November was a busy month and there was a full slate of holiday showcases and tournaments over Thanksgiving weekend that caused plenty of movement in the first edition of the FAB 50 National Team Rankings powered by Ballislife.com for the 2024-25 season. The fastest-rising club is new No. 10 Mt. Zion Prep (Lanham, Md.), which goes from unranked to knocking off two clubs inside the Top 12. EYBL Scholastic play and teams just starting their seasons will cause movement in coming weeks as holiday tournaments get set to tip off!
By Ronnie Flores
As we finalized the first regular season FAB 50 National Team Rankings powered by Ballislife.com, we had to take into account the amount of games teams played and the amount of practice time some teams already have under their belt more than ever. For some ranked teams, the 2024-25 season tips off this week while for a selected few in the East Region, there is at least another week to go before the first contest. In fact, there are still nine teams that appear in the first update to the nation’s longest-running national rankings that have yet to play a sanctioned game.
We kept those facts in mind when we poured over all the results in Novembers and the first day of December to come up with our new pecking order. When the dust settled, preseason No. 1 Columbus (Miami, Fla.) remains at No. 1 despite a 66-54 loss to preseason No. 8 Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif.) at Florida Atlantic University on Nov. 19. That was Columbus’ first game of the season and with the win, The Crew ran their record to 7-0. The amount of games played heading into that early season showdown was taken into account, as both teams have plenty of more big games down the line that will make that result more significant.
Kansas-bound Darryn Peterson had 33 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks in the big win over the Explorers and came in No. 3 in the preseason Mr. Basketball USA Tracker voting behind No. 2 Cam Boozer (Duke) of Columbus and No. 1 A.J. Dybansta (undecided) of FAB 50 No. 11 Utah Prep (Hurricane, Utah).
After that big win, Peterson missed Prolific Prep’s next three games and The Crew subsequently lost all three. Obviously, Prolific Prep wasn’t going to hop Columbus in the rankings after losing three consecutive games considering it had six games under its belt when the matchup took place while it was the season opener for the Explorers. The Crew, however, deserves rankings credit for the victory, so they move up four spots this week despite the three-game skid.
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