SANTA ANA – The Friday-Saturday XXIX Nike Extravaganza provides a handy primer for the CIF Southern Section boys’ playoffs set to get underway with wild-card games on Feb. 6 and first-round action the next day.
The eight-team Open Division – which has evolved into the most competitive playoff bracket in the sport in the west – tips on Feb. 9 with four pool-play contests.
Saturday the Nike Extravaganza plays host to five of the 11 squads still in legitimate contention for one of those Open spots:
*Mater Dei (No. 1 in the BurlisonOnBasketball; sure to drop because of its loss at JSerra Wednesday). The Monarchs (22-2) play No. 17 Los Alamitos Saturday, as well as taking on Servite in a Trinity League contest Friday night under the umbrella of the Extravaganza.
*No. 2 Eastvale Roosevelt (24-2, the Mustangs play Coronado of Henderson in Nevada).
*No. 3 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (24-0, the Knights take on Las Vegas Bishop Gorman less than 24 hours after visiting No. 4 Sierra Canyon in a Mission League showdown).
*No. 5 Harvard-Westlake (21-3 before its Friday night Mission League game with St. Francis, plays No. 26 Foothill).
*And No. 10 JSerra (22-4 before its Trinity game at Orange Lutheran Friday night; the Lions take on San Diego power St. Augustine Saturday at Mater Dei).
Action begins Friday afternoon at 1:30, with Crean Lutheran taking on Phoenix St. Mary’s in a game that could be highlighted by potential matchup of guards in Crean Lutheran sophomore Kaiden Bailey and Grand Canyon University-bound Styles Phipps.
A game that features teams that could make deep runs their CIF SS playoff divisions is set for 6 p.m., when Bosco Tech (the defending 5AA champion/currently No. 5 in 3A) faces Rolling Hills Prep (No. 5 in 2AA).
The first of nine Saturday games begins at 9 a.m., when Crean Lutheran plays Canyon of Anaheim.
Many of the region’s highly rated college prospects will be showcased on Saturday, too, notably seniors Mercy Miller (Notre Dame/headed for Houston; Trent Perry (USC) and Robert Hinton (Harvard) of Harvard-Westlake; Sebastian Rancik (Colorado) of JSerra; Lolo Rudolph (Cal State Fullerton) of St. Augustine; Scotty Belnap (Utah Tech) of Mater Dei; Aaron Powell (Cal Poly/SLO) of Campbell Hall; and Darnez Slater (Colorado State) of Roosevelt.
Roosevelt (Brayden Burries) and Harvard-Westlake (Nikolas Khamenia) will bring a couple of players that are among the five-best juniors in the west.
And 6-3 Jason Crowe Jr., who led Lynwood to the State D-V title last March, is one of the best sophomore guards anywhere. The Knights played Modesto Christian at 1:30 Saturday.
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