Zone games, defeating Temecula Great Oak, 84-42, Etiwanda, 73-43, Corona Centennial, 69-61, and Temecula Rancho Christian, 96-58.

The Knights will get another chance at Chino Hills,  Max Preps‘ state No. 3-ranked team when they meet Jan. 9 in  the Sierra Canyon Super Showcase in Chatsworth.

Second-ranked Cathedral opens the season Thursday against San Francisco St. Ignatius in the Father Barry Tournament hosted by Carmichael Jesuit.

No. 3 St. Augustine is 4-0 after winning the Pasadena Rose City Classic at Maranatha Christian with a 52-50 victory over Montebello Cantwell Sacred Heart.

The Saints’ other tournament victories were 52-50 over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, 58-47 over Pomona Diamond Ranch, and 62-42 over Valencia West Ranch.

Idleness breeds contempt or a drop in the ratings.

Mission Hills has fallen from ninth to 11th in Cal-Hi Sports’ state top 25, partly because the Grizzlies drew a bye in the first round of the San Diego Section playoffs last week.

Also byed last week, Helix remained 12th.  Cathedral  and St. Augustine  are on the bubble after they, too, sat out.

Under Cal Hi’s nomenclature, there are no Open division ratings, but begin with Division I and with 15 teams rated.

Mission Hills is 10th and Helix 12th in D-I.  St. Augustine is fifth and Cathedral 12th in D-II followed by  one-the-bubble Valhalla.

Ten teams are rated in D-III-V, with Bonita Vista (III), Santa Fe Christian (IV), and La Jolla Country Day (V) on the bubble.

The San Diego Section playoffs increase in interest this week after a first round in which there were few surprises and the clearing process of washing out bad teams began.

Forty-six  teams in six divisions are still alive, with 23 games scheduled.

Helix-Madison (Open), San Marcos-Oceanside (I), and Christian-Valhalla (II) match  No. 8 seeds versus No. 1 seeds in each division but probably have the most marquee value.

Does Madison, which could contend for a state championship if it were left in its natural D-IV environment, have a shot against the fast, savvy Highlanders?

Westview (5)-at Mt. Carmel (4) promises an old-fashioned, roll-in-the-dirt, backyard brawl in D-II.  The schools are very close geographically.

Imperial (5)-Santa Fe Christian (4) has a distinct intersectional flavor in D-III.  So does Calexico Vincent Memorial (3)-Crawford (2) in D-5, with the Imperial Valley schools making the long trek over the mountains.

The Rock takes on Calvin Christian for the D-VI championship.

HERE COMES BASKETBALL

Foothills Christian is sixth and St. Augustine 17th in Cal-Hi’s preseason top 35. Torrey Pines  and Cathedral are in the “just missed” category.

Foothills, with 6-foot, 9-inch nationally recognized T.J. Leaf, was 25-7 last season.  So was St. Augustine, which returns its entire starting five.

QUICK KICKS

Fallbrook writer David Willauer reminds that Warriors under Kyle Williams were 2-9 in ’13,  6-4 in ’14, and  now are 7-4 after a  7-3 win over 5-6 Hilltop in first round of D-III…the seventh-seeded Warriors visit second-seeded Mission Bay (8-2) this week…