LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The first-ever “open divisions” for the California State boys’ basketball championships were unveiled early Sunday evening.
There was much speculation and, quite frankly, ignorance about what the makeup of the respective open brackets would look like when they were unveiled after the state’s section commissioners put them together on Sunday.
When they were finally made public, this much was abundantly obvious:
Both the Northern and Southern brackets make up, arguably, the most power teams-packed fields in state tourney history.
The Southern field was limited to seven teams when the San Diego Section elected to keep its Division I champion, San Marcos Mission Hills, in the D-I regional bracket.
It was a good thing because, having seen Mission Hills three times in December, I don’t think the Kameron Rooks-led team would have had much of a chance at making a serious run at knocking off any of the seven squads in the field.
If the commissioners had really wanted to ensure the Southern Open bracket was jammed with something truly approaching the “eight best” teams in the southern half of the state they would have allowed the Southern Section to have one more than the four entries it was given.
That way Torrance Bishop Montgomery, which won its first 29 games before being shocked by La Verne Lutheran in a Southern Section 4AA semifinal, could have been part of the field.
Two of those victories came against a couple of the squads in the Open bracket, L.A. City Division I champion Westchester and Southern Section 3A title winner Bellflower St. John Bosco.
As it is, the seven teams do include the three squads that I would suggest are the best in the state – Southern Section 1AA champion Etiwanda, as well as Santa Ana Mater Dei and Long Beach Poly, which the Eagles beat in the title game and semifinal last week, respectively.
Because of the odd number of teams in the field, Etiwanda has a first-round bye on Friday night while Mater Dei and Poly try to win their games to set up a March 12 semifinal between the squads that were top ranked in the 1AA all season.
The Monarchs (31-2) play host to L.A. City 4A runner-up and junior-laden Woodland Hills El Camino Real while the Jackrabbits visit Bellflower.
Poly edged the Braves (60-54) during a Nike Extravaganza game at Mater Dei on Feb. 2 – a contest in which SJB McDonald’s All-American guard Isaac Hamilton didn’t suit up for disciplinary reasons.
Hamilton – and his junior brother, Daniel, and sophomore standout Tyler Dorsey – are expected to be in uniform for Coach Derrick Taylor’s squad in a contest that will feature the most future college talent in any game played that evening in the state.
The Jackrabbits – whose overtime loss to Etiwanda was first defeat to a California-based squad all season – are led by future Pacific 12 players Roschon Prince (USC) and Jordan Bell (Oregon).
Why is SJB playing host to the game if the commissioners designated them the No. 6 seed to the Jackrabbits’ No. 3?
Apparently it’s because the Braves are sectional champions while the Jackrabbits lost in the semifinals of their division.
So, using that logic, why wouldn’t No. 2 seed and SS 1AA runner-up Mater Dei have to travel host to fellow Trinity member SJB for a regional semifinal?
According to the bracket sheets, the Regional “host priority numbers (seeds) will determine host starting in the second round”.
Okey, dokey.
Etiwanda will be waiting in its upper bracket for its semifinal against the winner of Westchester at Central Section Division I champion Fresno Bullard, which stunned L.A. City champion Taft and Southern Section 1AA runner-up Poly, on the road, a year ago before losing to Mater Dei in the Division I final.
The appearance of the new division served to effectively dilute what had been the “top” (I) division in both the south and north.
Minus Etiwanda, Mater Dei and Poly, the Southern Division I bracket is pretty much wide open, although I would give an ever-so-slight edge to the Loyola Cubs, which fell to Poly in a Southern Section 1AA quarterfinal.
The Cubs, led by dynamic junior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (who recently committed to the University of Arizona), were only seeded No. 6.
Yet Santa Monica – which toppled another Division I invitee (El Toro) in Saturday’s Southern Section 1A final in Anaheim – lost to Loyola twice this season.
Yeah. Go figure.
Santa Monica and Mission Hills (San Diego Division I, remember from the Open discussion) are the only sectional champions in the Division I field of 16, which gets underway on Wednesday – as do all divisions but the Open.
The North also has a “mega field” in its Open bracket.
North Coast Section Division IV champion Richmond Salesian (30-3) – which won back-to-back state titles in Division IV – is the top seed in the Open Division.
No. 2 is another squad that was moved up, Central Coast Section D-II champion San Jose Mitty (26-4) and the same is the case for No. 3 Oakland Bishop O’Dowd (26-3 and the North Coast Section D-III champ).
Likely March 12 semifinals would be between Salesian (which, like Etiwanda, has a first-round bye because only seven teams were included in the bracket) and Sacramento Sheldon (the San Joaquin Section D-I champ at 25-5 and last year’s State D-I runner-up to Mater Dei), as well as O’Dowd and Mitty.
How about these potential individual matchups: McDonald’s All-American (and Cal-bound) Jabari Bird of Salesian against San Diego State signee Dakari Allen, and another McDonald’s selection, Aaron Gordon of Mitty vs. Class of 2015 power forward-deluxe Ivan Rabb?
My. Oh, my.
By the way, the Southern Regional game I will attend on Wednesday night will be selected from among Palisades at Mission Viejo (D-I), Oceanside El Camino at El Toro (D-I), Bakersfield Garces at Redondo (D-II), San Marcos at Villa Park (D-II), Huntington Beach Ocean View at Tustin (D-III), L.A. Brentwood at Chula Vista Mater Dei (D-IV) or La Canada Flintridge Prep at Sun Valley Village Christian (D-V).
Friday night I will be courtside for either Poly-St. John Bosco or El Camino Real-Mater Dei in the Open Division.
Bishop Montgomery is back!!!
Your description of the Nor Cal open semi matchups points out the disaster the open division is for Nor Cal. Instead of Sheldon taking on Mater Dei/PolyEtiwanda in D1 Gordon going for a 3 peat in D2, Rabb leading BOD against SJB and Salesian in a battle royale against Bishop Montgomery we will have a bunch of also rans from Nor Cal getting hammered in finals in front of sparse crowds in the finals. Nor Cal has 2 McD All Americans, 3 D1 signees at Sheldon and a national caliber Soph in Rabb and by definition the bulk of them won’t be able to play for a state final. This is why they forced NorCal teams to play in their proper division in the first place. BOD, SJND, etc all played up in D1 and knocked each other off in the Nor Cal sectional playoffs. It is now the same thing by a different name, the Open Division.