CIF Blew It. . . Division V-AA

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SoCalHoops High School News

The CIF Speaks: "We Blew It. . ."
D-VAA Bracket Switching--(Feb. 15, 2000)

"We blew it. . . ."

Those were the words of Hal Harkness, a former LA City Section Commissioner, and one of four officals at the Southern Section CIF responsible for preparing the Division V-AA playoff brackets.

In case you missed it, when the brackets were released on Sunday, the Division V-AA bracket had Montclair Prep in a potential second round matchup with league rival and No. 2 seed Campbell Hall. The two teams have played each other twice this season, and each time Montclair Prep has lost twice, once in overtime.

Coaches at both schools were, according to the CIF, justifiably upset over the potential matchup, and we agree with them, it was a terrible decision to match those schools up in the second round, and we said as much when we posted the brackets

Whether it was "fair" or not wasn't the issue. What was the issue was that Campbell Hall (17-8, 6-3) had been for most of the season ranked as the No. 1 team in the Division, while Delphic League rival Montclair Prep (13-12, 3-7) had also been ranked at No. 4 or 5 for most of the season too. Both teams played each other twice and both games were close. Only last week, after losing 7 of their last 8 games did Montclair Prep eventually drop in the CIF rankings to finish the regular season at No. 8.

But if Harkness was frank about the CIF's initial mistake, he was also open about the fix.

"We not only blew it the first time, we blew it again with the solution," said Harkness.

"I think the fix is even worse," said Harnkess. "I was responsible for it, and I blame myself. I dropped the ball."

Harkness was speaking about the change in the bracketing. Yesterday afternoon, the CIF switched Montclair Prep and Pilibos in the bracket, with the result that Montclair Prep now plays St. Margaret's in San Juan Capistrano in the first round; Pilibos, which had been scheduled to play St. Margaret's now travels to Ojai to play Villanova Prep.

The switch, however, also sets up another second round matchup between two teams ranked throughout the entire season in the CIF polls, in this case a second round matchup against No. 6 Buckley (20-2, 14-0), which received a bye in the first round. Buckley now plays the winner of tomorrow night's St. Margaret's-Montclair Prep game at Buckley.

"When we originally put Montclair Prep in the bracket on Sunday, I'll tell you this: We were looking to slot in an at-large team, and we really only focused on the travel considerations," said Harnkess. "It made sense to have a team from the North San Fernando Valley travel to Ojai for a first round game."

"But we also overlooked the fact that Montclair Prep is from the same league as Campbell Hall," said Harkness. "We just dropped the ball."

"But then we made matters even worse again by setting up the same kind of matchup, and if we had it to do over again, we'd do it differently. And as far as travel, we didn't solve anything by having Montclair Prep travel to San Juan Capistrano."

"Sometimes when a problem starts out bad, it just gets worse, especially under pressure, and I'll tell you this: I was under a lot of pressure yesterday, a tremendous amount of pressure, and I obviously made a mistake. I'll take the responsibility for it," said the CIF's Harnkess.

The CIF's policy is to avoid having these kinds of matchups this early in the playoffs, but Harkness said that the only real consideration, especially with a bracket this large, was taking into account the 1-4 seeds and then from there it was travel considerations. Harkness also acknowledged that the committee should have looked further ahead and put Montclair Prep in the second round against Masada, Thacher, or Ribet, or some other team that wasn't ranked. "I'll take the blame for that one. People make bad decisions when they're acting under pressure, and I was getting a tremendous amount of pressure yesterday. Tremendous pressure," said Harkness. "But now it's Tuesday, and the first round is Wednesday. Now we just don't have time to change any more games."

"Sometimes the CIF makes mistakes. I take full responsibility. We should have been paying closer attention," said Harkness.

You have to admire the honesty and integrity of the people putting together the brackets. Not many people would stand up and take responsibility and do it in such a public way. Hal Harkness, Dean Crowley, Ray Plutko, all former CIF Commissioners owe nothing to the CIF, and they have no stake in the outcome of any game or match. They're all retired, volunteering their time to the organization, just to give something back. And at least they'll admit when they make a mistake, and that's something that shouldn't be lost sight of in this process. The men who put together the brackets for the CIF playoffs are, truly, men of integrity and honesty, and they have the best interests of the players and teams at heart. But they're human and they err, just like the rest of us from time to time.

Considering this is the first time that the CIF Southern Section has ever, in it's long history, fielded a 64 team bracket, and even though some mistakes were made, they've done a pretty good job overall in the process. The bracket still has some great matchups, including the No. 6 v. No. 8 in the second round. Life will go on, the sun will come up, and the games will be played out on the court. Someone will win and someone will lose. And that's the great thing about high school basketball. . . . just about anyone on any given night can win.

See you there.