Toughest Schedules - 2/23/19

This is an update to a mid-season post about who had played the toughest schedules.  As explained before, the MCPS schedule is basically set for all teams by the county.  Each team plays the other teams in their division in an unbalanced schedule (meaning they only play some teams twice) for a total of 8 games.  Then each team plays the other teams in their section.  Finally, their schedules are rounded out to form 20 games that the MPSSAA will use to seed the section tournaments.  The teams then play these schedules for a two-year cycle with the games being a mirror image for those two years (ie: Poolesville plays at Whitman in year one and then they play at Poolesville in year two). Teams can up to drop up to two MCPS games (they must declare it before the two years scheduling commences) to play private schools, Frederick County schools, or in tournaments like the She Got Game. The teams are allowed to play up to two games in a holiday tournament and these games are not counted by MPSSAA in section tournament seeding.

So who has had the hardest and easiest schedules this year? With the regular season over we have ranked them based on their opponents' record. Their previous ranking and opponent win % is in parenthesis.

1. BCC (13-7 record) - opponents winning percentage is 60.10% (previous ranking: 1 - 60.17%)
2. Magruder (0-20) - 55.64% (7 - 53.7%)
3. Kennedy (1-19) - 55.53% (4 - 57%)
4. Wootton (1-19) - 55.23% (2 - 58.9%)
5. Gaithersburg (10-10) - 52.8% (5 - 55.3%)
6. Northwest (6-14) - 51.5% (11 - 50.6%)
7. WJ (12-8) 51.25% - (12 - 50.4%)
8. Damascus (14-6) - 50.93% (21 - 44.4%)
9. Wheaton (1-19) - 50.63% (6 - 53.8%)
10. Watkins Mill (6-14) - 50.0% (3 - 58%)
11. Whitman (17-3) - 49.88% (8 - 53.6%)
12. Poolesville (17-3) - 49.37% - (15 - 47.7%)
13. Richard Montgomery (11-9) - 48.77% (22 - 43.8%)
14. Churchill (19-1) - 48.62% (16 - 47.3%)
15. Springbrook (7-13) - 48.24% (9 - 50.8%)
16. Blair (7-12) - 48.24% (17- 46.7%)
17. Rockville (12-8) - 47.62% (9 - 50.8%)
18. Paint Branch (17-3) - 47.37% (20 - 45.4%)
19. Einstein (9-11) - 46.97% (14 - 48.1%)
20. Blake (7-13) - 46.42% (23 - 41.8%)
21. Clarksburg (15-5) - 46.17% (24 - 37.5%)
22. Sherwood (17-3) - 45.61% (19 - 45.6%)
23. Northwood (7-13) - 45.48% (12 - 50.4%)
24. Quince Orchard (14-6) - 43.60% (18 - 46.3%)
25. Seneca Valley (10-10) - 43.35% (25 - 33.2%)

Damascus saw the biggest jump (from ranked 21st with an opponents' winning percentage of 44.4% to a #8 ranking and opponents' winning percentage of almost 51%). They played Clarksburg, Einstein, Paint Branch and Poolesville over the last three weeks of the season.

RM  also jumped (from #22 to #13) on the strength of a closing schedule against Rockville, BCC, Churchill and Seneca Valley.

Seneca Valley stayed at #25, but their closing schedule of QO, Whitman, Clarksburg, and RM brought their opponents' winning percentage up by 10 percentage points.

Clarksburg saw a similarly big jump in their opponents winning percentage (8.5% increase) as they finished with one of the toughest schedules over the last two weeks playing Damascus, Poolesville, Seneca Valley, and Paint Branch.

Watkins Mill has the easiest last few weeks as their opponents' winning percentage fell by 8% points.

Quince Orchard fell the most spots in the rankings, falling from #18 to #24 during their closing stretch that only included Gaithersburg as a team that challenged them.