southern section division III placements for 2000-2001

Last year, the CIF realized that having 8 teams in a playoff bracket for a Southern Section "Championship" was kind of silly, so TPTB (the powers that be) decided to combine two shrinking subdivisions (III-AA and III-A) into a single Division III consisting of just 39 teams overall. This made good sense, presented a more competitive playoff bracket, and conformed a little more closely to other CIF Sections across the state which don't have to deal with subdivisions. Of course, it also meant a further deviation for purposes of entry into the state tournament, since the Southern Section gets four teams from each division (in recognition of its greater number of schools), and so not only do the section champion and runner-up get to go, but all four semifinalists are in, and it will be the same way this year again. And we're willing to make a prediction right now who those teams will be. Forget even playing the season, just mail in the results, start the State Tournament right now: Bishop Montgomery will be one such team; Ridgecrest Burroughs will be another; Compton Centennial will be among the final four, and. . . well, it's that fourth spot that's a little hard to predict. . . . looks like everyone will have to play the season after all. . .

This year, even with the addition of two schools to Division III (both of which have asterisks beside them, Immaculate Heart--do they even have a boys' team?-- and Riverside King, which has only grades 10-11), D-III's list of teams is down overall by three schools, to just 36 teams. We're also guessing that this will be a 32 team bracket by the time the playoffs roll around.

Why is the division even smaller this year than last? Where are the teams going? Several (Monrovia, for example) have moved up into Div. II-A, and one or two have moved down into IV-AA (Crespi, e.g., although they were already there, just not officially listed as such last year).

But regardless of the overall loss of schools in the division, it's still a strong one, with some really dominant teams. With the addition of Ridgecrest Burroughs (and the of USC signee Rory O'Neil), a new contender has shown up to give Bishop Montgomery (with two other USC signees, Errick and Derrick Craven) Compton Centennial (which is absolutely loaded and just keeps getting more guys all the time, like Tony Key from Mt. Zion and the now defunct Emmanual Christian, and Brian Freeny from Arizona, just for starters), Notre Dame Sherman Oaks, and perhaps even Morningside, Pomona, or a few others a run for the money.

CIF Southern Section 2000-2001 Boys Basketball
Division III (750-1124) as of November 29, 2000

	Division III-AA	Enrollment
	Alemany Azusa Banning Bassett Bishop Montgomery Blair Burroughs-Ridgecrest Cabrillo-Lompoc Centennial--Compton Chaminade Corona del Mar Costa Mesa Covina Estancia Gabrielino Ganesha Gladstone Harvard-Westlake Immaculate Heart* King, ML (10-11 only) La Canada Morningside Nordhoff Northview Notre Dame--Sherman Oaks Pomona San Dimas San Jacinto San Marino Santa Paula Santa Ynez South El Monte South Pasadena St. Francis Workman Yucca Valley	1080 1031 853 994 946 852 1077 915 1032 785 843 893 1039 818 1075 986 968 809 772 858 1019 926 911 816 834 1065 970 819 861 1031 791 966 1018 888 1102 865