SoCalHoops High School News

CIF Central Section Boys' Playoff Brackets:
1st Round Games Tonight--(February 19, 2001)

The Central has announced the playoff brackets in each of their five divisions.  Unlike the Southern Section,  but like the rest of the State of California, there are no subdivisions in the Central Section,  simply reflecting just how large the Southern Section is. . .Southern Section has more than 500 schools in all of its subdivisions, whereas the Central Section, which runs from Bakersfield in the south to Fresno in the North,  has 92 teams.   By our count, it looks like 57 of the teams in the Central Section made it to the playoffs in the various divisions. 

By the way, if you're viewing these brackets with Netscape, they will look terrible, and we don't have the time to fix them now.  We reluctantly recommend you use MS Internet Explorer (not our favorite, but it works and the brackets actually show borders....)

Some of the brackets are very small:  Division V, for example, has only 7 teams in it, and looking at the bracket, we can fully understand why Mission Prep wants to play basketball in the Central Section rather than the Southern Section like it's football teams do:  With only 7 teams in the bracket, they only have to win one game to wind up in the finals, and thereby earn a berth in the State Division V Southern Regional playoffs.  In contrast, teams in the CIF-SS must win five games just to make it to the finals of the section....so frankly, we just don't want to hear about how the CIF-SS teams have an "unfair" advantage since they are able to send 4 teams in each division to the State tournament....the teams that get there have really had to play some grueling schedules.....We're not picking on Mission Prep, but geez, a seven team playoff bracket?  And more importantly, can anyone even challenge them in the two games they'll need for the finals?

In Division I, things are a bit more crowded, and even though Clovis West was upset this year by rival Clovis, the Eagles still have the No. 1 seed in the division, and look to be set for a rematch with Clovis again if they can win their first two games.

Division II has Stockdale and Hoover as the top two seeds, with Hanford and Edison as the No. 3 and 4 seeds. This one could go to anyone though.

Division III is a lot more crowded this year than in prior years, and while Washington Union doesn't look to have a cakewalk, they are still the No. 1 seed.

Division IV has Bakersfield Garces as the No. 1 seed and defending champions, and they will be challenged by San Joaquin Memorial, if both teams are lucky and good enough to avoid slipping up before the finals.

Division V, well, you've already heard what we have to say about this bracket.... Look for Mission Prep to win it and then get thrown for a loss in the State tournament by either Price, Stoneridge Prep, Santa Clara, Apple Valley, Ribet or Rolling Hills Prep, all of which are probably deeper and more athletic....well, on second thought, Gerald Purify and Pierre Djinki are pretty tough when they're both "on" and Traore Soulaymane is also talented, and Mission Prep has some other tough young guards.....heck, we just don't know... Maybe the Mission Prep guys can make a run...

Anyway this should be fun. We'll try to keep these brackets updated, and we may be able to keep that pledge because the CIF Central Section   which finally has a website which seems fairly up to date.  The brackets below also appear at the official site (we've made some slight modifications to make things a bit clearer).  One item we can't clarify is which team is the "home" team.   The CIF-Central website says that it's the team printed in BOLD typeface, but of course, they neglected to put either team in bold.  If we had to guess, we'd say that the higher seed is the home team....just a guess, and if you're actually relying on this bracket to figure it out, well, then you ought to really check with the schools involved before making the trip.  Good luck to all the teams involved.

Boys Basketball - Division I

Boys Basketball - Division II

Boys Basketball - Division III

Boys Basketball - Division IV

Boys Basketball - Division V

 ©Copyright SoCalHoops 1997-2002
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
Contact: jegesq@SoCalHoops.com