EDITOR'S NOTE: This column was written at about 4:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 26, two hours before the Westport vs. Mashpee boys' playoff basketball game.
Here, at the request of absolutely nobody, is my GMSNPCP Greater Fall River boys' high school basketball top-5 ranking:
1. Somerset Berkley Regional.
2. Bishop Connolly.
3. Westport.
4. Durfee.
5. Bishop Stang.
SBR solidified its No. 1 ranking with Monday's 93-78 playoff win over Dartmouth. SBR this season swept Durfee. Durfee split with Bishop Connolly and was swept by Dartmouth.
Connolly and Westport are seeded 1-2 in Division 4 South. Connolly gets the razor's edge by strength of schedule.
Durfee No. 4, ahead of Tiverton? And ahead of Case, which narrowly missed the playoffs? And ahead of Stang, which split with the Hilltoppers? Again it's a strength of schedule thing. Leaving Case off the list was tough because the Cardinals defeated Somerset Berkley.
Tiverton, by the way, defeated Westport in late December.
And consideration was certainly given to Atlantis Charter, a D4 South qualifier and owner of a win over the same Holbrook team which upset Connolly. Westport swept AC.
• The owner of the indoor football team which last year called Driscoll Arena its home before ceasing operations during the season wants to make it clear that her New England Bobcats players were paid. In a Feb. 12 Herald News article on the Mass Effect, Fall River's new indoor football team, I wrote that the Effect's vice-president of sales and marketing had said that there was small claims court action because some Bobcats players were owed money.
Cynthia Hudson, owner of multiple businesses and who owned the Bobcats, shared her perspective in an email:
"The players were in fact paid! There is not a player that is owed from the season. The reason we had ceased operations is because the numbers weren't there. We were putting out close to $12,000 a game and we were taking in maybe if we were lucky $400. From a business perspective we weren't going to keep going at that rate. We decided to cut our losses and start fresh in a new season.That decision didn't come easy. The hours, time and dedication behind the scenes that we put into and preparing for a hopeful successful season to shut down isn't what we expected but knew it was the best decision. Some players that were upset we did it may have lied but we can guarantee they were paid."
In a subsequent phone conversation, on Wednesday, Hudson said there are two players who are owed money but both of those have failed to return their team helmets, whose value is in excess of the money owed to them. Asked what went wrong last year, she said a major problem was that many of the Bobcats players, brought in from Maryland, refused to hop on the team's community involvement bandwagon. She said anything below the NFL requires players to be active and visible in the community to create a fan base. She said it's an absolute must.
Hudson also said there were promises from the Fall River mayor (then Jasiel Correia) which were not honored.
• Apologies to Case basketball forward Jarrod Sutcliffe, who due to my mistake, saw his first name mispelled for much of the season. And a slightly smaller apology goes out to Matt Myron, Bishop Connolly's fine shooting guard. He's a junior. For a while, I referred to him as a senior. (He looks ready for college.)
• Togo Palazzi.
If bored, email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. In Twitter Village, he hangs @GregSullivanHN.