A quick look at SoCal boys hoops playoffs

• Tweet

• Tweet

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Sorry for the delay in putting this up but here are some observations about the fields and brackets for the CIF Southern Section and L.A. City boy’s hoops playoffs . . .

As had been anticipated, the Southern Section’s 1AA 32-team bracket shapes up as the most competitive in either section.

In reality, there are probably seven of the best 15 teams in Southern California in this division. Those included top seed Santa Ana Mater, followed (in order of seed) by Long Beach Poly, Corona Centennial, Mission Viejo, Rancho Cucamonga, Etiwanda and L.A. Loyola.

Because Rancho Cucamonga’s upset of Etiwanda in the final week of the regular season resulted in the respective squads sharing the Baseline League title, a coin flip was held to designate the league’s top seed to the playoff bracket.

And Rancho won the flip, meaning it couldn’t be seeded below Etiwanda in the pairings, which caused such havoc in that it forced Etiwanda into the lower bracket (as a seed) with Poly, Centennial and Loyola (as well as a very tough 10 seed in Pacific League champion Pasadena).

For all of those out there thinking this was done to “help” Mater Dei, let’s cool the conspiracy theories immediately.

Sure, Mater Dei, Poly, Etiwanda and Centennial were the top-ranked teams in the division all season.

But the Southern Section’s basketball committee members (headed by assistant commissioner Rainer Wulf) were left with very little in the way of options because of the “can’t seed Etiwanda above Rancho” edict tying their hands.

It’s an imperative that needs to be examined – and, possibly, changed – in the off season.

With that observation out of the way, no one should dispute that there should be six terrific second-round matchups on Tuesday, with Mater Dei (vs. Warren or Trabuco Hills) and Poly (vs. Lakewood Mayfair or Corona) likely to physically overwhelm their second-round foes.

Projecting the quarterfinals, I’ll go with Mater Dei over Chino Hills (a team loaded with underclass talent), Inglewood (in mild upsets over Rancho Cucamonga and Mission Viejo)  Etiwanda over Centennial (in their third meeting of the season) and Poly over Loyola (although junior point guard Parker Cartwright-Jackson is capable of directing a mild upset in this one).

A look at how I see other quarterfinals shaping up in some of the other Southern Section divisions.

1A: Lake Forest El Toro vs. Riverside La Sierra; Millikan vs. Huntington Beach Edison; West Ranch vs. Dana Hills; Santa Monica vs. Aliso Niguel.

2AA: Riverside JW North vs. Lawndale; Manhattan Beach Mira Costa vs. Fullerton Sunny Hills; Villa Park vs. Cajon; Camarillo vs. Thousand Oaks.

2A: Westlake vs. Beaumont; Tesoro vs. Elsinore; Canyon/Anaheim vs. Redlands East Valley; Santa Maria Righetti vs. Redondo Beach Redondo.

3AAA: Tustin vs. Colony; Calabasas vs. Compton; Royal vs. Hart; Brea vs. Fullerton Servite.

3AA: Lawndale Leuzinger vs. Atascadero; Diamond Ranch vs. Santa Margarita; Newport Beach Corona Del Mar vs. Santa Barbara San Marcos; La Verne Damien vs. Temple City.

3A: Bellflower St. John Bosco vs. L.A. Cathedral; Irvine Northwood vs. Huntington Beach Ocean View; Chaminade vs. Covina; St. Francis vs. Oak Park.

4AA: Torrance Bishop Montgomery vs. N. Hollywood Harvard-Westlake; L.A. Windward vs. Pasadena Muir; San Juan Capistrano JSerra vs. Gardena Serra; Encino Crespi vs. L.A. Price.

4A: L.A. Pacific Hills vs. Ventura St. Bonaventure; Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart vs. Long Beach St. Anthony; Ontario Christian vs. N. Hollywood Campbell Hall; Nordhoff vs. L.A. Brentwood.

Look for Village Prep (5AA) and Rolling Hills Prep (5A) to roll to titles in their respective divisions and Rio Hondo Prep to do the same in the 6A.

As for the L.A. City, its Division I playoffs got underway on Thursday night with second-round (quarterfinal) games on tap for Tuesday: Taft at top-ranked Westchester; Fairfax at No. 4 Palisades; University at No. 3 Crenshaw; Narbonne at No. 2 El Camino Real.

Look for Westchester and Fairfax, and Crenshaw and El Camino Real, to hook up in the Feb. 23 semifinals that will be played at Cal State Dominguez Hills.