"Courtside Chaos" ... looking ahead (Jan. 3)

Checking out the O.C. scene:

Five games to watch this week

•Santa Margarita vs. Orange Lutheran: How big is the gap between the second- and fourth-best team in the county’s toughest league?

•Fountain Valley vs. Los Alamitos: The Barons were supposed to be one of the most improved teams. Looks like that has already happened.

•Canyon vs. Villa Park: How does Villa Park have a losing record?

•Westminster vs. Pacifica: That 12-2 record is nice, but is Pacifica a playoff team?

•Valencia vs. Troy: This one could go either way, and a Troy victory really legitimizes its playoff aspirations.

O.C. leaderboard

•Scoring: Demetrius Walker, JSerra - 27.2 points per game

•Rebounding: Austin Wenger, Brethren Christian - 9 rebounds per game

•Assists: Noel Larkins, Valencia - 6.3 assists per game

•Steals: Jerime Anderson, Canyon - 5.7 steals per game

Get back to me in March

Five predictions for this season:

•Mater Dei will not lose to a county team.

•The South Coast League will have four teams in the county top 10 at the end of the season.

•The Sea View League title will be decided in the final week.

•Four different teams will be in first place at some point in both the Freeway and Empire leagues.

•The player of the year will be one of the following: Santa Margarita’s Klay Thompson, JSerra’s Demetrius Walker, Canyon’s Jerime Anderson.

Five players I want to see

•Kyle Fogg, Brea Olinda

•Kyle Boswell, Edison

•Garrett James, Marina

•Connor Crabtree, Aliso Niguel

•Noel Larkins, Valencia

Five teams I want to see

•Marina

•Tesoro

•Dana Hills

•El Toro

•Edison

Contact the writer: amaya@ocregister.com