Boys’ basketball: The countdown has begun

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September is the most fascinating month for high school basketball. Like poker, players have to start revealing their cards by showing up at schools.

Soon, we’ll know what summer rumors were true and predictions can finally be made which teams will do well this coming season. Well, sort of. We have to wait and see which players will be declared ineligible by the City Section and Southern Section for not moving or moving for athletic reasons.

In the City Section, everyone is holding their breath to see what new players show up at the big three _ Woodland Hills Taft, Westchester and Los Angeles Fairfax. It’s pretty easy to figure out the top City teams. The battle to make the semifinals will be a five-team affair _ Taft, Westchester, Fairfax, Crenshaw and Washington. No one else is close.

In the Southern Section, Chatsworth Sierra Canyon is loading up on new players. Jahmel Taylor, who averaged 16 points last season as a freshman at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, is expected to end up at Sierra Canyon when classes begin next week.The NBA had its free agency in July, and the Mission League wasn’t too far behind, with schools getting top incoming freshmen and transfers. But nothing has really changed. Los Angeles Loyola and North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake remain the teams to beat, with Encino Crespi, Mission Hills Alemany and West Hills Chaminade trying to move up.

And no matter what other teams do, they’re not going to beat Long Beach Poly this coming season. The Jackrabbits are going to be celebrating a state Division I title in Sacramento come March. Well, unless one of the elite teams gets an out-of-state transfer student. And anything is possible in the never-ending soap opera known as high school basketball.

-- Eric Sondheimer