Boys' basketball: Try to figure out who's best among these three

The big news in Southern Section basketball is the rise of the small schools. They've become so good that it doesn't matter if they're playing Mater Dei, Loyola or Long Beach Poly _ they'll compete and even win.

So please someone tell me who's best among La Verne Lutheran, Los Angeles Windward and Los Angeles Price? I keep evaluating their rosters, and I can't decide.

Luckily, they're going to be playing each other more than once this season. Lutheran is scheduled to play at Windward on Dec. 13 and has a game against Price later in the season. Windward is set to play Price in the Fairfax one-day event on Jan. 28 and could face Price earlier in the Santa Monica tournament.

Lutheran has beaten Windward twice this fall, so it probably deserves to be ranked ahead. But it's going to be exciting to see the fierce competition between these three schools, all of whom can be state title contenders depending on what divisions they are placed in.

-- Eric Sondheimer