SoCalHoops High CIF Playoff News

LA City Section: Championship First  
First Round Games Tonight--(Feb. 16, 2001)

Everyone has been waiting a week for these 8 games, and finally, the LA City Section Championship bracket games will take place tonight.   All the games are, to the best of our knowledge, taking place at 7:30 p.m.. . . we haven't heard of any scheduling or location changes, so we're going to go with what we had originally scheduled last weekend. 

The LA Times (i.e., our buddy Gary Klein) picked   Pali at Crenshaw as the game of the week, saying this about it:

"PALISADES (17-7) at CRENSHAW (19-5), Friday at 7:30 p.m.--Most first-round playoff games are mismatches, but this one could be interesting if 13th-seeded Palisades, which played top-seeded Westchester and second-seeded Fairfax in Western League play, turns up its game against fourth-seeded Crenshaw."

Of course, another game which we don't think will be a mismatch is the top Valley-region game, which features No. 9 seeded Grant @ No. 8 seeded Taft, and apparently these two schools haven't played against each othre since Howie Levine was on the team (and your's truly was also on the swim team at Grant) . . . which is exactly 34 years ago. . .but who's counting. 

Gary Klein also had an interesting take on the overall picture in the Championship bracket:

Defending champion Westchester (24-1) is regarded as one of the top contenders for a state Division I championship. Guards Brandon Heath and Hassan Adams, center Chad Bell and the rest of the Comets twice overwhelmed second-seeded Fairfax (19-5) in Western League play. Fairfax senior Craig Smith and junior Evan Burns are going to need big games from several teammates if they meet Westchester a third time. Third-seeded Fremont (17-6) has balance. Fourth-seeded Crenshaw (19-5) could be poised for a playoff run.

That Gary. . He's such a kidder. . .so diplomatic. . . ."top contender". . . Sheesh.  Just give them the trophy now.   Personally, we're picking Westchester because there's no one else to pick.   They've already beaten Fairfax, the next best contender.  . . Twice.  By more than 20 each time.  Flat out.  Period.  No one can beat them.   Not in the City Section.  Not in the State Tournament.   No one.   And remember, this is a school that Jamal Sampson (now Mater Dei's star 6'-11" center who signed with Cal)  transferred away from because there was just too much talent for him to see time during his underclass years (at least that's the word we heard when he transferred out). . .

But we digress. . . Other interesting first round matchups that we might check out if we happened not to be committed to being elsewhere would be Venice @ Dorsey (and coach Goosen tells us that it might turn out to be a mismatch since two or three top Venice guys came up ineligible last week after grades came out),  or North Hollywood at LA Fremont, which could be an interesting contrast in styles, and if NoHo is able to pull this off, it would indeed be a major upset.   Sylmar at Washington Prep is also an intriguing contest and but-for Andre Patterson, this is probably a fairly even contest.  Lastly Chatsworth @ Fairfax is likely as not to turn into a battle between point guards, with Chatsworth's high scoring senior Shayne Berry matching up against Kevin Bell . . . now if he can manage to get the ball to Evan Burns, this will be a blow out, but from what we've seen of Fairfax this season (and admittedly it hasn't been as much as we'd like), this could be a game where the big men will simply be used as outlet men. . .  Oh yes, we didn't want to leave out South Gate v. Gardena, a game where just about anything can , and probably will happen, and we have no real feel for who should or shouldn't be the favorite there. . . Anyway, here's the bracket once again.

Once again, the notes on the selection process:  Apparently, Crenshaw and Fremont tied in their league standings, and Fremont won the coin flip to be No. 1 form the Coliseum League and thus got the higher seeding. The same was the case with Washington Prep and Gardena in the Marine League, as Washington won the coin flip.   No. 16 Marshall was also selected into this bracket based on a first place finish (on a coin flip) over Marshall in the Northern League. Overall the City Championship bracketing process requires that each first place team in the 8 City Section Leagues gets an automatic entry (and by the way, the Magnet League is not guaranteed a spot at all, which became a sore subject when the Invitiational bracket was being put together, but we'll have more on that later). The remaining teams other than first place finishers were chosen based on strength of league and "strength of schedule" The latter criteria however, really doesn't exist because the City Section goes strictly by league play in determining strength of schedule. In other words, it didn't matter in the pre-season or tournament play whether Westchester played Oak Hill or Our Lady of Merciless Defeats. . . only league play mattered.  Here's how the City Section ranked the leagues, from top to bottom: 1. Western, 2. Coliseum, 3. Eastern, 4. West Valley, 5. Marine, 6. Sunset Six, 7. Northern, 8. Valley Mission, and 9. Magnet.

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