It's time to say goodbye to Gramp's; Hello to Gramp's Jr.

Don't be sad.... Gramp's is living on with Gramp's Jr.

@coachmikb, or actually Coach Mike Backes, a retired Missouri government worker who coaches 7th and 8th graders for Blair Oaks. Mike has a background in analysis and loves working an Excel spreadsheet. In fact, most of the work this year on Gramp's Braggin' Rights Missouri Basketball Ratings was computed by Coach Mike.

This old Gramp's was going to retire this year but couldn't quite give up the ghost. I had been posting Missouri basketball boys ratings for about eight years and the girls for about five years. With over 1300 followers, everyone looked forward to seeing their team rated in a quantifiable rating system that rated teams on head-to-head and opponent performance vs. other teams. Mike helped Gramps solidify the ratings so that they were fully dynamic. The teams you played could either raise or lower your rating by how well they did in their schedule with other teams.

Over the years, Gramp's had validated the ratings by comparing how well teams did vs. their competition in district, section and state tournaments. The average correct prediction (higher rated team beats lower rated team) was running in the low to mid-80% range. This year, the prediction rate has been closer to 90%, so the improvements Coach Mike brought to the model made it even a better predictor.

I also enjoyed the banter with people like Scoreboard Guy, All Missouri Sports, Ozark, Earl Austin Jr. at PrepHoops, John Hough at GSV and many, many more.

I have certainly enjoyed the interaction with rabid fans over the years. For the most part, people are polite but a few were fanatical and downright rude. I told those folks to go back to the Coaches rankings or whatever guess-work poll someone put out. NO ONE rated every team in the state!

That's a lot of darn work. Rating 530 boys teams and 520 girls games. For twenty five games on a team schedule, that adds up to over 25,000 inputs. Lots of screen time. Gramp's was getting worn thin doing this alone, but Coach Mike volunteered to help and, boy, did he ever.

The transition is nearly complete. Coach Mike now has a new logo and moniker, Gramps, Jr. If you haven't followed @coachmikb yet, you should do so. Gramp's is probably going to retire his X account before next season and you wouldn't want to miss out on Gramp's Jr's predictions next year.

Thanks for your support and here's a summary of predictions for boys and girls, with a few tournaments left to wrap up.

A Big Thank You to Gramp's Jr.