The Ridgefield, Staples and Trumbull girls basketball teams were all ranked among the top nine while Ridgefield was the only boys basketball team from the FCIAC ranked in the most recent Top 10 polls.
It makes sense that Ridgefield High School was represented in both polls given that the school’s girls and boys basketball teams are both defending FCIAC champions.
Notre Dame-Fairfield (4-0) received 15 of the 16 first-place votes to earn the top spot and Ridgefield was the highest ranked FCIAC team at No. 4 in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll.
Norwich Free Academy (3-0) was ranked second and the recipient of the other first-place vote in the poll voted on by mostly media and a few coaches and released on Feb. 23.
Newington (4-0) was ranked third and Ridgefield (3-0) was fourth as the Tigers have moved up four spots from when they were ranked eighth in the preseason poll which was released Feb. 4.
Bacon Academy (3-0) was ranked fifth and followed by East Hartford (3-0), Staples (4-0), Sheehan (4-0), Trumbull (3-1) and Kolbe Cathedral (5-0).
The team records reflect what those teams were at the time the voting was taken for the poll. Seventh-ranked Staples, which improved to 5-0 since then, was scheduled to host ninth-ranked Trumbull in a big FCIAC game on Thursday, Feb. 25.
The three conference girls basketball teams in the “Others receiving votes” category, with their records in parenthesis when voting took place, were Fairfield Ludlowe (3-1), St. Joseph (3-1) and Stamford (3-1).
The seven conference teams with winning records as of the games played through Feb. 24 were Staples (5-0), St. Joseph (5-1), Ridgefield (4-0), Stamford (4-1), Trumbull (3-1), Fairfield Ludlowe (3-2) and New Canaan (3-2), while Danbury and Fairfield Warde were both 2-3.
Ridgefield’s Tigers were seeded seventh in the 2019-20 FCIAC Girls Basketball Tournament and they won it when they upset top-seeded Staples, 50-46, in double overtime in the championship game.
Ridgefield advanced with a 41-38 semifinal victory over third-seeded Trumbull while Staples advanced to the final with a 52-49 victory over No. 5 Greenwich.
Last year the girls basketball state tournaments made it through the quarterfinal rounds in two of the five state class tournaments and through the second rounds in the other three before the onset of COVID-19 pandemic ended the winter high school sports seasons.
Top-seeded Staples and 13th-seeded Greenwich both won their quarterfinal games in 2019-20 CIAC Class LL Girls Basketball Tournament on March 9 to set up a scheduled March 13 semifinal showdown against each other.
But then the CIAC canceled all the winter tournaments on March 10 at the point when it was the early rounds of the boys basketball and ice hockey tournaments.
East Catholic, which had a 23-1 record last year, was ranked first in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll which was voted on by 19 members of the media and released Feb. 22. East Catholic was 3-0 at the time of the voting and the recipient of all 19 first place votes.
Windsor (3-0) was ranked second and followed by Northwest Catholic (4-0), Notre Dame-West Haven (4-0) and Sacred Heart (1-0) in the top five.
Ridgefield (3-0), the only FCIAC team in the Top 10, was tied for sixth with Bristol Central (3-0) as they both received 360 points in the polling. Ridgefield’s Tigers were ranked ninth in the boys basketball preseason poll on Feb. 5.
Kolbe Cathedral (5-0), Wilbur Cross (3-1) and Notre Dame-Fairfield (4-0) completed the Top 10 in the current poll.
There were three unbeaten FCIAC boys basketball teams when the voting took place among the 14 teams in the “Others receiving votes” category and 24 total teams which received votes. St. Joseph (4-0) received the 14th most points in the polling, New Canaan (3-0) had the 18th most and Staples (4-0) received the 20th most points.
Ridgefield has been on quite the dynastic run during these last handful of years. The Tigers had their best record in school history last year at 21-2 and defended their FCIAC championship with 63-58 victory over Trinity Catholic in the conference tourney final when it had already been announced that last year was the final year for Trinity Catholic as a high school.
Second-seeded Trinity Catholic advanced with a 57-55 victory over third-seeded Fairfield Warde while Ridgefield’s top-seeded Tigers put themselves in position to eventually capture their third conference crown in four years with their 54-47 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Fairfield Ludlowe.
This year there are the top four teams with winning records as of the games played through Feb. 24 – St. Joseph (6-0), Ridgefield (4-0), Staples (4-0) and New Canaan (3-1).
The five teams in a five-way tie for fifth place with 2-3 records are Danbury, Fairfield Ludlowe, Norwalk, Fairfield Warde and Westhill.
The girls and boys basketball regular seasons this year began Feb. 9.
It was just announced that the FCIAC will conduct postseason tournaments and all 18 teams will play in them.
The girls and boys tournaments will tip off with two games in each tourney on March 13, a Saturday. The 15th seed will host the 18th seed and the 16th seed hosts the 17th seed in that opening round.
The boys round of 16 begins March 16, the girls round of 16 is March 17, and at the end of the month the boys final is scheduled for March 26 and the girls final on March 27.