LAGUNA NIGUEL – The State CIF Office in Sacramento released the State Regional playoff basketball brackets late Sunday afternoon.
And, oh my goodness . . . the South’s Open Regional field could not be more challenging for all concerned – top seed Eastvale Roosevelt included.
From my perspective, the state’s five-best teams – along with San Diego Open champion Montgomery (29-2) – make up the South bracket.
Those are Roosevelt (32-2 after its CIF Southern Section Open win over Notre Dame Saturday night in Ontario), Central Section D-I champion Santa Maria St. Joseph (31-1), Mission League rivals Notre Dame (26-7) and Harvard-Westlake (30-2), and Trinity League champion St. John Bosco (26-6).
The surprise – depending on your perspective, “mild” or “stunning”, I suppose – was that Tounde Yessoufou-led St. Joseph was put in the South instead of the North field.
A year ago, Clovis North – after “upsetting” St. Joseph in the Central final – was sent to the North bracket while St. Joseph knocked off Sierra Canyon on a Yessoufou shot at the buzzer before losing at Roosevelt in a semifinal.
The assumption of some – me, included – was that St. Joseph, after its beatdown of Clovis Buchannan (54-33) Saturday, would be the No. 1 seed in the North bracket.
That left the North with just a five-team field – opening round games are set for Wednesday night; all other divisions tip Tuesday night – with San Francisco Riordan (27-1) in the top slot, followed by Concord De La Salle (27-4), Folsom (28-3), Richmond Salesian (26-3) and Modesto Christian (24-8).
Each is led by experienced and gifted rosters, with exceptional coaches.
But, for perspective . . .
*Riordan’s only loss came to JSerra – a CIF Southern Section member and the No. 4 seed in Division I – in the Dec. 30 championship game at the Torrey Pines Holiday Tournament.
*De La Salle lost to Harvard-Westlake (58-44), on Jan. 4 in Arizona during a Nike Tournament of Champion final.
*Folsom lost to Redondo Union (another CIF Southern Open team that land as the No. 3 seed in D-I Sunday), 85-68, on Nov. 30 in a NorCal Tip-Off Classic game at Dublin High.
*And Modesto Christian lost to Crespi of Encino, 76-63, on Jan. 4 at Pacifica Christian in Newport Beach.
Crespi finished fourth in the Mission League (behind Notre Dame, Harvard-Westlake and Sierra Canyon), and was upset in the second round of the Southern Section’s Division 1 playoffs.
Here’s another way of explaining just how formidable the South field is:
There are three McDonald’s All-Americans, via Brayden Burries (Roosevelt), Nikolas Khamenia (Harvard-Westlake) and Yessoufou (pictured).
And there are also as many as four 2026 All-Americans in that group by way of Tyran Stokes (Notre Dame), Brandon McCoy, Jr., and Christian Collins (St. John Bosco), and Julius Price (St. Joseph).
Yeah . . . sheeeeeeet!
That freakin’ gauntlet starts Wednesday night in the San Fernando Valley, with St. John Bosco visiting Harvard-Westlake in Studio City and Montgomery traveling to Sherman Oaks to take on Notre Dame.
*The South’s 16-team, Division I field included 12 Southern Section members – four of those that dropped from the Sectional Open Division (No. 1 Sierra Canyon, No. 2 Santa Margarita, Redondo Union and JSerra), as well as the Division 1 and 2AA title winners, Los Alamitos and Fairmont Prep, respectively.
Surprisingly, L.A. City Section Open winner Westchester and runner-up Chatsworth, were placed in Division II as the No.’s 2 and 3 seeds.
It was anticipated – by me, at least – that they would land in D-I.
*Second-round games in Divisions I-V are set for Thursday, with all division semifinals on Saturday and finals on March 11.
The State title games will be held March 14 & 15 in Sacramento.
certainly like your web-site buut you have to check the spelling
on quite a few of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very
troublesome to inform thhe reality nevertheless I will certainly come again again.
Feel free to visit my blog post Заказать
лазерное удаление папиллом, Ezequiel,
My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was entirely right.
This post truly made my day. You cann’t imagine just how much time I
had spent for this info! Thanks!
I used to be able to find good advice from your
articles.
Hello colleagues, its wonderful piece of writing about educationand completely explained, keep it up
all the time.
kssemn
Undeniably believe that which you stated. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the web the
easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I
certainly get annoyed while people think about worries that they plainly do not know
about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top
and defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal.
Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog.
Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see
a nice blog like this one these days.
I’ll immediately take hold of your rss feed as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service.
Do you have any? Please let me recognise so that I could subscribe.
Thanks.
Your style iis very unique compared to other folks I’ve read stuff from.
I appreciate you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I will just
bookmark this web site.
Also visit my website – Kali
At this time it looks like Drupal is the top blogging platform out there right
now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you are
using on your blog?
Good day! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group?
There’s a lot of people that I think would really enjoy your content.
Please let me know. Cheers
Do you have a spam issue on this website;
I also am a blogger, and I was wondering your situation; many of us have developed
some nice procedures and we are looking to trade methods
with other folks, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.
It’s great that you are getting ideas from this post as well as from our discussion made at this time.
Hiya! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d
ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog post
or vice-versa? My website goes over a lot of the same subjects as yours and
I think we could greatly benefit from each other. If you might be interested feel free to shoot me an email.
I look forward to hearing from you! Excellent blog by the
way!
I truly love your blog.. Great colors & theme. Did you build this web site yourself?
Please reply back as I’m looking to create my
own website and want to find out where you got this from or
what the theme is named. Cheers!
Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am impressed!
Very useful information specially the last part 🙂 I care for such
information much. I was seeking this certain information for a very long time.
Thank you and good luck.
Thanks in support of sharing such a pleasant thought, post is fastidious, thats why i have read it entirely
Greate pieces. Keep posting such kind of info on your blog.
Im really impressed by your blog.
Hello there, You’ve done a fantastic job. I will certainly digg it and in my opinion recommend to my friends.
I’m sure they will be benefited from this website.
Have you ever considered about including a little bit more
than just your articles? I mean, what you say is fundamental and everything.
But just imagine if you added some great pictures or videos to give your posts more, “pop”!
Your content is excellent but with images and clips, this blog could undeniably be one of
the greatest in its field. Awesome blog!
I am in fact thankful to the holder of this site who has shared this great
article at here.