Duerrisms: Sending out 2025 with ‘best of’ lists for basketball and beyond

QUINCY — Happy Holidays, true believers. Wishing you all the blessings of the season, the merriest of Christmases and the 2026 you richly deserve. 

New circumstances create new joys. Having just completed my first fall sports season with Muddy River Sports and now having my feet fully beneath me, this seemed a proper time to finally experiment with a winter edition of this column. It will be an evolving process as the basketball and wrestling seasons don’t lend themselves as easily to weekly power polls and what not.

But I do think there is value in periodically giving you a hot read on the elite players in those sports at various points of the winter as well as sharing thoughts, musings and intel from around the region in real time. So here we are. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions at any point at what you might want to see in this space. 

And as always, our gratitude to the wonderful folks at Little Jess Motor Company for powering this endeavor and allowing us to celebrate your kids, schools and communities. 

This will be my final column of 2025. We will take a break from the Mud Brothers podcast and Classroom Champions to grab a little holiday family time and, more honestly, deal with the avalanche of Christmas tournament basketball ahead. 

Hope you enjoyed the 2025 Muddy River Sports All-Area teams for football, volleyball and softball. They are all archived on the website if you missed anything along the way. And as ever, we are open to your suggestions and comments on how to improve that process.

To be honest, I am not sure we can improve the circumstances of what was a bonanza of a fall campaign on all fronts. It was one of the most enjoyable August-to-December runs I can remember in three decades of doing this and certainly one of the most decorated, given all the state trophies that came back this direction at season’s end.

Your accomplishments are a great joy and honor to cover. And I would be remiss on not thanking you all for a tremendous journey. 

Yours in sports and yuletide glee,

Duerr

Thoughts for a new week … and a new season of sports

1. Pre-Holiday Regional Basketball Power Rankings

Boys

1. Quincy Notre Dame

2. Jacksonville Routt

3. West Hancock

4. Monroe City

5. Brown County

6. Macomb

7. Illini West

8. Keokuk 

9. Palmyra 

10. Pittsfield

Girls

1. Quincy High School

2. Centralia

3. Quincy Notre Dame 

4. Clopton

5. West Hancock

6. Brown County

7. Liberty

8. Highland

9. Monroe City

10. Keokuk

2. Best holiday basketball tournaments, based on strength of field

1. Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament

2. State Farm Holiday Classic — Small school boys division

3. State Farm Holiday Classic — Large school girls division

4. Waverly Holiday Classic

5. Lady Tiger Classic at Beardstown

6. Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic

7. State Farm Holiday Classic — Small school girls division

3. Here is your random Duerr list for the week.

Favorite Rob Reiner Films

1. “The Princess Bride”

2. “A Few Good Men”

3. “Stand By Me” 

4. “Defending Your Life”

5. “This is Spinal Tap”

6. “Misery”

7. “The American President”

Bonus Duerr List

Best deep catalogue Christmas songs too few people have heard

1. “Joseph, Better You than Me” — The Killers, Elton John and Neil Tennant

2. “Drummer Boy” — Titus Andronicus

3. “Players Ball (Christmas Mix)” — Outkast

4. “Rudolph was Blue” — The Old 97’s

5. “Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey” — Lou Monte

6. “Christmas Memories” — Francis Albert Sinatra 

7. “Brightest Star” — Chris Isaak

8. “Joel the Lump of Coal” — The Killers

9. “Sleep, Sleep” — Schuyler Fisk

10. “Soulful Christmas” — Mr. James Brown

11. “The Happiest Christmas Tree” — Nat King Cole 

12. “Alone on Christmas Day” — Phoenix with Bill Murray

13. “Christmas Valentine” — Ingrid Michaelson

4.  These are my favorite things in the world … at least for this week

Chayce Smith rim attacks. Jaxon Clark dropping 50 pieces. Michael Kassing’s off-one-leg Dirk Nowitzki imitation. Vince Cramsey’s play pace. Wyatt DeGrave’s risen stock as a viable Player of the Year candidate. Gannon Bowen’s freakish ability to contort his body to catch anything thrown his way. Carson Morrison’s shooting stroke. Adam Abell’s offensive rebounding. Carter Haven’s defensive hustle. The entire Henry Ingram experience. The Illini West boys as a sleeper pick to win the whole darned Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament. Rex Bryson giving the region a rare 150-match career win mark to cheer.

Charleigh Spoonster’s passing acumen. Ashylyn Noah’s toughness. Ryenn Gordon’s now accentuated first step. Ari Buehler’s shooting profile. The Jamie Loehr Game. Chandler John’s long-range sniping and ability to distribute the ball from above the 3-point line. Claire Obert’s ability to guard size. Ali Little’s way-too-overlooked dominance to start this season. Naaron Hays putting an end to the myth that it’s harder to shoot threes on a college court. Kodi Duke with the basketball in the blocks. 

Lauren Miller’s seamless transition to the Division I college game. The robust crowd of West-Central Illinois girls basketball players and fans SIUE’s Western Hall appearance evoked. All things Addi Brownfield for the Leathernecks, who are far and away the best basketball entertainment for your dollar in the Tri-States this winter. Preston Brewer minutes. 

My wife ritualistically laughing in the exact same spot, every single year, at every one of her favorite Christmas movies like she has never seen them before (Swaddle that Baby!!!). That blessed day every winter my next door neighbor drops off a supply of sublime, homemade Christmas cookies. Meatball calzones from The Brick Oven in Hannibal. Umami sauce on my pizza from Atlas Slice. AJ Dybantsa: Future Sacramento King. The miracle of Dylan Cardwell. Record setting temperature highs on Christmas Day (not)

5.  These are my favorite things in the world in 2025 … at least for this year

TV/Streaming

1. “Death by Lightning” — Netflix

2. “Task,” Season One — HBO

3. “The Pitt,” Season One — HBO

4. “The Studio,” Season One — Apple

5. “The Righteous Gemstones,” Final Season — HBO

6. “Pee Wee as Himself” — HBO

7. “The Bear” — Hulu

8. “Paradise” — Hulu

Movies

1. “Eephus”

2. “I Like Me (John Candy)”

3. “Frankenstein”

4. “One Battle after Another”

5. “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”

6. “Sinners”

7. “Black Bag”

8. “Weapons”

9. “Train Dreams”

10. “Nonnas”

11. “Wake Up, Dead Man”

12. “Companion”

13. “F1”

14. “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”

15. “Deliver Me from Nowhere”

Albums

1. “Cover the Mirrors” — Ben Kweller

2. “Getting Killed” — Geese

3. “Bleeds” — Wednesday

4. “Never Enough” — Turnstile

5. “Lux” — Rosalia

6. “New Threats from the Soul” — Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band

7. “The Passionate Ones” — Nourished by Time

8. “Thee Black Boltz” — Tunde Adebimpe

9. “Let God Sort Em Out” — Clipse

10. “Snocaps” — Snocaps

Songs

1. “Oh Dorian” — Ben Kweller

2. “The Rope” — Wunderhorse

3. “Elderberry Wine” — Wednesday

4. “$0 Man” — Cameron Winter 

5. “Heaven Song” — S.G. Goodman

6. “Bethany” — Craig Finn

7. “Float” — Jay Som

8. “Hey You” — Belair Lip Bombs

9. “Dark Night of My Soul” — AVTT/PTTN

10. “Berghain” — Rosalia