Pub to divide hoops teams according to recent results

Remember when Public League basketball divisions were grouped by enrollment and, before that, by geography?

Not anymore, fans. Welcome to the strength-of-the-program era.

This season, the league's five divisions (66 teams; no new ones; Horace Furness and W.B. Saul have dropped the sport) will be grouped by results from the recent past.

Ben Dubin, the PL basketball chairman, said his plan was overwhelmingly approved by the coaches and athletic directors, then stamped by Robert Coleman, the PL sports czar.

"It's done this way in most Pub sports," Dubin said. "For competitiveness, it was the right move to make for basketball, too. It just makes things better."

Division A, already being called The Super Division among hoopheads, will have Bartram, Boys' Latin, Communications Tech, Constitution, Frankford, Gratz, Imhotep, MC&S, Phila. Electrical, Prep Charter, Southern and Vaux. Those teams will play one another once, and all 12 will make the playoffs, based on their classification. The overall playoff quarterfinals will feature one squad apiece from AAAA, AAA, AA and A.

Still to be decided at a Nov. 18 coaches' meeting, Dubin said, is whether one team, or two, will move up/down after each season.